How to Move Past Food Sensitivities 💥

If you deal with food sensitivities ➡️READ THIS 👇👇

Just because you react to a food now does not mean you will never be able to eat that food again.

You read that 🧐 right.

Some people are able to optimize their gut & immune health and then happily eat foods that used to trigger them—without a problem 🥳

To be clear: I am talking about food sensitivities and NOT true food allergies here. You can see my recent posts that describe the difference.

Here are some ways to support your digestion & immune system to help calm reactivity:

✔️ Eat an “anti-inflammatory” diet, meaning whole foods that are rich in antioxidants

✔️ Support the gut microbiome with probiotic-rich foods

✔️ Chew your foods thoroughly and eat mindfully

This is only a tiny glimpse of all the things we can do to support people with food sensitivities because the solution is highly ✨individual✨

Curious about working on a root-cause approach to your health?

Schedule an initial visit and we can discuss food sensitivity protocols 💚

Food Sensitivities: Then What?!?

💥 Let’s figure out why!

If you’re dealing with food sensitivities, this post is for you.

Did you know there might be fixable issues that are driving food sensitivities or making them worse?

That’s right:

Research 📚 has linked food sensitivities to changes in:

👉 Gut Microbiome

👉 Intestinal Permeability (“Leaky Gut”)

👉 Gut inflammation

So…

Gut support makes a lot of sense.

Keep following along if you want to learn more about how I can help with a root-cause approach to health 🙌

References

Caminero A, Meisel M, Jabri B, Verdu EF. Mechanisms by which gut microorganisms influence food sensitivities. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2019;16(1):7-18. [link]

Ohtsuka Y. Food intolerance and mucosal inflammation. Pediatr Int. 2015;57(1):22-29. [link]

Ventura MT, Polimeno L, Amoruso AC, et al. Intestinal permeability in patients with adverse reactions to food. Dig Liver Dis. 2006;38(10):732-736. [link]

New Study Shows HOW the Microbiome Protects Us!

How do good gut bacteria protect against harmful ones?

📢 New research alert!!

The gut microbiome consists of hundreds of different bacterial species and strains. One health benefit is that these bacteria can protect against the invasion of harmful bacteria.

But until now, there have been unanswered questions about how this works and whether some strains are more important than others.

A new study published in Science found that it was NOT any single bacterial strain that was protective but instead the combined effect of at least 50+ strains together.

Also, the WAY the collective bacterial communities protected against harmful invaders was by consuming nutrients those invaders might need.

The takeaway?

An optimal microbiome is a diverse microbiome.

Gut health is always something we look at as part of the bigger picture of our patient’s health.

Reference

Spragge F, Bakkeren E, Jahn MT, et al. Microbiome diversity protects against pathogens by nutrient blocking. Science. 2023;382(6676):eadj3502. [link]

Research Alert! Microbiome & Weight Loss

🌟 Exciting Research 🌟

One of the most common questions people ask me is: Should I take a probiotic?

Probiotics are beneficial bacteria to populate the gut microbiome, and a general trend we see in research is that a more diverse microbiome (more variety of microorganisms) is associated with better health.

But a new study has found yet another way to improve the microbiome:

Weight loss.

Regardless of whether people followed intermittent fasting or calorie restriction, weight loss led to more diversity of the microbiome AND (another sign of better health) changes in DNA methylation.

Why am I so excited by this?

Because it shows how resilient the body is.

When we make changes in a positive direction toward health, our bodies benefit in ways we cannot even see and may never even know.

Drop me a ❤️ if you agree.

#gutmicrobiome #microbiome #microbiomehealth #metabolichealth #elementsnatmed

Reference

Hill EB, Konigsberg IR, Ir D, Frank DN, Jambal P, Litkowski EM, Lange EM, Lange LA, Ostendorf DM, Scorsone JJ, et al. The Microbiome, Epigenome, and Diet in Adults with Obesity during Behavioral Weight Loss. Nutrients. 2023; 15(16):3588. [link]

Depression Goes Beyond the Brain [new study]

🤓 Here’s a nerdy word for you:

👉Metabolomics 👈

Metabolomics studies a large number of small molecules and chemical messengers (metabolites) in the body.

It’s a comprehensive way to understand the combined effect of genetic & environmental influences on health 🧬🌿🔬

A new study used metabolomics to discover 2 key patterns associated with depression.

⚡ Energy metabolism was disturbed in depression.

🦠 The gut microbiome was altered in depression.

Even though this was a scientifically complicated study, the results support the way we work with clients in real life every day because:

🧠 Mental health is not separate from physical health 🍏

Whenever somebody struggles on an emotional level, one piece of the puzzle we always look into is their physical health—including gut health, mitochondrial function, metabolism, and more.

Reference

Amin N, Liu J, Bonnechere B, et al. Interplay of Metabolome and Gut Microbiome in Individuals With Major Depressive Disorder vs Control Individuals [published online ahead of print, 2023 Apr 19]. JAMA Psychiatry. 2023;e230685. [link]