Bloated? Listen to Rachel!

This week we are joined by Functional Dietitian and gut guru, Rachel! Rachel explains the common reasons why so many people struggle with bloat, and how they can reduce it. We also talk about the low FODMAP diet, elimination diets, food sensitivity tests, and when or when not to do further gut testing. If you are someone who is struggling with bloat or constipation, you are going to want to listen to this one!

You can find Rachel on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/bodhi.nutrition/

If you have questions, or topics that you want to hear about, head over to our Instagrams https://www.instagram.com/nucrewnutrition/ or https://www.instagram.com/themomminnutritionist/ and send us a DM!

If you are interested in working with us in Metabolism Makeover you can sign up here! https://metabolismmakeover.co/programs/metabolism-makeover/earlybird/?affiliate=mocktailminutes

Featured Mocktails:
The Roasted Purpose - https://www.drinkwholesome.com/?ref=1472 code: NUCREWNUTRITION 

Click play, sip back, and be empowered.

Transcript

0:23

All right. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to this week's episode of Mocktail Minutes. This is Bailey. And this is Brianna. This week, I am drinking Roasted Purpose again. I have their mocha protein coffee this week. It's a good little staple one to have around, but the peppermint also is really good for the holidays. So I like that one too. I'm just drinking tea with honey this morning because I have whatever nasty something that my kids drug home with them for Thanksgiving break. So yeah, I sound nasally. Everyone is like getting super sick right now, So far I've avoided it. So let's hope I can still do that. Yeah. Usually I get away. Usually I get out of it. Not this time. Yeah. Not this time. Josh usually gets sicker, like before I do. So as soon as he starts to get gross, I'm like, all right, take your vitamin C. You're going to do shots of oil of oregano. We're going to do all the things. You're going to stay away from me. Sleep on the couch. Love you. But you know, I'm Well, this week we do have another special guest, Rachel. So, Rachel, you want to introduce yourself and give us a little bit of who you are, what you do. Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. I'm a dietitian, functional nutritionist about 13 years. And I specialize in gut health and metabolic health. Both areas I struggled with when I was younger. So that's what, you know, got me really interested in it. And I work one on one, mostly with clients. But I'm about to launch a group masterclass program in about a month. So keep your eyes open for that. Yeah. Well, that's exciting. Yeah. And I am also fighting something. This is about the second cold that's rolled through our doors already this fall. It's like those tinder carton germs. They are strong. Yeah. So I apologize to if I've sent a little nasally today. Yeah, they're no joke. Yeah, I don't have any kids. But I when my clients have been canceling like my in person ones, and they're like, I'm so sorry, I'm just sick. I'm like, Don't be sorry, please stay away. Like Not feel bad. It's okay. We, yeah, we go reschedule. Yeah. That's the nice thing about the virtual. I, I kind of like that buffer You don't get the germs. So I'm drinking a little bit of an immune booster mocktail today. So I have some tangerine juice, some lemon juice in here, and then I made it gut health. friendly since we're doing a gut health topic. So I have glutamine in here as well for gut healing and then I have my magnesium glycinate for anxiety and stress because we could all use a little bit of that right now. Oh, absolutely. Today we are talking about gut health but we also wanted to focus a little bit more on bloating. This is something, I mean, all three of us. I think I've heard several different people. Like, I don't think I can even count on both my hands or all of our hands. How many people, like so many people are just like, I am bloated all the time. I don't know what to do. Yeah. So when it comes to bloating, Rachel, do you want to cover what are usually the first few things you kind of look at address when someone's like. I am bloated. Yeah. Absolutely. Yes. Bloating, like you said, bloating is definitely the top thing that I see. Even with clients that come to me who aren't coming to me for gut health, who are just coming to me for weight loss or, you know, metabolism, they're almost always bloated, right? It's like so common. So a lot of times they want to jump right into functional testing or something really, you know, involved. And I like to start with the absolute basis, which is nervous system. So, you know, a lot of times we find people who are stressed, who are constantly rushing around from thing to thing, they are bloated. And the reason for that is their rest and digest is not happening. Their nervous system is amped up and all of their digestive functionings get shut down. So their body's not producing the digestive enzymes and acids and secretions that they need to break the food down and move it through their digestive tract. Also at the same time, their sphincters all close down and their nerves actually slow down through their digestive tract. So food tends to sit higher, move much slower, and that causes bloating for a lot of people. So first thing I always look at his nervous system. And so if somebody is constantly bloated, I say we have to work on deep breathing, vagal breathing, slowing down at meals, really paying attention to your food and mindfully eating really, really important. Second to that, then we have to make sure that we are just focusing on going to the bathroom every single day, because constipation is definitely a huge issue. huge, huge trigger for think about it. If food your gut and not being el It's producing gas, right make you feel really bloa to move things out. a Of basic things we can do hydration is a big one. U look at your body weight We divide that in half and that's the amount of ounces of water we want to consume on a regular basis. Then we add fiber to the diet. My favorite is sun fiber because it's nice and gentle, doesn't cause much bloating. And usually we work up very slowly with that. So we'll start at like a quarter of a dose and then do a half and then go to the full over the course of a few weeks. And then on top of that, we, we add other like fibers from food. So kiwis, in my opinion, are like the magic food for constipation and bloating. It really gets things moving. I find a lot of clients just need two kiwis a day. It's as simple as that just to get that poop out. So we add kiwis, raw carrots, like a raw carrot salad every day is great. Increasing bitter greens, cooked vegetables, really helpful as well. And then if that doesn't get things going a little ginger tea and some magnesium citrate usually do the trick. So constipation, if we work on that, a lot of times we see the bloating goes away with it. I think that's a good point too, because I have so many clients and gut health is like not my realm. Like obviously I know the basics, right. But I have so many clients that come to me and I'll ask them, you know, how regular are you, and it is so normal for people to not. Be going to the bathroom every day or barely going to the bathroom once a day and that's just like people are walking around like that's my normal like bowel movement. Like what? Yeah, and a lot of doctors tell people. Oh, I mean, if you only go twice a day. You know, twice a week or like every two to three days. Like if that's your normal, that's fine. So people think that that's normal, right? Yeah. Yeah. So it's amazing, you know, just getting things going, just getting things moving out. really does help a lot with the blows, with the constipation. Kind of with that being said, because that is also something I hear a lot is, well, I've always. only gone 2 3 times a week, so that is my normal. I mean, would you agree that, that probably isn't, shouldn't be your normal? We probably need to... address what is going on and see if we can get you going at least once a day. Absolutely. I mean, I think we've all heard that phrase just because it's common doesn't mean that it's normal, right? And I think, you know, if you grew up even in a family where that was normal and people are not hydrating and not eating enough fiber and not going often enough, then you think that that's the way everybody is pooping, right? It's not. And a lot of times once people start to go regularly, they go, Oh my gosh, I didn't even realize that I was constipated and I feel so much better. Like specific ingredients or anything you look for in someone's diet, when they're telling you they're bloated and constipated. That is like a red flag.'cause I know usually for me, I think about like artificial sweeteners, sugar alcohols a hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. So I always like to first look at what can we include more of? Right. I think that's super important in all realms of nutrition. So that's why we first look at, okay, can we include more of these certain foods to stimulate, you know. Bowel movements and all of that, but there's definitely stuff that can trigger bloating. So artificial sweeteners are a big one, you know, definitely look at that. Anything that's carbonated can definitely contribute to bloating. So club soda, seltzer, regular soda, beer, you know, alcohol in general is an irritant for the gut. So that is also a big one. If somebody's really bloated all the time, I say, let's take alcohol out. Temporarily until we get somewhere, you know and then on top of that, I see that a lot of like indigestible foods can be hard. So popcorn, whole nuts and seeds, they're really hard for the gut to break down and they can definitely cause, you know, excess gas and bloating for some people. And then one that a lot of people don't think about is salads. So like, big leafy green, like romaine salad type of stuff. It's really hard for the gut to break that down. So if there's something going on right now in somebody's gut that is compromising its digestive capacity, then taking those leafy greens out for a while can be helpful. If somebody is very resistant to that, I'll usually recommend like butter lettuce or bib lettuce because it's softer and easier to digest or even just switching over to like arugula or massage and kale really well to soften the fibers before you eat it Those are all things you can try I think like while we're on that topic because I know like when we work with clients we are kind of like Like hammering into them, like the importance of fiber, the importance of fiber. So is there like a certain amount that people should be increasing fiber if they're like someone that's going from not really anything a day or like, cause I know if you just go too much too fast, like you're going to have discomfort and then everyone kind of goes, okay, I shouldn't be eating broccoli or I shouldn't be eating vegetables because it just doesn't agree with me. And it's like, totally. You gotta like, work your way up. I've noticed how with chickpea pasta too, people who have switched from like, a white pasta to chickpea pasta, they're like, my stomach went crazy. I'm like, well, it's probably a lot more fiber than what you're used to. Absolutely, yeah. I mean, I think for some people, it's the best thing ever when they just jump into fiber. I mean, we see that I think a lot in metabolism makeover. People are like, oh wow, I feel so much less bloated. Bumped up their fiber, but there's definitely a good percentage of people who need to go like low and slow when they're increasing fiber and so normally what I recommend is that they start with more cooked versus raw You know, that's a great way to start increasing fiber. So like Cooked green beans, cooked broccoli, don't go like jumping into a raw vegetable tray. You know, that's going to cause a lot of bloat. Beans and chickpeas, I definitely recommend adding those in later down the line when you're increasing fiber. So sticking with more like brown rice than quinoa. They tend to be less bloat producing than the legumes, you know? And then, you know, with all of that, I also recommend for some people, starting with lower FODMAP of fruits and vegetables, just at the beginning if they tolerate those okay, and there's no dysbiosis on a stool test, then we'll go into the higher FODMAP, fruits and vegetables. So speaking of that with the FODMAP, do you want to kind of explain what that is for some people? Because there's, I mean, there's a lot online about like, if really, if you Google any type of gut health issues, it's like do a low FODMAP diet. And so is it forever? Yeah, so many people come to me, you know, I mean, I can't tell you how many people come to me and they're like, I've been on the low FOMF diet for five years. And like, I'm still having issues, you know, or my doctor just handed me a low FOMF list and told me just follow this forever and you'll be fine. Right. Yeah. So, and I say the same thing, like when you Google foods for gut health online, It's so conflicting and it's so confusing for people because a lot of times you'll get articles that tell you to eat all of the FODMAP foods, right? Like, these are the best foods for gut health. And then you'll get another article that tells you to avoid all of these high FODMAP foods. And so, FODMAPs are just different kinds of fruits and vegetables that are high in certain types of starches, sugars, that can ferment and produce gas for certain people. So, the... But high FODMAP foods are actually very good for our gut because they're really rich in prebiotic fibers And they help to feed the good bacteria in our gut and keep things regular So you don't want to go and follow a low FODMAP diet for the long haul It's not usually necessary. The people who usually benefit from a low FODMAP diet are people who have dysbiosis going on in the gut So that's when they have like a, an overgrowth of bad bacteria in their gut or candida sometimes with yeast, we do see an improvement as well. But whenever I have a client who has that, we do a low FODMAP diet for maybe a month, maybe two months at most while we're working on clearing up the overgrowth of bacteria. And then once those are cleared up, put the high FODMAP food back in one at a time, we trial and see what they can handle. And the goal is always to get as much of them back in as possible for the long haul. Does that make sense? Yeah. With reintroducing one at a time, do you go about it like one specific food at a time? Yeah. Broccoli. And you're like, all right, try broccoli for two days. See what happens. Yeah. So I'm very conservative in my approach mainly because you know, when people come to a practitioner with gut problems, they're like at the end of their rope and they really want to feel better. So once they're at the point where they're feeling good, I don't want to. Backslide them and make them feel like crap, you know, so usually they're with me in the sense of let's go slow with this Let's not jump right into it. So I'll usually do yeah one food. Let's take an apple for example So on day one of testing we'll do like a fourth of an apple on day one If they tolerate that then on day two, we'll do half an hour on day three. We'll do three quarters to a whole apple And that's the way we do it over a three day period. If they're okay at the end of that, they can kind of check off apples as these are safe for me. And then we'll move on to the next food. If they end up having, you know, extra bloating or constipation or diarrhea, then we'll go back to eating normally until they feel good. And then we'll start with another food at that point. So the tricky thing with FODMAPs, it's not black and white. So for a lot of people at the end of the day can come down to total intake and you know, how much over the course of a week. So for example, they may be fine with an apple, they may be fine with garlic, they may be fine with onion, but then if they have all of those foods in one sitting or over the course of many days, they start to notice. some sort of worsening in their symptoms. So it's kind of like a long term trial and error period for people to figure out their tolerance with it. so this takes some work and like you were saying, when people come to you, like they're kind of at the end of their ropes, they're like, I'm going to try anything. So with that though, because I think some people. I think it's almost trendy right now to have like gut issues a little bit. Like some of it's trendy and I'm like, you know, the people that are really struggling with gut health are not appreciating this, you know? So what are things that you like to see your clients doing as like a foundation before you're jumping into like low FODMAP or GI maps or like all these things that are like kind of more intense? Like what are some things, things that you want them doing so that you know your interventions? Or you're going to be able to pinpoint things. Does that make sense? Yep. Totally makes sense. Yeah. So foundations are huge. So I think, you know, we touched on it briefly, but I always check out, you know, stress, you know, what's going on with their nervous system. You have to get that under control if you want to fix your gut. There's such a huge gut brain connection and I'm not telling people that it's all in their head cause it's definitely not. But you know, we've all been there, you know, anybody who has got problems has been there where something makes you anxious. You have a gut issue. You're in the bathroom, right? If you weren't anxious, you probably wouldn't have had that gut problem. So we have to start there. And so I, a lot of times I'll give people YouTube clips and different types of links to, you know, nervous system help. Cause that's obviously not my specialty, but just deep breathing meditation, you know taking some time in your life to sit and just be quiet and be still on a daily basis can really help with the That's number one. Number two is the whole rest and digest and eating hygiene. So chewing your food really well, almost to like a baby food consistency. Making sure that we're not eating any of those really rough, hard to digest foods that we talked about. You know, getting things moving on a daily basis, hydrating all the fibers that we talked about. Those are all the foundations. onCe we've kind of exhausted all of that and if we're still having problems, then it's at that point where we say, okay, let's dig in deeper. Let's run a functional stool test. Let's see what's going on. You know, they very well could have overgrowths. H. pylori is a big one that I see they could very well have, you know decreased digestive capacity, gallbladder issues. pancreatic enzyme issues. There's a lot that could be going on under the surface. So once we've ruled out the foundations Then, yeah, it's time to dig in and look at the rest of it. What about eating enough? Because I know that if you're not eating enough, specifically talking about bloat, you will be bloated. So is that something that you kind of tackle as well? Yes, yeah. Eating enough is so important. I mean, we know this for everything, right? But yeah, I mean, people who come to me and they're under eating, they're always bloated because there's air. air in your stomach, right? Like there's, there's not enough food, food's hanging out, it's not getting pushed through. So eating enough is absolutely key. Thyroid health is also big there. So a lot of times I'll see people who have an underactive thyroid, they air on the side of constipation. They tend to bloat. They also tend to be under eaters, long term under eaters. You know so yes, eating enough is huge. The thing is, we want to make sure that we are giving our body time to digest and we're not constantly putting food in. That is important for gut health. So it's kind of a fine line between you have to eat enough, but you also need to give your body a few hours break in between eating so that there's not a constant flow of food going in, right? So big enough meals with maybe three hours in between is an ideal pattern of eating for most people. And I feel like that can kind of be a hard part of essentially waiting to get the testing done because I mean so many people you're going on years of all this bloating and nothing is working and then some people I feel like they unintentionally start under eating because they're just so uncomfortable because they're like, I'm so bloated. I feel like I don't have room to eat anymore. And then, yeah, I mean, I also think maybe even the carbohydrate intake because if you're under eating carbs, Maybe you're not under eating total, but if you're under eating carbs, that's going to affect your thyroid function, which, yes, would affect your gut health too. So I think that is a hard part and always something I like to address that getting these foundations down first is going to be most important. Because if we dive into a GI map or do our stool testing and We don't have these foundations. It's probably going to be a lot harder, I would say, because maybe we do find something, but now we're going to have to work on the foundations plus all these other things, but then it could also be like, you do the foundations and all your problems are solved and now you didn't have to go poop in a box or anything. I agree with that. And also it's exciting, right? Like all these tests, get them out of money. They're not covered by insurance, so if you can just. Learn, you know, eat more and do the foundations and fix things. That's obviously ideal, you know? Yeah. And I do see that you made such a great point, Bailey. Like I see that all the time where people just choose not to eat because they'd rather be hungry and have an empty stomach than deal with. diarrhea or bloating, right? I mean, I have, I remember feeling that way when I was younger, happened to me. And so, you know, really even just giving somebody the confidence to, you know, eat, telling them like these foods are typically very safe foods. They're calming foods. Let's work on including more of these. It can be a really helpful start to getting them to eat enough. So yeah, the first phase of gut healing, in my opinion, should always be calming what's going on. And then once you've calmed things, if then you need to dig deeper to clear out any overgrowths, then you can do that, but you should always calm first. What is kind of your timeframe that you give to do the foundations? And then you're like, okay, now we should probably test, like, do you think it's? Because I know that consistency piece is hard because I mean, with anything, if we try something for like three days, we're gonna be like, yep, nope, not working, gonna get rid of that. So, I mean, I usually say at minimum two to three weeks. Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. You know, I think it depends on how severe their symptoms are to begin with, you know, what somebody's history is, how these symptoms started. Like there's so much to unravel there when you're, Kind of evaluating whether they should be tested or not. Like if somebody comes to me and they said like, I've been, my stomach was fine until I had this one meal. I got really sick from it. And then from that day forward, I've had like increasing amounts of issues. I'm pretty likely to then say, let's get, let's get a stool test. Cause there, there may be a parasite, you know, there could have been some food poisoning going on that caused a dysbiosis, you know. So those people might need it right away, but if it's somebody who says, you know, I've just struggled with bloating and gas and constipation kind of on and off my whole life, then yeah, I like to give those people like a good month of foundational work before we jump right into testing for sure. These are great questions. Yeah. No, and I think they're good ones too, because I feel like people get really frustrated. They get really frustrated and it's, it kind of sucks to feel bloated or have like GI issues every day. So I think people hearing this will realize like, okay, yes, just because I don't see immediate results. Does it mean I'm not working towards the right direction with gut healing? I mean, depending on the issues, it can take six, nine, 12 months, even for a full recovery. If you really have a lot going on, but at the same. End of the token, there are people who within four weeks of just doing the foundations feel immediately better. So you never really know where you're going to be on that spectrum. So I think just kind of trusting the process, trusting your practitioner, knowing and believing that you can heal, you are going to get better. I think that's really important in the process. Yeah, that's a good one. That's a good thing to remember because I see people be like, this is just me. Yes. This is how I am. And so I'm going to eat this even though this bothers me, I'm just going to eat it because it doesn't matter. This is just me. Mm hmm. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I see that too. It's like the, it's like the people who don't eat cause they're too afraid. Or you have the people who are like, screw it. Doesn't matter what I eat. I'm just going to eat anything because I'm going to have a problem anyway. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Need to be in the middle there. Yeah, I always get that question because I have a dairy allergy and people are like, I could not do that. Like, I have to have cheese. I'm like, if you felt the way that I felt when I eat a piece of cheese, like, I promise you, you wouldn't eat it. Like, it's literally giving myself the flu is what it feels like. And then a migraine for three days. Like. Yeah, I don't wanna do that. Mm-Hmm. No. When something really, really makes you feel like crap, it's not even appealing to you anymore, right? Mm-Hmm. like you just look at it and see pain, so it's worth Yeah. I think a big thing too is once you establish those foundations even, and you start to feel better, a lot of it I think is inflammation going down. And inflammation is kind of a confusing piece because we don't really feel it. But then once we implement these things and we have less inflammation, then we're like, Oh my gosh, I feel so good now. And then we realized like. Wow, I felt literally like crap for years just because my body was so inflamed. So, it's always kind of an interesting piece there. Yeah, and like you said, a lot of times with inflammation, if it's stemming from gut health or whatever, it's not always just felt in the gut, it can be felt systemically. So we end up seeing like brain fog, headaches, you know, like skin issues, fatigue, sleep problems, like there's so many other health, you know, issues that come out of having a Disregulated gut that has inflammation and irritation and stuff like that. Yeah. As far as part of the foundational pieces you kind of work on with your clients, do you ever do, we talked a little bit about low FODMAP diet, would you ever do like an elimination diet? How do you approach that? Yeah. So the only time I'll do an elimination diet is if there's certain foods that we really identify, these are probably triggers for this person. So dairy being one of them. Or maybe if somebody has really bad reflux and they see that every time they have like red sauce, right? They have a huge problem or chocolate. Then we might take those things out while we're working to heal, for sure. But I, I will not do a hardcore elimination diet with clients. It is just, in my opinion, not at all feasible for most people in real life. So if we really are suspecting Multiple food sensitivities, that's where I'll actually do the MRT food sensitivity test that I'm certified in. It is the most reliable of food sensitivity tests that are out there. And in my opinion, just getting a blood draw and getting the answers that way is way less you know, difficult than putting somebody through an entire elimination diet. So that's my go to in those instances. As far as the food sensitivity test, because that was kind of something I've always been told to be weary of where everyone's like, well, if you get a food sensitivity test, it's going to tell you you're sensitive to every single thing you eat on a daily basis. So can you touch on that a little bit, just out of my personal curiosity? Yeah. I agree with you. So 99 percent of the tests out there, they're what we call IgG tests, right? So those 100 percent give false positives. And they, they really irk me because people will come to me with these. your test results and I have to explain to them, you know, your body is going to actually produce IgGs in response to foods that it just recognizes. It's like a memory tracking system. So a lot of the foods that are coming back as sensitive are just, it's just your body saying, Hey, I know this food. That's it. So I always eggs, always eggs, always dairy and gluten for everyone too. Yes. Right. Thank you. Those are like the top foods we all eat, right? They're in everything. And chicken. Chicken is a big one I see on there, too. Chicken is huge. Chicken is huge. And chicken for most people is fine. Very few people really do have a problem digesting chicken, you know? So, yeah. So the IgGs are completely not recommended. IgE is a food allergy, as you know, a food allergy. Yes. It's totally different and, you know, accurate. So the one that I run, it's called a mediator release test, and it's, it's a blood test. It's not a finger prick, it's a blood draw. And it actually looks at your white blood cells inflammatory response to foods and chemicals. So mediators, for those that don't know, mediators are chemicals that our body produces in, in inflammatory response. So cytokines are one of them histamines, histamines. That's a mediator. So that's what this test looks at. And then it also evaluates how large of a reaction you're experiencing. So it will give you low reactivity, moderate reactivity and high reactivity foods, depending on how many of those mediators are being released. So it's very, very reliable. It's been proven the most reliable of all of the food sensitivity tests that are on the market. And when I use them, when I use this test with clients, I do tend to see a faster improvement in gut symptoms for the people who come back with highly reactive foods when we remove those. thE people who come back with like moderate to low reactive foods, I don't usually see a huge improvement when we take those out. It's really the ones that are very highly reactive that we see a difference. And I'm assuming you would do like eliminate one food at a time, right? Because, I mean, if we were to go and eliminate like Eggs, dairy, and gluten all at the same time. And if, yeah, let's say they do start to feel better. I feel like that can be a little bit complicated because then you're like, Okay, well, which one was it? Most of us want to eat as much as we can. Not like, limit everything. Yeah. So, with the MRT test to be certified, you have to actually be trained in the diet that follows getting the results. So this is a great question that you're asking. So the correct way to go about this, it's very simple. The highly reactive foods, so they're the ones that come back in red. It's very easy to read when you get this back. Those, we take them all out for six months. Okay. The yellow ones, they're removed for three. Those are the, the moderately reactive. And then anything that's under that, what we do is we remove, it's kind of hard to explain, we remove the higher level of low reactivity foods for about a week to 10 days. So they're eating a very restrictive diet for only about seven to 10 days. In that the whole point of that is it's it's called an immunocom diet. It's the calm down any sort of inflammatory immune response that your body is having to food after the 7 to 10 days. Then we progressively add back all of the green. foods that are less reactive. Am I explaining this? Okay, complicated. Yeah. sO after we've done that, then again, they're eating all of the green foods, which is quite a lot of food, quite a lot of variety for most people. They're eating all of those for three months while they continue to avoid the yellow and the red foods. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay, so the whole point of this is we calm things down. We get, we turn off these inflammatory chemicals while we're healing the gut. That's the important piece. I would never run this test on somebody and, and not also focus on a stool test and healing what's going on, you know? So while things are calm, we heal. And then when we start to retest those yellow and those red foods, a lot of times the reactivity has now gone down because your gut's healed, you're not as inflamed, and you find that you can actually tolerate those foods now where you couldn't tolerate them months ago. So it's a really, it's a long process but it's really effective for a lot of people. And usually towards the end, I find that most of my clients only have to avoid maybe two of the foods in total. For the rest of time. So it's, it's pretty helpful. They're not restrictive for, for the long haul. No, that was my question because I have had a couple of clients who I think, I think it might be the test you're talking about. And they got with a practitioner that was like, here is your results. Avoid that. And then like, that's kind of it. And so, and I, I'm under the understanding like, once you heal the gut for the most part, you can eat all of those foods. Like, you're not going to always be having like, such a negative reaction to those foods, maybe like 1 or 2 things. You just know like that's that doesn't work with for my gut But I think people think like I got this food sensitivity test It showed all these things and now for the rest of my life. I have to avoid all those things Yeah, and it's it could do more damage to them than good. It's similar to following like a low FODMAP diet forever, you know It's really not helpful for long term gut health and then also just for long term metabolic health, you know It's not helpful. So You really have to make sure when you're having a practitioner read these tests that they are well trained and that they're giving you the correct guidance on how to move forward. It's so important. And we don't know, we never know what comes first, the chicken or the egg is what I always say, you know, like, did the food sensitivity come first or was it the gut imbalance? That came first, So in my opinion, being somebody who has struggled with gut issues myself, we just want to feel better first and foremost. So if running a food sensitivity test that's reliable and removing those foods helps you to feel better faster and get to the end faster, then why not do it, right? But it should always be done with the mindset of this is a temporary phase, and eventually we're going to really start adding these foods back in. And I always remember for the food sensitivity, the IgG, it's like double G's because we're just guessing. That's what it tells you. It reminds me of, like, it's not super reliable. Because that's what most people are doing. Like, if you go and ask your doctor, like, for a food sensitivity test, or you get one randomly online or something, that's usually what it is. Yeah, I mean, there's not that many people who are actually trained in the MRT test. It's very long training. It was an extensive exam that I had to take for this. So I think a lot of people actually just kind of dietitians prior, like, eh, not really into it, you know but I, I love it. I don't run it on a lot of clients. I will say that. So the stool test. I run that on a lot of people. The food sensitivity test, I would say maybe 20 percent of the people I see. Cause again, it's expensive. It's a blood draw. It's not like a finger prick and I don't want people cutting foods out. They really don't have to. So it's not my first go to. I usually pull that out. If the stool test comes back showing a lot of inflammation a heightened immune response. response, you know, and there's not dysbiosis going on or a parasite, that's when I'll start to say, okay, you know what, let's dive in and look closer at food sensitivities at this point. Yeah. So kind of going back to the constipation, with constipation, if they're doing all the foundational pieces and then. Nothing is working. Like they're still not going and it's been like four days between bowel movements and then let's say you're like, okay, well, let's get a stool test for when you finally do have to go. What are kind of things that you look for if someone's constipated? Oh, gosh, it can be, it can be anything and everything. Parasites can definitely cause constipation. And, you know, I wouldn't say a lot of people have parasites, but I have had my fair share of clients who have parasites. And so that is definitely one we want to look at. H. pylori can cause constipation for people. H. pylori is the most common bacterial infection that we see. It embeds itself in your gastric lining and then it weakens the stomach acid and the lining. And so what that does is it actually it Makes the digestion of food a lot more difficult because you don't have that stomach acid there to break that food down And so then you have these whole pieces of food going through your digestive tract causing constipation and bloating So H. pylori is a big one I see it's it's a pain in the butt to kick but you can definitely do it And if you have it, you should do it And then with that, we also see dysbiosis. So depending on the pattern of dysbiosis or bacterial overgrowth, some can lead to diarrhea, some can lead to constipation. And so it just depends on what's overgrown for what people. And then on the same note, it can also just be low good gut flora. So you may not have an overgrowth of bad bacteria, but we may see that all of your good guys are really low. And so we have to work on Building up the good flora, feeding them the prebiotic fibers, you know, this is where probiotic might come in, in handy. So that's sometimes it's just that. It's not even a bad overgrowth that's going on. And then when we get into the later part of the stool test, we look at like gallbladder, like bile, you know, what's going on with your bile flow. Are you producing enough pancreatic enzymes to break food down? If you're not, then that can definitely cause problems. constipation for people. So that's where we might work on bile flow, you know, liver health, all of, all of that. We may throw in some pancreatic enzymes at that point. So there's a lot of different things we look at that can, you know, make constipation occur. And a lot of times it's not just one, it's multiple factors that you have to work on. That makes sense. Yeah, I think what's hard about gut health is that it's like if anything's wrong with the gut, it's going to be constipation, diarrhea, bloating. It's like every single thing that's wrong with the gut can lead to all those things. So, That's where it can be tricky because it's never like, Oh, because you're constipated, it's because of this. Like, there's so many things that can be going on. Sometimes, it's always nice when the foundations work and then, yeah, you don't have to go through all the testing and everything. I agree. Yeah, yeah. I find typically, though, constipation is faster to resolve for people than somebody who's dealing with long term bouts of diarrhea. I find that takes longer to fix. So, you know, if anybody wants a little glimmer of hope who's struggling with constipation, it is usually a faster resolution. Yeah. I think it's funny, like, I ask people all the time how they're pooping, I'm like, It's a very important question. I need to know how often you're going. What does it look like? Information. Yeah, it's what I like. People will apologize. They'll be like, sorry, this is so much TMI. I'm like, it's actually not. I need to know this. It's really great. I think there's no TMI when it comes to functional nutrition and dietitians. Like we're just, we talk about it all. Yeah. Yes. I mean, even like the stress piece we're mentioning that part, I feel like can get a little emotional because. You come into a dietician's office or their computer, I guess. We're like, tell me about your stress. What causes your stress? And then people are like, Oh my gosh, like I thought you were just going to tell me to go eat my fruits and vegetables. No, no, no, no, no. We go more in depth because like, if we think about it, stress does impact a lot of our eating habits. And even beyond that, it's going to affect our gut health and our stress. Well, our stress effects, our stress, our stress effects are like inflammation. Our body. So it does, I think, become a very emotional piece where, then yeah, it also becomes, we get to know you really well and then there's no such thing as too much information. Give me all the details of your life. Yeah, we have to know all of it, you know, trauma, like if there was trauma that occurred when somebody was a child, that could be a huge reason why we're experiencing gut health in our 30s and 40s and 50s, you know, all of that. Yeah. And that's the hardest part to work on. I mean, I think we've all But on our own healing journeys as well. So I think we probably can all agree that taking a supplement, you know, adding a food, taking a food out. Like that's the easy part, working on the nervous system and the stressors and like how you're handling, you know, your life is so much more challenging and people don't want, a lot of people don't want to look at it, you know, they want to ignore that piece, but it is a huge game changer for the gut health. We tend to, I think. Brush like stress management off the table where we would rather just take a supplement and fix our gut health rather than Dude some deep breathing. Yes. Yes. Make a big difference. It's the simple things You know, actually I think that's a great point too, you know, a lot of times we're just jumping to supplements let me try this one let me try that one and all of a sudden somebody's spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on supplements and Oftentimes you maybe need two supplements, you know, yeah process. It's so much more nervous system work, you know, eating behaviors and the other stuff we've talked about, then it is adding a supplement. Yeah. I think this episode you have offered a lot of great information. I've even learned a few things myself. It's been really good to have you on here to close it out. Do you want to give like your top three gut health tips? So I think we talked about some of them. So it sounds silly, but honestly, anybody out there who's struggling with constipation, just start eating two kiwis a day. My, my old business name for 10 years was actually kiwi nutrition, because I really found that kiwis were just like this miracle fruit. Not only do they help with constipation, but they're a huge source of potassium, which most of us need, and they've been shown to also help with sleep. And sleep is such a foundational, you know, principle to me. So I am like, I should be like on a Kiwi campaign. Like you should, everybody should be having two Kiwis a day. So try that. You know, the other, I think important thing to remember is focusing on what you can include more of, whether that's More stress reduction, more movement, more of the certain types of foods we talked about. Just focusing more on abundance and less on restriction, I think is super important during a healing journey of any type, but especially on a gut healing journey. And remembering that it all starts up top. So you have to work on the brain. You also have to work on your oral hygiene. We didn't really talk about that. But it is something I discuss with a lot of my gut health clients because what's going on in our mouth definitely directly impacts what's going on in our gut. So I see a ton of people who, who maybe have fillings that are no longer good, or they've had root canals and they have hidden infections, or maybe they don't see a dentist regularly. So you really have to work on that oral health if you are wanting to also fix that gut. So. Yeah, those are my three oral tips. With the oral health, that kind of reminded me to dry brushing, which was something I didn't even realize what it was until I googled it. Like I figured out about, I don't know, two years ago, but the brush I always thought was just like a little back scratcher that you use in the shower. Oh wait, no, that's not it doing that. Do you want to touch on that real quick about like what is dry brushing and the benefits of it? Yeah. I mean, so dry brushing, it's it's going to help your body with lymphatic flow and drainage. You know, our lymph sits. right under our skin. You don't need a lot of pressure to move it, but nothing's really like pumping it the way that your blood is pumped by your heart. And so dry brushing is the way that we can stimulate that lymph, that lymph to actually flow and bring it to our different areas in our body where we have lymph nodes that can help to kind of cleanse and detox the lymph from our body. So I love dry brushing, you know, everybody has their own technique. If you Google it or YouTube it, you're going to see a million different ways to, to dry brush. So I always tell people just kind of play around with it and see what feels good to you. I always do it right before my showers, you know, obviously like roughs up your skin. And so then it's nice to take a shower afterwards and then put the lotion on. But yeah, I think dry brushing is a great tool on that note. That kind of sparked in my head because I was talking about oral hygiene. Tongue scraping is another tool that people might want to get into. You know, we brush our teeth. We might brush your tongue. A lot of bacteria and yeast sits on in the tongue. And so getting a nice stainless steel tongue scraper and doing that every day is a great way to help with that. Oral hygiene and then also coconut oil pulling is something else that I'm a big fan of. Do either of you do coconut oil pulling? I've done it. I've thought about it and then I read that you had to do it for 20 minutes and I was like, eh, nevermind. One of those things that I personally feel a little bit every day is going to do more than worrying about hitting it for 20 minutes, you know, so yeah, I definitely have not done it for 20 minutes. No, I think my, I think my muscles would hurt like in my mouth, right? You didn't have to throw up. It starts to get a little gross, right? Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, I think it's a great tool, especially if anybody has like a yeast, Candida type thing going on, coconut oil swishing in your mouth, you know, even if it's just for like five minutes, I think it can be very helpful. So something else people, if you're listening, you can look into. Yeah, yeah, maybe I'll try it for five minutes. 20 minutes is too intimidating. And I was like, Nope, I agree. I don't I cannot do it for 20 minutes. It's gross. But also, aside, you know, note to that, don't anybody who's listening, don't spit it in your sink or in your toilet, because it can clog the pipes. So you definitely want to make sure you're spitting it into like a tissue or toilet paper and then throwing it in the trash. That that's because I would have definitely just spit it in the sink. Yes. Yeah. Which I mean, at first it's fine, but then over time, you're going to be like, why is, why is my sink not draining? And there's just all this coconut oil. Yeah. But I think that these are all really great tools. You know, rebounding's another one. Some people really like for a limp flow. So if you're not into dry brushing, getting a little trampoline, a rebounder and jumping out of that can be really helpful too. And then lastly, I'll say, you know, I think everybody should look up the ILU massage. It's a stomach massage for constipation all these different modalities, you know, you can again, YouTube it, you know, it's actually there's a video of that in my master class that's coming out as well. But it really can help if you just feel like things are not moving, you're bloated and uncomfortable, you can do this really nice little stomach massage and it helps to move the poop through your colon and down and out. It's a helpful tool. I love that one. Cool. Thank you so much again for coming on. Do you want to share where people can find you? Yep. So I'm not on that many platforms, which is terrible if we were just talking about this. I need to get on more, but you can find me on Instagram. My handle is Bodhi, B O D H I. So bodhi. nutrition. And then you can also find my website through there. You can find links to the masterclass suite list on there. And you can also find a bunch of freebies. There's a three day gut calming meal plan you can grab. And you can also apply to work with me, of course as a client one on one. Awesome. And we'll include that too in the show notes. Thanks so much for having me guys. This is fun. Yes. Talking forever. I know. We could go on tangents forever. I think we said this was going to be a half hour and we've been talking for almost an hour. I know. We try. We really do. People by now, I think no. Like it's going to be 20 minute episodes, 24 minutes later. You ask great questions, you know, and he's always cover and then things pop up. So you never know, you know, and it's the world of gut health. I mean, you can go off on all of these. Oh yeah. All right. Well, have a great Thanksgiving guys. Yes. Thank you. Yes, you too. And we'll talk to everyone next week. Have a great rest of your week and thank you for listening. Bye. Bye. Bye.