Unconventional Weight Loss Tips [Part 2: Gut Health]

In today’s post we’re talking about gut health and its vital role. Deemed the second brain, your gut can significantly impact health. The health of your gut bacteria can alter the way you store fat, balance your blood sugar, and how you respond to cravings and fullness. Diets with highly processed foods lead to less diversity in gut bacteria and can cause a host of problems including something called leaky gut.

Surely you’ve heard of the term “leaky gut”. In a nutshell it’s when there’s prolonged damage to the intestinal lining (generally poor lifestyle factors are the main cause). This makes the lining less capable of protecting the internal environment, and as a consequence undigested proteins and fats, various bacterias and their toxins leak into the bloodstream which triggers an autoimmune reaction. Think of it like your body going, “Hey, what the heck is this!?!” and then scrambling to figure out what’s going on and how to fix it.

Having a leaky, unhealthy gut can be the pre-cursor to many conditions including:

*Diabetes
*Leptin resistance (we talked about leptin in part 1 of this series)
*Inflammation (overconsumption of sugar is a common culprit)
*Anxiety (stress = cortistol = visceral belly fat)
*Autoimmune disease (inflammation)
*Food allergies or sensitivities

The good news is, you can start healing your gut today with simple lifestyle tweaks! Here are some of our top tips:

1. Consume fermented food such as sauerkraut, kim chi, pickles, Natto, kefir. These can all aid in gut bacteria diversity.
2. Begin a bone broth ritual. Bone broth contains minerals in a very absorbable form while also helping to heal the protective lining of your gut.
3. Start a high quality probiotic and take it consistently. This will introduce beneficial bacteria to your gut environment.
4. Try an elimination diet to uncover foods that are problematic for you. Some of the most common inflammatory foods are soy, eggs, sugar, dairy, corn and gluten.
5. Have faith in the process and be open to course correcting when needed. This step is the most important. The journey toward healing can feel long and tedious, but you learn so much along the way and often make changes that forever impact you in a positive way and reframe your approach.

Having a healthy gut is not impossible. It just takes planning, patience and determination. Do you suspect you have leaky gut? What are some measures you’ve taken to alleviate symptoms?

Best,

Sham & Christina
Inspired Wellness