Tag Archives: probiotics

Questions & Answers

Don’t Be Fooled By These 5 Gut Health Myths

Even smart people can be duped into believing myths about gut health. Here are seven of the most common misunderstandings about the GI tract that I’ve encountered during my years of practice.

1. Many people believe that gut problems are primarily caused by food. Nothing can be further from the truth. I’ve seen many clients who have terrible diets and excellent gut health. I’ve also seen people with amazingly healthy diets who have terrible gut problems.

For many clients, a high-stress lifestyle overrides a healthy diet. If you’re unhappy in life, I don’t care what kind of food you eat; you need to get things sorted.

2. Eating clean doesn’t guarantee good gut health. I’ve seen people eat incredibly clean and yet continue to have gut problems. Eating clean sometimes involve being extremely rigid about food choices. My point is that limiting yourself to four types of quinoa, three types of legumes, and two types of green drinks is often not the answer. A diverse diet that isn’t sterile helps generate a diverse gut flora.

You don’t need to eat super clean to have super good gut health. In fact, ou need bacteria to keep your gut in good shape,

3. Carbohydrates are not the demons they are made out to be. With the ketogenic diet being the rage right now, many people are eating more protein and fat at the expense of healthy carbs. The common symptom I’ve seen in my ketogenic clients is fatigue. Once you take bananas, most fruits, many vegetables, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and whole grains out of your diet, your fiber intake plummets.

Of course, there is no harm in avoiding carbs like white bread, candy, and French fries. But sweet potatoes are a darn good food.

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4. Many people claim that the ketogenic diet is the best way to lose weight. I strongly beg to differ. You don’t need a ketogenic diet to lose weight; you need common sense. Eat the right kind of food and avoid the wrong kind.

I had many clients over the year who lost weight and kept it off by changing their diet and their lifestyle. With time, their gut improved so much, it finally starting to give them the right signals. The donut in the office kitchen no longer tempted them.

5. Writing off supplements as a waste of time is a mistake. I hear people say “food cures all,” and “food is medicine, medicine is food.’ Yet, when your gut is in a terrible place, sometimes supplements make all the difference in the world. I’ve had many clients who tried to get better by following a healthy diet. They weren’t able to achieve gut health until they incorporated an antimicrobial like CanXida Remove into their supplement regime.

Once they cleaned up the bad bacteria, they added some probiotics and enzymes into the mix, and that kick-started their gut back to health. CanXida Restore is a very effective mix of probiotics and digestive enzymes.

Following a healthy diet is essential for the long-term. But sometimes you need some short-term help from supplements.

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Questions & Answers

Should You Eat A Low-Sulfur Diet If You Have SIBO?

Sulfur is a very important mineral. It’s a vital compound when it comes to bones and skin and hair. Many parts of your body require sulfur for them to be in good shape.

Sulfur is found in many protein foods. Cysteine and methionine are two amino acids that are high in sulfur. The dietary supplement, Alpha-Lipoic Acid, also contains sulfur. Many amino acids contain cysteine or methionine, and glutathione is another sulfur-containing compound. The brassicas like cauliflower, broccoli, and collards contain sulfur. So, do onions, brazil nuts, and almonds.

For the majority of people, sulfur’s not going to affect them much. However, people with severe SIBO can have problems with sulfur. The sulfur can be converted to hydrogen sulfide in the gut, leading to extreme malodorous gas. This occurs as a result of the overgrowth of bacteria seen in SIBO.

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My father has SIBO and SIFO for years. He was seen by gastroenterologists, but they can’t help much when someone is eating a couple of dozen cookies followed by a gallon of chocolate milk after supper. Some people are like that. They don’t understand why they have a problem, and yet, the problem’s right in front of their face.

If you have very offensive gastrointestinal gas, you need to do something about it. Look at your diet and eliminate the foods that contain the most sulfur, particularly the protein foods. Avoiding those foods can reduce the odor.

Probiotics can certainly help. I also recommend having a comprehensive stool analysis and possibly a breath test. You want to identify the target species and clean them up. Get your diet sorted, eat a low sulfur diet, and you’ll be in a lot better place.

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Questions & Answers

A Gut-Healthy Approach to Shopping

I’ve come up with ten tips that will help make sure you’re grocery shopping is gut-healthy.

1. Shop the perimeter: If you must use a supermarket for your groceries, try to limit your purchase to items found at the edges of the store. Traditionally, that is where you will find fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh meat and fish, eggs, dairy, and the bakery for bread and the like.

2. Try and shop at farmer’s markets: Farmer’s markets offer more personalized service. Over time you can get to know the vendors and understand how they grow their products and whether they use pesticides. Organic farmer’s markets are one of the best options when it comes to grocery shopping.

3. Make your own yogurt and grow your own sprouts: It’s easy to group sprouts. Sprouts are very high in chlorophyll, folic acid, and vitamin C.

4. Eat smaller meals: Most people eat too much food. For a healthy gut, you don’t want to overeat. Don’t treat your stomach like it’s a cement mixer. When it comes to buying groceries, don’t over shop. Buy enough so that you can eat moderately rather than eating large portions all the time.

5. Buy your fresh foods frequently: Instead of loading up on fruits, vegetables, meat, and eggs for weeks at a time, buy them every few days. The nutrient content of food diminishes over time, so you want to fill your fridge with fresh foods, not store broccoli that was picked a month ago.

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6. Avoid the most heavily sprayed foods in your region. Google should able to help you identify the foods with the highest levels of pesticide residue. You might be surprised to discover that celery is very heavily sprayed. Imported berries are often far more heavily sprayed than domestic ones.

7. Buy lean cuts of meat. When you get poultry, get it skinless. You can coat the meat with a rub instead or marinate it before cooking. I make a nice mix with olive oil, fresh herbs, garlic, smoked paprika, and some curry powder.

8. Always check the best before or expiry dates on your groceries. You want to buy the freshest item available. Sometimes that means using your arm to reach the back of the shelf, but it’s worth it.

9. Don’t go shopping without a list. Impulse shopping is a quick way to come home with the junk foods you don’t need in the house.

10. Eat before you shop: If you go shopping on an empty stomach, the chocolate bar and bags of chips are going to be particularly hard to resist. Have a good breakfast before you go shopping in the morning. Having some protein before you go to the grocery store is always a good idea because it helps maintain a stable blood sugar level.

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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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Questions & Answers

How Do Probiotics Impact Gut Bacteria

Probiotics have an important role to play in establishing a healthy gut flora.

There was a fascinating study conducted in Russia in 2019 that looked at the impact of adding probiotics to yogurt. One hundred fifty volunteers participated in the study. The microbiome of each subject was checked on day one and day 30.

Each participant had 125 milliliters of yogurt with a small amount of added probiotics twice a day.

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After 30 days, they noticed an increase in bifidobacteria. The more bifidobacteria in the gut, the more effectively lactose can be broken down by the body. Being able to digest nutrients more effectively provides a boost to the immune system as well as providing the body with more amino acids.

Other studies have found that higher bifidobacteria levels are associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes.

Don’t let people pull the wool over your eyes and tell you that probiotics are a waste of time, and they’re useless. The Russians have been studying probiotics now for well over 100 years, and the benefits are profound.

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