Stoking the Digestive Fires

Gut Health – a Road Map

Click to learn more » What is the health of your microbiome?

This is the hottest area of research these days. You may be only as healthy as your microbiomes. These are unique communities that are in important barriers: skin, mouth, lungs, reproductive tract and the gastrointestinal tract or your gut.

When we consider gut health, we must consider your gut microbiome and how to optimize it.

Do you have a leaky gut?

The gastrointestinal barrier or “skin” protects your inside world from the outside world.  If this one celled lining of your gut is no longer selectively permeable, your immune system will be over burdened.

Which foods should you eat to heal the gut? Which ones stir up your immune system? If you are sensitive or allergic to a food, your immune system is producing an inflammatory response to the food.

Are you digesting your food? You can be eating extremely healthy food, but if you don’t have enough digestive juices (such as hydrochloric acid and digestive enzymes) you may not be able to fully use your food.

 Is your body in rest and digest mode (the parasympathetic nervous system response)? Food preparation and the ritual of giving thanks in any way that is appropriate for you, helps your body prepare to use your food. This shift to calmness and gratitude primes the digestive system to produce the juices that ensure that your food gets broken down.

When you eat under stress, your body isn’t able to light the digestive combustion fires.

 Are you chewing your food? If not, your digestive system is going to have to work even harder. Eating more slowly gives your body the feeling of being satiated. This helps you lose weight.

Your saliva starts carbohydrate digestion.

Do you have any digestive dysfunction symptoms? These are signs that your digestive tract isn’t doing its job.

·        Bloating

·        Pain or discomfort with eating

·        Fatigue right after eating or an hour after

·        Acid reflux

·        Constipation – 2-3 bowel movements per day

·        Diarrhea

·        Stools that show partly digested foods

There is a caveat.

Not every one that has a leaky gut or less than well functioning digestive system has noticeable digestive complaints. Your health history and symptoms will give us clues about this.

Many of us normalize our gut. I thought I had an iron stomach, but when I look back, I do remember that there were times that I would lay on my back with my knees curled up due to gas or bloating. I wound up figuring out that I was sensitive to gluten and some dairy products. It wasn’t gut symptoms that lead me there. It was having hands that were scabbed over that lead me to look at food and gut issues. When I threw out the wheat, the scabs went away. I also had better moods without the wheat.

 It had been a major part of my diet. Let me put it even more dramatically, I was a carbo junky! As an aside, I once heard that the gluten protein in wheat parks in the same site as opioids. No wonder they are our comfort foods. Macaroni and cheese, cereal, pasta, bread, cookies, etc……

Do you have the nutrients you need to digest your food? Zinc deficiencies and dehydration are common.

What can we do to change the balance of the microbes that inhabit your gut? This can include:

·        Prebiotics- foods that feed the good microbes

·        Probiotics – fermented foods or supplements

·        Dietary choices that promote healthy gut microbial communities