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Gut Health GI Tract
A simple, powerful key to weight loss, better skin health, better cardiovascular health, a reduced risk of cancer, more energy, deeper sleep, and a generally healthier life.
Hello!
This week we are talking about what I consider to be the most neglected topic in modern health care – GI health. The health of your GI tract is fundamental to the health of every system in your body (Garey and I discuss why in the video). Many, if not most, people in America suffer from varying degrees of poor gut health, and this plays a part in a wide variety of adverse mental and physical conditions. I believe that poor gut health is a major contributor to heart disease, diabetes, depression, insomnia, and most autoimmune disease for a start. In my decade of experience as a health and wellness professional, I have never found a more powerful approach to helping my clients better their health and quality of life than improving gut health. I have helped clients free themselves of a variety of issues from allergies to poor immune system function, to lethargy, to migraine headaches, to anxiety disorder, to autoimmune issues like Eczema and IBS. Not to mention helping many, many people make weight loss breakthroughs.
When I work with clients to improve gut health, they often tell me within three or four months that they are experiencing changes in their bodies that they didn’t really believe were possible. It humbles me every time I see how powerfully a basic GI balancing program can change people’s lives. My life was a mess before I went to work on my own GI health. I had difficulty ever getting a full breath of air, acute anxiety attacks, terrible depression, regular migraine headaches, terrible allergies to just about everything, skin issues, and severe IBS. At my worst, I was on 10 prescription drugs - all in my early 20’s. I haven’t taken a prescription drug in many years now other than antibiotics once or twice and an Ambien or two on long international flights. Nothing else I have ever done with nutrition, supplements, or exercise changed my life as much as cleaning up my gut.
One of the best things about getting serious about improving your gut health is that results can come quickly. Many people feel substantially better after just a week or two on a serious GI balancing program. These kind of extraordinary results a more in depth program than I can provide in this article. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t start to make powerful changes in your gut health and start down the path to this kind of change on your own just by applying the information offered here. Try a few of these suggestions over the next few weeks and see if they make a difference for you. I’ve written a number of these weekly updates now, and I feel very strongly that this is the most valuable one yet to consider applying in your life now. Print out this email, and give the suggestions below a try. They are simple, straightforward, and can really make a profound positive difference in your health. And, as always, if you have any questions email me at info@vaughngray.com.
GI Balance Basics no 1:
Crowd Out Foods that Create GI Inflammation
Mind-State
A variety of foods tend to create inflammation in your GI tract, and GI inflammation compromises the functioning of your gut and erodes the health of your whole body. If you can eliminate these foods by “crowding them out” with healthier foods that can actually help reduce inflammation, you can improve your gut health dramatically in a matter of weeks. You’ll experience the results in many ways including better energy levels, a reduction in any digestive issues, and an easier time losing weight. Try eliminating all or most (all works MUCH better) of the following four foods from your diet for just two weeks and see how your body responds:
- Sugars and Anything Containing Sugar
- Dairy and All Dairy Products
- All Processed Grains, Especially Wheat and Corn
- Soy and Everything Containing Soy or Soy Oil
Replace these foods in your diet with healthy whole foods like vegetables, beans, whole grains, wild caught fish, free range meats, raw nuts and seeds, olive oil, and fresh fruit. Two weeks isn’t really that long to go without sugar, what, dairy, and soy, and if you find that your body responds well to taking a break from these foods, it will be well worth the sacrifice. You don’t need to avoid all of these foods forever to have good gut health. You just need to take a break from eating them for a while. If you feel like your body is responding well to cutting out these foods after two weeks, try to void them for two or three more months, and then gradually reintroduce them in moderation. Once yoru gut has had time to heal from the damaging effects of these foods, you’ll likely be able to have reasonable servings of sugar, dairy, processed grains, and soy now and then without any harm.
GI Balance Basics no 2:
Eat Foods that Improve Gut Health
High fiber foods improve gut health. Vegetables like celery, broccoli, and cauliflour (you know, all of the “good for you” vegetables) all improve GI health by providing “insoluble fiber” that helps clear your bowels. Fruits like apples, pears, and berries provide “soluble fiber” that helps form healthy stools. Beans and truly whole grains like quinoa, amaranth, steel cut oats, millet, and buckwheat provide fiber and “resistant starch” – slow digesting carbohydrates that can also help with stool formation and GI balance.
A few foods like cabbage and dandelion greens have further specific beneficial effects on GI health. High levels of cabbage consumption have been shown to protect against ulcers and colon cancer, and I believe that cabbage helps lower GI inflammation. Dandelion greens help improve liver function, which indirectly benefits the GI tract.
To get more of these foods into your diet, take an hour on the weekend to set yourself up for easy healthy eating during the week. Slice up a few bowls of fruits and veggies, cook a pot or two of beans and whole grains, and make a few healthy stir fry dishes or chopped salads. Cook veggie dishes like roasted green beans or sautéed spinach in bulk, and then keep them in the fridge to portion out for lunch or dinner. Another super simple way to eat more GI healthy beans and veggies is to have humus with vegetable dippers as a snack or as part of a meal a few times each week. Make your own humus, or buy a brand that doesn’t contain soy or canola oil.
GI Balance Basics no 3:
Supplements for GI Health
Supplements, while not always necessary for improving GI health, can play a powerful part in restoring gut balance. The two simplest and most powerful supplements to use to improve your gut health are digestive enzymes and probiotics. Many people have insufficient levels of pancreatic enzymes. This makes it far more difficult to digest food properly. Poor digestion slows the passage of food through the gut, which leads to bowel toxicity and increased GI inflammation. Frequently just taking a digestive enzyme towards the end of each meal can help ameliorate conditions like heart burn. gas, and bloating. Digestive enzymes also improve bowel regularity. If you don’t have two or three well formed, easy to pass bowel movements each day it is an indicator of inflammation in your GI tract. Adding a digestive enzyme, in addition to dietary change, may help.
Probiotics are also a super aid in improving gut health. The health of the gut depends on an adequate population of healthy bacteria. The so called “normal flora” help ward off infection, help digest food, and produce many important nutrients. Due to overuse of antibiotics, poor diet, and contamination of food and water with antibacterial agents, many people have inadequate levels of healthy gut flora. A good probiotic can help replenish levels of gut flora in a month or two.
Conclusion
GI health is a huge topic, and I could say a lot more about it. I’d like to make the strongest invitation possible for you to join me on the free conference call I am offering on Wednesday July 7th at 8pm EST. This will not be a “sales call” – I won’t be offering any products or services. I’m providing it purely to inform you about an issue that I consider essential for good health. The information I touch on in this article, and which I’ll cover in more depth on the call, changed my life. I’d like to make it available to as many people as I can.
I’ll also be offering another round of nutrition classes this September, during which we’ll focus on GI health in much greater depth. I hope you can join me then!
As always, feel free to email me with any questions at info@vaughngray.com.
Be Well –
Vaughn
MA, CHC
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Q and A:Q - I suffer from Hemorrhoids – Does Diet Have Anything to Do With This? – Anonymous A - There’s an old myth about hemorrhoids from when the British Empire ruled India. According to the story, a British officer noted early after his arrival in India that the other British officers there suffered from a high incidence of “piles” or hemorrhoids, and that the local Indians did not. Interestingly, the Indians who took jobs with the British and began eating a British diet rich in white flour and canned food developed the same issues. This officer speculated that not only the hemorrhoids, but the generally poor health of the British officers as compared to the locals stemmed from their diet of white flour and other processed foods. Of course no one listened to him! Hemorrhoids are basically ulcerations in the tissue of the rectum and anus, and to my mind are largely caused by inflammation higher up in the GI tract. Inflammation from a poor diet, lack of pancreatic enzymes, inadequate microflora, and a host of other issues puts the immune tissue that pervades the gut on overdrive, and ulcerations result. I’ve known people to clear up hemorrhoids in a month or two by making dietary changes like the ones suggested above. If you’d like to ask about a more comprehensive plan specifically for hemorrhoids, dial in to our conference call this week!
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Quick Tip: One really quick way to see if GI issues are affecting your health is to try a 24-48 hour juice fast. Drink nothing but vegetable and fruit juice for a day or two. Avoid super sweet juices like pure carrot juice. Try to mix fruits and vegetables. If you find that you have a lot more energy after a day or two on this juice diet, it may be because you are having chronic inflammatory reactions to the food you are eating. If you are having these reactions, try the elimination regimen recommended above. Website: Orderline: Customer Service: |
