Gut Health. Poised for Hijack?

Gut health has been fascinating me for a few years now. Sounds entirely boring, right? Ugh, I know. I thought so too but over the course of eight years, I kept meeting people that just seemed healthier and happier than me. I wanted to know what they had that I didn’t.

Sure, I was athletic and bubbly. I was also often slightly buzzed and putting on a party face, because I thought that’s who I was. That’s another, long blog entry for another time, but as I met these people and started paying attention to what they were doing, researching things on my own and taking a few pointers, it became clear; our everyday environment is just plain toxic.

Worst offenders are all those things on an ingredient list which you cannot pronounce.

All of them. In cleaners, beauty products and especially in our food. So many man-made things are being dumped into God-made bellies. If it isn’t perishable or it comes from a box in the center of a grocery store, it’s probably more food additive than food.

I tried to deny it for a long time too. I went along with the notions that food is food even if it comes from a box. For many years, I just are the that give me mouth pleasure now and just take a pill later. I used to even say ‘oh, there’s a pill for that’.

It’s what we think. It’s all we’ve thought for decades now. You’re sick, you go to a doctor and get medicine, right? But they don’t seek to fix the root cause of needing the medication.

One thing my new crunchy friends had in common was rarely seeing doctors. They ate well, read labels, invested in organic food, They moved their bodies often and most all had an active hobby of some kind. In other words, they nurtured the temple. The common thing all these friends did not do, is take many prescription or over the counter medications, if any.

Let me make one clarification – I think modern, western medicine is fantastic, but we’re being taught to lean on it first instead of using it only when necessary. Keeping our bodies cleaner and more toxin free, leads to less medicine, which can be toxic too. It’s a vicious cycle for the gut.

The good news is starting some gut-healthy habits can be done in small steps, simply by consuming cleaner foods and using less toxic products. Little changes add up.

WARNING: Implementing gut healthy habits may result in side effects such as clearer skin, fewer bathroom issues, improved mental health and immune function.

When you enjoy learning about something, more things come across your path, right. Early this year, I ran across a podcast episode by my friend Dr. Suzie Dukic, about how gut health can impact mental health. They don’t call it The Second Brain for nothing.

What intrigued me most about the podcast was the use of the term ‘psychobiotics’ and the suggestion that pharmaceutical companies may already be studying impacts of a pharmaceutical option to help the gut improve mood.

Too many drugs have been a major contributor to wrecked guts, and worse. The path to a healthy guy is definitely NOT in a pill. Please hear me when I say – pharma companies will absolutely try to hijack natural gut health by sashaying in with their wonder drug of the week.

It cannot be done. Gut health comes from clean, whole ingredients and freedom from toxins.

“We suggest the definition of psychobiotics be expanded beyond probiotics and prebiotics to include other means of influencing the microbiome” is a direct quote from an article published through NIH. I don’t know about you, but I think pharma has entirely too much influence as it is. The statement makes me immediately mistrustful of what they are creating. The funding that organizations such as the NIH receive from pharmaceutical companies is mind-boggling. Of course they’d want to go ahead and suggest that we be open to other means, means which generate profit for them.

Gut health cannot be found in more medications. The biome in our bellies is fragile. Fewer toxins, natural probiotics and nutrient dense foods are the only pathways to healing it.

So, what are some of the best gut healthy habits to take on?

First, give up artificial sweeteners. The yellow packs, pink packs and blue packs and all the products they are in – like low calorie creamers, diet sodas and so much more – are all terrible for the gut and the first brain as well.

Next, take a good probiotic. They are not all the same. Natural, herbal remedy companies make the best versions. Do some research on the ones you consider. Bronson was the brand name recommended to me and if you don’t have a crunchy friend to ask, find one. You’re going to need them.

This next change can be a little harder to make, depending on your taste buds. Incorporate some fermented foods into your diet. Kefir, yogurt, kim-chee and sauerkraut are good ones to add to your diet.

Finally, if your budget allows, find a holistic nutritionist and have them help you construct a diet that incorporates foods you love into dishes that are more gut healthy.

There are plenty resources available on how to be better to your gut. This article spells out all the ways the biome can affect your overall health. From feeling bloated and gaseous to mental disorders, imbalances in your gut have the potential to misalign many processes in your body.

Before your gut gets out further out of whack and pharma companies hijack treatment options, make some changes on your own. Like I said, medicine is great – until it’s the only weapon we think of using.

Friends, this world and its toxicity has waged war on our health. You can fight back simply by doing what you need to do every day anyway – eating. It just needs to be actual food.

Transitioning from our easy, cheap and fast food eating selves into radiant creatures who fuel on earth’s natural foods isn’t an overnight shift. Make tiny changes you can live with and give yourself grace. Giving yourself a better gut, will give less profit to pharma giants, who are doing just fine financially.