Tag Archives: probiotic

Questions & Answers

What You Should Know About Garlic and Your Gut

Let’s talk about garlic and bacteria.

Many websites are good at bashing garlic, and saying that it indiscriminately kills good and bad bacteria. They suggest avoiding garlic in your diet. Some sites claim that garlic is too pungent and contains chemicals that have an overly powerful effect on the body. A lot of these websites are Ayurvedic websites that don’t like onions or garlic in the diet in general. But, there are generally no scientific links to support the negative opinions of garlic.

Instead, some studies demonstrate garlic having beneficial properties when it comes to GI health. Garlic has not been shown to destroy beneficial gut bacteria. It turns out that various strains of Lactobacillus are resistant to fresh, raw garlic. There is also evidence from studies that garlic is a prebiotic.

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Of course, everything in moderation. If you eat a pound of raw garlic daily, you’re going to wipe everything out, including your relationships. No one is going to come near you. But, if you eat one or two cloves of garlic per day mixed into your food, you’ll be fine.

Garlic can help keep the blood thin, regulate blood pressure, and increase resistance to viruses in the blood. It’s a superb food but should be used carefully.

It’s not uncommon to read studies that completely contradict each other. When it comes to garlic, I think it helps to look at how it was used for hundreds of years by many different populations. It was used so extensively because of the benefits it generated. This is one of the reasons garlic is still around today.

In my opinion, science has validated garlic as a superfood in terms of its positive effects on the body. I put garlic in the same category as fresh salmon, avocados, blueberries, black currents, and 90% dark chocolate. Regularly consuming small amounts of these superfoods will have a profound effect on your health. Eaten in moderation, I have no concerns about garlic killing beneficial gut bacteria.

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Questions & Answers

Five Steps To Regaining Gut Health After Antibiotic Use

If you had a course of antibiotics, it’s essential to do what you can to restore your gut health.

1. Firstly, if at all possible, avoid doing another round. One course of antibiotics is bad enough, taking another round is like going back into the ring with the world heavyweight boxing champion. I’ve had clients who have been on antibiotics almost continuously for six months, and it destroys their gut. I look at it as the medical equivalent of napalming your garden time and time again.

2. Next, it’s crucial that you focus on eating the kinds of foods that will help build your but back up again. If you’ve just finished a week of ciprofloxacin, now is not the time to be feasting on take-out pizza while drinking a liter of pop. You’re better off cooking yourself some bok choy and brown rice at home. If you jump into eating high-sugar food right after finishing antibiotics, there is a very good chance that the yeast population in your gut is going to increase significantly. If you have a burning desire to eat sweets after using antibiotics, it’s a sure-fire sign that you’ve developed SIBO or a yeast problem.

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3. Make sure that you take a probiotic long enough to make a difference. Some people think that seven to ten days of probiotics is enough to reverse all the damage that has been done by antibiotic treatment. Not true. I recommend staying on the probiotic until your gut function is excellent again. Even then, if you stop the probiotics and your gut problems resurface, you need to go back on the probiotic.

4. Make sure you get adequate rest and avoid living a high-stress lifestyle. Some people who get sick, unfortunately, stay sick because they live an unhealthy lifestyle. It may be their relationship, it may be their job, or it could be the family dynamics. Something needs to change because if the person continues to expose themselves to significant stress, their gut isn’t going to bounce back and recover.

5. Please don’t take too many dietary supplements in the hopes that it will speed up your return to gut health. I’ve seen people take 30 or more pills a day. When your gut is recovering from antibiotics, I strongly recommend keeping things simple. Eat a basic, healthy diet and reduce your life stress. Now is not the time to pepper your digestive system with B vitamins, magnesium supplements, zinc supplements, and so on. Try and back off a lot of these supplements and give your gut some space to recover.

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