How to Heal Your Gut | Stop Bloating & Digestion Issues!!

Hey JJ Here. Every year around this time, I get the urge to make my home feel a little extra special. A space that feels just like the holidays. And Wayfair is my go to for that. Think cozy textures, twinkly decor, warm lighting, and all those little touches that make you want to curl up with a good book and a blanket. You'll usually find my books stacked on a great little end table I got from Wayfair, proof that function and style give can coexist. Now, whether you're adding last minute hosting essentials, picking out gifts for loved ones, or refreshing your decor for the season, Wayfair makes it easy with beautiful finds, great prices and fast delivery. And when the holidays wind down, Wayfair has everything you need to tuck it all neatly away. Smart storage solutions for every room from the kitchen to the closet. Plus, with free shipping for any order over $35, don't that's fast delivery and a total peace of mind. It's the perfect mix of joy and order, bringing the holiday spirit in, then storing it all with ease. If you're ready to make your home feel as good as it looks, get organized, refreshed and ready for the holidays. For way less head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. Wayfair Every style Every home that's W A Y F A I R.com hey, it's JJ here. You know, I've been talking about environmental toxins forever, and laundry detergent is a sneaky one. A lot of them contain harsh chemicals like dyes, preservatives, and even UV brighteners. Those brighteners don't actually clean anything, they just coat fabric so your eyes think things look whiter or brighter. That's more chemicals I don't want on my family sheets or skin. And if you've got sensitive skin or allergies around the house, this can be a big problem. That's what got my attention about Earth Breeze. It looks like a dryer sheet, but it's actually laundry detergent. You toss one in the washer and that's it. No pouring, no mess, and no heavy plastic jug. Their packaging is lightweight cardboard, which helps reduce plastic waste. And if you choose the fragrance free option, it's gentle, hypoallergenic, non irritating and non sensitizing. I really like how simple it is and how fresh and clean everything comes out without those unnecessary chemicals. Right now you can try Earth Breeze for up to 40% off with free gifts@earthbreeze.com virgin that's earthbreeze.com virgin for up to 40% off plus free gifts on your first order.

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Hey, this is JJ Virgin. Thanks so much for joining me. This is Ask the Health Expert. In each episode, I put the power of health in your hands and share ways to get healthy, lose weight, heal your gut, detox, and lots more so you can look and feel better fast. If you'd rather watch the video, hey, I did put on my makeup and.

Do my hair, so check it out.

On my YouTube channel.

Hey, it's J.J. here. Now let's be honest. The holidays are basically a financial ambush. Travel, hosting gifts, surprise holiday, school things. Suddenly you're wondering how December turned into a spirit spending spree. If you want to keep your finances under control this holiday season, you need to be using Monarch. It's rated the Wall Street Journal's best budgeting app of 2025. Monarch is the all in one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean interface on your laptop or your phone. What really grabbed my attention is how fast those little holiday expenses pile up with Monarch. Seeing everything in one place makes it a lot harder to accidentally overspend. And honestly, I appreciate anything that keeps me from starting January with a money hangover. You'll love exploring the holiday spending category. Imagine how good it will feel to actually see what's happening before your credit card statement does that whole dramatic reveal thing. Monarch basically shows you exactly where the money is going in real time, and that level of clarity could change everything, right? Don't let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use the code virgin@monarch.com in your browser for half off your first year. That's 50% off your first year@monarch.com with code Virgin.

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I know you've got clothes you've been avoiding because of the way you make you feel. Maybe it's a pair of jeans that.

Always seem to pinch you at the waist.

Or that dress that seems to hug your belly after you eat and you feel like you look pregnant. Now, if you're like most of us, you've felt this way way too many times. And I have good news that can quickly turn this around. So it's time to put away the stretch pants and pull out those skinny jeans from the back of your closet because these five things are going to get rid of your belly, bloat and gut issues for good. I'm going to share with you five steps to solving your gut problems. Number one, you got to remove the high fi foods. What is that? These are high food intolerance foods. Stepping on the scale every day, which I highly recommend you do, you go out to eat, you come back and boom, the next day you're like, what the heck, My weight's up three to four pounds. You know that you didn't gain three to four pounds overnight. That overweight night gain, boom. It's not fat gain, it's inflammation. And when you look at that, it's probably due to a food intolerance. So what the heck is food intolerance again? I wrote the book on this called the virgin diet. And early on I discovered that a lot of the foods that we're eating, thinking we're eating healthy, could actually be hurting us because of some something called leaky gut. Leaky gut is when your small intestine becomes more permeable than it should be. It's semi permeable because of stress, because of eating gluten or fructose, because of certain pain medications. And when that happens, coupled with poor digestion, lower stomach acid, not really breaking apart your foods the way you should. Food passes out into circulation where no business being, and your body goes, holy smokes, what is that? And launches an immune attack, creates, takes little antibodies, grabs a hold of that food that shouldn't be there and makes immune complexes. And if these things build up, they wreak havoc, they cause gas, they cause bloating, they cause joint pain, fatigue, skin problems, all sorts of stuff. But really key is that gas and bloating. But a lot of times we have this low grade bloating and inflammation scale going up and it's because of food intolerance. And removing these high five foods gives your body a chance. You've got a chance to just go to exhale, to rest and to heal. If you're going high, wonder if I have that. Check out the virgin diet. And I also have my 21 day breakthrough program where I guide you through exactly how to do this. It's super simple. I call it swap and to drop and you can make a big difference quickly. And speaking about swapping to drop, one of the things that I have you do there is add gut healing foods. Because it's not just about pulling out the foods that could be hurting you. It's about swapping in the foods that can help you. And one of the foods that I love that can super help you is freshly ground flaxseed meal. It's first of all a great source of omega 3 fatty acids, the 1 alpha linoleic acid. And it's got great fiber and nutrients. In fact, a 2019 study in the journal Nutrients showed that flax can support the gut by improving healthy bacteria and minimizing unhealthy bacteria. But one of the things I really love about it is that it's mucilaginous and can help heal the gut lining. Now another thing I love for healing the gut is wild caught seafood. It's rich in omega 3 fatty acids. And there was a study published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences that found that omega 3 fatty acids can reduce inflammation, which is really important if you've been eating these high fi food and holding on to weight. Now you've heard an apple a day. Turns out that it's really true because apples provide pectin and pectin is a type of fiber that can help relieve constipation. It's also a great prebiotic. There was a 2016 animal study published in Nutrients that found that apple derived pectin can improve the balance of good bacteria, can keep dead bacteria from crossing the gastrointestinal barrier to end up in the bloodstream and cause inflammation. That's called endotoxemia and it can suppress the weight gain and fat accumulation. Pretty amazing. All right, next one is extra virgin olive oil. There was a 2022 study that was published in Nutrients that found that adding extra virgin olive oil can improve gut permeability and low grade endotoxemia. So again I look at extra virgin olive oil. You want to make sure you're getting really high quality. I use fresh pressed olive oil club and I do one to two tablespoons a day. Now avocado is another one you're going to want to incorporate in is high in fiber and monounsaturated fatty acids. There was a study in 2021 in the journal of Nutrition that found that eating avocad those can help with improved production of short chain fatty acids which then produce butyrate, a fatty acid that supports colon health. And the balance of gut bacteria. So butyrate is a really, really important fatty acid for fat burning. It's a short chain fatty acid. It's produced in the large intestine during the microbial fermentation of dietary fiber. It has an appetite suppressing activity. It can burn fat more efficiently and, and it can promote a healthy metabolism. And because it's fat soluble, it can be stored and used for energy when food is scarce. Also, it can increase thermogenesis. This is the process by how your body produces heat, which is another way that it can help you burn fat. Okay, another one here that's super important is bone broth. There was a 2021 study that was published in the journal Medicine that found that bone broth provides anti inflammatory properties which could decrease the symptoms of, of gut issues. Now I get bone broth in every day. I kind of cheat, I'll be honest. But my paleo inspired protein powder is basically concentrated bone broth. And then what you're getting from bone broth, one of the key things is collagen. So I use extra collagen, my collagen peptides in there as well. It's also a great way for me to make sure I'm getting my protein. Prebiotic foods are super important here. Onions, artichokes, leeks, asparagus, oats and apples, bananas, potatoes. And when we're talking here bananas, I'm talking barely ripe, slightly green bananas. I'm talking cold boiled potatoes and beans. These are super important because prebiotics basically are the food for your probiotics. So if you're eating more fermented foods like coconut yogurt, you're taking probiotics like my Flora Harmony from Reignite Wellness. The prebiotics are basically the fertilizer to help really get the good bacteria to take hold. So it's super important. You also want to make sure when we're talking about good bacteria that you're lowering your sugar impact. Because a high sugar diet can negatively impact your gut microbiome. There was a 2020 study in nutrients that showed that sugar, and this is like duh, no big surprise, but sugar can increase harmful bacteria, it can decrease healthy bacteria, it can damage the gut barrier. And by the way, we know that fructose especially leads to leaky gut. It increases inflammation, it decreases mucosal immunity, it can contribute to metabolic disregulation, which then can lead to all sorts of metabolic diseases like obesity and diabetes and cancer. Okay, so if we're looking at avoiding especially first like avoid added sugars what can you use? Well, there's so many great alternatives. Now, my favorites, Monk fruit, stevia, erythritol or allulose. What I've been using in a lot of my recipes lately is something called lakanto, which is monk fruit and allulose combo. That one's monk fruit and erythritol. And I've been using a lot more allulose in a lot of my products as well. Now the other thing you want to make sure that you have is fiber. You got to have fiber in your meals because fiber is going to slow the blood sugar response to the meal. So that's super important. Other important thing here is you want to make sure you're taking digestive enzyme. If you're experiencing gas or bloating after eating some constipation or feeling of fullness, even if you just ate a little bit, digestive enzymes can really help here because poor digestion leads to bloating. Digestive enzymes can help your body break down carbohydrates, fats and proteins from food. That's what it does. And when you do that, you're also going to help with nutrient absorption. And remember, you are what you absorb. So you're eating food to get the nutrients. You got to be able to absorb the nutrients. If you're low in enzymes, you're putting a band aid on. You didn't fix anything. You're not helping nutrient absorption. So I really highly recommend a trial of digestive enzyme. You want to improve your stress tolerance. I mean, stress has a massive impact on your gut. So I think that we need to take our nervous system to the gym just like we take our muscles to the gym. And how do you work out your nervous system? Well, you can regulate your nervous system with breath, work with meditation, with tapping, with exercise. Especially high intensity interval training helps your body handle your sympathetic nervous system handle stress better. So highly recommend, like think about taking your nervous system to the gym. What will work for you? Just like you would take your body to the gym. Here's the deal. Can't get rid of stress, but we can help how we respond to it. So GABA can be super helpful. B3NIACIN, because it supports serotonin production, which goes down when we're under stress. And B6, which also supports serotonin and GABA production. Remember, GABA is a calming neurotransmitter, pantothenic acid, which really is the anti stress vitamin and really supports the adrenal glands, which are what are pumping out cortisol in response to stress, and then glycine, which is this calming, relaxing amino acid. All right, so there's five steps that are huge for banishing belly bloat and gas for good. If you suspect you're dealing with leaky gut syndrome, or if you're dealing with weight that just won't budge, you're going to want to check out this next video on how leaky gut might be the reason you're struggling to keep your weight off. For more info on this and other health topics I cover, or to rate and review, find me on Instagram, Facebook and my website, jjvirgin.com and don't forget to subscribe to my show so you won't miss a single episode. Go to subscribetoj.com thanks again for being with me this week.

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