New Years Resolutions & Trends that Could Make your Gut Health Worse
New years resolutions: you either love ‘em or hate ‘em.
I’ve always been in the love ‘em group. When I was younger my mom used to ask us new years eve what our new years resolutions were. Even if it was simple or I didn’t carry through on it, it was something that I traditionally always thought about between Christmas and December 31st.
38%¹ of people love ‘em too and set new years resolutions every year (whether they keep them or not that’s a different story!)..and the top 3 new years resolutions are all centered around what you eat on a regular basis.
33% of people want to improve their physical health²
20% want to lose weight²
3% want to change their eating habits² they keep them²
While I’m a supporter of setting positive goals for your health in the new year I’m not supportive of companies, influencers or businesses pushing blanket nutrition and diet advice for the general public.
WHY? Because each and every one of us is unique with very individual nutritional needs.
What worked for one influencer might make one of their followers feel like absolute garbage! Or even worse, if they have an underlying health issue they’re not aware, could further along the progression of a disease.
5 Health Trends to Avoid in 2024 for Better Gut Health (& Positive Alternatives to Follow Instead)
Here are some current health trends to avoid when for your new years resolutions:
1.Intermittent Fasting (a hidden form of disordered eating or band aid for dietary changes):
This practice has a time and a place. Yes it has many positive benefits for metabolic health if you’re doing it correctly but I see so many people doing this the wrong way!
The key concept around fasting so many people fail to grasp is that you are shortening your eating window, not eating less food. This means still eat the amount of food you’d get in 3 meals just in a shorter eating window.
It’s already so difficult for people to get enough nutrition from the food we’re eating due to our conventional farming practices which have significant decreases in the amount of vitamins and minerals in our food.
When you cut out eating a meal or two, you’re reducing this nutrient deficiency even further as well as lowering the amount of daily fiber, pre and probiotic foods your gut needs to function properly. This deficiency over time could lead to imbalances in the gut and digestive system dysfunction.
Another common thing people do is fast but don’t change their diet to be healthier. If you’re eating processed and junk food in your eating window, it’s almost like canceling out the benefits of the fasting.
Processed foods like breads, pasta, cereal & inflammatory oils can contribute to leaky gut which is at the root of soo many digestive issues. Before diving into fasting, ensure you’re eating real whole foods with a diversity of plants and pasture raised animal products first.
Intermittent fasting is for you if: you have a diagnosed metabolic diseases like diabetes, obesity or cardiovascular issues.
Intermittent fasting is not for you if: you’re young, a menstruating woman- intermittent fasting more than 12 hours can negatively impact your hormone balance or if you have blood sugar dysregulation (which many people do and aren’t ware of) this could significantly impact your mood, fatigue, irritability and number of headaches you get.
If you’re not sure if intermittent fasting is right for you it’s best to reach out to a nutritionist or dietician who will be able to evaluate your health status and determine if it’s something that would be good for you to follow.
Try this Instead: Eat Dinner 2-3 Hours Before Bed (for an overnight fast):
Our bodies aren’t designed to eat food 24/7. One of the reasons why intermittent fasting has taken off and makes people feel so good is because it’s giving their digestive system a break. You can still get your 3 meals in by eating an earlier dinner and avoiding snacking before bed. The benefits of fasting start around 12 hours so aim for a 12 hour overnight fast. If you go to bed at 10pm and eat breakfast at 7:30am, eating dinner before 7:30pm will ensure you’re giving your body enough of a break from food to see benefits.
Intermittent fasting done incorrectly can lead to nutrient deficiencies negatively impacting your gut
2. Upping your Fruit & Veggie Intake with Smoothies:
Yes smoothies can be a good source of nutritional value, however my perspective here today is to discuss impact on digestion.
How you eat your food plays a very BIG role on your ability to digest your food. Below are some of the common issues with consuming smoothies regularly:
Chewing & Enzymes: Chewing is the first step in digestion. It helps break down your food into small enough pieces so you’re able to absorb the nutrients.
Chewing also releases enzymes to help breakdown carbohydrates (think fruit and veg!) in your food. If you swallow your smoothie without chewing, no enzymes are released which is going to make it harder for your digestive system to break the food down.
This leave pieces of food sitting in your digestive tract which will ferment and can result in bloating and gas. Over time, this can lead to bacterial imbalances and make digestive symptoms worse.
Try this instead: Eating something that’s already broken down like a smoothie makes it easy to not chew. Eating whole, unblended foods will make it easier to want to chew them first.
I always suggest a high protein meal like eggs, canned fish, leftover chicken with some chopped up or leftover veggies for a quick and easy breakfast. If you must eat a smoothie, put something crunchy like cacao nibs so that you’re triggered to chew.
Consuming Food too Fast While on the Go: Our bodies are designed to focus on one thing at a time, which means when you eat, all attention should be on eating. The convenience of drinking a meal means you’re likely not focusing on eating and multi tasking doing something else. You likely aren’t making time to sit down and eat a proper meal.
This fast consumption of food can overwhelm digestion as it’s designed to have slow, fully chewed bites of food enter the system. This can also result in the food fermenting in the digestive tract, contributing to bloating and gas.
Try this instead: Instead of drinking a smoothie in the car while you’re rushing to work, bring your food to work and eat once you arrive so you’re not stressed and distracted from driving while eating.
Ideally, if you can take time in the morning to eat at home that would be best. If you must eat a smoothie, eat it from a bowl like soup where you eat one spoonful at a time so slow the pace down while chewing.
Blood Sugar Dysregulation (Improper Nutrient Balancing):
Smoothies, just like all other meals, need to have a proper proportion of fat, protein, fiber and carbohydrates to reduce significant impact on blood sugar levels. Often times smoothies are full of fruit without the others to balance the meal. Many people have blood sugar dysregulation without knowing and eating unbalanced sweet smoothies can leave you feeling tired, irritable, hungry, low mood or anxious.
Try this instead: a breakfast high in protein and fat is going to leave feeling much more energized, clear headed and calm throughout the day. An example would be eggs with avocado and black beans.
If you must eat a smoothie ensure you have a protein powder or something like tofu, coconut oil or avocado oil, veggies (cauliflower is a good one to hide!), limit to 1 fruit or 2 berries, and seeds.
Seasonality of Smoothies: We’ve lost touch with foods that are in season in our modern world where we import and have every type of food available all year long.
Many fruits & greens that are typically added to a smoothie are cooling foods which are harder to digest in the colder months. Your stomach has to work extra hard to bring the cold foods to body temperature which can impact your ability to digest them. This can result in bloating and feeling heavy after meals.
Try this instead: Eating heated foods during the winter months will help you feel warmer and also ensure your digestive system is working the best it can. I like making a hearty chicken & veggie soup or chili that you can prepare in bulk and warm up for breakfast.
Using warming spices is another good way to increase heat and improve circulation to help stay warm. Warming spices include cinnamon, cloves, ginger, turmeric, oregano, and cayenne & black pepper.
3. Following Blanket Diet Advice:
Figuring out what exactly you should eat is complicated today…There’s so many opinions, diets, tik tok trends and various professionals telling you this is what worked for them and you should try it!
I am a strong believer that each person is unique and what works for one person isn’t going to work for the next person. If someone who doesn’t even know you says their diet or product is the best thing for you to follow, run!
Let’s say you had an underlying yeast overgrowth you were unaware of and decided this year you would try to incorporate more gut healthy foods like fermented foods, grains and starchy vegetables to increase your fiber. These changes could leave you with sever headaches, increased anxiety, recurring yeast infections and worse digestive symptoms like bloating and gas.
Then you’re left thinking “okay why am I not feeling better when I’m eating all the best foods for my gut?”..and you also don’t want to avoid these foods forever because they are amazing for your gut as long as it’s in the right state to consume them.
This is where working with a professional like a holistic nutritionist will benefit. An assessment of your health history is always completed before making any suggestions to change your diet.
If you feel like you’ve hit a wall trying to eat all the “healthy gut foods” and feeling worse, or you know you have health goals you want to meet but aren’t sure the best way to approach it with your diet, I’d love to talk through this further with you.
I offer free 20 minute discovery call’s to understand what’s going on with you and how I could provide support.
Try this Instead: Focus on Eating Real, Whole Foods
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in my gut health journey has been to tune into what I want and need without listening to any outside influences.
Focus on eating real, whole foods (and avoiding processed like cereal, bread, pasta) and tuning into what symptoms you feel from certain foods. If you have a loose bowels after eating cheese, stop eating cheese and see how you improve. Your symptoms are signals your body is sending you for you to pay attention!
Only you know what foods work and don’t work for your body. If you feel like you need support figuring out what type of diet works best for you, I’d be happy to help.
4. High Intensity Exercise when You’re Stressed
Ever wondered why you can’t loose weight and are exhausted after going to Orange Theory or a HIIT class 5 days a week??
Your stress levels play a huge role in weight gain, especially around the stomach and many women who struggle with this don’t believe me when I suggest switching their workout type to something more restorative to help them lose weight.
Here’s why: your adrenal glands produce a hormone called cortisol, which is your stress hormone. Many things increase cortisol- work stress, physical stress (think inflammation or an infection in your body), exercise, emotional stress etc. If you’re chronically stressed due to an overdemanding job, 2 young kids at home and financial issues, your adrenal glands are already working overtime (and they can burn out eventually!)
Adding in high intensity exercise is going to up those cortisol levels even further, creating more inflammation which keeps your body in a fight or flight state. This state also signals to your body that you’re in danger and therefore stores more fat around the stomach. This fight or flight state also negatively impacts your body’s ability to digest food properly, which over time can lead to digestive imbalances like bloating, gas, malabsorption, pathogen overgrowth etc.
I’m not saying high intensity exercise is bad, it definitely has benefits but your body needs to be in the right state to be doing workouts like this regularly.
Try this Instead: Restorative Exercise
If you’re dealing with any level of chronic stress, less intense exercise is going to be your best friend...that’s right you don’t have to push yourself on that treadmill anymore!
Yoga, pilates, strength training exercises, walking, hiking and tai chi are all great options. Restorative practices like yoga, tai chi and chi gong will be more beneficial for your nervous system as breathing is incorporated during these exercises.
If you do any type of exercise that gets your heart rate really up, ensure that you’re taking 5-10 min afterwards to lay down and deep breath so you’re shifting your body back into a relaxed state to ensure you’re supporting digestion.
4. Following Popular Diets (the wrong way)
As a nutritionist, a diet to me is a short-term method of eating used to correct an underlying condition.
Putting restrictions around healthy foods is a slippery slope to disordered eating, it signals to your body that something is wrong with it and can create nutrient deficiencies that can develop into a more serious health condition or bring an underlying condition to the forefront.
Many people originally feel better on a diet because they’re removing a lot of the junk, processed foods and inflammatory fats they’re used to eating which does make them feel better. However, long term significant nutrient deficiencies can occur.
Here are a couple diets that could impact gut diversity when followed the wrong way:
Keto: The keto diet was designed to manage people who suffer from seizures. People do see benefits for metabolic conditions like diabetes or cardiovascular disease from the lower carbohydrate intake, however if you have a weak liver or gallbladder, all the additional fat can be hard on digestion and could lead to pain, nausea, heartburn, fatty stool or constipation. If these symptoms show up, it may be a sign this diet’s not for you.
The marketing departments of these health food companies have done a great job at slapping keto on a label even if there’s a whole list of ingredients that aren’t so great for your gut like sugar alcohol’s, preservatives and flavouring. Instead of eating real, whole foods and healthy fats, many are seeking out packaged keto foods which are processed and have little nutritional value.
Carnivore: Many people see benefits of carnivore diet due to increased protein, cutting out processed food and eliminating gains and some groups of vegetables that can cause inflammation, especially in those with autoimmune conditions. The carnivore diet can help get a condition and symptoms under control, but the root cause as to WHY the body is reacting to these foods in the first place must be addressed which it’s often not.
We are designed to eat fiber and many studies have shown the key role plant diversity plays in our microbiome health³. Yes it may have a positive effect on metabolic health but at the expense of your gut health. Any diet that lacks fiber is going to create long term gut issues. None of these diets have been around long enough for anyone to study the impacts on gut health when followed long term.
If you have low stomach acid, eating such high amounts of protein can be difficult to break down and create an additional stress on the digestive system. If you’re feeling tired, sluggish and heavy after your meals this may be a sign this diets not for you.
Try this Instead: Eat Real Whole Foods
The ideal diet is a variety of real, whole foods with no restrictions (unless you have a food sensitivity or allergy).
According to the American Gut Project³ , you need to eat a minimum of 30 plants a week for optimal microbial diversity in their microbiome. If you’d like to read more on this click here. The best way to get this is to eat real, whole foods!
If you stop eating anything out of a package, box or can that has a list of 5 or more ingredients on the back and just eat real food, you will see huge improvements in your health! The general rule of thumb is if you see a food in the grocery store that has been altered from the way it was found in the ground, avoid it.
If you feel like you’re ready to make nutritional changes or have health goals you want to reach this year and need support ensuring it’s done in the right way to best support your body, I’d love to help you!
I offer free 20 min consults where we discuss your goals and can suggest which program would be the best fit for you.
Sources:
¹https://www.driveresearch.com/market-research-company-blog/new-years-resolutions-statistics/#:~:text=How%20Many%20People%20Make%20New,women%20feel%20confident%20about%20it.
²https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7725288/
³https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5954204/
By Krista Znebel, R.H.N.©
Jan. 16, 2024