Love Your Gut
By Dr. Lori

What does it mean to love our gut? There’s a lot going on inside our roughly 27 feet of intestines, and that’s just part of our gut! Our gut microbiome is all the organisms that live in our gut – like viruses, fungi and bacteria (we have much more bacteria in our body than human cells, and most of them are helpful, even critical to a healthy existence). They all play vital roles in gut health by breaking down what we consume into all the nutrients we need to survive and thrive. The importance of a diverse and healthy microbial community in our gut is unquestionable and balance is the key! Too much of one organism and too little of another can cause havoc in our system. There is an abundance of research on the role gut health has in warding off damaging inflammation which can lead to everything from obesity, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, autoimmune conditions, and of course cancer and much more. Leaky gut syndrome (when the digestive tract has an unhealthy blend of organisms the walls of the intestines are weakened and the contents are leaked into the bloodstream causing innumerable problems ranging from asthma to alzheimers) is now commonly understood as a real problem. The question remains, why isn’t “super gut health” at the top of everyone’s health list? We know if we nourish ourselves a certain way we feel better. Our blood sugar stays balanced, we think better, our moods are more stable, we sleep better etc. so what keeps us from nourishing ourselves this way?

If we explore modern societal work and eating behaviors, advertisements, grocery stores and restaurants it is clear we are not being corralled into the healthy gut department! I once decided for entertainment I would go down the cereal aisle at a conventional grocery store and see how many types of sugar was in an average box of cereal. I was shocked. I’m sure you can imagine what I discovered! Currently I am doing a three-week detox program with my office staff and assistants, and going out to dinner in any social situation is beyond challenging. There’s sugar in all the sauces, things are fried with rancid oils, organic is not common, and asking questions about everything on the menu is, well… need I say more? Lifelong habits and comfort levels are being seriously confronted when thinking about a healthy gut. Most of us are simply not used to nourishing ourselves in healthy gut ways and changing these ways of living are often undesirable, uncomfortable, and even painful.

And to top it off, it’s not as simple as just changing what we eat. The microbiome is affected by so many things, not just what we eat. How many of us have had the experience of enjoying a wonderfully healthy meal and suddenly something stressful or emotional disrupts this magical moment and we get a tummy ache, gas, bloating, headache or even feel like throwing up or have to rush to the toilet? Your nerves can certainly affect your gut and your gut can certainly affect your nerves! Our gut health depends on how old we are, how we eat, how we’re feeling when we eat, when we eat, how often we eat, what our blood type is, what the season or weather is like, what our exercise and sleep is like, and especially what’s going on in our hearts and minds!

I can remember one poignant story of a raw food vegan super athlete pregnant mamma with a  healthy gut microbiome who had a great birth with me. However, the first week after she gave birth her baby got the worst thrush (yeast) infection I had ever seen and we needed to figure out what to do. I realized that her gut was staying in perfect balance by all the super running she was doing and that exercise kept the raw food vegan diet working perfectly for her. After birth new mothers have to rest to recover and because she couldn’t run, the balance of her gut was seriously affected, leading to her milk being off balance and her baby getting thrush. By adding miso soup (which complied with her raw food vegan lifestyle), she was able to regain her gut balance and her baby’s thrush cleared up!

Let’s take a deep breath and then one gentle step at a time. Gut health starts with awareness, little changes and a big handful of love. Make self-nourishment a ceremony of love! If you love your gut, at the end of the day you’ll take better care of it. Just imagine though how much more vital aliveness you could experience with a healthier gut! Perhaps today it’s a choice to have “less” sugar and tomorrow it could be fermented foods and healthy fiber prebiotics every day (to feed the good bacteria flora)! Poi, miso, sauerkraut, kim chee, and natto are just loaded with live microorganisms crucial to healthy digestion. Some yogurts and kefirs are useful as well.

Live microbes and live cultures are the key! Not all fermented things are created equally. Cheese is fermented although usually not full of live microbes. Kombucha might be loaded with live cultures though it might also be loaded with sugar! Research suggests the type of gut bacteria in Americans are changing, probably due to lack of replenishment (most of us don’t eat fermented foods like our ancestors did), more processed foods, the explosion of antibiotic use and different hygiene practices as well.

Please join us at our gathering Sunday, January 19^th we’ll be sampling different fermented foods, learning how to make miso and sauerkraut, loving our gut, bolstering our microbiome and reclaiming being vitally alive!!