It’s All About Balance

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Welcome to the Virgin Diet lifestyle show with your host, celebrity nutrition and fitness.

Expert and New York Times best selling author, J.J. virjan.

I'm going to talk to you about how to heal your gut. And it seems like finally all this gut stuff is becoming like at the forefront. And thank God, because honestly, this is really how you change everything. Your health, your immune system, your energy, your weight, your outlook. I mean, can we be honest? If you're constipated or bloated, are you happy? No. You are crappy. So not crappy, crappy. So let's talk about how to heal your gut. But before we can talk about how to heal your gut, let's talk about what is trashing your gut. Because that's where we'll want to go first, right? You know, I can tell you all these amazing things that are going to help your gut be so much better, but then if you're like putting bad stuff in, you're going to counteract that. So we don't want to do that. So as the author of the Virgin Diet, you know, the Virgin Diet was all about these foods that can hurt you that you become intolerant to because of leaky gut. And the things that can really damage your gut, number one, stress. Stress makes your gut more permeable. And that means you're going to have more likelihood, a higher likelihood of having food intolerances. Gluten. Gluten releases this chemical that makes your gut more permeable as well. All of the genetically modified foods can damage your gut. Sugar is crazy. Sugar and artificial sweeteners both. And that might sound weird to you that artificial sweeteners can do this, but artificial sweeteners actually can change your gut bacteria so that you're more intolerant to sugar, so that you can't tolerate as well. When you do eat sugar, your blood sugar goes up higher, your insulin goes up higher. Which is why we see artificial sweeteners causing weight gain. Well, they cause weight gain by damaging imaging your gut microbiome. Sugar, of course, we know, feeds the bad bacteria in the gut just like those artificial sweeteners do. And it feeds candida yeast, which then can become something that overgrows throughout your body. Chronic toxicity damages your gut as well. So if you're one of those people that you're trying all the stuff, your gut's just not healing, especially if you've got elevated Candida and it won't go away. I want you to consider getting evaluated for toxicity and then get yourself. We all, by the way, should be on this. We all should be on a good daily detoxification program. So there's another one. And then, of course, medications. A lot of these pain medications instantly make your gut more permeable. Of course, the antibiotics. Now, there are going to be times where you have to take an antibiotic, but you have to make sure that the things I'm going to talk to you about next become your next line of defense after the antibiotics. So you restore the good balance in your gut. It's all about having as much good, healthy gut flora as you can and as little bad gut bacteria as well as as possible. It's all about that balance and having good gut wall integrity. And again, stress, gluten medications, especially pain medications, birth control pills, antibiotics, those all create habit, genetically modified foods. Stress, stress and stress and stress and stress. Those are all things that create issues here. So let's talk about what you can do now. One of the most overlooked things, foods out there is coconut oil. And I remember talking about coconut oil like 10 years ago and everyone was like, coconut, it's saturated fat. I mean, now we know that it's got these medium chain triglycerides that help your body burn fat. But it also is antibacterial and antiviral. Amazing for helping with Candida. Another great component is eat fresh garlic. Use garlic in everything that you possibly can. Now, if you can do raw, even better. I actually take garlic every single day, by the way. But raw is better. But just throw it into everything because it helps kill off the bad bacteria in the gut. It also acts as a prebiotic and it helps kill candida. Now, one of my favorite amino acids that you can throw in your shake, whether you're doing a sugar impact diet shake or a virgin diet shake, any of my shakes that you do, throw in some glutamine powder. Glutamine powder has a couple really cool uses, but the first thing here is it's going to help restore leaky. It's going to help get rid of leaky gut and restore your gut integrity. Glutamine can also help you stop your cravings for sugar and alcohol. So we love glutamine. I have people do about a teaspoon of that in their shake, depending on what's going on with them. Another one that you can put in your shake that helps heal your gut is freshly ground flaxseed meal. It's really good for gut healing. And another thing that you can now you're not going to throw this one in your shake, by the way, is that white fish protein is also very gut healing. Now, I have been doing, and this took me a while, my buddy Donna Gates of the Body Ecology diet actually came over and we made some fermented foods together. We made some of her sauerkrauts and fermented veggies. And I will tell you that I felt like I was going to be Tom Hanks and big when she had me taste this and I've got a camera on me and I'm like, I'm going to be spitting this out. Oh my gosh. And I will not tell you this is my favorite thing. But man, they aren't as bad as you thought. And they're so good for your gut. And there's a reason that all of these cultures have had fermented food for thousands of years. If you look at Japan, you always get the ginger with the raw fish because it kills off the bad stuff and it's anti inflammatory. So fermented foods are incredible because they actually help feed the good bacteria in your gut. They act like a prebiotic. One of the things I've been using every day is my girlfriend, Chandra Earthsong. She created this product called Kavita and it's a probiotic drink. It's actually my version of a soda and it's fermented coconut water. Each of them have 0 to 2 grams of sugar in them, depending on which one you have. I've been doing the cherry blueberry and the strawberry Asahi. Amazing. But it's a great way to get fermented food and again, restore the good gut bacteria. Now here's another cool one you can do for gut bacteria. But there's a little caveat with this. There's something called small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. And it's just like what it sounds. You have too much bad bacteria growing in your small intestine. Now, I learned about this early on when I had a gal come to me. It actually was Suzanne Summers stepdaughter came to me because she couldn't lose weight. And a doctor sent her to me thinking she needed like some help with exercise. But she was exercising correctly. She was doing high intensity interval training and she was hardly eating but she was chronically bloated. And everyone, every doctor she went to, when she talked about being chronically bloated, they kept giving her more probiotics, and they were making her worse because they were feeding this, all of this gut bacterial overgrowth. If you have too much bad bacteria in your gut, it can actually explain extract more calories from the food you eat and store them as fat. And that was what was happening to Leslie. When we went through and killed off the bad bacteria and then brought back up the good bacteria, she was able to lose £40 and keep it off. So one of the key takeaways here is if you're one of those people that feels more bloated as the day goes on, whether you eat or not, or you take probiotics and you get more bloated, you've got small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. You want to deal with that first. And. And that means doing things like garlic, but also a product you may never have heard about, and that's a bacteriophage bacteria.

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Phages actually are like little Pacman. Fage means to eat and they eat the bad bacteria in the gut. So I've actually been using something called microbiome balance that's got bacteriophages and probiotics. Bacteriophages, again, not only eat the bad bacteria in the gut, they also act as prebiotics. And prebiotics, which is one of the things fermented foods are help your probiotics help the good gut bacteria take hold. So this is really important. Now, one other thing, what I see a lot of is that we are not digesting our food as well as we should. Part of the reason is we're rushing. And I candidly will say that I am a bad girl with this too. You know, I'm always reminding myself it's old trainer habits. Back when I was a personal trainer and I'd had to run from client to client to client, I got so used to eating while I was driving and wolfing down my food. You want to be the slowest eater at the table. You know, they did a study where they found that people who chewed 40 times each bite lost more weight. I'm like, well, like they spent their whole day chewing. That's all they did. I mean, so I can't tell you to chew 40 times because that's like ridiculous. But we do need to slow down and chew. And one of the ways you can do that is eat with slow eaters, be the last to eat and put your darn fork down in between bites, right? So slow it down. Don't drink a lot of fluid with your meals. You dilute your stomach acid. And if you're 30 plus or under any stress, which probably means everybody, you really should do a trial of digestive enzymes with your meals. Now I like to use digestive enzymes that help with protein digestion and fat digestion. I'm not keen on using digestive enzymes that help with carbohydrate digestion because that can actually elevate blood sugar. We generally don't need more help digesting our carbs, but really work on things that help with fat digestion and protein digestion. That's where I see that people have challenges. And if you eat like let's say a big grass fed steak and you feel bloated, that probably means you're having trouble digesting your protein. If you have oily stools or you've got dry skin, despite eating a good healthy fat diet, you probably don't have enough fat enzymes. So think of that too. One of the key signs of having a deficiency in betaine or in hcl and not being able to digest protein well is to get some heartburn when you eat. Now there is a chance that you have H. Pylori, so you should always check for that. But for a lot of people, the reason they have heartburn is that they do not have enough stomach acid. So they eat the protein, it sits in their stomach, the acid washes back up on their esophagus and they can't digest it. And that's what's creating the problem. So always try. As long as you don't have any ulcers, do a trial of digestive enzymes and see how that helps. Because here's the deal. Your gut is everything. If I could choose just one organ and go, wow, I let's focus on this. When you have a better gut, this is where we produce 70% of our serotonin. It will help you have a better mood. It's where we digest everything. And so if you want to have great neurotransmitters, great brain function, great, you've got to be able to digest well food to absorb the nutrients through your small intestine. If you can't absorb the nutrients, you can't use them. So it all starts with your gut. So remember, it's not just about all the things you can do to heal your gut. It's also about getting rid of those things that are creating the damage in the first place.

One of the number one reasons people have food intolerances is due to a leaky gut. But when taking out the offending foods and replacing them with healing foods isn't working fast enough for you, what can you do? This is where JJ Virgin's Leaky Gut Support Formula comes in. This blend of therapeutic nutrients promotes proper intestinal function, helps heal ulcers, reduces inflammation, and supports regular bowel function. If you're struggling with gas and bloating, food intolerance, or any other digestive unrest, visit jjvirgin.comproducts today and give JJ's leaky gut support a try.

Hello listeners, this is Anne Boeckle, author, blogger and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week, I take all things Books and Reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately, and I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment. Whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything, you'll learn something about yourself as a reader and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and visit our website what Should I read next podcast.com to find out more.