Month: December 2018

On Day 13 I told you my history and discussed some gut issues with you and today I am going to get more practical and give some things that you can add to your diet and lifestyle to improve your gut health. Ready???

1. Eat more vegetables!! I can’t stress this enough. (Romaine lettuce aside…) The more vegetables (and fruits) that we eat, the more varied fiber sources we consume. We are also likely to get in probiotics as well as the most concentrated levels of vitamins and minerals. I do not recommend the type of juicing that separates out the skin and flesh as this eliminates all of the fiber. If you juice, juice WHOLE fruits and vegetables. And while there are some that you may hear referred to as “superfoods”, all fruits and vegetables are great to eat!

2. Probiotics. I can’t go a day without reading some new research about the benefits of probiotics. I take one daily along with a prebiotic. Probiotics are the “good guy” bacteria that normally live in our gut. Some probiotics are responsible for making antibodies and some make vitamin K and others act as ninja warriors to keep the “bad guys” in check. Research is showing that probiotic bacteria produce hormones and neurotransmitters. They are likely at least partly responsible for our moods. Bacteria appear to be responsible to weight control and the number and type of bacteria can be manipulated to cause weight loss or gain in mice studies. Human studies are underway to see if this effect holds true in humans. They do an amazing amount of work. Human cells are greatly outnumbered by bacterial cells in our body. In other words, we are made up of more bacteria than human cells! Whoa!! Take a probiotic supplement with multiple strains. The more varied the bacteria in our guts, the healthier our guts are.

3. Fermented foods. Mainly because they contain probiotics. I love kimchee. Sauerkraut, real pickles, beet kvass and kombucha all contain probiotics. Add kimchee to stir fry or fried rice. I eat it straight up or in salad.

4. Eliminate foods that cause you discomfort. Wheat, corn and dairy are the most common causes of bloating and diarrhea or constipation. you will have to experiment with these to find if they affect you. Eliminate something for 2 weeks to see if you feel better. If there is no change add it back into your diet and then try to eliminate something else. I have to avoid all gluten sources and I also have to avoid plain milk. I take the next item when I eat cheese.

5. Try digestive enzymes. My probiotic supplement contains digestive enzymes and I also have a separate tablet form of enzymes to take when I eat something I know doesn’t always agree with me. Many of us do not produce enough enzymes due to gut damage and our GI tracts can use a little boost. I find this especially helpful if I overeat! I buy one from Natural Factors at the grocery store that has multiple strains. I take that with larger meals and when I eat dairy or corn. The other one I use in the morning is from Arbonne and called Digestion Plus. This has probiotics probiotics and digestive enzymes in it. Plus its a powder instead of a pill. Get one that includes enzymes that break down fat, carbohydrates and protein. You don’t need to take separate ones since you will rarely eat a food whose only source of calories is one food type. No one I know is chugging olive oil…

6. If you have heart burn, try DGL tablets. DGL is a licorice extract that comes in chewable form. It is used in Europe as the first line defense for heartburn. Avoid using proton pump inhibitors like Protonix and Prevacid because these can cause malabsorption of important vitamins and minerals and ultimately lead to osteoporosis. Only use these if prescribed by your media provider for ulcers or if you have Barrett’s esophagus. for every day heart burn, try Natural Factors DGL. It’s cheap and it tastes like black licorice!

7. Exercise. Being sedentary slows down your GI tract. When you don’t move, neither does your bowels!! Let’s just say that avid runners are rarely constipated! Go for a walk after dinner instead of collapsing on the couch to aid digestion. Don’t lay down for at least 2 hours after a meal or you are courting heartburn!

8. Peppermint oil. Peppermint oil has been shown to help with GI upset. You can take peppermint oil in capsules or try peppermint tea. I put peppermint essential oil in my hot cocoa to make peppermint mocha.

9. Ginger. Ginger candy is yummy but ginger tea is better for upset stomachs. My favorite called Ginger Aid from Traditional Medicinals. Candied ginger can do in a pinch. Fresh grated ginger in hot water would work if you have it. I love all things ginger. In fact,, I am sipping. A cup cup of Ginger tea as I type this!

10. Fennel. Fennel is neck and neck with ginger in my book. It tastes like licorice. Yum! I use fennel essential oil in my toothpaste and I add it to my homemade perfume. It is found in many of the digestion blends sold by essential oil companies. Although I like to eat fennel I find it more convenient in essential oil form. You can add it to tea or just put a drop on our tongue. Remember, ONLY use essential oils meant for ingestion (eating) if you are going to do this with fennel, peppermint, ginger or any other essential oil. Young Living sells a line of edible oils.

11. L-glutamine. L-glutamine is an amino acid that helps with gut healing. It is used for those with Inflammatory conditions and those undergoing chemotherapy. L-glutamine was recommended to me when I was diagnosed with celiac disease. I do not currently take this but have a 7-day “body cleanse” supplement I plan on trying that contains L-glutamine and aloe Vera. If I find it helpful, I ‘ll let you know.

As with anything, always consult your medical provider before taking any supplements. This is especially important if you take any other medication. Herbs and supplements can seen innocuous because they are “natural” but even “natural” medicines are, in fact, medicines and need to be treated with respect. They can interact with your prescription and over the counter medications and may be contraindicated with some medical conditions. This is also true in pregnancy. Talk to your medical provider first!

One other word of caution: do not take any supplements designed to “purge” or “detox” you via stimulants that cause you to run to the bathroom with loose stools. This is dangerous and can cause electrolyte imbalances and dehydration. Basically, you can DIE so please do not take these. Senna is a common ingredient in those types of products. Stay away. Only use senna in tablet form if you are genuinely constipated. Then, it works but can be habit forming so still use caution and only use it according to the package directions.

Ok, here’s to our healthy guts!!

Liz

FOUR hours. I spent FOUR hours at a workshop at my Tang Soo Do studio today then I hit a wall. amazingly those 4 hours flew by but probably I should have stopped for a snack or something midway through. Duh. But, I was having fun with my friends from class that I didn’t really notice until I just had nothing left. Our black belts had come to a class the night before and several of them were testing all morning and they were still going when I left. WOW. I now have #goals.

Anyway, we are here to talk about gut health tonight and what a topic this is! I mean, gut health is the whole reason I am here. Let me give you my backstory first.

I have had gut issues since I was a kid. Then as an adult they worsened after I had my first baby. I developed what was labeled as lactose intolerance. I stopped eating ALL dairy and lost a ridiculous amount of weight. My class mates in college were asking me if I was sick. fast forward 3 years and I was pregnant with my second baby and was once again able to drink milk and eat cheese. Several years later I found myself doubled over no matter what I ate and it would last for hours. I couldn’t eat during the day at work or I couldn’t function so I would drink coffee and hot cocoa and then eat when I got home. The day I showed up in my providers office he got on the phone and had me seeing a gastroenterologist the very next day. The gastroenterologist examined me, said I had Irritable Bowel Syndrome and sent me away with a prescription for dicyclomine (which, BTW, doesn’t do a thing…). No diet recommendations. No bloodwork. No testing other than checking to make sure I didn’t have blood in my stool. Gee, thanks.

So I went about eliminating different foods. Shrimp went. So did salad. Then my jaw decided to lock up and out went crusty bread or anything crunchy or chewy. Eventually the stomach pain went away with the eliminations and I went on with my Ife for a little while. I had a bad break up and lived on Cheerios, ice cream and wine for a month and lost 10 pounds. Then I started grad school and stress ate my way to a 20 lb weight gain and in the process decided to have a reaction to chicken of al things. No chicken for a few years. Then one day I could eat it. (It still seems crazy to me). I couldnt drink red wine because even a half glass gave me a migraine. Somewhere in there my liver enzymes shot up to hepatitis levels although I wasn’t sick and my iron was high. I had to eliminate all alcohol, NSAIDS like Tylenol and ibuprofen and cease using my cast iron pan. 6 months later it was normal. Unlike other celiacs I have never been anemic except when I was pregnant with my twins.

In 2011 I started a new job. Let’s just say that I have a nervous bladder AND digestive system and I found my self running to the restroom FREQUENTLY and I was very uncomfortable. This was in an office setting so it was especially embarrassing and inconvenient. I was trying to lose weight at the same time and couldn’t (ironically) and noticed that while keeping a food journal that I would gain 3-4 lbs every time I ate pizza or pasta or bread at dinner. I mentioned it to my provider who said it sounded like celiac and to try going gluten free for 2 weeks. I tried it and felt better within 1 week. The fog lifted. I didn’t wake up feeling like I’d been hit by a truck. I wasn’t running to the bathroom. My stomach didn’t hurt as bad. I didn’t ache all over. The angels were singing!

Then, I had to start eating gluten again so I could have blood work and scoping. You need to be eating the equivalent of 2 slices of wheat bread every day, preferably for 2 months, before blood work can be done. When you stop eating gluten, your body relaxes and the levels of circulating antibodies goes down and can produce a false negative result. You have to keep your body in attack mode to detect the antibodies adequately to get a positive result. The next step in testing for celiac disease is endoscopy which is a thin flexible tube with a camera that is inserted into your small intestine by way of your stomach in order to take tissue samples for biopsy. My (new and wonderful) gastroenterologist told my husband in the room afterward that he didn’t even need to have the biopsy results to know I had celiac disease it was so bad! At that point my son, my first baby after which I first started having fairly severe symptoms was 17! I finally had a diagnosis. Celiac disease.

So goodbye gluten. And goodbye Guinness and every other dark and lovely porter I used to drink. Goodbye homemade honey whole wheat bread made lovingly by my friend. Goodbye Chinese takeout and fast food (not a loss there) and takeout pizza and anything fried in a shared fryer (bye chicken wings) and just willy nilly grabbing a snack or eating dessert. Goodbye. Life.

On the upside I finally started shedding weight. So much weight that I looked emaciated in photos and my family commented on it. It did stabilize over time as I experimented with the paleo diet and traditional foods. I even managed to stress eat another 10 pounds over the past 2 years until I pulled myself together this summer and lost it again. (Note: Peanut M&M’s and snickers are gluten free. for good and for bad…)

What does this have to do with the topic of gut health other than my personal sob story? A lot. 1 in 133 people have celiac disease. Of those with first degree relatives who have celiac disease, 1 in 10-11 of them will also develop it. Celiac disease has many gut symptoms but more non-gut related symptoms. It is associated strongly with Type 1 diabetes in kids and people with Down syndrome have high rates of concurrent celiac disease. Undiagnosed celiac disease can cause hypothyroidism and anemia. Celiacs have a high rate of gastrointestinal cancers including b-cell lymphoma. Getting a diagnosis is difficult but critical to treating it correctly. A gluten free diet is essential to the treatment of celiac disease. At this point there is no other way to control it. Vaccine trial are underway as well as some agents designed to bind gluten or break it down in some way that the body does not react but they seem to be mainly designed to avoid reaction from incidental exposure to gluten such as a restaurant that cross contaminates your food, or eating food that is contaminated due to manufacturing contamination. I am doubtful of seeing a true cure for celiac disease, at least in my lifetime. Either way, I’m eating wonton soup on my deathbed…

There is also a diagnosis if non-celiac gluten sensitivity in which people have gut symptoms from eating gluten but test negative for celiac disease. There is some question as to whether this group of people is reacting to gluten or something that is commonly found with gluten containing foods. There is at least anecdotal evidence of people not being able to eat gluten in the US yet can eat them without symptoms when they travel overseas. I have a couple of friends who have experienced this. Is is a chemical that causes this reaction, such as a pesticide? Or they type of wheat eaten? I know others who can eat “ancient” wheats such as Einkorn or can eat true sourdough without symptoms. The jury is out as to the root cause but it is not autoimmune like celiac disease is. Considering how adulterated our food is in the US as compared to Europe I would not doubt it being caused by the processing of our foods or the type of pesticides used. Europe bans many more than we could ever hope to.

Gluten is not the only culprit causing gut symptoms. Lack of fiber in our diets and eating nutritionally anemic fast food/processed foods as well as stress and lack of exercise all contribute to belly bloat and abdominal fat. Dairy intolerance, soy intolerance and corn intolerance can cause bloating and either diarrhea or constipation as well. Lactose, the sugar in dairy, is broken down by lactase, an enzyme, but in those whose guts are already affected by other food issues or by genetics or medications, lactase production can be affected and lactose intolerance develops causing gas, bloating, diarrhea and even vomiting in some cases when dairy products are ingested. Some people cannot tolerate dairy protein which is called casein. Some can not tolerate soy in any form and many cannot digest corn and suffer similar symptoms. ( I am not talking here about allergies which generally cause different symptoms and affect a different pathway or reaction. Allergies can be deadly. )

What else? There are inflammatory bowel diseases that are autoimmune. These sometimes respond to diet changes including a gluten free diet but they often also require strong medications to control. Overgrowth of H. Pylori bacteria can cause ulcers and this is treated with antibiotics. Antibiotic use can cause gut imbalances which result in diarrhea and altered bacterial growth. They kill off the good guys along with the bad and it can take 6 months or longer to repopulate. Repeatedly taking antibiotics is the worse thing for your gut and can contribute to an even worse infection called “c.diff.” C. Diff in turn causes fever, diarrhea and an elevated white blood cell count. C. diff infection is common in those who have been hospitalized and it can cause death.

So the first step in addressing gut health is getting a correct diagnosis for the symptoms you are having. Sometimes this requires a lot of sleuthing and that is where health/food journals come in. Just like I mentioned earlier, I was journaling my food intake and weight which led to the discovery that high gluten foods were causing overnight weight gain (due to edema/swelling/fluid retention). I never would have put it together until I saw it on paper! Some diagnoses will require testing to obtain such as celiac disease or inflammatory bowel disease.

Find a medical provider who is willing to work with you to discover the root cause of your problem and do a proper work up before just labeling you with irritable bowel syndrome. It is a disservice to people to give this diagnosis and then try to treat it with medication. IBS is often a way to say I don’t know what it is so here is this label. Stop complaining. There is nothing actually wrong with you. Find someone to help and be willing to do some trial and error on your own as well. Keep a journal. Write down everything you eat, how you are feeling, your weight and what you are doing and any medications you are taking. Write down what you’ve tried and what worked and what didn’t. This is all valuable information!

See? I told you this would take more than one post!! Tomorrow I will be back to continue this discussion with some more concrete things we can do to support our gut health in general and then we will go into more detail about probiotics/probiotics and other supplements on Monday.

Until then, have a great night and be well!

Liz

Man oh man it’s late. I am tired and definitely not following my own advice from yesterday!

Today I tried a different workout, drank my 64 oz+ of water, did not over eat and followed my diet, had 1 alcoholic beverage (it’s Friday!) and clearly am not getting to bed on time! Tomorrow I have a 3 or 4 hour workshop at the studio where I take Tang Soo Do. I also had my twice a week class last night. I am definitely finding that the more I workout and move, the more I WANT to workout and move! I believe that is called MOMENTUM!

How are YOU doing? If you have been following along and incorporating some of the ideas I have proposed, how is it going? What hurdles are you finding?? My biggest hurdle is snacking in front of the computer. Believe it or not, I get very antsy when I have to sit down in front of the computer to do work and write notes. My automatic response is to eat while I sit there. This resulted in my gaining 10 pounds that I had lost previously. I am fairly certain that at least half my extra weight was made up of peanut M&M’s and the other red wine and snickers.

One thing that I think we need to consider eliminating from our lives are snacks especially of the liquid kind. Many of use don’t even realize that we are snacking when we hit the coffee shop. It’s not. “Just” coffee you are consuming!! Many of those yummy drinks are hundreds of calories and your body doesn’t recognize it as food because it’s liquid. What??? Sad fact: if you don’t have to chew your food, your body probably won’t register whatever you drank as sufficient to satisfy your hunger. Chewing food and taking at least 20 minutes to eat is the best way to let your body know that it has eaten and have that acknowledged by your brain so it can tell you to stop eating. When we sip our calories it doesn’t quite do the same thing. Oh no! Not the PSL!!!

Since I am working on an extended fast each day, I drink black coffee every morning until noon. The only thing I add are essential oils (and only essential oils that are labeled for ingesting). Then, I have a protein shake to which I add fiber (filling) and cinnamon (lowers blood sugar) and maybe peanut powder. I think because of the thicker consistency and fiber content in my shakes, this is satisfying. However, I have also been having a green apple and maybe another 100 calorie or so item in order to make it more like a meal. Then, I try to go 4-5 hours before eating again. I drink water and black Oolong tea or herbal tea in between. If I am starving I will have a handful of nuts in a 5oz cup of yogurt as a mini meal and then I have dinner. If I am working out I eat a little more during the day and then I have been having a protein shake afterward.

So one of the biggest reasons for not snacking is avoiding calories you forget about. We have amnesia when it comes to what we eat when we don’t pay any attention to it. Oh, I’m hungry you think, then you’re driving past McDonalds and you grab a cheap cheeseburger because its “small” and then you go through the Starbucks drive through and get a PSL. An hour later you are back home cooking dinner and completely forget to count those calories as part of your daily intake. Then you have a glass or two of wine with dinner and lose any willpower you had and eat a bag of cookies or half a cheesecake (because it sooo good!) or a bag of chips. you fall asleep and by tomorrow afternoon you can’t recall half of what you ate the day before and it starts all over again. By forcing yourself to sit down and eat a meal instead of snacking you are training your brain to slow down and pay attention. You are giving your stomach time to tell your brain that it has eaten sufficiently and that you are no longer hungry. This also contributes to a less stressful atmosphere in which to eat which in turn aids digestion. It is also believed that this less rushed, pleasurable way of eating helps explain why the French can eat so much bread and drink wine at each meal and traditionally have stayed thin with less heart disease than we have here in the US. It’s not just the red wine!

Consider cutting out snacking and instead, drink water and if you are truly hungry just have your next meal. Planning out your day so you know when you can eat and what you will eat is also helpful in curbing snacking. You aren’t going to starve to death! I promise!!

French women don’t snack. Keep that in mind. (I am admittedly fascinated by the French.)

Ok, that’s it for tonight. Tomorrow I am going to tackle gut health by request 🙂

Have a groovy night!

Liz