10 Simple Steps to a Healthier Gut

In today’s episode, I dive into my favorite topic: gut health, focusing on foundational practices that often get overlooked. I have my top 10 tips on how to support your gut health.  While many of these tips may seem simple, I promise they are incredibly beneficial and can make a huge difference.

In today’s episode, you’ll hear:

-1. Stop eating on the go, when you eat while working or driving, your brain can't properly engage in the digestion process. Your body needs to be in a restful state to digest food effectively.

-2. Take a moment of gratitude when you begin your meal; before you begin your meal, sit down, take a few breaths, and be thankful for the food in front of you.  This allows your body to go into that rest to digest state.  

-3. Prepare your own meals whenever possible; when you prepare your meals, it signals your brain that food is coming, preparing your body for digestion. 

-4. Chew your food; chewing is the first step in breaking down food. It interacts with enzymes and signals your brain that digestion is starting. Your food needs to be a smoothie-like consistency before swallowing.

-5. Avoid drinking water during or around your meals, take small sips if needed; drinking water during meals can dilute your digestive juices and stomach acid, hindering food breakdown.

-6. Hydrate well the rest of the day; your body needs water to produce stomach acid and other digestive juices, and staying well-hydrated keeps your digestive system functioning smoothly.

-7. Eat bitter foods; bitter foods like black coffee, tea, unsweetened dark chocolate, and supplemental bitters stimulate gastric juices, aiding digestion.

-8. Eat ginger; ginger enhances digestive motility, improves efficiency, increases your digestive fire, and alleviates symptoms like bloating. It's a powerful aid for your digestive system.

-9. Eat prebiotic and probiotic-rich foods; prebiotic foods, like chicory root, feed good gut bacteria. Probiotic foods, like kombucha, contain beneficial bacteria cultures. Pay attention to how probiotic foods make you feel.

-10. Consider digestive enzymes; if you struggle with digestion, digestive enzymes from a health food stores can be helpful.  This is not the first option, but they are a good option for additional support.

My biggest advice is to know when you need deeper support.  This list provides a solid foundation, but if you face issues like leaky gut or dysbiosis, consider

Subscribe to The Endo Belly Girl Podcast:
Apple | Spotify

Connect w/ Alyssa:

• Instagram
• Website

Work w/ Alyssa:

• Free Endo Diet Guide
• Work with me 1:1
• Join The Endo Warrior Circle

Learn more about Alyssa

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. This may not be the best fit for you and your personal situation. It shall not be construed as medical advice. The information and education provided here is not intended or implied to supplement or replace professional medical treatment, advice, and/or diagnosis. Always check with your own physician or medical professional before trying or implementing any information read here.

Transcript

Alyssa Chavez [00:00:01]:
Hello, my friend, and welcome back to the Endo Belly Girl podcast. I am excited about today's episode. I know I say that every time, just you might as well get used to that. I genuinely am excited about recording these episodes, but today I am especially excited because I get to talk about one of my favorite topics, which is gut health. Yay. So gut health is one of those things that I learned a little bit about early on in my nutrition training when I was going through the nutritional Therapy association, we had some training on digestion and how to support your gut, and it got me realizing that there was so much more to learn. It was such a huge rabbit hole. So I ended up going back later to take a whole course just specializing in gut health and have later on received even more training since then because it's just so much interesting stuff to learn.

Alyssa Chavez [00:01:01]:
There's so much information out there and probably so much that we still have to learn. So I actually did a whole episode recently that was episode 26, and I will link to that one in the show notes where we really took a deep dive into unpacking why gut health is important, important for endometriosis in the first place. So I'm not going to go into all of that today. If you're really interested in learning how those two things connect, because they are very intimately connected, I highly recommend going back to episode 26, which is called, what was episode 26 called the role of gut health in managing endometriosis. So super important piece of the puzzle for so many people, and I highly recommend checking that one out. But anyway, what we're going to talk about today is actually talking about some of the specific strategies to support your gut health and your digestion. That the things that we're going to talk about today are really some of those foundational things that are so often skipped over. Right? Because it's easy to get caught up in all of the fancy protocols and balancing your gut microbiome and all of these fancy things.

Alyssa Chavez [00:02:22]:
And yeah, that may be necessary for some people. That's a lot of the one on one work that I do with people. But before any of that happens, before we get into fancy protocols, if that's even necessary, is you've got to start with the foundational support for your digestion. So if you're somebody who find yourself struggling with bloating with Endo belly, with constipation, diarrhea, any kind of digestive upset, heartburn, abdominal pain, or any other digestive related symptoms, I'm sure that's not an exhaustive list of all of the possible digestive symptoms that could come up. I highly recommend this episode. Continue listening in here. It will be super helpful for you. And even the things that may sound way too simple, like that's too easy and too simple to make a difference.

Alyssa Chavez [00:03:16]:
I promise you it does. It's amazing to me how powerful some of these really simple steps can be because we're just not doing it. I know so much of this stuff, when I was learning it, it was like, oh, you know, it's like it's too simple to actually be helpful, but it really lays the foundation for everything else when it comes to the health of your gut and your digestion. So let's dig in. I have my top ten tips for you today on supporting your digestive health. So first thing I want you all to know, and we're going to kind of semi go in this order today, is that when we're thinking digestion and supporting your digestion, we're thinking from north to south, right? That's the flow that you're the direction that your digestion flows anyway, from top to bottom. And so that's the order that you really want to think of supporting your digestive health as well. And also that your digestion is a participatory process.

Alyssa Chavez [00:04:20]:
I'm going to let that one sink in for a second, because we all think that digestion is just something that happens in your body and there's nothing you can do about it. You eat stuff and then it eventually comes out the other end. Or that's the hope at least. But there is actually a lot that we can do to support that process that can make enormous impact on the way that you feel and the way that your body is able to break down and actually utilize the food that you're eating. Because even if you're eating the most perfect diet in the world, it's not going to make a difference if your body's not able to absorb those nutrients and actually use the food. Right. You always hear that phrase, you are what you eat. I like to rearrange that a little bit and actually say, you are what you can absorb, what you can actually use in your body.

Alyssa Chavez [00:05:12]:
So, top ten tips for supporting your gut health and your digestion. Here we go. Number one, stop eating on the go. Those of you who eat in the car, you eat, you know, while you're on the road, you eat maybe in front of your dad desk, even that counts. To in front of your computer while you're working, any form of eating on the go stop. Because when you're doing that, when you're eating while you're on the move or you're eating while you're doing other activities and you're distracted, you're not allowing for the uppermost part of your digestive system to do its job. And that's your brain and your nervous system. That's the number one place to start when it comes to supporting your digestive health.

Alyssa Chavez [00:06:03]:
I told you that some of this was going to sound very, very simple. And it is. Doesn't mean it's easy, right? Because stopping eating on the go. Because probably your first thought that came into your mind was like, I can't do that. I'm too busy. I don't have enough time to sit down and eat. And trust me, I get it, because I feel that way still all the time where it's like, oh, my gosh, I really need to eat while I'm working today because I don't have time to sit down and actually have a meal. But what really is happening there is that you're not choosing to prioritize sitting down for your meal.

Alyssa Chavez [00:06:36]:
We've just been conditioned that, I don't know, it's a waste of time or it's not something that we need to be prioritizing. And in truth, it is. It is something that we need to be prioritizing. It is something that actually matters for your overall health. One phrase that I go back to a lot is just rest to digest. Your body needs to go from what's known as a sympathetic nervous system state, which think like fight or flight mode, which is where we live a lot of the time, like during a work day or while you're working with your kids, hanging out with your kids, if that's what you. Whatever it is that you're doing all throughout your day, it's very common for us to get into that sympathetic nervous system state where we're feeling the stress or the pressure or anxieties over the day. And the truth is, when you're in that state, your body can't actually digest effectively.

Alyssa Chavez [00:07:35]:
Your body has to be in the opposite, the parasympathet, I can't talk today. The parasympathetic nervous system state, which is where you're calm, you're relaxed, you're brought down out of that fight or flight mode. And making yourself actually do that can actually have enormous powerful impacts on your overall digestive health. So number one with that is stop eating on the go. Actually take time to sit down and relax for your meals. Number two really ties in with that. It goes along the same lines, which is just take a moment of gratitude when you begin your meal, right? Sit down, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and actually take a moment to be thankful for that food in front of you. I know, again, it sounds overly simple.

Alyssa Chavez [00:08:30]:
Maybe this is something that your mom or your grandmother told you to do once upon a time. My grandmother was really big on that. She was very religious also, but just was all about taking a moment of gratitude. And I think part of that came from she lived in a time when food wasn't always readily available. So it's, I think, easier from that perspective to see how grateful we should be for the food in front of us. But also, it allows to help to bring your body out of that parasympathetic. I keep saying that backwards. To bring your body into that parasympathetic state or rest, to digest state where your body's actually able to do what it needs to do and fire the things that it needs to fire.

Alyssa Chavez [00:09:13]:
Turn on the correct digestive juices and processes that need to happen for the rest of your digestion to take place. So you can see where this is a participatory process. Your body can't come into that restful state in order to digest without your help, right? It needs you to tell your brain to tell your body that it's okay. We can calm down. We have the space, we're safe to be able to digest this meal right now. And it also allows us a moment to just connect with your food, connect with the meal that you're eating, which also can be really powerful in and of itself. Number three, and this, again, kind of ties into that same idea, is to actually prepare your own meals whenever possible. Not to say that you can't ever go out to a restaurant and enjoy that, of course, everything within balance.

Alyssa Chavez [00:10:05]:
But when you're actually preparing your own meals, your cooking your food, you're preparing the ingredients, you have your hands on the food, you're smelling the food as it's being prepared. Just that tells your brain that there's food coming, right? It gets your digestive juices firing. When you smell that food cooking, it's already telling your brain what's coming. You know that what happens, right? You. You smell your favorite food cooking, and you start salivating a little bit already. That's a normal process that happens that sometimes can be taken away a little bit when food is just being delivered to you or you're just taking it out of a bag from takeout right. We lose a little bit of that connection. So when it's possible, actually connect with your food, right? Prepare it yourself and, you know, enjoy the smells along the way.

Alyssa Chavez [00:10:56]:
Enjoy just like, touching your food, interacting with your food. Because, you know, that can make a big difference in that digestive process as well. So those first three really are just related to your brain, right? Which, like I said, super important part of the digestive process. And then from there, we get into the part where you're actually physically digesting your food, and that part starts in your mouth. So, okay, we've, we've sat down, we've taken some deep breaths. We've taken a moment of gratitude. We've taken the time to prepare the meal, and now we're going to sit down and actually chew your food. And that's number four, chew your food.

Alyssa Chavez [00:11:40]:
How many of you were told that as a kid? I know that that's something that my mom and dad used to tell us kids all the time, chew your food, so. But they were right. Turns out mom and dad were right. You do actually have to chew your food because chewing your food actually is the first way that it physically is broken down with your teeth. And also it allows your food to be mixed with enzymes in the saliva for that initial breakdown. It also, as you tasting your food, as it hits your tongue, it's actually sending signals further down your digestive tract of what is coming. Right? Is there fat in your mouth? Is there protein in your mouth? Are there carbs in your mouth? It's actually sending signals further down your digestive tract. So that part of your digestive system, whatever is necessary, can actually start preparing the enzymes and digestive juices to be able to break that down and later absorb those nutrients.

Alyssa Chavez [00:12:35]:
So chewing your food actually helps your body to get those nutrients in. So when I'm saying chew your food thoroughly, what that means is you want to try to chew your food. 25 to 30 chews per bite, or until you feel like the food is about the consistency of a smooth. So you can imagine that's going to look different for different foods. If you're eating an actual smoothie, for example, it's not going to take quite as much chewing, although you still do want to work it in your mouth a little bit so that it's mixing with the saliva and being able to break down. But say you're eating a piece of chicken or a steak, right? That's going to require a lot more chewing to actually break it down and be prepared for your body to be able to actually digest it well, especially if you're somebody who maybe doesn't handle protein very well. Let's say you're somebody because I hear this frequently, like, oh, I just can't eat a lot of meat because I don't feel well when I do that. There's several reasons that that could be an issue for you, but I find that actually one of the top ones is that your body's just not able to use it well because it's not being broken down enough.

Alyssa Chavez [00:13:42]:
Like, did you actually chew up that food before you swallowed it and allow those enzymes to come in and all of that good stuff. Stuff. All right. Number five is avoid drinking water right around and during your meals, take small sips only. Right. Because drinking water during your meals dilutes the digestive juices, primarily your stomach acid. Now, I know you're probably thinking, well, isn't that good? Because isn't stomach acid what causes heartburn? And without getting super deep into this today, the answer is no. No, that is a common misconception.

Alyssa Chavez [00:14:23]:
We're told that stomach acid is bad. You don't want to have too much of it. Too much causes heartburn. We take, you know, antacids and proton pump inhibitors to block the stomach acid, where actually, in real life, a lot of those symptoms, like heartburn and acid reflux, actually come around because you have too little stomach acid. That's actually where that comes from. That has been researched and tested out many, many times and been shown that that is actually how it works. Is that not enough? Stomach acid is what causes symptoms like that. So we want to have stomach acid.

Alyssa Chavez [00:15:04]:
I'm not going to go into the ins and outs of how to support your body's ability to produce stomach acid and all of that today because that's a little too deep for what we're working on here today. Today we're talking about the foundations. And so simple way to support that right now is just to avoid drinking too much water during your meals. Just take some little sips here and there to help wash it down if you need. But try to avoid drinking too much water during your meals. Number six is to hydrate well the rest of the day. So when you're eating a meal or even right before the meal, we don't want to drink too much water so that we're not diluting that stomach acid. But on the other hand, the rest of the day, you, your body actually needs water to produce your stomach acid and your other digestive juices.

Alyssa Chavez [00:15:54]:
Right. We hear the word digestive juices well, it's liquid, right? Your digestive juices are, you know, primarily. Well, there's many ingredients that go into it. There's different nutrients and things that go into the digestive juices, but definitely they need water to make that happen. Right. Water is what really keeps things moving, especially if you're somebody who struggles with constipation. That's one of the most common things I see. We think like, oh, you're constipated.

Alyssa Chavez [00:16:25]:
I need to rebalance my gut microbiome, and I need to drink some aloe vera juice. And I need to, you know, do all these crazy things where maybe you just need to drink more water. Maybe you're just dehydrated because water is what helps to move things through your system. Not saying that that's the only thing that contributes to constipation, but it is a big factor and definitely a good place to start before you go into any other crazy protocols or anything like that. All right, number seven, eat bitter foods. Now, bitter foods are maybe not something that a lot of you love to eat. Many of us just don't really eat bitter foods. But bitter foods actually signal the release of gastric juices in your body.

Alyssa Chavez [00:17:16]:
It's, again, that taste on your tongue sends signals down, further down your digestive tract of what needs to be released. And bitter foods actually are really, really beneficial in that. So chewing on some foods that are bitter can be super beneficial. And it doesn't mean it needs to be the most bitter food in the world. Right? Even things like coffee, although it would need to be like a black coffee if it's filled with cream and sugar, and then it doesn't taste bitter anymore, it tastes sweet. Right. Certain kinds of teas can have kind of that bitter flavor, even dark chocolate. If it's actually dark chocolate and not sugar filled dark chocolate, that, again, tastes more sweet than anything.

Alyssa Chavez [00:18:00]:
But if you're okay with a little bit of that more bitter flavor, that can be super helpful. There are other also supplemental bitters that you can take that you can find fairly easily where you just take some drops of these bitters to help get those digestive juices firing. That's an option, too, but you can also just eat foods that have a little bit of a bitter flavor to them. Number eight, eat ginger. And that can be using ginger when you cook like the fresh ginger form. I know in japanese cuisine, it's very common just to actually eat bites of ginger in between, you know, pieces of sushi or. Okay, it doesn't have to be sushi. Whatever it is that you're eating, you know, even eating some fresh ginger or having some ginger tea before a meal or any time, really, any form of ginger, whatever may work best for you.

Alyssa Chavez [00:18:50]:
But that actually really aids, again, in motility, which is the how your, your food is actually moving through your digestive tract along the way so things don't get blocked up and held back. It encourages the efficiency of your digestive system. It increases your digestive fire. That's actually something that comes from the ayurvedic perspective as well, is kind of getting that digestive fire built up. You want that heat and that warmth, right? Ginger is a very warming spice. Super helpful, especially if you experience bloating, if you experience any nausea or anything like that, ginger is really great for that. Or just motility issues, constipation, ginger can be really beneficial for all of that. Something that I personally just try to incorporate on the regular.

Alyssa Chavez [00:19:40]:
I just realized that's kind of a little pun there on the regular. Didn't even intend that. Well, it's your lucky day. All right, number nine, we're almost to the end of the list here is eat prebiotic and probiotic rich foods. Those are different. So prebiotic foods are foods that will feed the good gut bacteria in your body, which benefits your digestive health. So those are going to be foods like chicory root, which is often taken in more like a tea form. I'm sure you could get the whole food version of it as well, but usually it's kind of ground up and steeped.

Alyssa Chavez [00:20:16]:
You can have it like a tea. It has kind of a similar taste to coffee. At least that's what people say. I don't know if I see the correlation. Well, I guess a little bit. It still has a little bit of that bitter flavor, which we already learned is of benefit as well. Dandelion greens are really great. Jerusalem artichokes, garlic, onions, leeks, asparagus, bananas that are a little on the green side, so not when they're super ripe, when they have those black spots on them already, or brown spots, but when they're still a little bit on the green side.

Alyssa Chavez [00:20:47]:
They have more of that prebiotic fiber in there. Oats, apples, cocoa. There's another excuse to eat some chocolate. Flaxseeds, jicama. You can also think just fiber rich foods, like a wide variety of vegetables of different colors. All of that helps feed the good gut bacteria and helps to just keep things moving. So really good stuff to keep all of that in there. Probiotic foods on the other hand are foods that actually contain cultures of bacteria.

Alyssa Chavez [00:21:20]:
Right. Which again sounds gross, but is actually really beneficial for your health as well. So that can be things like yogurt, as long as it's cultured, that can be dairy or non dairy. I personally don't tolerate dairy very well, except for sometimes I can do some sheep or goat dairy. So something like a coconut yogurt or cashew or almond or whatever version you like can be beneficial as well. Sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, sourdough. Again, either regular or gluten free, I find most endowarriors tend to do better being gluten free. So that can be an option to kombucha as a beverage.

Alyssa Chavez [00:21:59]:
That is probiotic rich. Now I will say there is a caveat on all of this, which is just pay attention to how it makes you feel. The probiotic rich foods, the ones we just talked about in particular, can for some people, exacerbate bloating and other symptoms, which really is just a sign that there's a need for deeper support. So it's not like, oh, my body just can't tolerate that. Maybe not right now, but it's really a sign that your body needs a deeper layer of support in that area. Maybe there's some imbalance in your microbiome going on, so pay attention to how that makes you feel. If you feel worse eating probiotic rich foods, then, you know, don't do that right now. And number ten is just consider digestive enzymes.

Alyssa Chavez [00:22:47]:
They're super easy to find at any health food store. I will just say anything that you're going to be taking over a longer term basis, stick with some plant based enzymes. There's some really great ones out there. Most of those are derived from foods like papaya and pineapple. A lot of those type of foods have enzymes and so they're broken down and put into this, you know, chewable or capsule form. And that can be helpful in breaking down food effectively if you find yourself struggling. I did put that as number ten, if you might notice. That's not the number one thing to go to.

Alyssa Chavez [00:23:22]:
Oh, I'm having digestive struggles. I'm going to take some enzymes. That's number ten. I just want you to notice that because it's very easy for us to just want to have that synthetic, simple, quick fix solution and just jump right into taking some kind of supplement to help. That's not always going to be the most beneficial thing. So start with the foundations first and then if you need additional support from there, then at least you know you've done the basics and you're laying a good foundation for the rest of it. Anyway, so quick review. We talked about a lot of things here today.

Alyssa Chavez [00:23:59]:
The ten things to support your gut health and your digestion. We had number one, stop eating on the go. Number two, take a moment of gratitude for your meals. Number three, prepare your own meals whenever possible. Number four, chew your food thoroughly. Number five, avoid drinking water around your meals. Six, hydrate well the rest of the day. Number seven, eat bitter foods.

Alyssa Chavez [00:24:28]:
Number eight, eat ginger. Number nine, eat prebiotic and probiotic rich foods. And number ten, consider digestive enzymes. And those are really my top tips along with I realized I didn't really get in there a lot about just overall diet. I know that's something we've talked about more in previous episodes and we'll continue to talk about, but of course, course, along with all of that, just generally eating that whole food diet, trying to stay away from the processed foods and stuff like that, that's going to be super beneficial for your digestive health as well. I was just today speaking more specifically to your digestion. And a final note on all of this is just again, to know when you need deeper support. This list here, like I said, will lay a wonderful foundation.

Alyssa Chavez [00:25:22]:
It may not necessarily solve all of your problems if you have some deeper digestive dysfunction going on. You've got some leaky gut going on, you've got a bunch of food sensitivities, you've got some microbiome imbalance happening, some dysbiosis, some overgrowth of bacteria or yeast or parasites or, you know, weird, funky stuff going on in your gut, you may actually need to work with somebody who really understands that stuff and can support you. That's the type of work that I do one on one with my clients. I know there are other practices practitioners out there who do wonderful work like that as well and can support you. If you find that you're working on all this foundational stuff and it just isn't quite enough to get you to where you want to be, but it's all a wonderful place to start. See if you can take some of that stuff and start implementing it. All right, my friend. Just as a reminder, the waitlist for my up and coming membership, the endowarrior circle, which is going to be officially opening in June of 2024, four, which is about a month or so away as this episode is going to be aired.

Alyssa Chavez [00:26:34]:
I'm super excited to share that with all of you. It's going to be a space to really connect us all, to bring us endo warriors together, to have a space to build a community, a space to connect with a practitioner like myself. To be able to have your questions asked and answered. A space to be able to have some, what's the word I'm looking for? To have some accountability, I guess, or just companionship maybe on building better health for yourself. So anyway, I'm super excited to get that going on. There's going to be a lot of pre recorded content within the membership that you're going to have access to on all things like digestive health, on creating the best diet for you and your unique body. We're going to have some nervous system support and, you know, support for the mind, body and spirit, which is something that's super important to me as well. I talked about that on a recent episode.

Alyssa Chavez [00:27:34]:
All kinds of things packed in there. We're going to have some live q and a calls. We're going to have a lot of stuff packed into that membership. I have so many ideas and I would love to have you in there. So the link to join the waitlist is in the show notes. Feel free to hop in there, join the waitlist. You'll be the first to know when enrollment is open and I hope to see you in there, my friend. In the meantime, if you are loving the podcast, I would love if you can leave a rating or review for me, that would be super helpful.

Alyssa Chavez [00:28:06]:
Just hop into whatever your favorite listening platform is and leave a little review. Let me know what you think and that would be super helpful. Just to get some feedback from you and just to help other people to find the show and connect with other people who might benefit from this information. Or if you got a lot of benefit from this and someone's coming to mind, we're like, oh, so and so would really benefit from this episode too. You know, please feel free to share, send it to them and, you know, continue to spread the good word so we can all feel empowered to take our health into our own hands as Endo warriors here. Alright, my friend, I hope you have a wonderful day and we'll talk soon.