Do You Have an Unhealthy Gut? How to Heal Your Gut the Beauty Detox Way

Your gut is such an amazing and beautiful part of your body! You may be thinking “really?!” Yes really! Not only does your gut digest your food and process nutrients, but it’s a key part of your mental health too. Not to mention, it helps keep you beautiful and vibrant. I think that’s pretty beautiful. :)

I can speak from personal experience about just how important your gut health is! 

I personally struggled with gut health issues for so long. My skin was dull, my hair was coarse, and I felt so sluggish and backed up all the time! 

It took me years before I realized that poor digestion and gut health were at the very heart of my issues. 

It’s actually one of the main reasons I became so passionate about nutrition and wanted to publish my first book The Beauty Detox Solution. I was dedicated to learning as much as I could about how to heal my gut and keep it healthy!  

All that changed for me once I discovered how much my diet, thoughts and my lifestyle affected my gut health. It was a personal evolution, and one you’ll see documented in my books and on my blog— your thoughts affected your gut too! It’s all connected.

Once I discovered what was creating the imbalance I was able to heal my gut. The difference was like night and day. The fatigue, constipation, bloating and acne were things of the past!

Your mind and your body are a window into your gut health. If you know what to look for and what it means, they present many signs of an unhealthy gut. Some of them may even surprise you. 

If you’re feeling backed up, sluggish, or not as healthy as you should be, there are plenty of ways you can improve your gut health starting today.

Want to get started on your journey to heal your gut the Solluna and Beauty Detox way, Beauty? Then, let’s get started!

Why Is It Important to Have a Healthy Gut?

We’ve all experienced the discomfort of an unhealthy gut. Not only do you feel backed up, but you probably just feel tired and blah. You feel out of alignment and uncomfortable, not just in body but in mind too.

This is because your gut health is so closely connected to your overall health that if something is amiss in your gut, then you will feel it throughout the rest of your body.

There are a lot of factors that can cause an unhealthy gut. Some of them include:

• A poor diet— this can cause gut inflammation and digestive upset. 
• Multiple food sensitivities— a common but misunderstood gut issue that may be a sign of an unhealthy gut microbiome.
• Gut dysbiosis— or too many bad bacteria in your gut and not enough good. For example, a good bacterium like lactobacillus can help keep a bad bacterium like E.coli in check so it can’t make you sick. But if you have too many of the bad, those good bacteria can’t do their job to keep you healthy.
• You’re stressed out.
• You’re not getting enough sleep.
• Increased intestinal permeability— where your gut lining can potentially let more “good” matter out of your intestines, and let more of the “bad” matter in.
• Gut inflammation— including from digestive disorders like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), leaky gut syndrome or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

On the other hand, a healthy gut microbiome can not only make your digestion more robust and efficient, but it can help heal leaky gut and other digestive problems.

It can also boost your mood and help make you feel happier and more joyful. So if you’ve been struggling with your gut health, you may now be wondering— how do I fix this?!

How to Heal Your Gut Health

Remember Beauty, I struggled with poor gut health for years before I finally conquered it. You can too, with a healthy and mindful lifestyle. Here are a few easy ways to help heal your gut and boost your overall health:

1. Eat a Healthy Diet

During my podcast interview with Dr. Will Bulsiewicz, a board-certified gastroenterologist and internationally recognized health expert, he shared his best advice for gut health. 

He said, “Make sure you’re getting more diversity of plants in your diet. An abundant, diverse gut is a healthy gut. And an abundant, diverse gut requires an abundant, diverse diet in order to get there because every single type of plant is going to feed special microbes so that they can thrive and grow.”

Your gut microbes feed off of the important fiber from whole foods and transform them into short-chain fatty acids. Short-chain fatty acids heal your gut, and according to Dr. B, they can even reverse leaky gut. 

Short-chain fatty acids also reduce inflammation throughout your entire body and interact with your immune system to make it stronger. 

If you’re wondering what you should eat to heal your gut, the American Gut Project shares the single most important thing you can do for a healthy microbiome. 

What is the American Gut Project?

The American Gut Project is the biggest study to date that correlates diet and lifestyle to the health of the gut microbiome. In this study they determined the clear-cut most important factor for a healthy gut microbiome is the diversity of plants in your diet. Regardless of the type of diet— vegan, vegetarian, paleo, Mediterranean, or agnostic – they found that eating lots of plant diversity supports exceptional gut health. 

How many plants?

The number they came up with is 30 different plant foods a day. If you’ve been following me for a while you know I don’t focus on numbers. Letting go of numbers is a Yogic principle I believe in. 

If eating 30 different plants every day feels overwhelming, don’t focus on the specific number. Instead, focus on adding the most colorful whole foods to your basket while shopping. As you cook, find ways to add in as much diversity as you can to each meal. Herbs, sprouts and spices are really helpful to create more diversity!

If you drink my Glowing Green Smoothie® every day, you are almost a third of the way there. GGS alone has 9 fruits and vegetables and is a great way to start your day!

What You Should Eat in a Healthy Diet

You need to eat a well-balanced, wholesome diet to keep your gut healthy. Here are the kinds of foods you want to eat plenty of:

• Fresh, organic fruits and vegetables
• Binding and healthy fiber
• Whole grains like quinoa, brown rice and teff
• Healthy fats like avocado and coconut oil
• Plant-based protein like nuts, seeds, and dark leafy greens
• Fermented foods, like sauerkraut, kimchi and dairy-free yogurt
• Healthy smoothies, like the Glowing Green Smoothie® (GGS)

If you have food allergies or sensitivities, be sure you know what your food triggers are. Knowing what triggers your symptoms is one of the best ways to avoid foods that don’t make you feel good. Once your gut is healed, you should be able to add back in many of the foods your body reacts to or is sensitive to right now.

It’s also important to eliminate as much processed food as much as you can. Don’t be discouraged if it takes a while— putting in the effort is half the battle. :)

You can hear more from Dr. B about restoring your gut health by listening to the full conversation.

Looking for Healthy, Gut Healing Recipes?

I have so many delicious gut healing recipes on the Solluna website, it’s like an online version of a healthy gut cookbook! 

Try some of my favorite recipes featuring probiotic-rich fermented food, including:

• Tempeh Gyro Lettuce Wraps
• Spiced Persimmon Smoothie Bowl
• Traditional Korean Kimchi
• Ginger Miso Fennel Salad

2. Take the Right Supplements

There are a lot of supplements out there that make big promises for your health. But Beauty, most of these supplements are not as effective as they say they are. Even worse, some of them contain ingredients that aren’t good for your tummy, like dairy or other allergens.

The right supplements can not only give your gut health a boost when it needs it, but can also be used regularly to keep your gut healthy. This is why I created Solluna’s Feel Good Supplements and recommend taking soil-based probiotics, aka SBOs, as well as digestive enzymes. 

Soil-based probiotics are unique probiotic strains that get past your stomach acid into your gut where they’re needed to support a healthy balance of “good” and “bad” bacteria. 

When you add a comprehensive enzyme formula during your meals like our Feel Good Digestive Enzymes, it can help you feel better when you’re digesting a meal. It can also support fiber digestion, which you’ll need with all of that high-fiber plant diversity during the day! 

My Solluna enzymes are formulated with specific and additional enzymes that break down the fiber your gut needs to help reduce bloating and gas which often accompanies high fiber diets. Additional enzymes are added to help prevent candida overgrowth which is also known to upset the gut and cause flare-ups of existing gastrointestinal diseases. 

Plus, they’re 100 percent vegan and don’t contain anything you don’t need. :)

Spectacular Spirulina: A True Blue Gut Health Booster

Another excellent supplement to take for a healthy gut is spirulina. Spirulina is an algae that not only has a very beautiful blue color, but it’s packed with protein, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. It can be bought in capsules or in powder form (you can mix it into a delicious smoothie bowl—yum!).

Spirulina also helps support the growth of good gut bacteria, thanks to its mix of vitamins, minerals and amino acids.

This amazing algae will help you feel more spry and energetic. It can even help boost your immune system and help protect you from the free radicals that can make you sick. 

3. Exercise!

An active lifestyle can prevent a lot of health problems. That doesn’t mean you have to go out and run a marathon tomorrow though! Regular, moderate exercise is key to keeping your gut healthy and well, regular!

That’s because exercise modifies your gut bacteria with a number of positive effects, including increasing the number of good bacteria in your gut and enrich the diversity of your gut bacteria. It can also help reduce the risk of IBD and even colon cancer. On the other hand, a sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy diet can cause inflammation and even impact the layout and integrity of your GI tract. [1]

One study from the University of Illinois found that exercising for just six weeks can have a positive effect on your gut microbiome. The study observed 18 lean adults and 14 obese and sedentary adults. After sampling participants’ gut microbiomes, each were put on an exercise regimen—  30 to 60 minutes a day, three times a week for six weeks. [2]

After six weeks, researchers found that some participants experienced an increase in some microbes, while others saw a decrease. Many of these participants saw an increase in microbes that produce short-chain fatty acids like butyrate. These fatty acids help reduce the risk of inflammatory diseases. They also help protect your body against obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes!

Remember, you don’t have to immediately go out and start exercising vigorously for hours each day. Regular, moderate exercise is all you need to boost not just your physical health, but your gut health too.

Some of my favorite ways to exercise include going on walks, hiking, and yoga. Find what makes you feel best, Beauty!

4. Get Plenty of Sleep

A healthy sleep routine is necessary for a healthy life— and a healthy gut. The diversity of your gut microbiome can directly influence your sleep quality. Not only that, but a good night’s sleep and a healthy gut can help keep your mind sharp each day. [3]

A healthy gut and a good night’s sleep can also help produce those vital “feel good” neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine that keep your mood happy and bright. [4]

Here are some easy ways to help yourself get the beauty sleep you deserve:

• Stop eating at least three hours before your bedtime. This ensures that your food isn’t digesting while you’re trying to sleep.
• Stop using your electronic devices— phones, computers, TVs— one to two hours before bed. The blue light from these devices can reduce the amount of melatonin your body produces before bed, keeping you awake longer.
• Dedicate time before bed to relax. Some of my favorite ways to relax are through meditation, journaling, and gentle yogic stretching.
• Go to bed at the same time each night, and wake up at the same time each morning. Getting your body into this routine makes it much easier to fall asleep at bedtime.

Want to learn more about the best sleep routine for optimum health? Check out my podcast, where I interview The Sleep Doctor, Dr. Michael Breus!

5. Reduce Stress

Unfortunately, stress is just a fact of life. Some stress is normal, and can even be helpful in keeping you focused and motivated. But too much bad stress can make you feel edgy, tired, and unwell.

In our perfectly imperfect lives, there’s just no way to avoid all stress. But there are lots of ways to cope with it. :) Some of my favorite ways to cope with stress are:

• Journaling
• Exercises like yoga or hiking
• Meditation and deep breathing
• Being out in nature

I’ve written a lot about gut health over the years, Beauty. That’s because I feel so strongly about the topic. So many health problems are caused by an unhealthy gut. But at the same time, so many of them can be resolved when you heal your gut. I’ve learned this from personal experience.

Your gut truly is a beautiful part of your body, so it’s very important that you nourish it like you do the rest of your body. There’s no secret cure to better gut health— but knowing how to heal your gut can be the key to unlocking the energy and well-being you may be missing.

With love and healing,

Citations

1. Monda, Vincenzo, et al. “Exercise Modifies the Gut Microbiota with Positive Health Effects.” Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity, Hindawi, 2017, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5357536/. 
2. Pratt, Elizabeth. “Exercise and Gut Bacteria.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 24 Sept. 2018, www.healthline.com/health-news/exercise-improves-your-gut-bacteria. 
3. Smith, Robert P, et al. “Gut Microbiome Diversity Is Associated with Sleep Physiology in Humans.” PloS One, Public Library of Science, 7 Oct. 2019, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6779243/. 
4. “How Gut Microbes Contribute to Good Sleep.” Medical News Today, MediLexicon International, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-gut-microbes-contribute-to-good-sleep.

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