Do you have an unexplained gut issue? Or even an issue that may not be directly related to digestion, yet you don’t know where it came from? Have you tried eliminating foods, or taking a food sensitivity test? OR, do you have bad allergies, asthma, acid reflux, eczema, or any other skin issue? This post is for you.
We often think (or are told) – oh you have a sensitivity or allergy to X. Or you simply “have” IBS or reflux. And then are told to eliminate that food, or take a medication and deal with the symptoms of loose stools, constipation, bloating, and gas.
Yet what if I told you that the root cause is not actually a food, or a “thing” you have forever. Let’s look at what is actually causing those symptoms, and where foods can be making them worse.
Usually it starts in the gut. And usually it starts with either stress, OR chronically snacking and/or eating refined foods. Even ones you may not realize – like seed oils that are in most restaurant foods and packaged foods.
So where to start?
Start with any of the following… 1. Better digestive habits, 2. More Whole Foods, Less Refined, and 3. Managing your stress better in general.
- Digestive habits:
- Let’s get into a calm state while eating. Remove distractions like your phone or computer when you eat if you can. We want to be present and breathing deeply while we eat.
- Snack less, have more satiating meals, so we can have more time for our digestive system to rest and clear out. This will also help you become more metabolically flexible, a bonus 🙂
- Less liquids with our meals – drink most of your liquids between meals. Keep your drinks to less than 8 ounces at meal time and with the hour after. This will allow your digestive enzymes and stomach acid to not get diluted and work appropriately.
- Food Quality: Let’s start looking at those ingredient labels, and eating out less! Look to minimize those seed oils (canola, safflower, sunflower, soybean, rapeseed, etc), and have more whole food fats like Grassfed beef, pasture-raised eggs/chicken, avocado, olive oil, coconut oil, sprouted and in smaller quantities of nuts and seeds, and animal fats. Check out Episode 48 of our Podcast to learn more on this subject.
- Managing stress outside of meal time as well. When we are walking around with a tense body and mind, our body is unable to digest and absorb the nutrients we are ingesting. We are delaying digestion in the stomach, and causing damage on our gut lining, which leads to leaky gut. Leaky gut is what will lead to all the symptoms of bloating, diarrhea, gas, and acid reflux. And those, in time, will lead to autoimmune issues, eczema, asthma, allergies and so on. So first figure out where you are feeling stressed or anxious, and take time to see what is causing that. Is it a lack of boundaries in your schedule? Are you doing too much and therefor have the pressure to go go go all the time? Where can you say “No” to yourself, and prioritize what you really want to be doing and how you want to be feeling.
Lastly, there are supplements that can help kickstart your body’s process to heal and start functioning appropriately again if you’ve been in this leaky gut stage for awhile. That is something we can help with in our coaching and even in a free “Supplement Talk” call.
We hope this helps, and would love to hear what habit or change has helped you in feeling better! If you have any of these symptoms and still feel overwhelmed or not experiencing relief, book a FREE Clarity Call with us and we’ll see if we can help you!
