Tag Archives: gut health

Health or Hype: Why is Everyone Eating Sauerkraut?

Credit: Flickr Creative Commons, Cara Faus

Let’s talk sauerkraut. While some eat it for pleasure, forkfuls are being shoveled down with a purpose. This lacto fermented food is in the spotlight – but is it all it’s claimed to be? Continue reading →

The posts on this blog are for information only, and are not intended to substitute for a doctor-patient or other healthcare professional-patient relationship nor do they constitute medical or healthcare advice of any kind. Any information in these posts should not be acted upon without consideration of primary source material and professional input from one's own healthcare professionals.

Why Everyone is Talking About Your Gut

Flickr Creative Commons, Hey Paul Studios

The microbiome – specifically, your gut – is getting a spotlight like never before. Fortune Magazine even deemed 2015 the “year of the microbiome.” Why? Because more and more research is being done to inspect the 6lbs of bacteria that reside in your body and its connection to a variety of diseases and conditions, from anxiety and mood to obesity and IBS. Continue reading →

Artificial Sweeteners and Gut Health: Are They Linked?

Credit: Flickr Creative Commons, Sharon & Nikki McCutcheon

Taste without the calories – is this a dream come true? For food marketers, yes. But if you’re a consumer interested in living a healthy lifestyle, not so much.

An average consumer mindful of calories may often opt for artificial sugar that are baked into protein bars, sprinkled in their coffee, or a part of their daily diet soda habit. Artificial sweeteners are regulated by the FDA, and defined by the Mayo Clinic as any sweetener that you use instead of regular table sugar (sucrose). Artificial sweeteners are many times sweeter – anywhere from 40 to 8,000x sweeter – than regular sugar.

Artificial sugars can be found in just about any grocery store shelf item, from chewing gum and cookies to sports drinks and soda. Typically the products are marked as “sugar-free,” or “diet.” Some foods contain multiple forms of these sweeteners to either lower the calorie/sugar gram count in their nutrition facts labeling or to maintain structure or shelf stability.

Artificial sweeteners are typically found in the products marked as “sugar-free.” | Credit: Flickr creative commons, m01229

Unfortunately, Continue reading →

Is Weight Gain Connected to Your Gut Health?

Credit: Flickr Creative Commons, Rafael Peñaloza

A 32-year old woman received a FMT (Fecal Microbiota Transplant) to treat Clostridium difficile and experienced rapid and unexpected weight gain. Having never been overweight prior to the transplant, the woman became obese in a 16-month’s span and, despite diet and exercise to lower her weight, remains obese today, three years post-transplant.

The suspected culprit? The FMT used donor stool from the woman’s overweight but otherwise healthy teenage daughter. Continue reading →

How Your Gut Health Affects Your Anxiety

Credit: Flickr Creative Commons, Nedral

A teenager in Boston was treated for severe obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), as well as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and an array of digestive problems using probiotics and antibiotics. In essence, mental health was treated by focusing on gut health. According to the treating physician, “after six months, Mary’s symptoms began to disappear. And by a year, they were gone. Today, three years later, Mary is a senior in high school and has no sign of either mental disorder.” In another case, a high school boy, Adam, struggled with ADHD, anxiety and mood disorders. After being taken off a lifetime of medication, she was treated with probiotics (live bacteria and yeasts) – the results and positive outcomes from this treatment amazed her friends, family and teachers.

While you and your loved ones may not be affected by conditions as severe and disruptive as OCD and ADHD, what if we told you that what you ate could be impacting your anxiety? Continue reading →