3 Common Ingredients To Avoid Because They Hurt Your Gut Microbiome Balance | Ep. 139

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I'm Bridget Walton, a Women's Hormone Coach helping ambitious women ages 25-40 naturally restore hormone balance, fix irregular periods, feel confident in their fertility, and resolve gut health issues without restrictive dieting.

If you struggle with missing periods, PCOS symptoms, bloating, or unpredictable cycles, this women's health podcast will teach you how to support your hormones through strategic nutrition and lifestyle changes that actually fit your busy life.

On I'm Hormonal, you'll discover natural solutions for period problems, learn how gut health impacts your hormones, and get practical hormone balance tips from a functional nutrition perspective - no more guessing what your body needs.

This episode give you 3 sneaky, common ingredients that have a negative impact on your gut microbiome. Want to support better long term hormone health? Start by becoming aware of your exposure to these 3 ingredients and then making a plan to reduce or eliminate consumption of them. You've got this.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
The health of your gut is absolutely critical for
your hormone health.
And that is why today we aregoing to be talking about three
common ingredients in food thatcould be disrupting your gut
microbiome and maybe evencontributing to an imbalance in
your gut microbes.
Welcome to the I'm HormonalPodcast.

(00:21):
I'm Bridget Walton, a women'shormone coach, helping busy,
ambitious women throughpersonalized coaching and
science-backed solutions.
Whether you are working with meone-on-one or listening here, my
goal is the same.
Help you to stop guessing aboutyour hormone health and start
seeing real progress.
So let's get into it.

(00:42):
If you listened to this week'searlier episode, you will be
already understanding howantibiotics can throw your gut
health for a loop.
And this is a continuation ofthat conversation.
Because, as I mentioned just amoment ago, we're gonna be
talking about three everydayingredients that can be, you
know, secretly contributing tothese imbalances.

(01:04):
So let's just go ahead and hitNumido Uno.
The first ingredient that I wantyou to be hyper aware of is
refined sugar and high fructosecorn syrup.
These ingredients, thisingredient can directly feed
opportunistic bacteria.
For example, you may have heardof yeast like candida.

(01:28):
These are um these arecomponents of your gut that
really love a little sweettreat.
And if you're over therethinking, Bridget, you cannot
seriously be telling me to justnot consume sugar ever again.
I hear you.
For some people, right?
No, first.
For all of us, our bodies aredesigned to break down these

(01:49):
sugars, yes.
But if you have some type ofimbalance or I don't know, if
you're listening to this podcastbecause you are looking for a
solution to something that is alittle bit out of whack, then um
paring down your refined sugar,your high fructus corn syrup
consumption is going to be anabsolutely solid first step.

(02:11):
Now, let's move on to itemnumber two, which gosh, are you
over there thinking, cool, Iwill just swap my Coca-Cola for
a diet coke?
Well, I hate to break it to youthen because the second
ingredient that I want to talkto you about are artificial
sweeteners.
So thinking of like sucralose oraspartame, those are some of the

(02:35):
common names that you might befamiliar with.
There have been studies thatshow that these artificial
sweeteners can alter gutmicrobiome composition and can
potentially reduce thebeneficial bacteria in your gut
as well.
So remembering that thebeneficial gut, when the
beneficial bacteria rather, um,if they are in low quantities,

(02:59):
if they're not super abundant,then that could allow space for
these other opportunistic orkind of bad guys to flourish.
So artificial sweeteners, couldthey be a net positive in some
regards?
If blood sugar is a huge thingfor you and you are trying to um
really reel in your blood sugar,maybe an artificial sweetener

(03:23):
would be supportive for yourgoals.
Actually, that being said, youcan still have a blood sugar
spike, even if you're consumingan artificial sweetener.
Aside from that, though, I'msaying this to say avoiding
these will absolutely be helpingyou to A, investigate what's
going on with your gut health,B, support optimal gut health,

(03:46):
and B, it's gonna be a good um,a good emphasis for you, good
suggestion, reminder for you tofocus on those whole foods
anyway, because that's whereyou're gonna get the most
nutrients.
They're of course going to bethe least processed, and that's
what I would love for you tofocus on.
This brings me right intoeveryday food number three, or I

(04:11):
should say another ingredient.
And this one is an emulsifierthat's found in processed foods.
So a couple of examples are umcarboxymethylcellulose, also
polysorbate 80.
What these do, um, they candisrupt the mucus layer that
protects your gut lining.

(04:31):
So when you eat foods that arehighly processed, if they have
these ingredients in them, it'sjust another source of
inflammation for your gut liningand can be, of course,
disrupting the actual balance ofthose bacteria of the microbes
within your gut.
So this is just a little minishort episode.

(04:54):
Three suggestions for you.
Consider, like first, what isyour exposure to refined sugar
or high fructus corin syrup?
What is your exposure toartificial sweeteners or to
emulsifiers found in processedfoods?
Once you have an idea of yourinteractions with them.
Second, make a plan to reducethat.

(05:17):
Third, make a plan to track anychanges that you observe,
improvements or otherwise, sothat you can get more of these
clues.
You are your own detective asyou figure out what is going to
be helpful for you and what isgoing to get you closer to your
hormone health goals.
That is just about all I've gotfor you today.

(05:40):
Go ahead and share this episodewith a friend or with your
roommate or partner becausewhat's a better way to influence
what you're eating and get on adifferent track than sharing
this with other people in yourlife that you're eating food
with, that you are consumingliquids with.

(06:02):
Shouldn't be used as areplacement for any sort of
medical advice or diagnosis.
Thank you so much for listening.
Again, my name is BridgiaWalton, and I will see you on
the next one.
Hit me up on Instagram at I'munderscore hormonal if you have
any questions in the meantime.