It’s commonplace in the wellness industry to cut foods out of your diet when experiencing digestive issues. But what if prolonged restriction of food groups is making digestive symptoms worse from lack of microbiota diversity? What if a more varied diet is actually the key to not only better digestive health but also a better relationship with food.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT – GUT MICROBIOTA

It’s pretty simple when you think about it – you are what you eat. I am sure a lot of you have heard or read this statement at some point in your health journey. But what does it truly mean? Simply put, what we eat on a daily basis influences the bacteria that populates our guts (our microbiota), and it is the diversity of this bacteria that protects us from dysbiosis-related diseases. The maintenance of healthy microbiota requires a homeostatic equilibrium (balance) and without this can cause dysbiotic microbiota (imbalance).

Our guts are populated by somewhere between 40 to 100 trillion micro-organisms (most are bacteria, but also fungi, viruses and protozoa, which eat bacteria and therefore regulate bacteria population in our gut).  The diversity and homeostasis of these micro-organisms is largely influenced by what we ingest (food, drink, OTC, pharmaceuticals + recreational drugs, etc.) with environmental and stress playing a role as well.

If you logically think about it, because your gut microbiota diversity is largely a result of what you eat, then the more diversity in your diet means the more diversity in gut bacteria. More diversity means better gut health

 What goes in must come out…

Every time we have a bowel movement, it is actually comprised of 25 to 54% bacterial microbes, with the remaining being water and undigested protein and fats (our poop doesn’t contain a high amount of carbs as the majority of what we eat is absorbed).

So really, every single day we are “disposing” (for lack of a prettier way to put it) of up to 50% of our gut microbiota which gives us a chance to repopulate it with a variety of food. Every day we have the chance to create a healthy gut and healthy digestion.

YOU ARE ALSO WHAT YOU DON’T EAT

We currently live in a diet culture which preaches the removal of foods for better health – gluten, dairy, high FODMAP foods, grains, legumes. There is definitely an argument against processed sugars like sucralose and food dyes and their adverse influence on dysbiosis (imbalance).  But processed food is not the focus here.

A low FODMAP diet is a popular way to treat IBS. Over 10 clinical trials have resulted in 50%–80% of patients with IBS, in particular with improvements in bloating, flatulence, diarrhea.  Although we see fantastic short term results, what we don’t know are the long term effects of the low FODMAP diet on our gut health.  What we do know, is that Low FODMAP diets lead to profound changes in the microbiota and metabolism, the duration and clinical relevance of which are as yet unknown.  Could we be damaging our guts long term from restriction for short term relief? When you logically thing about it, the low FODMAP diet removes important prebiotic foods (that feed our healthy gut bacteria) such as garlic, onion and asparagus

Other popular diets to help alleviate digestive symptoms and IBS include the Whole 30 and the paleo diet that remove not only legumes like low FODMAP but also dairy and gluten.  So, let’s quickly review what happens when we eat/don’t eat these foods.

BENEFITS OF DAIRY AND GLUTEN

 DAIRY

Since cheese is one of my favorite foods, let’s start with the benefits (with a focus on whole dairy, not processed cheese, low fat or non-fat). When you eat cheese this increases the Bifidobacteria in your gut which are known for their positive health benefits such as potential protection against pathogens and increased production of short chain fatty acids from raw milk cheeses.

In my opinion, based off of my own clinical studies research and what I see with clients, dairy can be part of a healthy diet. Not only good cheese but also good yogurts. But let’s say that at some point you stopped eating dairy and replaced everything with nut-based alternatives. You miss real cheese, and you wonder if your digestion would suffer if you started to eat it again.

If you haven’t had dairy products for a long period of time (over 30 days), reintroduce them slowly.  Start with raw cheeses, hard cheeses, or goat or sheep cheeses that are lower in lactose and casein and therefore easier to digest.

 It is likely, as with any food that has been restricted from your diet for longer periods of time, that it will cause digestive upset. This may not be because of an intolerance, but likely because you don’t have the bacteria and enzymes to digest dairy since it has been removed from your diet. Your body needs time to replenish bacteria to digest food properly.  Have patience.

GLUTEN

For those with diagnosed gluten sensitivity and celiac disease, studies show that gluten-free bread reduces microbiota dysbiosis (imbalance).  But most people who avoid gluten do not have celiac disease or proved intolerance, and a recent study showed an increased risk of heart disease in gluten avoiders, potentially because of the reduced consumption of whole grains which are so important for heart health.  This study showed that a group of healthy people had substantially different gut microbiota profiles after four weeks on a gluten-free diet, including a lower abundance of several key beneficial microbe species. 

When you have a lower abundance of key bacteria in your gut, this changes the gut microbiome composition and alters the activity of microbial pathways. 

Like with dairy, or any other food you restrict for longer periods of time, eating gluten again after not having it in your diet will cause bloat and other gastro-intestinal symptoms that mimic a possible intolerance when in reality this could be your body adjusting to new foods when you don’t have proper gut bacteria and enzymes to digest.

If you need help adding more carbohydrates to your diet, you can download my free healthy carb resource.

SIDE EFFECTS OF RESTRICTIVE DIETS

 Look, I totally get it. Altering what you eat in order to alleviate digestive symptoms is a very popular treatment protocol. But it is important to ask yourself, what are the side effects of popular restrictive diets on my gut health?  These may include strict vegan diets, raw food or “clean eating” diets, gluten-free diets, and low FODMAP (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols) diets used to treat digestive disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome.

Short term, restrictive diets can help you balance your gut with less uncomfortable symptoms than before. The studies are there to prove this, and yes it works in the short term. I also use low FODMAP principles to help my clients with digestive symptoms, but only short term before working with them to reintroduce all foods back in.

Long term, we don’t know how damaging these restrictive diets are once they start to alter our gut microbiota and starve us of important beneficial bacteria for optimal health.

So here are my thoughts. If you choose to do a restrictive diet to address gut issues, only do it short term for a maximum of 2 weeks to 30 days at the very most. Please don’t make a restrictive diet your new normal of eating.

What happens is that when the restrictive diet does alleviate symptoms, you are then afraid to reintroduce foods that you believe caused symptoms. What is important is a slow and thoughtful reintroduction of foods to replenish your gut bacteria so that you can have better digestions with all foods in your diet.

If you are currently on a restrictive diet and would love to start incorporating more foods to feel your best, you can schedule a consultation with me on the phone to talk about my programs.

You can also download my Food Freedom Guide to help break any food rules that you may currently have from being on restrictive diets.

** as always, consult a medical professional before making any drastic changes to your diet.

Confused on how to eat intuitively when healing your gut?

The true definition of intuitive eating is to eat what you want. So how can you eat intuitively if what you want gives you a stomach ache, causes uncomfortable bloat, constipation or embarrassing gas?

To answer this question, we need to rewind it back a bit. Most people who are in pursuit of getting back to the basics of intuitive eating are those who are healing their relationship with food. And typically, this means that at one point in your life, probably for an extended period of time, there was restriction – removal of entire food groups, removal of types of food, food rules, portion control and/or intermittent fasting aka skipping meals.

The reason that this is important to note is that dieting and restriction cause harm to your digestive tract – your stomach, small intestine and large intestine – and the function of digesting your food. What this dysfunction can create is increased constipation, bloating, gas, delayed gastric emptying (gastritis), premature fullness, and disruption or flattening of the villi that line your small intestine which are responsible for this nutrient absorption and creation of digestive secretions to probably break down your food.

Understanding why your gut needs healing is one of the very first steps to actually healing your gut. I see it time and time again where doctors or naturopaths will prescribe a restrictive diet in order to remove the foods that are causing digestive symptoms without first diagnosing any disordered eating that may be present and may be the cause of your gut symptoms. Removing more foods, when there is a history of disordered eating, can instead exacerbate the problem and make it worse. Then what inevitably happens, is feeling like you can never eat “normally” again because of your gut symptoms.

Instead of eliminating more food, the first step is to heal your relationship with food and make peace with your body. You cannot heal your gut until you make peace with food. Disordered eating is way more common that food sensitivities and intolerances.

Intuitive eating is a journey. Knowing what your body wants and craves take time, and also the unwinding of possibly years of dieting, restriction or disordered eating. If you find it hard to eat intuitively because of digestive issues, it is likely because you still have work to do to heal your relationship with food. Also, any time you start adding food back into your diet that you haven’t had in a while, this is going to cause bloat and other digestive symptoms. This is because the food you eat on a daily basis creates the bacteria in your gut. Change the way you eat, and the bacteria changes. Any changes beyond the normal, will cause temporary digestive issues, such as food reintroductions.

 
How to eat intuitively while healing your gut? Work first on making peace with food. Before you do this, eating “what you want” may be guided by factors other than your intuition. Often times, if we have been restricting or adhering to food rules for so long, you crave the foods you don’t allow yourself to have and then when you do have them, they upset your gut which then leads to thinking you need to cut certain foods out. In order to tap into our true cravings, this means allowing all foods to fit and letting temporary gut discomfort that comes with introducing foods back in as we heal.

More things to help:

Download my Four Steps to Food Freedom to help you release food rules to get closer to food freedom.

Schedule a consultation if you are interested in working with me one-on-one. My coaching programs help you to set your own goals to heal your relationship with food. Here is what past clients have to say.

Alright, you asked and I deliver. I am talking everything there is to know about colonics, the benefits, how to prep and why I do them. If you have never done one before and are suffering from digestive issues, constipation, IBS, food allergies, candida, bloat or energy slumps you may want to consider a few colonics sessions after checking in with your naturopathic or functional medicine doctor.

Colonic Room at Body Harmony in SF

But wait, hold up… someone puts a tube into my butt emitting warm water into my colon to release any blockages… SAY WHAT?! Does it hurt? Is it safe? Is it uncomfortable? What does it feel like? How do I prep? What should I expect afterwards? How often should I do them?

I am answering all of your questions and why colonics play a very important part in Gut Health and a balanced Microbiome.

THE GUT HEALTH CONNECTION
The most important thing we can do for our health is foster a healthy gut environment where healthy bacteria can grow and thrive. GUT HEALTH = GOOD HEALTH. If we don’t take care of our gut - everything from our colon (large intestine) to our small intestines to our stomach- our physical and mental health suffers as a consequence.

There are two sides of gut dysfunction – 1) Leaky Gut Syndrome and 2) Dysbiosis. In the first, when our gut’s mucosal lining in our small intestine starts to break down and the tight junctions between the cells become permeable, this allows nasty things (partially digested food, bacteria, fungus, etc.) to leak into our blood stream.  The medical community refers to this as Intestinal Barrier Hyper-Permeability and can cause all sorts of immune system responses such as food intolerances, allergies, autoimmune disorders, malabsorption, etc. The second side refers to an imbalance in the gut’s natural flora (our microbiome), which is known as Dysbiosis.

Dysbiosis can lead to chronic infections and once you learn what dysbiotic infections eat, you can start thinking about defeating them. Step one, remove items from your diet that feed any bad bacteria including processed sugars, processed flours and carbohydrates that convert to sugar.

Step two, properly flush your system. Our colon, or large intestine, is 5 to 6 feet in length and is responsible for absorbing water to form stools and eliminate from our body. If we suffer from Dysbiosis it is likely that this will lead to difficulties in proper elimination as studies now show. The intestinal microbiota helps to breakdown food into absorbable nutrients and prevents pathogenic bacteria from growing. When we have an imbalance of bad vs. good bacteria, this doesn’t happen, waste will literally become “stuck” and toxins will continue to build in our colon. 

WHY COLONICS + WHAT ARE THEY
For anyone who has read Love In The Time Of Cholera, (book nerd over here) then you know that enemas have been used for centuries to help with conditions such as constipation and chronic pain. Clean bowels helped patients heal better and faster. These days, we have upgraded to colonics.

Colon Hydrotherapy (aka, colonics) is a safe, effective method of removing waste from the large intestine. Filtered and temperature regulated water is infused into the colon, where waste is softened and loosened, resulting in evacuation through natural peristalsis. The inflow of a small amount of water and the release of waste is repeated several times in the process.

The removal of waste encourages better colon function and elimination. Colonic practitioners use specialized equipment that ensures an easy, odorless, and safe way of eliminating. Colon hydrotherapy is one of the most effective ways of cleansing the lower intestinal tract (colon) and detoxifying the overall system. 

There are both open-system colonics (where you are in the room on your own) as well as closed-system colonics (where the practitioner is in the room and helps to administer abdominal massage to help with release). Personally, I prefer the closed-system approach where the practitioner help to “fill and release.” I promise you it’s not weird, it’s very professional and if you want, you can look at all your waste being released!

Also, nope, colonics do not hurt. When the water is filling your colon you might feel a little pressure in your lower abdomen, and when you are releasing it just feels like you have to go to the bathroom really bad.

 PREPARING FOR A COLONIC
In order to have a successful and comfortable colonic session, prep is important. For at least 2-3 days before your session it is important to:

·      DRINK WATER! Your body needs water to digest your food and to get rid of waste. Drinking half your weight in ounces daily will help to soften you stool. Coffee, soda or flavored drinks do not count.

·      DO A GUT RESET. I recommend colonics to all of my clients who are doing the 10-Day Balanced Gut Reset. By taking daily fiber elimination drinks with psyllium husk on my reset, this further helps if you are particularly constipated.

·      EAT WHOLE FOODS. Make fruits and vegetables 50% of your diet and avoid any gas-producing foods (cruciferous vegetables, beans) and congesting foods (sugar, wheat and dairy). Also, it is very important to not eat or drink anything 2 hours prior to your colonic appointment so food is digested and you are comfortable

·      EAT MINDFULLY. Slowing down to chew your food until it is liquid in your mouth helps immensely with digestion. Although chewing isn’t the only thing that helps digestion, if you are curious about how to practice more mindful eating? Check out my guide of 8 Steps to Eat More Mindfully!

WHY I DO COLONICS, MY FIRST EXPERIENCE AND HOW OFTEN
I recommend going 1 to 3 times for your first round of colonics. When I first started doing colonics I hadn’t even started my wellness journey, and actually, doing my first round of colonics was the catalyst for me choose my path towards better health.  I was 23 when I went to a colonics practitioner for the first time in Huntington Beach. I had just had my gallbladder removed six months earlier and also polyps that were removed from my colon. I had gained weight, had no energy, my skin was having terrible breakouts and I was constipated – only going to the bathroom a few times a week.  My first colonics I did not prepare properly and was only able to eliminate gas bubbles. No waste. I remember feeling defeated, but then I went back for a second and third session within the next 10 days and SUCCESS! I never felt so amazing before. My energy was through the roof, my belly was flat and I was getting the most restful sleep.

Fast forward to today.  Combined with a diet of whole foods and eliminating the abundance of processed foods I ate years ago, I do colonics every six months to a year to keep things clean. I usually do colonics once for up keep (but I recommend 1-3 if this is your first time) and combine it with my balanced gut reset.

For me, colonics are a key piece for maintaining my health.  I notice that if I wait more than a year to go back for a session, I start to feel sluggish, my candida overgrowth starts to creep back in and my BM’s aren’t as fabulous and regular as they usually are. After improving my diet and by integrating cleansing and colonics, I haven’t been on any medications or had any recurring health or gut issues.

If you are reading this (... it's not too late. Thanks Drake) and you are constipated, feel sluggish, struggle with break outs, have bloat, gas or any recurring digestive issues talk to your Naturopathic Doctor or Functional Medicine Doctor about integrating colonics into your health routine.

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