Due to a Western lifestyle, the intestines have a tough time. The average Dutch person eats a lot of fast carbohydrates, such as bread, crackers, pasta, cookies, muesli, and meal bars. Most people think that these are good for the intestines because they contain fiber. Fiber is indeed good, but only the fiber from fruits and vegetables, with occasional grains like teff, oats, rice, quinoa, buckwheat, and millet.
What about whole grain products?
These fibers ensure that your blood sugar rises less quickly, which is positive. However, they can irritate the intestinal wall more easily; and especially people who already suffer from intestinal problems worsen their condition with these. Of course, every person is different, and so is every intestine. Nevertheless, you can consider the above as general orthomolecular advice. In our consultations, we also see people recover when they stop eating all gluten-containing grains.
What else influences our intestines?
Of course, too much of the wrong fiber and too little of the right fiber is only one risk factor for intestinal problems. Alcohol consumption, smoking, and medication also have a negative effect on the intestines. At Brain Balance, we also regularly discuss the influence of toxins. All these factors together are stressful for the body.
But in addition to physical stress, psycho-emotional stress also strongly influences the condition of your intestines. Everyone has experienced that stress can cause an uneasy feeling in your stomach. Some people, for example, experience diarrhea when stressed, while others are more prone to constipation.
Conversely, a disturbed gut flora causes mental problems such as brain fog, loss of concentration, and mood swings. The nerves between the brain and the gut are called the gut-brain axis. The effect from gut to brain is 80%, and from brain to gut, it is 20%. So, gut quality is of great importance for the proper functioning of your cognitive abilities and your emotional state.
If this only happens for a short time, it's physiology, healthy, and therefore not a problem at all. The intestine temporarily becomes more permeable. This is not damage to the mucous membrane, but the tight junctions (a kind of sliding doors) open up. The purpose of this is that more and faster glucose, water, and salt are absorbed from the intestine into the bloodstream. This increases blood pressure, gives strength to the muscles to fight or flee, and gives the brain quick energy to come up with an instant solution.
However, with chronic stress, there is a problem, because the sliding doors may open for a while, but if this happens for a longer period, too many microbes from the intestine enter the bloodstream, as well as pieces of undigested food. This is not good because the immune system then works hard to get rid of this, and this costs a lot of energy.
Perhaps you've had antibiotic courses in your life, sometimes even as a child. This can have an enormous negative impact on your gut flora, a significant imbalance. A one-week course can result in your gut flora being out of balance for a year to a year and a half.
How can you restore your gut?
It is then very important that you re-populate your gut with the right gut bacteria. You can use probiotics for this; these are the good gut bacteria that you want to add. You also want to give the microbes the right food, otherwise, they won't stay. Then you'll have expensive poop, and they'll leave for the toilet. So, you need healthy fibers; think of fermented products and plenty of fruits and vegetables. In addition, you supplement this with extra food for the gut flora, which is prebiotics.
If your mucous layer is not in order, it is important to restore it first. You can do this by eating organic fruits such as blackberries, berries, strawberries, raspberries. And bone broth that you simmer long enough for the collagen and minerals to come out of the bone and remain in the broth after straining. Furthermore, you can eat a lot of garlic, onion, nuts, seeds, and healthy fatty acids.
Certain supplements can also play a good role.
To measure is to know
Are you still struggling with your gut and/or digestion, or would you like to know exactly what's going on inside? Then it's interesting to do a microbiome test, after which our gut therapist can tell you exactly what's going on. During your consultation, you will receive a detailed explanation and valuable advice on how to proceed.
*Claims awaiting European approval
