Latest / The Health Revival Show / #1009: The Real Reason Your Gut Won't Heal (And It's Not Food)

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#1009: The Real Reason Your Gut Won't Heal (And It's Not Food) · The Health Revival Show

0:02
Liz Roman: Welcome back to the Health Revival Show.
0:05
We're talking all things healthy guts today.
0:08
And just a reminder, if you don't have digestive symptoms, that doesn't mean
0:14
that your gut is perfect, because your gut … I'm actually getting ready to
0:18
post this tomorrow, it's a very long carousel, impacts so many things in
0:22
your body: your lungs, your bones, your thyroid, your hormones, your liver,
0:26
your brain, your skin, all the things.
0:29
So when we look at symptoms, we're always coming back to the gut.
0:33
Hippocrates said, "All disease begins in the gut, but it doesn't stay in the
0:37
gut." So we're gonna dive in today on five habits that you can do in your daily
0:44
life, your daily routine, your weekly routine to support having an optimal gut.
0:50
That doesn't mean that you'll be perfect every day.
0:52
That doesn't mean that you will not ever have anything that is, you know, unhealthy
0:59
or unproce- you know, processed, whatever.
1:01
But it does mean that you can be mindful of this and incorporate more of the good.
1:05
And then I would really say in addition to this, paying attention, I actually
1:08
just did a product test for a company, and after two trials of it, I realized,
1:15
because it was the very last ingredient on the packet, it had sucralose in it.
1:20
Becca Chilczenkowski: Hmm.
1:21
Liz Roman: And so I was like, "I'm sorry, I can't support this.
1:23
There's a lot of evidence to say that sucralose is not great for
1:25
the gut," and it made me bloated.
1:27
And I was trying to figure out why, because it was actually a nootropic pink
1:31
lemonade flavored powder, and shame on me, I should have done my due diligence
1:36
to read the fine print, because it wasn't listed in the main ingredients.
1:39
It was like a secondary below or whatever.
1:43
Um, and so You know, Becca I'm sure does this too, but we get a lot of
1:48
people who message us on Instagram, and they wanna try things, send things.
1:52
Of, you know, seven out of 10 times I just say no.
1:54
Um, but then every now and then I'm like, "Yeah, let me try it," and
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there's a few things that I have found recently, but it's very, um…
2:02
I'm pretty picky with it, because we want it to taste good, and then also
2:05
we want it to be clean if we're gonna recommend that you're incorporating it.
2:07
And then I would just always say, so bio-individual if you're
2:11
gonna look at supplements.
2:12
So work with somebody if you're really struggling and having,
2:16
you know, severe gut issues.
2:18
Those are signs.
2:19
Your symptoms are signals that you wanna listen to.
2:22
But anyways, we're gonna keep it short and sweet for you today.
2:25
Links are in the show notes if you are interested in working with our team.
2:28
You're tired of being told that everything is normal, and you're gonna realize today
2:32
as we go through this that maybe there's a lot of area of opportunity for you.
2:35
It could be overwhelming, and you just wanna have a plan put together
2:38
for you that is individualized.
2:40
Schedule a free 15-minute consult with this link in the show notes.
2:43
Yeah.
2:44
Let's get into it.
2:45
Becca Chilczenkowski: Yeah.
2:45
And, you know, I think we can preface this too with a couple of things.
2:49
This is… You're gonna understand after this podcast today why carnivore
2:54
long-term, keto long-term, like these things are not healthy for the gut
2:59
and can actually cause a lot of issues in terms of your ability to maintain
3:04
diversity, which is one of the keystones of longevity when it comes to research.
3:08
What, like, gut diversity is one of the main things that contributes
3:12
to better longevity as a whole.
3:14
So the other piece is genetics, and we're gonna talk a little bit about
3:18
genetics, especially with this first one, 'cause genetics can predispose
3:21
you to have to work a little bit harder to keep a healthy gut microbiome.
3:26
Um, so the first one is feeding your gut bacteria daily, 'cause I
3:29
think a lot of people think, "Well, I take a probiotic every day." And
3:31
we've done many podcasts on why you should not take the same probiotic
3:34
every day for the rest of your life.
3:36
You're gonna create monocolonization.
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You'll create the same strains of bacteria in your gut, which is not what we want.
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That doesn't equal diversity.
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But Probiotics are kind of temporary visitors.
3:45
What actually creates a healthy microbiome is feeding the bacteria
3:48
that already live there, right?
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So probiotics are a piece of it.
3:50
That's basically implanting bacteria into the gut, but those bacteria need food.
3:56
They need sus- substance.
3:57
And so fiber from fruits and vegetables, resistant starches, prebiotics like
4:03
onions and asparagus and artichokes and green bananas, diverse plant foods.
4:08
The FUT2 gene is one of the main ones here that we talk about a lot of times
4:11
because FUT2 variants often have lower levels of beneficial bacteria like
4:17
Bifidobacteria, which should be one of the dominant bacterial strains,
4:20
especially when you're a child.
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But you… A lot of times when you do not have this, you know, healthy mutation,
4:26
you need to work harder to keep diversity and keep kind of infiltrating the gut with
4:31
prebiotics, probiotics, postbiotics to maintain a healthy, diverse microbiome.
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So FUT2, unfortunately, you struggle to basically keep diversity.
4:40
Your, your gut on its own struggles to maintain that.
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And then there's another one that we'll see sometimes with NOS2.
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NOS2, when under high amounts of stress, really struggle to keep
4:49
adequate stomach acid levels, which can then, you know, predispose us
4:52
to be kind of more susceptible to infections, and pathogens, and bacterial
4:56
imbalances, and things of that nature.
4:58
But the FUT2 is the big one here 'cause it, it really does impact diversity
5:01
of the gut, which then unfortunately when you don't have good diversity,
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quote unquote, bad bacteria, the dysbiotic bacteria, can be a little bit
5:08
more plentiful and kind of take over, create inflammation, create imbalances.
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Um, but fiber is a big piece of this.
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So fiber does a lot more than bulk up stool and kind of help it
5:18
move through the digestive tract.
5:20
Different types of fiber feed different bac- populations of bacteria.
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So soluble fibers are fermented into more beneficial compounds like butyrate,
5:28
short-chain fatty acids, right?
5:29
They support the gut lining, they support inflammation in the gut.
5:32
Insoluble fibers add bulk.
5:35
So that basically helps weigh down the stool that's passing
5:38
through the digestive tract.
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And fiber also plays a major role in detoxification because fiber is
5:43
one of the main things that binds to bile, and hormones, and waste
5:47
products in the gut so that they can be eliminated rather than reabsorbed.
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So the more variety of fibers that you consume, the more diverse and resilient
5:54
your microbiome tends to become.
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So fiber is a huge piece here.
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And again, when you eat keto, when you eat, you know, carnivore, you're
6:01
basically completely void of those things.
6:03
Keto-- Like, if you're true keto, you're not able to take in
6:07
much vegetables 'cause you're…
6:08
Then you're hitting your carb goals already when you're taking
6:10
in vegetables at every meal.
6:11
So this is why actually when we utilize keto for clients, we will typically
6:16
bring in a fiber powder because we know the importance of it and the
6:20
need for it, while also trying to use maybe a specific diet for a period
6:24
of time to help, you know, expedite the healing process of a client.
6:27
But Feeding the gut bacteria every day, being intentional
6:31
with that fiber I think is huge.
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'Cause what, I know that you probably know the statistic.
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Off the top of my head, I don't remember, but what is it?
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Like, the average American gets 12 grams of fiber a day or something?
6:39
Liz Roman: Yeah, somewhere in the ballpark of 10 to 12, and I would say that if
6:42
you really look at The foods that you put on rotation, it's less than 20.
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I read a stat one time that basically says 14 to 17 foods is really what the
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average person… 'Cause you just know what you like and you rotate that, right?
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So the second thing here is prioritize diversity, and that goes hand in hand
7:00
with feeding the gut bacteria and all the things Becca talked about
7:03
here in terms of different fruits and vegetables, different fermented foods,
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so don- always getting the same yogurt.
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Different yogurts have different types of probiotics.
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Um, I really, really love a2 yogurt.
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It's a lot easier to digest.
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Unfortunately, the brand Orantes is only in the East Coast that I am loving,
7:20
and the kids love it so much too.
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We've tried the a2 one from Costco that they started carrying.
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It's great.
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It's definitely, you know, still a great quality, just from a taste,
7:29
texture, and, uh, enjoyment perspective.
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I still like the Orantes.
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So if you're out on the East Coast, definitely look for them.
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Otherwise, look for a good quality organic a2 yogurt, low sugar, and then
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change up what you're putting in there.
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I've been doing my, um, honey in there, which I love because that gives us more
7:46
antioxidants, different polyphenols.
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You can add different types of berries.
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You can add different types of se- you know, seeds.
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So you could do chia seeds, hemp seeds, flax seeds, basil seeds.
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Um, basil seeds, if you do have, like, IBS or chronic constipation, those are
7:59
gonna be a little bit more gentle and help you with your constipation a little
8:03
bit more than the chia seeds actually.
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So, you know, you can change up those things.
8:07
If you're making protein balls, sometimes, you know, people would
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make those kind of fun treats.
8:12
Again, change up the type of dark chocolate that you might be
8:14
using and what seeds you might be putting in there, what dried fruits
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you could add to that as well.
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Um, but we do want to just think 10 to 15 different plant foods each week.
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So way that I say this is shop in season.
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Look for what's on sale.
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And again, if your kids really like something, don't shy away from not having
8:34
that in the home for them, but then put another food, fun food on rotation.
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"Hey, let's try this goji berry. Let's try this clementine." You know, things
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you may not always, uh, think of.
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Because each plant compound has a different unique profile to it,
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um, and that can support those different bacterial species.
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But you can also do things like resistant starches where you do green
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bananas, as green as you can get them, cut them in thirds, put them in a
9:00
little bag, keep it in the freezer.
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If you make smoothies, you can blend it.
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You're not even gonna tell that the peel is on.
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Keep that peel on.
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You can cook and cool potatoes or rice more for resistant starches.
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Those are really great.
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Um, and then I think here is just looking at your plate and thinking about colors.
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How many colors do you have on your plate?
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There's a complete difference between my dinner and what my child ate last night.
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He had mac and cheese, and we had this beautiful salad.
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We finally got our grill going, and I was really proud of that dinner.
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But then I'm like, "Oh, shoot," you know?
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I need to make sure that he's getting some of these other things.
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So he had some yogurt, we had some berries, and, you know,
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got some of the good fibers in.
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But what my point there is Oftentimes people are eating a
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lot of those yellow, white-ish color foods, simple carbohydrates.
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We wanna have deep, dark colors, so think deep purples, deep reds,
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greens, those types of things.
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Um, and then the other thing here is I would say your oils too, and your fats.
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Those are also very easy.
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So rotate like your ghee, your tallow, olive oil, a good one that's h- rich
10:03
in polyphenols, the types of fishes that you might be eating, the types
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of proteins you might be consuming.
10:08
Try something new.
10:09
Um, we tried red rock shrimp last night.
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It tastes like lobster.
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They call it the poor man's lobster.
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It was delicious, and it was so easy.
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Like, I just toss it in some olive oil, some seasoning, one to two minutes
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on the grill, threw it on a salad.
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Boom, it looks like a gourmet and it tasted gourmet, but
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it was affordable and simple.
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Number three, I'm gonna take this one just because I talk about this all the
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time, poop every day, one to three times a day pain-free, but most importantly
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that you feel fully eliminated, not that you have this small poop that
10:39
you don't feel satisfied from, right?
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Like, you want to have a nice evacuation.
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Your bowel movements should be number four, sausage shape, easy to pass.
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You shouldn't be sitting there and straining.
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All of those things are really gonna be impactful long-term if you or your child,
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uh, is straining to go to the bathroom.
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And this is pelvic floor therapy.
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This is pooping hygiene.
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I actually did a carousel not long ago about how to teach your kid proper
11:05
poop hygiene because so many of you, we were taught to brush our teeth
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twice a day, floss, rinse, whatever that might be, but we don't talk about
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proper toilet positioning, relaxing, not rushing, right, breathing.
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Those things can really go a long way to also help that child's nervous system
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calm down if they are struggling to poop.
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And if your child is dealing with behavioral issues, eczema, skin rashes,
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we gotta go back and look at the gut.
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We have to understand what is driving this dysfunction because I promise
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you, those symptoms that you might just think are normal or, oh, your
11:38
doctor says, "Oh, maybe it's ADHD.
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Oh, just take some MiraLAX," there's an underlying root cause.
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We have a great pediatric program.
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We have so many client testimonials, both sides, chronic
11:49
constipation and chronic diarrhea.
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We have a little kiddo in our practice right now, o- just over two, I believe,
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and the mom is like, "This is the first time in his life that he has had normal
12:00
form stools," which is just fantastic.
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So shout-out to Andrea and Stephanie.
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They work with the little baby kiddos in our practice mostly.
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But when we have waste that's sitting in the colon, not only does this
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become uncomfortable and things start to ferment and maybe you get bloated
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and maybe some gas, but you also have toxins that start to get reabsorbed.
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You have a gut lining that gets to be broken down.
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It does become harder to pass that stool because it dries out.
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Um, estrogen can recirculate here, too, putting more of a burden on the liver.
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Again, we start to feel this go out from the gut to the blood-brain barrier,
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so now we have neurological issues.
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Gut on fire, brain on fire.
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Your joint pain, you know, that all is gonna come from a leaky gut if things
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are getting out into the bloodstream and agitating the immune system, and
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then there is a autoimmune attack on a certain organ system because Most of
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your immune system resides in the gut.
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So you wanna make sure that we are eliminating every day, and so far
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number one and two are gonna feed straight into your ability to have
13:02
well-formed stools that are easy to pass if you have those diverse fibers
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and you're getting adequate hydration.
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You can of course add in magnesium, belly massages, walks after
13:12
your meals, supporting liver, gallbladder, bitter foods.
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M- you know, I always talk about that morning olive oil shot with
13:17
lemon, or you can just do lemon water with a pinch of sea salt.
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Some warmer teas can also signal this here, but it's really, really important
13:25
that you're moving your bowels.
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And then the last thing I'll say before I shut up on this, look
13:29
at your poop before you flush.
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It can give you a lot of indication as to what's going on.
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It's your daily report card.
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So is it broken down into pieces?
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Is it, um, you know, undigested food in your stool that you're seeing?
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Of course, when we look at things like beets or corn, sesame seeds, you might see
13:46
that color or those, uh, fragments left in the stool Everything else, including your
13:51
greens, those should all be broken down.
13:54
You should have a brown color stool, again, sh- sausage shape, easy to pass,
13:59
and you're not having to sit there for hours or strain and push and, you know,
14:03
become so red you're hunkering down.
14:06
You should get that signal.
14:07
It should be easy to pass.
14:08
It should feel satisfying.
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Becca Chilczenkowski: Yes.
14:10
Number four, Liz touched on this just a little bit, is hydration.
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Because your digestive tract depends on water, and hydration
14:17
helps keep the stools moving.
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It helps it not dry out and then be harder to pass.
14:20
It helps support the mucosal layer that kind of protects the gut lining.
14:24
It helps support stomach acid production, bile flow.
14:27
Bile is 95% water, and bile is a huge piece.
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If it becomes sluggish, so do your stools, so stools become a lot harder to pass.
14:35
Supporting beneficial bacteria, and many people focus on volume of water but
14:40
ignore minerals, and so we're thinking electrolytes like sodium and potassium and
14:44
magnesium, which help get water actually into cells and tissues where it's needed.
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A lot of people, if they over-hydrate without the minerals too, where
14:52
a lot… Some people will take in 120, 140 ounces of water but only,
14:56
like, one electrolyte packet a day.
14:57
You're likely actually diluting electrolytes at that point, and you're
15:01
going to end up more dehydrated because your body is going to be flushing out
15:04
the ex- the additional electrolytes that it needed to keep because of the
15:07
so much water that you're taking in.
15:09
So we actually, uh, especially people that eat healthy, and I think this is the
15:13
other thing that a lot of people don't realize, unless you're severely salting
15:17
your food, most people that eat healthy don't get in enough sodium anyways because
15:21
most foods that you make at home… Like, I don't intentionally salt my food.
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I, I sometimes will add salt a little bit to, like, recipes, but I'm a-
15:30
I'm usually more focused on garlic powder and, like, paprika and cumin
15:33
and some of the other seasonings.
15:34
I don't use salt as much, and so I typically need to get more salt
15:38
from electrolytes, especially if you tend to run low blood pressure.
15:42
If you tend to be someone that's more, like, adrenally stressed
15:45
and taxed, your adrenals will burn through those electrolytes a lot
15:48
more, and you need more sodium.
15:50
So really try and focus on those things.
15:52
I take additional magnesium on top of the LMNT that I take every day.
15:56
I take quite a bit of sodium intake in, especially if I am working
16:00
out, sweating, outside in the heat.
16:02
Um, all of those things require more electrolytes than you would baseline need.
16:06
Uh, so we need those electrolytes to be able to maintain the
16:09
hydration status of the cells.
16:11
And then the last one here is your nervous system, which I think is probably
16:14
the biggest one that gets overlooked because you can have the perfect diet.
16:17
You can have hydration.
16:19
You can have even supplementation.
16:21
But if you are stuck in a chronic stress state, digestion will not
16:25
happen because digestion is a rest-and-digest parasympathetic process.
16:29
And so when you are in fight or flight, guess what?
16:31
Stomach acid decreases.
16:33
Enzyme output decreases.
16:34
Motility slows down.
16:35
Gut permeability increases.
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Microbiome diversity declines.
16:39
Something that was a really cool, um, trigger quote that I heard at a
16:44
conference the other weekend was If you are not salivating before you eat, you
16:49
should not be eating because salivation indicates that there are enzymes being
16:54
called upon, indicates that the body is ready and preparing itself for digestion.
16:58
If you're, like, dry-mouthed going into your meal, that's a pretty clear
17:02
sign that your body is in kinda this fight/flight state, and you're probably
17:06
not gonna digest that food very well.
17:08
So some simple ways are walking after meals can help with digestion, deep
17:14
breathing before a meal, so actually taking, like, the four in, hold four,
17:18
kinda the box breathing p- s- cycle that a lot of people will recommend,
17:22
doing that for, like, two or three cycles before starting your meal.
17:26
Humming, singing, gargling all kinda stimulate that vagal tone.
17:29
And then spending time outdoors, grounding, eating without distractions,
17:33
like in the car or standing up or in a m- the middle of meetings, like
17:38
shoveling food in your mouth, which I am totally guilty of sometimes.
17:41
But I think the state that your body is in when it's going to try and digest
17:46
something is probably something that you should focus on almost more than anything.
17:50
Like, that's… Right?
17:52
Like, that's the beginning of your digestion.
17:54
Um, so the nervous system pie- piece, I think, is huge, and it, it's a
17:58
piece that often gets ignored because it's not as measurable, right?
18:01
It's not like, "I'm taking this supplement.
18:03
I'm drinking this amount of water." It's like, "Am I in a stress state or not?"
18:07
That's sometimes hard to answer.
18:09
Liz Roman: Yeah, and I think a lot of people just think it's not
18:13
sexy, and so it's not something that they continuously focus on.
18:18
Th- what we see is that some people can notice up to 70% symptom relief just
18:25
by focusing on their eating hygiene because digestion starts in your brain.
18:28
I'm already salivating thinking about what we're gonna eat later because
18:31
you mentioned meeting and eating, and yesterday I was eating a little bit
18:35
of the smoked chicken salad on fresh sourdough with sprouts on the side
18:39
during our meeting of- during our team meeting 'cause I had a lab review
18:42
right after and then had to jet out.
18:44
So that's a really good thing to think about is, am I salivating for that food?
18:50
And really just being mindful.
18:53
One thing that we're also trying to, because I know after school
18:56
activities it can get so busy, especially in the summer, implement
18:59
is sitting down at the dinner table.
19:01
You know, 'cause a lot of times I find myself eating while I'm standing
19:04
or cooking the kids' food and taking bites of things or I'm rushing and
19:08
I'm literally saying to myself, "You know this is not good for you.
19:11
You need to go sit your ass down." And you deserve to take that time,
19:15
you know, to sit down and have 10 minutes at least with your meals.
19:19
So I would track that.
19:20
Take a simple three-day food journal Write down what you ate.
19:27
Did you deep breathe before?
19:28
Did you sit and chew your food well?
19:30
Did you look at your food?
19:31
Were you grateful for it?
19:32
Did you pray over it?
19:33
Whatever your, you know, spirituality and that emotional connection is with
19:38
it, or were you just eating, you know, in the car because you were rushed
19:43
out the door again and you didn't even ever taste your food, and now you're
19:46
bloated and you're gassy, and you wonder why you're craving things later on.
19:49
Because I definitely think that there is a connection between when you sit and you
19:55
enjoy that meal, you fully taste all those flavors, to not having sugar cravings
20:01
later in the day because you enjoyed that food so much, compared to eating in a
20:06
rush and then not making that connection.
20:08
And so you're like…
20:10
You know, 'cause I think a lot of us think we eat less than we do,
20:13
and we think we move more than we do
20:19
Becca Chilczenkowski: Right?
20:19
Pretty common, yeah.
20:19
Very common.
20:19
So very, uh, easy and simple but not often executed things that we should be doing
20:27
on a daily to help with our digestion.
20:30
So if you are someone that has very up-and-down digestion, that has
20:33
struggled chronically with either constipation or bloating or these
20:37
things going on, these are foundational.
20:40
Like, this is what we have to focus on before doing anything more advanced,
20:44
extreme, intense, whatever it might be.
20:46
Like, don't be going and taking BPC when you are not drinking enough
20:50
water or eating a diverse diet.
20:52
Like, let's really try to be, um, a, uh, responsible adults here and realize
20:58
what needs to happen, um, versus just trying to take shortcuts all the time.
21:03
Uh, because at the end of the day, food and water are your two
21:06
biggest inputs outside of air.
21:09
So, um, I would say that those are probably ones that we should
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focus on more than anything else.
21:14
Uh, even though, you know, there's a lot of sexy things out there that
21:17
can help, uh, it doesn't help as much if the foundation is not there.
21:22
Liz Roman: I agree with you because how many times do we have intake forms
21:25
where the person's complaining of constipation and bloating, and then
21:27
you're looking and seeing, well, they're not even drinking 30 ounces of water.
21:31
Becca Chilczenkowski: Yes.
21:31
Liz Roman: You know?
21:32
Um, the other thing that we'll say, we were just talking about
21:34
this before we started recording, get you some good electrolytes.
21:37
I'm obsessed with the Peach Just Ingredients right now.
21:40
So great in summer.
21:41
I put it with my iced tea last night.
21:44
I've also… We love, love, love, love the lemonade LMNT.
21:49
Put that with all kinds of stuff.
21:50
I've been doing Arnold Palmers with it too, so make it fun.
21:53
Like, I actually was doing a live this morning.
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I was like, "I have a drinking problem," because I had my coffee,
21:58
I had my ginger pineapple water, and I had my electrolytes, and
22:02
then I came out and made more.
22:03
So it's just, like, one of those things where, like what you, you know, have
22:08
for hydration, but make sure if you're drinking coffee all day long, 'cause
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Becca and I, we're coffee lovers, y- you have to have the other actual
22:16
hydrating beverages in your day.
22:18
Otherwise, you are not really hydrating, you're just drinking coffee
22:22
which, you know, is delicious too.
22:24
So anyways, have a great day.
22:25
Share this.
22:26
Tag us on Instagram if you do, the Poop Queen, the Hormone Queen,
22:29
and we'll see you back soon.