If you suffer from digestive issues like reflux, constipation, diarrhea, IBS, as well as blood sugar fluctuations, prediabetes, type II diabetes, or you struggle with colds, flu, allergies, or autoimmunity, there is very simple 4 ways to change your habits to alleviate the symptoms associated with these issues!
What causes digestives issues?
Digestion is influenced by the foods and balance of nutrients we put into our body. If you have symptoms in your digestive symptom that make life difficult, uncomfortable or frankly make digestion noticeable you have food issues.
These are hidden or really obvious food sensitivities. More than likely most of the issues come from the consumption of processed foods, poor oils, sugar or corn starch-filled products, and more (see below). Once you remove these triggers from your diet your gut will balance back out, and perhaps with some additional help with certain supplements, you could boost it even more. But not only will it balance with JUST food, but you can also repair damage and grow your microbiome with FOOD as well.
The biggest change comes from eliminating processed foods, adding more vegetables, balancing your nutrient intake with whole foods.
What causes blood sugar issues?
Poor food quality, lack of nutritious whole foods, highly processed foods with refined sugars, as well as high sugar spiking foods (or a lack of slow-burning carbs like vegetables, and fruits) leads to the development of all blood sugar issues. These foods affect the digestive tract in the ways described above, and then it becomes even harder to extract nutrients.
High sugar and refined, processed food diets, are the number one cause of all blood sugar imbalances. The only way to balance back out is to eat whole foods, eliminate packages, boxes, bags, refined flours, and sugar.
What causes immune system problems?
When talking about allergies, asthma and colds you are looking at a digestive imbalance, caused by you guessed it – lack of nutrients, poor food sources, processed foods. When it comes to immunity when you move into the realm of autoimmunity there are a few more pieces.
Autoimmunity is caused by a combination of genetics (but this alone doesn’t make it happen), environmental exposures (these can be natural like viruses, toxins etc, they can also be things you consume like chemicals, etc), and digestive balance.
If you have all three of these pieces working at the same time – you develop autoimmunity. The GREAT news is that this too is in your control!
By fixing your digestion, eating whole foods, reducing food inflammatory agents, eliminating processed, refined, packaged foods, and adding in foods to balance the microbiome you can start to alleviate symptoms. You can reduce your environmental exposures to toxins and inflammatory agents as well.
4 Simple Ways to Change Your Gut, Sugar Levels, and Immune System
1- Eat Whole Foods
This means you choose real food that doesn’t come from a package a box or a bag. It means breakfast with eggs, spinach, a bit of butter, salt, pepper, spices. Things like a cup of mixed fruit for a snack. Sliced veggies with a healthy whole fat dip, yogurt cups with whole nuts. It means homemade soups from whole vegetables like onions, carrots, celery, homemade broth, pastured chicken, grass-fed meats, wild-caught seafood. Instead of white pasta, you choose additional vegetables to eat or eat brown or wild rice, zucchini noodles, riced cauliflower. You can make great treats like energy bites from coconut oil, nuts, sugar-free coconut flakes, dates. You can bake for a treat with healthy flours like almond, coconut, arrowroot, cassava, and more.
Tip to make this happen: Stop buying packaged foods for snacks and ingredients. If they are not in your home you will not eat them. Put fruit on the counter, pre-slice veggies, and pre-make dips for the week.
2- Eliminate poor quality oils
This means you are eating olive oil, butter, avocado oil, coconut oil, ghee. You can use beef tallow and fat.
You will NOT be eating vegetable, canola, weird seed oils.
Eliminating these poor oils helps your body process fat better, will eliminate MANY bowel and gallbladder issues, and it also lowers your exposure to oxidized oils. These poor oils are so cheap because they are highly refined. Lower your toxic load and agents that upset your digestive system by ditching these oils.
Not only are we talking about the actual oil, but if you are still buying things like dressings, marinades or some packaged items, take a look at the ingredients – you will see a combination of some weird oils you have never heard of, or the ones listed above. All standard cheap chocolate, chocolate chips and bars contain these poor oils. In addition they are laiden with SUGAR! Look at your packaged snacks – see what you find in the ingredients.
3- Increase your vegetable intake.
There should be vegetables at every single meal. If you are very good at having a large amount of vegetables at the meals you can snack on fruit and nuts instead, but if you struggle to get vegetables into your meals then it’s time to make them part of your snack regimen.
The key to vegetables is adding a healthy fat source, and spices, for additional flavor. My favorites are olive oil-based dressings, whole fat sour cream, and some plain greek yogurt dips.
Adding these vegetables keep out sugar, and lowers your carbohydrate load from what used to be empty calories. Vegetables are a carb source that is slow burning and highly nutritious. Refined flours, sugars, even many product based oats are really quick, fast, high sugar loads for your body. They don’t last long and hold you over.
4- Be sure you are drinking enough PLAIN water
Plain water is the only way to hydrate yourself. Using products, drinking juice or other alternative beverages does not hydrate your body. In fact, many of these other beverages take the minerals you need, making the issue worse. They are also heavily sugar-based or processed with chemicals or artificial colors. If you take on juicing yourself with whole foods, that would be an alternative, but it still does not take the place of plain water.
You should be consuming at least half your body weight in water daily – no matter what. If you have a cup of coffee – you need another 12 oz. of water. Any beverage that is a diuretic (loss of water) needs an additional 12 oz. for the day (black tea is an example). You cannot create proper stomach acid without being hydrated. Stomach acid is one of the first steps in proper digestion.
Being unwilling to try these tips will keep you right where you are. By trying a little – you will regain a little. By trying a lot -you will balance out!
Without changing the food and oils that go into your body you will have limited change in your digestion, sugar levels, or immunity. It is essential to stop eating processed packaged foods. It is essential to cut out sugars, corn starches, white flours, packaged snacks, and more. The closer you get to eating all whole foods, prepared at home with healthy ingredients listed above, the closer you will be to changing your gut, and your life! The more you let packaged items into your life, the more likely you will be to continuing on with digestive distress, pain, sugar issues, and immunity problems.
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