digestion Archives - Fusion Health and Wellness

Supplements Everyone Can Benefit From, Pt. 2

In case you missed it, here’s the first post.

In a perfect world we wouldn’t need to consume supplements – everything would taste like pizza while being super healthy. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

Omega 3s – Control inflammation, improve joint function, lower weight, improve heart health, ward off depression and improve the quality of your skin

It’s starting to seem very likely that the root cause of modern day chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, depression, Alzheimer’s, atherosclerosis and more, is inflammation.

Inflammation is an important and beneficial process within the human body, helping to heal the body from infection, wounds and other sorts of damage. This is all well and good unless the inflammatory process goes into overdrive, which is all too often the case in today’s world and largely due to overconsumption of Omega-6 fatty acids and consuming too few Omega 3s.

As you can see from the image above, sources of Omega 6 fatty acids, mainly vegetable oils, lead to the production of pro-inflammatory compounds, an excess of which can start to wreak havoc on the body. GLA is an Omega 6 fatty acid that is actually anti-inflammatory (and very beneficial for the skin and hair), but be aware that GLA can be converted first to DGLA and then AA, which is pro-inflammatory, so don’t assume that simply supplementing with foods high in GLA is wholly beneficial. It’s important to note that most restaurants use corn and soy oils for frying and cooking, and that they’re also ubiquitous in processed, packaged food. Further, the majority of meat, eggs and dairy sold in stores and restaurants come from animals fed corn and soy products, so they too are high in Omega 6s. In short, Omega 6 fatty acids are everywhere.

Omega 3 fatty acids, on the other hand, are entirely anti-inflammatory. Some plants such as flax, walnuts, chia seeds, hemp seeds and dark leafy greens are good sources of ALA, which can further be converted into EPA, and then DHA. These all have anti-inflammatory effects.

Meat, dairy and eggs are pro-inflammatory if they are conventionally raised and fed corn and soy based foods – if they’re free-range and grass-fed, they have a much more natural balance of Omega 3s to 6s. Meat, eggs and dairy from grass-fed and pasture-raised animals still contain the inflammatory Omega 6 Arachidonic Acid, but it is balanced out by Omega 3s.

And that’s what’s important – the proper balance between Omega 3s and 6s.

Change in Omega-6/Omega-3 Ratios over Time

Human Population	Ratio	Diet Features
Hunter-gatherers (400,000 to 45,000 years ago)	1:1	Wild plants, animals, and fish
Western cultures at onset of Industrial Revolution (150 years ago)	8.4:1	Greatly increased vegetable oils along with animals raised on cereal grains
Present-day Western cultures (70 years ago)	10.3:1	Increased fats, oils, vegetables, and nuts

Source: Kris-Etherton et al. 2000.

As you can see, our diet consisted of a (likely) 1:1 ratio of Omega 6s to 3s for the majority of our existence. Nowadays most people average 10 times as many pro-inflammatory Omega 6 fatty acids in their diet than anti-inflammatory Omega 3s, with some estimates as high as 15:1. Is it really any wonder why we’re seeing such widespread occurrences of inflammation-related diseases?

Omega 3s also improve cardiovascular health and rheumatoid arthritis, as well as ensuring proper nervous system and brain development in infants. There’s also quite a bit of evidence that Omega 3s improve depression, skin conditions and cognition in general.

In order to get back to a healthy balance of Omega 3s to 6s, simply cut out consumption of vegetable oils – check labels on food products for corn, soy, safflower, peanut, sunflower and grapeseed oils, as well as avoiding margarine, mayonnaise and almost every salad dressing out there. Make your own mayonnaise, and use olive oil as the base for your homemade salad dressings. You’d do well to remember that most restaurants cook with these cheap vegetable oils to cut costs and also use them in salad dressings – the occasional serving of french fries won’t kill ya, but it’s something to keep in mind.

At the same time, increase consumption of Omega 3s coming from cold water fatty fish – mackerel, tuna, salmon, sardines and cod – and from plant sources such as hemp seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, walnuts and leafy greens. As I noted in my post for Vegans and Vegetarians, the plant-based Omega 3 ALA has quite the difficult time converting into DHA within the body, which is critical for proper brain development and warding off depression, so don’t rely on just plants for your Omega 3s. You can also choose to supplement (I do) with a quality cod liver or fish oil supplement, but make sure it’s high quality, is cold-temperature extracted and comes with antioxidants to protect the delicate Omega 3s. Barlean’s makes a fish oil “swirl” that is insanely delicious, and there’s also algae-based DHA is that is vegan friendly.

Iodine – Boost metabolism, improve thyroid function, ensure healthy fetal development, boost energy and motivation, detox at the cellular level and improve endocrine functioning

Iodine is definitely in my top 10 if not top 5 nutrients I wouldn’t want to be without.

Let me start by saying no, you are not getting adequate iodine from your table salt. The potassium iodide added to refined table salt does not come close to the amount needed by the human body, but is just barely enough to prevent goiter. Much of the iodine evaporates during storage, and what little is left when you do consume it has to compete for absorption with the chloride in sodium chloride, or table salt.

The Great Goblin from The Hobbit could use some iodine. — The Great Goblin from The Hobbit could use some iodine, look at that goiter..

Further, while we used to get some iodine from our food, there’s very little left in today’s over-farmed, nutrient-depleted soils, and thus in the foods we eat.

Iodine is necessary for the production of thyroid hormones. This is really bad news if you’re trying to lose weight and have ample amounts of energy, as the thyroid is the main gland in the endocrine system responsible for controlling metabolism. No iodine, no thyroid hormones.

Iodine is a type of molecule known as a halogen. Other halogens include fluoride and bromide, both of which interfere with the body’s absorption and utilization of iodine. Bromide is found in most breads and refined grain products, and fluoride is in the majority of the US’s water supply and in most toothpastes. These other halogens fit into the same receptors as iodine would, blocking it from doing it’s job. The good news is that consuming iodine-rich foods is an effective way, and some say only way, to detox excess fluoride and bromide.

According to this article, “Dr. Kenezy Gyula Korhaz states that iodine chelates heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium and aluminum and halogens such as fluoride and bromide, thus decreasing their iodine inhibiting effects, especially of the halogens.” Chelation is the process by which a molecule binds to a toxic substance and draws it out of the body.

Iodine is also pretty damn important for the brain and nervous system. The chapter Soils and Iodine Deficiency from the textbook Essentials of Medical Geology (exciting stuff huh?) states

However, while these two diseases are easily recognizable, perhaps the more insidious problem is that iodine deficiency impairs brain development in children even when there is no obvious physical effect. Many researchers have suggested that a relatively low degree of iodine deficiency during fetal development can result in a significant reduction of IQ in children. Indeed it has been suggested that iodine deficiency is the most common preventable cause of mental retardation.

Clearly iodine is of prime importance, not just to fetuses (feti?) but to the neuronal health of everyone.

Iodine is also critical to proper dopamine production and utilization. I talk about dopamine quite a bit because it’s crucial for proper levels of motivation and experiencing pleasure, two things that at least I personally never want to be short on. As I already stated, iodine is essential for the production of thyroid hormones. If the thyroid isn’t producing enough of these thyroid hormones, the hypothalamus produces thyrotropin-releasing hormone, which in turn releases thyroid-stimulating hormone as well as prolactin. Prolactin is antagonistic to dopamine, and thus low iodine results in low dopamine, leaving you feeling unmotivated and getting very little pleasure out of life, even in the presence of sex, drugs and rock and roll. Interestingly, this is also the reason guys experience a “refractory period” after sex, and why it’s the best time to cuddle – cuz you’re high on prolactin.

The pineal gland is a tiny endocrine gland located at the base of the brain, shaped like a pine cone the size of a grain of rice. It produces melatonin, a hormone that helps you fall asleep, sets circadian rhythms, and is a powerful antioxidant that is anticancer and promotes neurogenesis. In short, the pineal gland, along with melatonin, are pretty important.

Unfortunately, your pineal gland is likely calcified.

The above is an image of the calcified pineal gland, in a two-day old, no less. The overconsumption of fluoride from water, toothpastes and mouthwashes causes it’s accumulation in the pineal gland. This impairs the pineal gland’s ability to set circadian rhythms and convert serotonin into melatonin. It’s even been found that a calcified pineal gland worsens one’s sense of direction. Again, the only way to detoxify the body from halogens such as fluoride is by consuming adequate amounts of iodine. Some Vitamin K2 will also probably help remove calcium deposits from the pineal gland, but this is just a hunch.

There’s one reliably good source of iodine – seaweeds. Hijiki, kelp, kombu, dulse, nori and others are concentrated sources of nutrients, especially iodine. I simply buy these Kelp flakes and shake them onto most of my meals – a quarter teaspoon provides plenty of iodine and you won’t taste a thing. Most wild-caught seafood also has a fair amount of iodine. Increase your consumption of iodine-rich foods slowly, as some can experience detox symptoms pretty quickly.

If you’re looking for fluoride free toothpaste, I use this brand, but you can also likely find different varieties at your local health food store.

Important note for those with thyroid disorders – if you’re going to be consuming iodine-rich foods, talk to your primary care physician first. Iodine will likely help but may interact with your thyroid medication.

By the way, the fluoride in your water and toothpaste is a waste-product of fertilizer companies, and likely doesn’t even protect your teeth from cavities.

“By recovering by-product fluosilicic acid from fertilizer manufacturing, water and air pollution are minimized, and water authorities have a low-cost source of fluoride available to them.” (Rebecca Hanmer, EPA, 1983)

Bone Broth – Heal your digestive system, improve your skin and hair, detox your liver, bolster your joints, improve your sleep, reduce inflammation, boost the immune system

More a food than supplement, bone broth is one of the best things you could spend time making and consuming. Bone broth is my very top pick for improving your skin and hair, for improving your digestive system, and improving the quality of your joints. On top of this, it boosts your immune system, detoxes your liver, improves sleep and reduces inflammation. Oh yeah, and it’s pretty damn tasty. All this from just boiling some bones in water.

Think that sounds gross? Remember that in France, no kitchen is considered complete with a pot of “stock”, or bone broth, quietly boiling in the corner. Have you had French cuisine? Delicious.

Bone broth is a “hydrophilic colloid” – a substance that attracts and holds different substances, in our case minerals and digestive juices. Because it attracts digestive juices and enzymes, it bolsters out digestive power, making meals easier to digest. It’s also chock full of minerals phosphorus, silicon, calcium and magnesium, in the exact ratios our bodies need, helping to build up our bone tissue.

Bone broth is also extremely rich in easy to absorb collagen, which has numerous benefits within the body. Most importantly, collagen helps to “seal and heal” the mucosal lining of our intestinal tract, a boon for people with Crohn’s disease, leaky gut syndrome as well as your average Joe. As you already know, a properly functioning gut is the foundation of vibrant health.

Collagen is a main component of connective tissues, such as skin, joints and hair. The reason an 18 year old girl has beautiful skin compared to an 80 year old woman is because the 18 year old still has healthy levels of collagen, which helps give skin lift. Why do Asian and French women have such beautiful skin? Both diets use a lot of bone broths or “stock”, which are the base for many of the sauces in these diets. Less collagen means skin is more prone to wrinkles, sagging and cellulite. Don’t want saggy skin, wrinkles or cellulite? Hope you’re consuming some source of collagen.

Collagen is extremely rich in two amino acids that are sorely lacking from the modern diet : glycine and proline. While proline’s main benefit is enhancing “youthful, non-sagging skin”, glycine is necessary for the production of glutathione, our body’s “master antioxidant”. Glutathione

is a powerful antioxidant
has the ability to regenerate other antioxidants – after an antioxidant gets used, it becomes inert, or worse, an oxidant itself
helps to detoxify the liver and kidneys
reduces “photo-aging” of the skin, and reduces build up of melanin
boosts the immune system
helps prevent cancer
attracts and eliminates toxins from the body

Glycine itself helps to detoxify the liver, improves sleep and anxiety, enhances the secretion of digestive juices, helps heal wounds, and is necessary for the synthesis of DNA and RNA.

Bone broth is replete with joint repair substances as well, namely glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). You may know a few of these by name – glucosamine and chondroitan. These are sold in pill form to help relieve pain in the joints of those with rheumatoid arthritis. Another is hyaluronic acid, a popular ingredient in facial creams and skin care products. Hyaluronic acid is one of the best ways to give skin extra lift and smoothness, as well as to help it retain moisture.

Best of all, bone broth is simple to make. Go to your local co-op or health food store and ask the meat department if they have any soup or marrow bones. You can also throw in knuckle and neck bones, as well as chicken feet (wash ’em first) as they’re extremely rich in gelatin. Buy a few pounds of bones and throw them in the crockpot with some water and a tablespoon or two of vinegar, letting them simmer one day for chicken bones or two days for beef bones. At the last hour you can add onions, carrots and celery to give the broth some extra flavor, and then just strain and enjoy.

It may gel up when you put it in the fridge – this is normal and actually a good sign that a lot of collagen has dissolved into the broth.

You can use bone broth as the base for soups, you can drink it with a little salt and pepper (works great for people who do intermittent fasting), or you can boil some of it down to make a delicious reduction. Have a little before or with meals to aid in digestion.

You can buy collagen from grass fed sources, glucosamine and chondroitan, as well as hyaluronic acid, but why spend all that money? Bone broth will cost you $10 tops, and is mighty tasty.

The Highway to Health

Lemme be honest with you – if you want to be on the fast track to being healthy and feel absolutely fantastic, you need to improve your intestinal health. This should be your first priority, no ifs, ands or buts about it. Your intestinal health affects everything from your mood, your energy levels, cognitive function, and weight, all the way to your outer appearance, as the skin and gut are intimately connected.

How can all this happen just from the gut? Mainly due to inflammation. Controlling inflammation is the key that unlocks a more vibrant life, and the way to control inflammation is largely through improving intestinal health. Everything you consume affects your body’s level of inflammation, either positively or negatively. Think about it – all the stuff you cram down your gullet comes into contact with you via your intestines – all the irritants in food, all the artificial dyes and colorings, all the pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, everything is in direct contact with the largest organ in your immune system, your intestines. It makes sense that if you’re eating crap, you’re going to feel like crap as well.

Further, the digestive system is your “second brain”. Called the enteric nervous system, this second brain not only has 100 million neurons, as many as your spinal cord, but also produces a bevy of neurotransmitters which have a huge effect on how you feel.

You want to have more energy, a better mood, less brain fog, lose weight and have better skin don’t you? Thought so.

Your Gut – What Went Wrong

In a perfect world, your gut would be in tip top shape – it would digest the food you put into it, absorb the nutrients and speedily discard the waste products. Sounds easy right?

It should be, but we’ve messed things up in the modern world. Rampant use of antibiotics have completely destroyed our beneficial intestinal flora, leading to overgrowth of bad bacteria like candida or contributing to SIBO, small intestine bacterial overgrowth. A lack of fiber further gunks things up, as fiber is the food for beneficial bacteria in the gut, and helps to sweep debris out of the intestines.

Intestinal hyper-permeability, or “leaky gut syndrome“, is another way intestinal health can go way wrong, as certain irritants, be it undigested food sitting in the intestines, candida or constant exposure to gluten, can actually cause the intestines to become more permeable than they should be. This allows microbes, undigested food particles and toxins to escape the digestive tract and enter the blood stream, where they further cause damage and feelings of malaise.

Lack of fiber, water and magnesium can cause constipation, something affecting some 63 million Americans. Artificial dyes, chemical pesticides, aluminum and plastics leached from cans and bottles.. All these things irritate the gut and affect your energy levels and moods.

The list goes on – Crohn’s disease, Celiac’s disease, lack of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, parasites… A lot can go wrong. The good news is, it’s easy to fix. Read on.

Healing Your Gut, Step 1 – Fasting

It doesn’t matter who you are or what your current health status is, everyone can benefit from periodic fasting. While intermittent fasting has it’s benefits, prolonged fasts are the type recommended for improving intestinal health.

Think about this – when was the last time you gave your digestive system a rest? Here you are, shoveling food into your face all day, every day, and demanding that your digestive system break all that food down, absorb the good stuff and eliminate the bad stuff before you start eating more food. Can’t a homie catch a break?

All joking aside, a 3-7 day juice fast is the most therapeutic technique I know of for boosting health. 24-36 hours after you cease consuming food, the body begins the process of autophagy, where it starts to clean out cellular junk, detoxify, and even destroy old, worn-down cells and replace them with shiny new ones. The intestines get a chance to purge built up waste products (lovely), and get some much needed rest. All the organs and glands in the body get revitalized and re-calibrated. After the initial discomfort of not eating, the body’s energy levels skyrocket as it is no longer expending massive amounts of energy breaking down, absorbing and excreting foodstuffs, and turns to stored body fat as energy.

Fasting is powerful stuff, and after my first couple of 3 day juice fasts, the rosacea on my face and the persistent rash on my chest cleared right up. Spring is the best time for a prolonged fast, as the weather is warm and it gives you a chance to clean out some of the junk stored up from winter, a time of year when most people eat heavier foods to stay warm. Spring is the time nature provides us with the most detoxifying foods as well – sprouts, grasses, dandelion and nettle greens are all very powerful and natural detoxifiers, and if you have access to them and a juicer, all the better.

Here’s how to succeed at your first fast – choose two days that you don’t have much to do, when you preferably aren’t working. On the first day, eat a larger breakfast and a larger lunch before noon. Then consume nothing but fresh juices, teas and water until noon the following day. This gives you a full 24 hours of fasting, and you’ll be sleeping through the worst part, when hunger and fatigue would be peaking. The following week, repeat the process above, but extend the fast until dinner time. The third time you fast, try to hold out a full 3 days – so if you start your fast at noon on Friday, you wouldn’t eat again until noon on Monday. Keep in mind that by halfway through the second day, any feelings of fatigue and aches should disappear and be replaced with mental clarity and energy, and you likely wont even be hungry. It’s important to break the fast with very light foods – fresh fruit, preferably soft ones like bananas and melons, and soft, steamed veggies are best.

If you’re like me and enjoy a cup of joe in the mornings, you can use Dandy Blend during a fast, a blend of roasted chicory, beet and other detoxifying herbs that tastes surprisingly good. Wheatgrass, beet, dandelion, celery and cucumber are excellent choices to juice while fasting, although you can get by using just a combination of apple and grape juices too. Make sure you’re not only consuming citrus juices, as they are too acidic to be the only juice on a fast.

I highly recommend using Healthforce’s Intestinal Drawing Formula during your first few fasts for a few reasons. First, it adds bulk to your stomach, helping to ease a bit of the hunger and encourage bowel movements. Second, it’s loaded with natural demulcents, or substances that gel up and help to heal and soothe the intestines. Finally, it has Zeolite clay, Activated Charcoal and Volcanic Bentonite clay – these natural substances bind to toxins and irritants and help draw them out of the body, very useful during your first few fasts as your body will be purging toxins left and right. I highly recommend using the pills, as the powder tastes like, well, clay.

After your first few fasts, the Intestinal Drawing Formula is optional, but it’s also a great thing to have on hand for anyone with a highly irritated digestive system, as the demulcents are quite soothing. You can always add in some Vitamineral Green for enhanced detoxification during a fast as well. Aim for 3-4 three day fasts per year, as a minimum.

Step 2 – Eliminating Irritants

Figuring out what your trigger foods are can take a bit of work, but it’s critical to find out if you have certain foods that irritate your digestive system. For many people it’s gluten. Next in line is unfermented soy products, and for millions of people it’s processed dairy. MSG and artificial sweeteners do a lot of damage as well.

The best way to suss out suspected food irritants is to do an elimination diet. For one whole month eliminate all gluten, processed soy and processed dairy from your diet. Not only are you likely to lose a few pounds, you’ll likely discover that you have more energy. After the month without the offenders, slowly add each one back into your diet and notice how it makes you feel. If you start getting brain fog, stomach aches or fatigue, you’ll know that it’s an irritant for you.

While I don’t have any food allergies or intestinal irritants per se, I do feel better the less gluten, unfermented soy and highly processed, non-organic milk products I use. If you’re following a whole foods, plant-based diet, these will naturally be minimized.

Step 3 – Smart Eating Strategies

Both Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine say all disease originates from a faulty digestive system. In Ayurveda, an energy known as Agni rules over the digestive functions. Agni is a type of “fire” that breaks food down into it’s smallest components, which are then absorbed and utilized by the body, getting turned into Prana (energy), Tejas (radiance, relating to metabolism) and Ojas (strength or vitality, the equivalent of TCM’s Jing). However, if Agni is depleted or malfunctioning, it can’t fully digest food and results in an accumulation of Ama, or toxins, which leads to disease. This is an amazingly accurate description of how the digestive system actually works, and how many diseases arise in the first place.

Personification of Agni

Ayurveda stresses the importance of doing all you can to keep the flames of Agni fully stoked, or put in modern terms, to keep all your digestive juices and enzymes fully stocked, and there are many ways to do so.

First and foremost, don’t over eat! This is the quickest way to accumulating Ama in Ayurveda and the quickest way to deplete Jing and shorten your lifespan in TCM. Following the Japanese idiom “Hari hachi bu”, or eating until 80% full, goes a long way here.

Preventing overeating can be difficult at first, but is easily corrected with a little practice. Focus on sloooowwiiiingg doowwnnnnn when you eat. There’s roughly a ten minute time delay between your stomach becoming full and your brain realizing that fact. Take a bite, set down your fork, chew thoroughly, and take a second to really taste the food. Many people recommend chewing each bite anywhere from 30 to 100 times – frankly I find this to be a bitch, but I do recommend chewing each bite of just one meal 30 times, not only to prove to yourself that you’ll feel full before the meal is done, but also to show how much more energy you’ll have when your food is properly chewed and ready for digestion.

Many yoga postures, through all the bending and twisting, improve the secretion of digestive juices and enzymes. A favorite method of mine to improve Agni is using digestive bitters. Using digestive bitters was a common practice throughout Europe, and many countries around the world still make it a habit to consume a very bitter/pungent substance prior to meals – think green chutney as a condiment with Indian food. Very bitter foods increase the amount of bile released, helping to digest fatty, heavier foods.

Salt is a simple and effective way to increase digestive powers. Salt is mainly comprised of sodium chloride – the chloride in salt helps to increase the hydrochloric acid of the stomach, the main acid involved in the dissolving of foods. Lightly salting your meals with a natural salt such as Himalayan salt or Celtic sea salt can go a long way.

Spicy, pungent foods also improves digestion – ginger, black pepper, red pepper, cinnamon, turmeric, cloves and many other spicy herbs increase the flow of digestive enzymes and gastric juices, as well as increasing peristalsis, the rhythmic movements of the intestines that expel waste. They also improve circulation, enhance detoxification and many boost the metabolism, so add some spices to your life.

Making lunch your biggest meal of the day is a great way to improve digestion as well. Your metabolism is naturally highest around 12-2 pm, making lunch a great time to digest your bigger, heavier meals. Breakfast should be just enough food to last you to lunch, while dinner should preferably be the lightest meal of the day, maybe just soup or a salad. It’s also important to have a light dinner before 7 so that your stomach is empty come bed time – if it isn’t, your liver won’t get the time it needs to detox as it’s busy processing food, and the insulin released from dinner will impair many a metabolism regulating hormone. To top it all off, your digestive powers are greatly weakened as you sleep.

Both Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine recommend not consuming cold foods, and not consuming too much liquid around meals. Cold foods are said to “shock” the digestive system – while I can’t find any hard facts on this topic, I have felt that I digest warm foods better. Avoiding liquids near meals makes perfect sense, however. Lets say you were trying to melt some object with a bunch of acid – would it melt better if you added just acid, or if you diluted the acid with water? Liquids dilute the digestive juices and enzymes that help to break down the food you eat, so try to limit liquids around meal times. However, a shot of espresso, glass of red wine or some kombucha all help to actually improve digestion, just don’t over do it.

Make sure to consume plenty of fiber as well. Not only is fiber the food for probiotics, but it helps to sweep out undigested bits of food from the digestive tract. Keep that colon clean!

Finally, if you’re consuming a very large meal, say at Thanksgiving, or consuming something you know you’ll have a hard time digesting, make use of digestive enzymes. These make a HUGE difference in how easily and quickly you digest and absorb food.

Step 4 – Pre- and Probiotics

I already touched on the importance of probiotics here – long story short, they improve digestion and assimilation, improve mood and decrease stress, improve immunity, and even create new nutrients for you, some that help you to even lose weight. No discussion of digestive health is complete without paying due to our little friends in our gut. I suggest this brand here for daily maintenance, as well as consuming a wide variety of fermented foods in order to get a variety of probiotics, foods such as yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kombucha, kimchi, miso, natto and fresh pickled veggies. It’s important to also provide prebiotics, the food for probiotics, in the form of fiber, or through supplementation.

You are a reflection of your digestive health. You’ll be amazed at how much better you feel after a few fasts, upping your fiber intake, using bitter and spicy herbs to improve digestion and after regular use of probiotics. Watch as your mood improves, your skin clears up and your energy levels skyrocket. And remember, this is an ongoing process! Don’t think just because you fasted once you don’t have to ever again, or that you don’t need any probiotics after your first bottle. Trust me when I say improving digestive health is key to feeling amazing, and it will be easy to keep at it.