Wellness After 40
A podcast that empowers women in their 40s and beyond to embrace aging with vitality and purpose.
Wellness After 40
The Secret to Aging Well After 40? It Starts in Your Gut (with Dr. Kimberly Webster)
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What if the secret to aging well after 40 isn’t about doing more—but about supporting your body in a smarter, more foundational way?
In this episode of Wellness After 40, we’re exploring the powerful connection between gut health and how you feel in midlife—from energy and metabolism to inflammation and overall wellness. If you’ve been dealing with bloating, low energy, or feeling off in your body, your gut may be playing a bigger role than you realize.
We break down the science of the gut microbiome in a way that’s easy to understand and, more importantly, actionable. You’ll learn the one habit that can make the biggest impact, along with how your daily choices—what you eat, how you manage stress, and how you sleep—help support a healthy gut.
We also take a balanced look at nutrition and supplements, including how they can work together to support your microbiome. Plus, we simplify the differences between prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics, so you can make informed choices without feeling overwhelmed.
In this episode, we cover:
• Why gut health matters more as we age
• The connection between gut health, inflammation, and midlife symptoms
• The most important gut habit for women over 40
• How food and supplements can support gut health together
• Prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics explained simply
• How stress, sleep, and exercise impact your gut
• Simple, realistic ways to support healthy aging from the inside out
If you’re looking for a more grounded, science-backed approach to feeling better in your body after 40, this episode will give you clarity—and a place to start.
Stay connected + explore more:
👉 https://www.livingwellwithkatie.net/
We hear a lot about hormones in midlife. But what if your gut is actually driving the conversation? Today we're unpacking the connection between gut health, inflammation, and how we age. And one habit that matters more than most people realize. Welcome to Wellness After 40: Health, Goals, and Manifestation for Women. The podcast that empowers women in their 40s and being able to embrace aging with vitality and purpose. I'm your host, Katie, an older millennial navigated. Whether you're focused on achieving health goals, mastering your mental clarity, or transforming your life, this podcast will give you the tools to feel your best at every stage of life. Let's dive into the journey of not just surviving, but thriving after 40. Well, welcome to the podcast Wellness After 40. I am your host, Katie, and today I brought one of my favorite, favorite people, but also incredibly informative guest. Welcome to the podcast, Dr. Kimberly Webster. Dr. Kimberly Webster is a researcher and health educator with a background in human nutrition and clinical health sciences. She helps women understand how gut health influences inflammation, energy, and healthy aging. Her doctoral research explored the gut microbiome and how everyday dietary habits, especially fiber-rich foods like whole grains and fermented foods, can support overall wellness. She is passionate about making the science of gut health simple and practical. Welcome to the podcast, Dr. Kimberly Webster.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Katie. I appreciate you and having me on.
SPEAKER_00And for listeners, just a little background. So Kim and I are, we have been friends for many, many, many years. And one thing that I love about Kim is that she's always down to try any type of workout. We have done the craziest workouts. We are, she's always game to try that. But she also has been such an empowering and informative friend to me. Like anytime I go and get my lab reports done with my doctor, anytime I'm buying a new supplement, I run it through Kim. So I cannot wait to share her breath of knowledge on a subject that's near and dear to me with you all. So again, thank you, Kim, for coming on.
SPEAKER_01Thanks, Katie. And I'm always here for you whenever you need me. I love looking at lab results. I love anyone who's got questions about supplements and wanting to understand more and how they may or may not apply to them. I love to be able to help guide in that way. So I'm happy to do it whenever you asked.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. Well, today's topic is something that you have done extensive research on, like we have mentioned in the opening. This is one of your doctoral research projects. And it is something that I think that a lot of people don't understand. And so I wanted to bring your breath of knowledge to the podcast and talk talk more about the gut, but specifically the gut microbiome. And I think those are like a lot of big words. And one of the things I love about you is that you really simplify things. So before we kind of get into like the questions that I have so many for you, but can you briefly explain the gut microbiome and why it's important for overall health as we age?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Um, in its most simplest terms, the gut microbiome is essentially the community of trillions of bacteria and microorganisms that live within our digestive system. While it might sound like strange for us to have bacteria living within us, these microbes are actually incredibly important for our health. They helped us digest our food, they produce certain vitamins, they regulate our immune system, they even influence mood and metabolism. So as we age, especially for women, our microbiome naturally changes. And all of that can impact the balance of bacteria in our gut. There's good bacteria and then there's bad bacteria. And so oftentimes we have an overaccumulation of the bad bacteria, and it's causing an imbalance throughout our entire ecosystem. So when the microbiome is balanced and diverse, it supports better digestion, lower inflammation, a stronger immunity, and overall healthier aging.
SPEAKER_00Hmm. That is fascinating. I'm not sure if you've heard this term. You probably have because I've heard it a lot throughout the like gut health realms, but they talk about how the gut is the second brain of the body, like how the gut really influences so many systems. And you kind of nailed it by explaining that it is not just digestion, but it is our mood and our metabolism, our hormone regulation goes into our stress and our sleep. So wow, like it is super, super imperative. It's like, I don't know, I feel like it's one of the operating systems of our body, other than our brain.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. It houses our immune system. So it is got a great correlation between the gut, the brain axis. There are multiple axes that um are important with with regard to the gut microbiome, but that the brain, gut axis is one of the strongest correlations. And uh we've known about it for quite some time as researchers, um, but the general population is just becoming some of those buzzwords in the general population for those that are out there looking for information on the gut, or you're hearing on different podcasts and news programs about how important the gut microbiome is. One of the commonly used words now you'll hear is the gut brain axis. So you are correct in its importance of our overall um well-being and just homeostasis and how we are able to balance our body and maintain an optimal, overall optimal um life from immune through inflammation through digestion, through metabolism, through all the things that we need for balance.
SPEAKER_00This is really interesting. So you mentioned when you were describing what the microbiome is, it's a system or it's a colony or a community of good versus bad bacteria. Yep. And so if we had to pick like one habit that was going to help impact our gut the most, what would that be?
SPEAKER_01Well, if you had to choose just one habit, Katie, it would be consistently eating a variety of fiber-rich plant foods. Right? It would be fiber because it's an essential food for beneficial bacteria in our gut. When our bacteria digest fiber, they produce compounds that reduce inflammation, support immune health, and help maintain the gut lining. And so, with even research, it suggests that people with the healthiest microbiomes tend to eat 30 or more different plant foods per week. Things like fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, herbs, whole grains. So it's not just fiber as the one habit, but it's the diversity of the fiber. So not just consuming a supplement, right? Like going out and get a celium husk. I'm not against having a supplement, but it is in Whole Foods that you find the best case scenario for fiber-rich plant foods, not through supplementation. I would take supplementation as a backup plan or um something that helps with the fiber-rich foods that you eat. I would think of it as a support tool, not as opposed to the main substance that you would want to ingest on a regular basis. And it is a daily grind to have fiber. It is not a one-stop, I just had it today, and then I get to skip it tomorrow. You should have fiber in every meal that you consume. It does a lot of things for you, helps to regulate your sugar. It just does a lot. It keeps your bowels smoothing smoothly. Uh, there's a lot of benefits to consuming fiber and especially fiber-rich plant foods.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Okay, I've I have like so many questions to spur off this. But to back it up a little, so basically, the number one habit that we should have is incorporating a variety of healthy foods that are gonna give us a lot of different types of good bacteria, assumably, right?
SPEAKER_01Yes, that will either feed the good bacteria because there's that's gonna get you into like what are prebiotics, what are probiotics, what are postbiotics, right? That'll get you into that realm because the probiotic itself is the beneficial bacteria. The prebiotic is the food that you feed those bacteria. So you're gonna consume foods that are beneficial bacteria themselves. You're gonna consume foods that feed those beneficial bacteria that help them continue to thrive in the communities to proliferate or grow within the gut so that you have equal balance of good bacteria. And we're speaking on good bacteria, beneficial bacteria here in this conversation, not the bad strains of bacteria. We won't even get into strains because it's such a science y scientific sort of realm, and the words will be uh too large for the community. Not saying that this community is not educated, that's not what I'm saying at all. But just for a podcast, it just becomes too academic, right? You want it, we want it to be like in layman's terms, so we won't even get into like specific strains of certain bacteria because there are so many various types of bacteria. But uh all in all, the the foods that you consume are either going to help you acquire that bacteria, it's going to feed the bacteria that you have acquired, or it's going to produce those in products, though the byproducts of the bacteria. And that's what postbiotics means when we're thinking prebiotic, probiotic, and postbiotics.
SPEAKER_00Oh, interesting. And so to go back to supplementation for a moment more. So you suggest eating foods versus supplementation. When is supplementation an appropriate choice?
SPEAKER_01Basically, food should always be the foundation of gut health. So whole foods they provide the fiber, the polyphenols, the vitamins and nutrients that work together to support the microbiome in ways supplements simply can't replicate that. Supplements can be helpful in certain situations, though. For example, if someone has digestive issues, has taken antibiotics, and they need to have probiotics to help offset that and do it in a dosage manner that food perhaps you can only consume so much food a day, right? So we can't have you overdo food to simply try to um blunt the effects of an antibiotic or if you need targeted support, but they should complement a healthy diet, not replace it. So you would always think of supplements as support tools while food does all the heavy lifting, right? The food builds the microbiome, the supplements can support it. So I'm not against having a probiotic in your refrigerator that you take on a consistent basis to help offset the Western diet, right? We don't always eat, I mean, I'm saying eat fiber-rich plant foods, but come on, Kim, you have to be realistic. This is the United States of America, and we eat a Western diet. And so, as such, supplementation should is helpful when you need to support the way we eat as people.
SPEAKER_00That makes a lot of sense. And I was trying to think of oh, what are supplementations for gut health that I know of? And you already kind of described them. There is the prebiotic, probiotic, and postbiotic, which is a new one that I've heard of. So you're basically just saying supplementation is just to support your healthy eating. And then if you maybe have changed something in your weekly or monthly habit, like adding in like an antibiotic for an example, that's when we may want to lean on a supplementation a little bit more, or if we find that we're having some like holes in our diet for the week, because like you said, we're maybe eating um not as much as we like. So we can add in a supplement, but we should always go defer to food first and then supplement second.
SPEAKER_01That is correct. That is exactly what I am saying that the foods build the microbiome and the supplements support it. So if we are in scenarios where we don't have these fiber-rich plant foods, uh, we have maybe a child that's just boycotted vegetables for the week. They're not having them, mom. I'm sorry. I'm not having very true.
SPEAKER_00This is very true, Kim.
SPEAKER_01Then there may be just calls for probiotics and and prebiotics in those scenarios. Postbiotics aren't, I mean, sure, you can take short chain fatty acids. I'm sure that that is a supplement that's out there, but really on the postbiotics, that's not something you're going out and getting off of a shelf. That is what happens after the fact. Those are the compounds that are produced when the bacteria digest the fiber. Those short chain fatty acids that help reduce inflammation and support the gut health, they're just basically the helpful byproducts after the bacteria has digested its fiber.
SPEAKER_00So if we are wanting to add in, I'll call it a biotic for lack of a better term. If we are if we are wanting to add that in, because we may have had, you know, we're we are finally we have pitfalls in our nutrition, and while we're trying to get that together, we're gonna add in the supplement. What which one do we do? I've always heard of probiotics. That's the one that you always kind of hear about. That's the one that's commercialized. Yes. Do we need the prebiotic to feed the probiotic? Is it that's what I think we are really talking about, and then adding in the postbiotic, you're saying it's kind of not as necessary. Like which one, which biotic do we want to have if we are gonna use one?
SPEAKER_01Well, we would want to have the pre- and postbiotic, uh, the the those that come in a dual form together, so that way you know you're getting the nutrients to feed the probiotics inside of that packaging, right? You would find there are many of them out there on the market that are not just probiotics, that they come with the pre and the postbiotic in the supplement form, so that you're feeding it at the same time as it feeding you. So in a in a nutshell, the prebiotic is gonna give the probiotic the food it needs so that when since the probiotic is the bacteria itself, when you take a probiotic, you're taking a bacteria, you're taking a strain of a bacteria. So if you have a prebiotic that's embedded in the probiotic, then you're feeding that strain in real time at the same time as ingesting the probiotic. So that it's already down there together to give it its nutrients that it needs to be able to be its best uh bacterial form in your gut. If you think of a prebiotic in food terms, you're thinking of foods like bananas, oats, onions, garlic, those are prebiotic nutrients.
SPEAKER_00Wow, I did not know that.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_00Okay, we're gonna go through a list of the foods that you that you want. But yeah, to sum it up, if you are gonna be taking one of these biotics, you would like to find one that has the pre and potentially the post already in it. And I wanted to ask you, because I've heard before, and it could just be an upsell, but when I go into the supplement store and I'm looking at all the ones on the shelf, I've always been kind of told, you need to get the one that's in the refrigerator. And I'm like, well, why? And they're like, oh, well it's because it's alive or it's the most potent. But then I feel like I had read somewhere that when you consume it, your body is going to like break it down faster because it has to deal with it. So is there a recommendation on like actually which type of supplement to take? Maybe not a brand, but like, do we want the ones in liquid form? Do we want the one in a capsule? Like, what should we be buying?
SPEAKER_01A lot of that is marketing and propaganda and selling products. So you are right, they you find the one that works best for your system because it is a trial and error. You have to try them out because not everyone responds to certain strains the same way, right? So if you have a certain strain of a probiotic that requires refrigeration and that one works for you, then that's the one you get, right? If you have one that does not require refrigeration, like a cultural, and not to pump products because I'm not here to sell anyone's products, but I just know cultural is one of the most studied probiotics on the market that comes in a box that stays on the shelf, and you don't it does not require refrigeration at all. But if it works for your gut and you're not having any adverse effects to that, those particular strains within that probiotic, then that's the one you take. There are in in my household, I have one on a shelf and I have one in the refrigerator currently as I speak. And I do them at different times of day in evening or morning based on what I'm having. If my diet is full of fiber already, then I take the one that's in the refrigerator. If my body is not already full of fiber, I take the one that's in the cabinet, and that is because I found that I don't get a gut reaction when that happens. I'm not feeling bloated or heavy in the bottom of my stomach because these strains are going in. Think of them as little worker bees, they're out, they're just in there working, they are up, they are. Alive whether they're on a shelf or in the refrigerator, they are absolutely alive and they're down there making things happen. And sometimes what they're making happen, it you can feel it in your gut, and you're feeling bloat and heaviness. Um especially for women, we don't want to feel that at all, even if you don't look bloated, if you feel bloated, you think you look bloated. That's they go hand in hand.
SPEAKER_00Hmm. Okay. And you had touched on a list of some of the foods. Because we, you know, we while you did say some supplementation is fine, but really we want to get back to actual foods. What are some specific foods that you we should be eating? Do you have like I know you mentioned bananas and uh seeds and nuts? I've heard that avocado has a ton of dietary fiber, and I'm like, wait, what as well as as good healthy fat for us as well?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But are there any like specific foods that we should be incorporating? Like, am I thinking like I need to go find some kimchi, um, fresh pickles, that type of thing? Or is it can we just find it in all kinds of just regular plant food?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you you so you want a diverse uh amount of intake when it comes to the fiber diversity. You want vegetables, you want beans and lintos, you want the oats, the nuts, the seeds, the quinoa, the berries, the brown rice, right? You want complex carbs entering your gut to help with that acquisition of good bacteria in your gut. But you also fermented foods are another helpful way to introduce beneficial microbes into the gut. You first go with fiber diversity and eating a wide range of plant foods that feed the good bacteria. Then you go with the fermented foods, the yogurt, the kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, kombucha. Uh, those are all great examples. Pickles, if yeah, pickles also, especially not necessarily quick pickles. You want some fermentation that has to happen in the pickles. So those pickles that have been on the shelf, not the ones you make at home just with vinegar and cucumber and a quick recipe, because those aren't around long enough for them to have the fermented bacteria that you need. But then you also need to consider lifestyle balance, the the sleep, the stress management, the movement. That is also important with um keeping your gut closely connected to your nervous system, you know, that gut brain axis. They're all on the same plane. And so movement is also important in how in your behaviors and how you recover and how you manage stress. Are you increasing your cortisol? Like all those things can impact the way the gut responds and the increase in inflammation. That when inflammation is only good when you're trying to build collagen, it's not good in any other regard.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Okay, so I was on this bandwagon. I'm like, I'm gonna write down all these foods that I need to eat and all of these things to help my gut. But wow, I didn't even realize that. While, yes, it is a lot about what we're consuming, it is also about how we are moving and how we are sleeping and stress. Wow, I didn't realize that that also played a role in how our gut was feeling healthy or not. Can you can you tell us a little bit more about like that? Like how does stress and sleep and exercise affect our gut?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. The gut is deeply connected to our nervous system through the gut brain axis. We talked about that a little bit earlier on. And chronic stress can disrupt the microbiome, it can increase inflammation, and it can all also affect digestion. When you're stressed out, you may not be able to eat, you may stress eat, meaning you you're eating a bunch of refined or sugar-based products that just knock the balance of the gut off. And so you will feel um some sort of imbalance in that regard. Sleep is also important because that's when the body repairs all the processes and regulation of the immune system occurs during our sleep. The immune system is housed in the gut. So if we are to regulate the uh our immune system, we need to have it repaired through our sleep. And we need to get good amounts of sleep, non-broken sleep, if we possibly can. I mean, I know at over 40, it becomes a little difficult for women to get regular sleep throughout throughout the night, but that is important to find good sleep habits and good sleep hygiene. And then the exercise, um, especially moderate regular activity. You can think of walking, just getting your heart rate up, has been shown in research to increase microbiome diversity. So gut health isn't just about food, it's about lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Okay. So when we are just living our lives, we're focusing on making our gut the healthiest. And you you kind of talked a little bit about at the beginning, like why we want a healthy gut is not just to not feel bloated, which is which is a which is a great one, honestly, and be able to digest food and be able to use the food to make our systems work, but it it affects so much more on our mood, our metabolism, um, and how just making sure that we have just a healthy overall lifestyle is going to help the gut. But what am I missing? So I know you also said the immune system, and that's why you want to have a healthy gut. But are there any other misconceptions about gut health that we need to know or things that we're we don't know that we're not focusing on when it comes to trying to have a healthy gut?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, sure. I mean, one of the biggest misconceptions is that gut health can be fixed quickly with a single supplement or trendy cleanse or you know, buying into something you've seen on social media that says, you know, fix your gut in seven days or less, or even 30 days or less. Microbiome responds to daily habits over time, not quick fixes. So you need to be consistent in your behaviors. It's the same with anything else. Oh, it takes a time to lose weight or to gain muscle mass. That doesn't happen overnight. The habits you do today are not for today, they are for tomorrow, they are for next week, they are not for today. You can appreciate them today, but they don't show up until later down the road. So that's just important to remember that it's daily habits over time. And another misconception is that probiotics alone will solve gut problems. But without the right diet, especially a fiber-rich diet, the beneficial bacteria simply they just don't have the fuel they need to thrive. So there's like no magic gut peel that you can take. Your habits matter far more than some overnight um success that someone's trying to sell out there in the world. It is about consistency and doing it regularly, meal after meal, day after day.
SPEAKER_00That one's a hard pill to swallow, pun intended, because we I mean we live in a you know a quick fix society. And I mean, I could I could order my prebiotics right now from Amazon and it's gonna get delivered right away. So uh that was that one's a little bit tough. But when I'm thinking about repairing the gut, I love that advice. It's going to take time. Give yourself some time and know that oh being consistent is is really the magic. But do you suggest us doing like gut health testing um or any other these other things that I'm kind of seeing if if we're having some negative reactions with our gut, would you say that we should just try to spend some time on working on our diet first, maybe adding a supplementation? Or do you think that we should jump and go and and get some gut testing?
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, it's about access, right? And not everyone that's listening to this podcast will have the access or the ability to jump right into gut testing. Some that it costs money, you have to know about it. Um, it I always start with dietary habits, dietary patterns first, because that shows the most probably, and I'm not when I say quick, I'm not saying quick. I'm saying the the easiest way and the fastest way to get to know what your gut is about and how it will respond to certain foods. Like doing diets like the Mediterranean diet is a really good diet for gut health because it emphasizes plants, fiber, and whole foods. Um, now I know not everyone can do a lot of beans and lintoles. It's important to titrate that on and do it slowly, not trying to consume a bowl of beans at once and saying, oh gosh, I feel horrible. Do it in small servings, just like anything else. You would want to start slow. Even if you're going to go out and do a fiber supplement, you want to start slow. You want to start with half of a scoop, a quarter of a scoop, not the full scoop. Do not introduce that into your gut all at once, and then say, Oh, I'm never doing that again. Titrate it up, start slowly, do it little by little so that you work your way up to the full dosage of a supplement, or you work your way up to a full bowl of beans and lintos, as opposed to trying to do it all at once. That is a very important trick when it comes to deciding what you want to do, but if or the foods you want to ingest. But if you have access and you can go out and do gut health testing and you're up for the challenge, you want to put your stool inside of a tube and send it off, then sure. I recommend it because it can tell you what you have inside of your gut, what you're absent, what you're missing, the types of strains that have the most diverse community, the types of strains that you house the most of that you may need to counteract and balance with some other strains. It is a really thoughtful kind of test that you can do. Um, not everyone is up for the challenge. The fact that I said take your stool and put it in a tube is for a lot of people for curveball.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's not very ladylike. It is not gentlemanly, it is not not at all. But it it is it but it is a I want to I don't want to call it a shortcut, but it is a tool. Um, but I love I really liked your advice that you can start with just trying to refine your diet. And I think that that is a kind of a question that happens with me. Like I I find that I do have a harder time with some more fiber-rich foods. And so I like that advice of starting slow. Like I can't eat a ton of beans. Um, I know that if I even have like a certain level of fiber throughout the week, like if it's been a lot of fiber, it's it's a it's a harder week. And so I I like that advice of starting small, especially if it's something new to your system and and slowly working into it.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. You don't ever have to go out for the full dosage or the full serving of anything. You should start slowly, and then that way you can see what your body can take and what it can't take.
SPEAKER_00And it is a mixture of fiber foods and fermented foods, correct?
SPEAKER_01Correct, correct. It's a mixture of them. You want dietary patterns that consistently show benefits for gut health, um, and one that emphasizes whole plant foods, um, similar to, like I said, a Mediterranean-style diet that means vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, the nuts. All the nut fiber is very good for you. You can get it in small amounts, you know, a handful of nuts, and you don't realize the amount of fiber. You have to watch the fat in the nuts, although it's healthy fat. You just don't want to consume a lot of fat in any way, um, because those calories do add up. But those nuts and seeds, you can grab a handful of, um, including olive oil, uh, is also a good way to get good um fiber-rich nutrients into your body. Um, ferment on all the fermented foods are obviously good ways because they're accumulating bacteria themselves. They are the bacteria that you're going to eat. You're that that's the equivalent of having a probiotic. It's not that's not necessarily a fiber, it's a fermented food, but it is the bacteria strain, various strains in the yogurt, the kefir, uh sauerkraut, but they just provide a good polyphenols and all the fiber that nourish your good bacteria and promote a diverse microbiome community because that's what it's about having diversity.
SPEAKER_00And so, if someone was wanting to know why is gut health so important for me to age well, what would you tell them?
SPEAKER_01Well, I would first start by saying that inflammation is the main driver of aging. One of the biggest connections between the gut and aging is inflammation. And when the gut microbiome is out of balance, there's a term it's called dysbiosis. It's a kind of a fancy term, but it basically essentially means when there's more bad bacteria than good bacteria, that increases inflammation throughout the body. And this is for everyone in aging, men and women over time, because chronic inflammation is linked to so many of the conditions that tend to show up more frequently after 40, like the metabolic issues, joint pain, digestive, digestive problems, and even changes in mood or energy. But for women specifically, it's the hormonal shifts during perimenopause, menopause, that can also influence the gut biome, microbiome. A healthy gut can help regulate inflammation and support hormone metabolism, and that makes a big difference in how women feel during our midlife. So healthy gut keeps inflammation in check. That's the one takeaway for that is that it keeps inflammation in check and that inflammation is one of the biggest drivers of aging.
SPEAKER_00Wow. And so could you leave listeners with one simple piece of advice for healthy aging through gut care?
SPEAKER_01Well, the and it'll be a repeat because it just is what it is. If I could leave listeners with one simple piece of advice, it would be to focus on feeding your gut bacteria every day with a variety of plant-based foods, small daily choices, adding in little by little vegetables, little by little beans, little by little nuts. Also fermented foods is also a healthy way to make sure you get what you need, the whole grains. I think they may have made a comeback. They're important to also have, but including these types of foods will have a profound effect on your gut microbiome and long-term health. It responds to consistency, not perfection. So I'm not saying you can't have splurges throughout your week or or in a day or throughout your month, depending upon how you roll, right? Not everyone splurges all the time. But I'm not saying you can't have splurges, it's just that you need to counteract that with consistently having a whole foods diet. That is the one takeaway. You feed your gut well, and they the bacteria will take care of you.
SPEAKER_00Well said. And not difficult. It's something that we already supposed to be doing anyway. We're supposed to be eating a variety of foods just for our health. We've been told that since forever. And so thank you for letting us like keep it simple. Like it doesn't have to be very complicated and just giving yourself the grace of time to add it in, add a little bit more if you're going to have a week of splurge, and that's okay. It's all about balance, but literal balance. So thank you for that. That very easy advice.
SPEAKER_01You're welcome, Katie. Yeah, we just need to know that it's really about feeding the beneficial bacteria that support digestion. Those beneficial bacteria support immunity and it supports inflammation, keeping it at bay, keeping it as low as possible. And the best way you can do that is a diverse plant-based diet with healthy lifestyle habits. That is the best way. All those things are simple. We lose sight of them, though, with packaged foods, um, convenience foods, things we look for the easiest ways out. We have to figure out a way to make it fun, include the kids in the kitchen routines, like teach them early, all the things that we could do to make a healthy population of our family and those around us by recommending that we have Whole Foods as opposed to those refined carbs, high-fat sugar diets.
SPEAKER_00Well said. Well said. Well, to wrap up our discussion, I have just kind of a fun, one or two fun questions that I think I'm just curious. I one of them is if you could only eat one gut-friendly food for the rest of your life, what would it be? I'm like dying to know what is your one number one food.
SPEAKER_01Ooh, that's hard because it's gonna be a food with fiber, right? So it would be uh well, for me, I'm a fermented foods girl. So, me personally, I love a pickle. I love uh anything briny. That is just my go to. I also love. Kombucha, uh, anything in within the fermented wheelhouse. But honestly, it would simply be fiber. However, I could get my fiber, and that runs the gamut for different people. Different people are gonna pick different types of fiber, which whichever one is your fave that you would like to consume on a regular basis. I'm an apple girl, though. I believe in the apple a day keeps the doctor away theme. Um, we would hear that in grade school. We would even give our teachers an apple on their desk. Well, that didn't just, they didn't just pull that out the sky. That is founded on science. That having an apple just full of gives you enough fiber within an apple that it could almost, uh depending upon the size of the apple, it could almost be a meal in and of itself. It doesn't have protein, so you would have to enrich it with some protein, meaning have it with almond butter. But you could make a full meal out of an apple with almond butter. It would have your good quality carbs with lots of fiber, it would have your healthy fat, and it would have your protein all in a nutshell.
SPEAKER_00I love it. I love me some pickles, and I'm definitely gonna go eat an apple after this conversation. That's right. Well, well, Kimberly, Kim, thank you again so very much for coming on. This was so informative, and it is something that is so so complicated, and you made it very, very simple. Eat the colors of the rainbow, stay on the perimeter of the grocery store, and you're already doing yourself a lot of a lot of justice to your gut. So thank you again for coming on today.
SPEAKER_01You're very welcome. Thanks for having me, Katie, and I am happy to help. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00If there's one thing to take away from today, it's this. Your gut isn't just about digestion, it is deeply connected to your energy, inflammation, and how you are aging. So many women in midlife are searching for the right supplement or the perfect plan. But what we talked about today really brings it back to the foundation. Supporting your gut through simple, consistent habits that actually move the needle over time. A big, big thank you to Dr. Kimboy Webster for breaking this down in a way that feels both grounded and actionable. If this episode resonated with you, make sure you're following Wellness After 40 so you don't miss what's coming next. Sharing the show with a friend or someone who could benefit from this conversation really helps it grow. And I'm so grateful for when you do. And if you want to stay connected, you can find everything from episodes, resources, and ways that we can work together on my website. Linked in the show notes. Until next time, go grab a healthy, healthy meal. Take care of your gut. And until next time, this is wellness after 40.