Category Archives: Questions & Answers

Questions & Answers

Undereating And Gut Health: What You Need To Know

Is undereating good for gut health?

I had a lot of patients with weight issues over the year. One of their key beliefs was that they should be undereating to lose weight. But, for many people, it just doesn’t work like that.

I don’t think undereating is a good idea. You need to know how many calories you need given your lifestyle, age, genetics, and body composition. Some people suggest that 10x your body weight in pounds is a starting point for how many calories you need each day.

What happens if you undereat to the extent that you’re in eating disorder territory? In those cases, undereating is often driven by body image. I also get concerned when undereating comes along with overexercising or overtraining. Those two habits, in combination, are not a good idea.

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A lot of people don’t lose weight by restricting. They may get grumpy, constipated, tired, moody, and their blood sugar can take a real hit. If your blood sugar is low, the liver responds by breaking down stored sugar using a process called glucogenesis. This process elevates insulin and cortisol, which can result in an emotional roller coaster.

If you undereat enough, the production of sex hormones like estrogen can decrease. Low levels of sex hormones can result in significant symptoms such as low energy and brain fog.

Instead of following a generic “undereating” plan, it’s important to customize your diet. You shouldn’t have to severely restrict your intake as long as you are favoring the healthy foods I talk about on my website ad Youtube channel. Of course, try and keep away from having a chocolate bar for lunch or making pop your beverage of choice.

Both undereating and overeating leads to problems. You got to find the right balance for you.

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Questions & Answers

Organic Meat: Is It Better For The Gut?

What’s the best type of meat to eat?

Is it be organic meat? Would it be non-organic meat? I think you know the answer. Anything that you put in your mouth that’s clean is going to be better than something that’s not clean.

If you’re eating non-organic meat, there are chances that it contains chemicals. How do we know that the same chemicals aren’t in organic meat? Unfortunately, there are some unscrupulous people in the organic market so make sure you buy meat that’s certified organic.

In my opinion, organically produced meats are a better grade of meat. They tend to have a different fat composition with healthier fats than found in conventionally raised livestock.

If you’ve opted for non-organic meat, buy lean cuts. Fat is where chemicals such as pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics are often stored. Adipose tissue in the animal holds more toxins than the muscle.

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If organic meat is hard to afford, you could opt for the cheaper cuts such as skirt steak, which is less expensive than sirloin or prime roast.

In terms of health, it pays to shop around to get the best quality of meat. Farmer’s markets are a good starting point. An online search should help you find suppliers of certified organic meat.

I believe organic meat is the way to go to avoid chemicals that can be harmful to your gut and overall health. They use lots of different chemicals on animals these days. If you can minimize the chemical intake in your body through the food chain, it’s going to be a lot better for the gut.

I caution you to be particularly careful with chicken. Here, in New Zealand, they can use up to a dozen different types of antibiotics in the poultry trade. For that reason, I generally only buy free-range chickens. We know the people who run the farm and what they feed the chickens.

My take-home message is to avoid eating too much conventionally raised meat because of the chemical content.

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Questions & Answers

8 Things You Shouldn’t Do If You Want A Healthy Gut

What are the things that can cause harm to your gut health?

1. Having too restricted a diet is going to impact your gut microbial growth negatively. From what I’ve read, people in western countries, only consume between 12 and 15 types of vegetables and four or five different types of animals. If you look at indigenous people in Africa, who don’t suffer from the chronic diseases seen in the developed world, they eat a far more diverse range of plants and have a much wider range of bacteria in their gut with all the associated benefits.

2. Lack of prebiotic in the diet is another common problems. Most people don’t include high-quality, sour yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, or kombucha in their diet. Fifty or sixty years ago, cultured and fermented foods were commonplace. Now it’s become something special rather than routine.

3. Drinking too much alcohol with a detrimental impact on the gut is a common habit. Studies have shown, for example, that when you consume spirits like gin or vodka, you dramatically reduce the population of beneficial bacteria. If you can stick with small quantities of red wine with a high polyphenol content, you can increase the beneficial bacteria content of your gut.

4. Antibiotics are very challenging for the gut flora. Some clients I had would go on antibiotics twice a year for infections that could have been fixed by natural methods. You don’t’ have to automatically jump to ciprofloxacin as soon as someone has a mild sore throat or a little skin rash. Herbs have been used for hundreds, if not thousands, of years for these sorts of reasons. See a naturopath or a functional medicine doctor if you want a second opinion about antibiotic use. Antibiotics are one of the key factors that undermine gut function.

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5. Lack of activity can be a detriment to your gut flora. Exercise is very beneficial for your microbiome. I read a study of professional rugby players that demonstrated they had much higher levels of good bacteria compared to less active men of the same weight and age.

6. Smoking can harm the GI tract, particularly if you’re a heavy smoker. Not only are smokers more prone to strokes and heart attacks, they also have higher inca1dence of inflammatory bowel disease. For example, the risk of Crohn’s disease is twice as high in smokers as in non-smokers.

7. Sleep deprivation can damage gut health. When someone has a healthy circadian rhythm, they have a far better balance of microbes and range of beneficial bacteria in their gut. Good sleep patterns are correlated wth good microbiome patterns. Disturbed sleep can interfere with hormonal levels and thereby impact the appetite and immune systems, including the immune system in the gut.

8. Too much stress can be very damaging to the gut. It can also interfere with appetite regulation and lead to snacking on junk food, which in turn changes the microbiome for the worse. People with low-stress lifestyles tend to have much better gut health.

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Questions & Answers

Is Microwaved Food Gut-Healthy?

Do you have a microwave?

Nowadays, I think almost everyone has one. Microwaves used to have a very bad reputation, but it seems that this has turned around.

If you have a good look online, you’ll see lots of people saying that microwave cooking is okay. But there are still people who worry about possible health effects. It’s important to determine if those fears are legitimate or more a case of jumping on the bandwagon of fear.

If we look at the facts, microwave radiation is a very high base frequency radiation like radio waves. Radio waves are at a higher frequency but microwaves are just under. We know that a radio isn’t going to cause any dramatic damage to your body and I imagine the same is true for microwave.

Nutrient loss is a relevant consideration when you are talking about cooking methods. I always recommend cooking foods for the shortest time possible and with a minimal amount of water. Thankfully, microwaves can meet both of those criteria.

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I don’t use a microwave oven, but we have one in our kitchen. The microwave belongs to my son, and he enjoys cooking eggs and other foods in it. I prefer to do things the old fashioned way.
I think it’s fair to say that enough time has elapsed, and enough research has been done, and nothing dramatic has come from cooking with microwaves.

Microwaves are probably okay because of the amount of limited exposure that people get to that microwave. You don’t stand around with your hand on top of the microwave, just as you wouldn’t rest your hand on the stove while cooking. If you move only 10 to 12 inches away from the microwave, the radiation drops significantly. I have read concerns about using microwaves for cooking protein, but I don’t think it’s an issue. Like any other cooking appliance, a microwave heats food – it just happens to use radiation to do so.

I haven’t seen any research suggesting that microwaves are bad for gut health. Still, It’s not my preference not to use one, but it may be yours.

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Questions & Answers

Canned Foods And The Gut: What You Need To Know

How do canned foods compare to fresh and raw foods when it comes to gut health?

There’s a lot of debate that’s been going on for many years about canned foods. I’ve just had a look at about a half a dozen websites that say these are the best canned foods to eat. These websites recommend canned tomatoes, pumpkin, and artichokes. But my question is, why would you want canned pumpkin when you can get one that’s been growing in the ground?

Growing, harvesting, processing, and consuming food is an entirely different experience than going to a supermarket to buy a can of food for supper. When food is grown in soil, it has bacteria, microbes, and other organic life included. The plant is fresh and alive.

People have been eating canned food since the mid-1800s. Canning involves heating off up to a very high temperature and under high pressure. In my opinion, that’s not the right way to process most foods.

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An exception might be anchovies or sardines, but I definitely don’t recommend having a pantry stocked with canned fruits and vegetables. Canned food is not a good substitute for fresh. It’s no substitute at all.

You’ll miss out on water-soluble vitamins when you eat canned foods. The B vitamins and vitamin C get trashed during the canning process. Even fat-soluble vitamins are partially destroyed when foods are canned.

The other problem with canned foods is that they are often full of syrup, sugar, and salt.
Your best bet is to buy organic, fresh fruits and vegetables. If you have to buy conventionally-grown produce, at least buy the type you can wash. You want to avoid heavily sprayed food.

I don’t recommend canned foods for gut health. I have had patients over the years who primarily eat canned vegetables, and their digestion didn’t compare to those patients who ate fresh produce.

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