May 21, 2024 • 14 mins
In this episode, we dive into how your gut microbiome affects your metabolism and your overall health. You will learn:
- What your gut microbiome is and how it helps you digest food and extract nutrients
- How your gut microbes produce short chain fatty acids, regulate inflammation, process fats, and metabolize bile acids, and how these impact your energy expenditure, weight management, and risk of metabolic disorders
- How your gut communicates with your brain through the gut-brain axis, and how this influences your hunger, fullness, and insulin signals
- How to optimize your gut health by eating a variety of real foods, especially fruits, vegetables, fermented foods, and omega-3 fatty acids, and staying hydrated
- Why you should look at your body as a whole and not micromanage different parts or symptoms
Listen to this episode to discover the intimate relationship between your gut and your metabolism, and how you can reclaim your health by nurturing your gut microbiome.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
>> Jolene (00:00):
You ever wonder why I always say,
optimize the gut, boost the
metabolism? Did you know they're actually
related? You didn't. Well, listen
in. Are you ready to ditch the
fad diets? Ditch the diet dogma and go beyond the
calorie. There is a better way.
Welcome to holistic health made simple, where ancient
(00:23):
wisdom and science collides. I'm Jolene, your
nutritional therapy practitioner, and I'm here
to empower you to think outside the
box. Finally, get healthy. Together,
we will dive into the power of the gut
metabolism and your overall health. No
more yo yo dieting, no more quick fixes, and no
more confusing advice. Just simple,
(00:45):
practical, and personalized steps that will help
you reach your goals and feel amazing.
Are you ready to reclaim your health? Let's do
this. Hey. Hey,
there. So, you know, my
tagline kinda is reclaim your health by
optimizing your gut and boosting metabolism.
(01:05):
But did you actually know that your
gut health directly affects your
metabolism? Like, there's this whole connection
there. your gut's not just this food
processor. It's a powerhouse
of energy, a regulator of our weight, and
a communicator with your brain. Oh, my God.
Gosh. Let's get into
(01:27):
the nitty gritty of this relationship, because I'm
hoping that it enlightens you to take your gut
health seriously. It goes beyond
just illness and immunity and
digestion. It affects everything
in your body. First off, let's
review what our gut microbiome
(01:47):
is. Remember, it's that big, big
ecosystem that lives inside of us that is
full of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and
yeast. And it all likes to be balanced
out just like any other natural
ecosystem. Now, these microbes,
they just don't freeload off our body and
(02:07):
what we eat. They're working hard to
help you digest the food and extract the
nutrients. Now, extracting these nutrients
are essential for energy
production, growth, repair,
and reproduction throughout your body. And I'm not
just talking the baby kind. The, reproduction of our
cells, the regeneration of healthy
(02:30):
tissue. Your gut is the beginning
of all of that. It's that mini
ecosystem that makes everything else
thrive. And you need to realize something
fascinating about your gut
microbiome and your whole digestive tract.
It's actually an entity
outside your body. Unless there's something wrong.
(02:52):
But we're not talking about that today. We are going to
strictly focus on our gut and our
metabolism. Now we got it. Like,
have a primer again about metabolism.
Metabolism isn't just about
calories. It is
everywhere. Biochemical reaction
that takes place inside your body.
(03:14):
Yes, it has a lot to do with
burning energy or burning calories, but all
these other chemical reactions affect the
rate at which we burn energy. That's
why when I, see somebody online say it's only
about calories in and calories out, eat less and
move more, I know they're full of a crock of you
know what, because they don't understand that there's
(03:36):
more going in. We are not a closed
system. Our system's open. We have
all these chemical reactions that affect the rate
at which we burn energy. And depending on
our gut health, we also have issues at
the rate at which we absorb the energy. So
there's a whole lot of dynamics going on
(03:57):
here. So the
ways the gut microbiome
affects your metabolism
in a number of ways. The first one that we'll
talk about is short chain fatty acid
production. Now, your
gut bacterias break
down dietary fiber. When they do
(04:18):
this, they ferment the fiber and they produce
short chain fatty acids. These
molecules boost our energy
expenditure, they activate
brown fat, and they
enhance feelings of fullness and help
support a healthy body weight. That is what these short
chain fatty acids do. So science
(04:40):
came along and found out what short chain fatty acids do
with our metabolism. So then they tell you to take it
exogenously, except it doesn't have the same
effect. That's why we want a healthy
gut to produce it naturally out of these
fibers. Okay? That's the
first way our gut microbiome affects our
metabolism. The second way
(05:03):
is how the microbes trigger
inflammation. Now, inflammation is
an actual natural response to infection or
injury. But you always hear when people
talk about reducing inflammation,
inflammation can actually increase our
calorie burn, but it can slow down
(05:24):
our metabolism overall and lead to
overeating. Because when we have chronic inflammation
or a chronic infection or injury, we tend to get
more hungry. It's just this weird balance.
So while we want
inflammation, when we have an infection or, injury so that we can
heal, we don't really want it throughout
our body on a day to day basis,
(05:46):
because it does lead to overeating,
especially if it's chronic or excessive. And
that's generally, most people in society
live in that chronic inflammation
because of all the ultra processed foods we eat, or
the fact that our gut's not working the way it should.
that is the main thing is inflammation
(06:07):
is good when we're healing, but bad when we really don't have
anything going on other than stress or eating
foods that make our body inflamed. Foods we don't
tolerate. Sometimes it's ultra processed foods, sometimes. Sometimes it's
perfectly healthy foods that our body is sensitive to
or allergic to. Another thing that the gut
microbes do is they influence how
(06:27):
fats are processed and absorbed by
your body, which is basically fatty acid,
metabolism. We know that short chain fatty
acids help reduce blood
fatty acid levels. Now, this is not your
cholesterol. This is actually fat that circulates inside your
blood. So it helps contribute to
weight management. When we reduce
(06:49):
blood fatty acid levels, okay, because
they're looking for a place to store, we want
them to go out or just go away. On the
other hand, there is microbes that can
increase the absorption of fat.
That's why we always want a balance.
We basically want more of the microbes
(07:09):
that help us, get the
fat out of our system or out of our blood
versus the ones that make us absorb it.
Absorbing means they put it in our fat cells, and we get that little, you know,
jiggle on our butt, thighs wherever you gain the weight.
So we always want to balance. You need some
to be stored later for energy, but we don't want
(07:30):
all of it. So we need our gut to be doing the right
thing. And it's not just
eliminating it from your diet, because that also
creates a problem down the road for other things.
We need our essential fatty acids for cell
health.
So now we get into how the gut
microbes metabolize bile acids. And why
(07:50):
that's important is because
these bile acids are produced in the liver
to help digest fats. Then the gut
microbes metabolize these bile acids.
That affects our metabolism. It regulates
the inflammation throughout our body and liver
fat processing. So it helps us process those fats
(08:10):
before anything else happens, which
is really, really important. Now you can
see the gut microbiome has a
significant impact on your metabolic
health. This affects your energy
levels, your weight, and your risk of
metabolic disorders. You know, things like type two
diabetes that we, none of us want to get.
(08:32):
Okay, so the gut microbiome's
influence doesn't just stop
there. It interacts with
your brain, affecting your mood,
behavior, and cognitive processes.
I'll explain, explain the connection between that and your metabolism
in a second. The interaction between the gut
and the brain is called the gut brain
(08:54):
axis. It is a
biodirectional signaling between your central
nervous system and your gastrointestinal
tract. This means not only can the brain send
signals to the gut, but the gut send
signals back to your brain. We can get into the nitty
gritty of that whole connection a
little bit later. But why this is so important. When it comes
(09:17):
to metabolism, there are certain hormones that
are produced in your gut that trigger whether
you're hungry or whether you're full.
And like the last episode, the
GLP one, hormone is also
released, which helps with insulin. So we
need these signals and this open communication
(09:37):
between our brain and our gut to
tell us if we're hungry, we're full.
And when it needs to produce insulin and when it
doesn't, so that we can maintain a healthy
body weight and a healthy body. That's part of your
metabolism. Your leptin, your ghrelin,
your glP one, those are all part
of your metabolism. Signaling hormones.
(10:00):
They're produced in your gut. They signal to the
brain, and they tell you when to eat, when to stop
eating. And that's where people have this,
problem with the signalings. Like, they say that they
can't tell they're always hungry. They never know when they're full.
It's because the gut's not working properly to
generate these hormones, to generate this signal to the
brain. You see, there's this
(10:22):
intimate relationship between
a healthy gut and your overall health
and your metabolism. So we need
to maintain a healthy gut.
Again, you're going to ask me, am I going to tell you the same
tips over and over again? Yeah. Start with the
basics. Hydration in real food. But we'll go
into a little bit more detail today. Yes,
(10:45):
yes. Eat real foods. Yes. But
eat a variety of them. That's the biggest way. When you
look at your foods, consuming a wide
range of fruits and vegetables, different
colors. Now, you don't have to eat it all in one
day. You could space it out through the entire week, but
just cycle through things. I know it's easy to get set in your
(11:05):
ways and eat the same thing day in and day out, but
try to diversify that, because it will
do your health and your gut good.
Now, we want to make sure that we're also
including things that have prebiotics in
it. These are the non digestible fibers
that nurture the gut bacteria.
Again, that's the fiber inside your fruits
(11:28):
and vegetables. We also want to
consume fermented foods. Y'all know me.
In my fermented foods, I always suggest
sauerkraut or kimchi as the two top
ones because they have prebiotics,
probiotics and postbiotics, which are also your
metabolites. And it has recently been
found that the probiotics get entrained
(11:50):
with, the fiber so they don't get digested in
your stomach and actually make it down into your
intestines, which is even better, because that's where we want
them. Any fermented vegetable that
has fiber will do. Then you also have
things like yogurt, kefir, some
kombucha, things like that that are good to add in
as well because it gives you a different
(12:13):
set of microbes, a different set of,
postbiotics with them. But I'm going to tell you
right now, yogurt, kefir, and
like kombucha, those don't have the prebiotic
fibers like a fermented veggie would.
Okay? So try to get a variety, even in
those. And we want to
prioritize. You thought
(12:35):
I was going to say protein, didn't you? Nope. We want
to prioritize omega three fatty
acids specifically, as well as all our
omega fatty acids. But omega three, because we
don't tend to get enough of those. And the top ways to
get those is fatty fish,
flaxseeds, and walnuts.
Omega three s have an anti inflammatory
(12:57):
property, and they support our brain.
Healthy. And lastly. Oh, wait, people,
you know this one. Hydration. Hydration.
Hydration. Proper hydration
is essential for overall health,
including your gut function and your brain health.
It helps you eliminate the waste. It helps push everything
along. And without water, we cannot
(13:20):
have the chemical reactions our metabolism
requires.
Now, you're an individual, so your response
to different foods will also vary. So listen to your
body. But first, you've got to start eating real
foods so you can hear your body. It's time
we start looking at
ourselves, our bodies as
(13:41):
one being from head to toe, and stop
trying to micromanage different parts of it like they're
not interacted. Your gut is
while an entity of its own, it is still
part of the whole you. And holistic
health looks at the body from top to bottom,
inside and out, to make sure things are
running smoothly. You should, too.
(14:04):
Stop micromanaging your symptoms and look at the
bigger picture. You will get healthier. You will
maintain and reach that healthy weight, and you will
be a happy, healthier you.
On, that note, friends, I will see you next time.
Bye. Thanks for listening in today.
I hope you got some nuggets to take on your health journey.
(14:24):
Remember, this podcast is for educational and entertainment
purposes. No medical advice is being given. By
listening to this podcast, you agree to the full disclaimer, which is linked
in the show notes. If you found this podcast helpful, could
you take 30 seconds and leave a review? Your
feedback means the world to me, and it helps others
discover my show. Once again, thank you for being part
(14:44):
of my community. Until next time, have a blessed day.
You ever wonder why I always say,
optimize the gut, boost the
metabolism? Did you know they're actually
related? You didn't. Well, listen
in. Are you ready to ditch the
fad diets? Ditch the diet dogma and go beyond the
calorie. There is a better way.
Welcome to holistic health made simple, where ancient
(00:23):
wisdom and science collides. I'm Jolene, your
nutritional therapy practitioner, and I'm here
to empower you to think outside the
box. Finally, get healthy. Together,
we will dive into the power of the gut
metabolism and your overall health. No
more yo yo dieting, no more quick fixes, and no
more confusing advice. Just simple,
(00:45):
practical, and personalized steps that will help
you reach your goals and feel amazing.
Are you ready to reclaim your health? Let's do
this. Hey. Hey,
there. So, you know, my
tagline kinda is reclaim your health by
optimizing your gut and boosting metabolism.
(01:05):
But did you actually know that your
gut health directly affects your
metabolism? Like, there's this whole connection
there. your gut's not just this food
processor. It's a powerhouse
of energy, a regulator of our weight, and
a communicator with your brain. Oh, my God.
Gosh. Let's get into
(01:27):
the nitty gritty of this relationship, because I'm
hoping that it enlightens you to take your gut
health seriously. It goes beyond
just illness and immunity and
digestion. It affects everything
in your body. First off, let's
review what our gut microbiome
(01:47):
is. Remember, it's that big, big
ecosystem that lives inside of us that is
full of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and
yeast. And it all likes to be balanced
out just like any other natural
ecosystem. Now, these microbes,
they just don't freeload off our body and
(02:07):
what we eat. They're working hard to
help you digest the food and extract the
nutrients. Now, extracting these nutrients
are essential for energy
production, growth, repair,
and reproduction throughout your body. And I'm not
just talking the baby kind. The, reproduction of our
cells, the regeneration of healthy
(02:30):
tissue. Your gut is the beginning
of all of that. It's that mini
ecosystem that makes everything else
thrive. And you need to realize something
fascinating about your gut
microbiome and your whole digestive tract.
It's actually an entity
outside your body. Unless there's something wrong.
(02:52):
But we're not talking about that today. We are going to
strictly focus on our gut and our
metabolism. Now we got it. Like,
have a primer again about metabolism.
Metabolism isn't just about
calories. It is
everywhere. Biochemical reaction
that takes place inside your body.
(03:14):
Yes, it has a lot to do with
burning energy or burning calories, but all
these other chemical reactions affect the
rate at which we burn energy. That's
why when I, see somebody online say it's only
about calories in and calories out, eat less and
move more, I know they're full of a crock of you
know what, because they don't understand that there's
(03:36):
more going in. We are not a closed
system. Our system's open. We have
all these chemical reactions that affect the rate
at which we burn energy. And depending on
our gut health, we also have issues at
the rate at which we absorb the energy. So
there's a whole lot of dynamics going on
(03:57):
here. So the
ways the gut microbiome
affects your metabolism
in a number of ways. The first one that we'll
talk about is short chain fatty acid
production. Now, your
gut bacterias break
down dietary fiber. When they do
(04:18):
this, they ferment the fiber and they produce
short chain fatty acids. These
molecules boost our energy
expenditure, they activate
brown fat, and they
enhance feelings of fullness and help
support a healthy body weight. That is what these short
chain fatty acids do. So science
(04:40):
came along and found out what short chain fatty acids do
with our metabolism. So then they tell you to take it
exogenously, except it doesn't have the same
effect. That's why we want a healthy
gut to produce it naturally out of these
fibers. Okay? That's the
first way our gut microbiome affects our
metabolism. The second way
(05:03):
is how the microbes trigger
inflammation. Now, inflammation is
an actual natural response to infection or
injury. But you always hear when people
talk about reducing inflammation,
inflammation can actually increase our
calorie burn, but it can slow down
(05:24):
our metabolism overall and lead to
overeating. Because when we have chronic inflammation
or a chronic infection or injury, we tend to get
more hungry. It's just this weird balance.
So while we want
inflammation, when we have an infection or, injury so that we can
heal, we don't really want it throughout
our body on a day to day basis,
(05:46):
because it does lead to overeating,
especially if it's chronic or excessive. And
that's generally, most people in society
live in that chronic inflammation
because of all the ultra processed foods we eat, or
the fact that our gut's not working the way it should.
that is the main thing is inflammation
(06:07):
is good when we're healing, but bad when we really don't have
anything going on other than stress or eating
foods that make our body inflamed. Foods we don't
tolerate. Sometimes it's ultra processed foods, sometimes. Sometimes it's
perfectly healthy foods that our body is sensitive to
or allergic to. Another thing that the gut
microbes do is they influence how
(06:27):
fats are processed and absorbed by
your body, which is basically fatty acid,
metabolism. We know that short chain fatty
acids help reduce blood
fatty acid levels. Now, this is not your
cholesterol. This is actually fat that circulates inside your
blood. So it helps contribute to
weight management. When we reduce
(06:49):
blood fatty acid levels, okay, because
they're looking for a place to store, we want
them to go out or just go away. On the
other hand, there is microbes that can
increase the absorption of fat.
That's why we always want a balance.
We basically want more of the microbes
(07:09):
that help us, get the
fat out of our system or out of our blood
versus the ones that make us absorb it.
Absorbing means they put it in our fat cells, and we get that little, you know,
jiggle on our butt, thighs wherever you gain the weight.
So we always want to balance. You need some
to be stored later for energy, but we don't want
(07:30):
all of it. So we need our gut to be doing the right
thing. And it's not just
eliminating it from your diet, because that also
creates a problem down the road for other things.
We need our essential fatty acids for cell
health.
So now we get into how the gut
microbes metabolize bile acids. And why
(07:50):
that's important is because
these bile acids are produced in the liver
to help digest fats. Then the gut
microbes metabolize these bile acids.
That affects our metabolism. It regulates
the inflammation throughout our body and liver
fat processing. So it helps us process those fats
(08:10):
before anything else happens, which
is really, really important. Now you can
see the gut microbiome has a
significant impact on your metabolic
health. This affects your energy
levels, your weight, and your risk of
metabolic disorders. You know, things like type two
diabetes that we, none of us want to get.
(08:32):
Okay, so the gut microbiome's
influence doesn't just stop
there. It interacts with
your brain, affecting your mood,
behavior, and cognitive processes.
I'll explain, explain the connection between that and your metabolism
in a second. The interaction between the gut
and the brain is called the gut brain
(08:54):
axis. It is a
biodirectional signaling between your central
nervous system and your gastrointestinal
tract. This means not only can the brain send
signals to the gut, but the gut send
signals back to your brain. We can get into the nitty
gritty of that whole connection a
little bit later. But why this is so important. When it comes
(09:17):
to metabolism, there are certain hormones that
are produced in your gut that trigger whether
you're hungry or whether you're full.
And like the last episode, the
GLP one, hormone is also
released, which helps with insulin. So we
need these signals and this open communication
(09:37):
between our brain and our gut to
tell us if we're hungry, we're full.
And when it needs to produce insulin and when it
doesn't, so that we can maintain a healthy
body weight and a healthy body. That's part of your
metabolism. Your leptin, your ghrelin,
your glP one, those are all part
of your metabolism. Signaling hormones.
(10:00):
They're produced in your gut. They signal to the
brain, and they tell you when to eat, when to stop
eating. And that's where people have this,
problem with the signalings. Like, they say that they
can't tell they're always hungry. They never know when they're full.
It's because the gut's not working properly to
generate these hormones, to generate this signal to the
brain. You see, there's this
(10:22):
intimate relationship between
a healthy gut and your overall health
and your metabolism. So we need
to maintain a healthy gut.
Again, you're going to ask me, am I going to tell you the same
tips over and over again? Yeah. Start with the
basics. Hydration in real food. But we'll go
into a little bit more detail today. Yes,
(10:45):
yes. Eat real foods. Yes. But
eat a variety of them. That's the biggest way. When you
look at your foods, consuming a wide
range of fruits and vegetables, different
colors. Now, you don't have to eat it all in one
day. You could space it out through the entire week, but
just cycle through things. I know it's easy to get set in your
(11:05):
ways and eat the same thing day in and day out, but
try to diversify that, because it will
do your health and your gut good.
Now, we want to make sure that we're also
including things that have prebiotics in
it. These are the non digestible fibers
that nurture the gut bacteria.
Again, that's the fiber inside your fruits
(11:28):
and vegetables. We also want to
consume fermented foods. Y'all know me.
In my fermented foods, I always suggest
sauerkraut or kimchi as the two top
ones because they have prebiotics,
probiotics and postbiotics, which are also your
metabolites. And it has recently been
found that the probiotics get entrained
(11:50):
with, the fiber so they don't get digested in
your stomach and actually make it down into your
intestines, which is even better, because that's where we want
them. Any fermented vegetable that
has fiber will do. Then you also have
things like yogurt, kefir, some
kombucha, things like that that are good to add in
as well because it gives you a different
(12:13):
set of microbes, a different set of,
postbiotics with them. But I'm going to tell you
right now, yogurt, kefir, and
like kombucha, those don't have the prebiotic
fibers like a fermented veggie would.
Okay? So try to get a variety, even in
those. And we want to
prioritize. You thought
(12:35):
I was going to say protein, didn't you? Nope. We want
to prioritize omega three fatty
acids specifically, as well as all our
omega fatty acids. But omega three, because we
don't tend to get enough of those. And the top ways to
get those is fatty fish,
flaxseeds, and walnuts.
Omega three s have an anti inflammatory
(12:57):
property, and they support our brain.
Healthy. And lastly. Oh, wait, people,
you know this one. Hydration. Hydration.
Hydration. Proper hydration
is essential for overall health,
including your gut function and your brain health.
It helps you eliminate the waste. It helps push everything
along. And without water, we cannot
(13:20):
have the chemical reactions our metabolism
requires.
Now, you're an individual, so your response
to different foods will also vary. So listen to your
body. But first, you've got to start eating real
foods so you can hear your body. It's time
we start looking at
ourselves, our bodies as
(13:41):
one being from head to toe, and stop
trying to micromanage different parts of it like they're
not interacted. Your gut is
while an entity of its own, it is still
part of the whole you. And holistic
health looks at the body from top to bottom,
inside and out, to make sure things are
running smoothly. You should, too.
(14:04):
Stop micromanaging your symptoms and look at the
bigger picture. You will get healthier. You will
maintain and reach that healthy weight, and you will
be a happy, healthier you.
On, that note, friends, I will see you next time.
Bye. Thanks for listening in today.
I hope you got some nuggets to take on your health journey.
(14:24):
Remember, this podcast is for educational and entertainment
purposes. No medical advice is being given. By
listening to this podcast, you agree to the full disclaimer, which is linked
in the show notes. If you found this podcast helpful, could
you take 30 seconds and leave a review? Your
feedback means the world to me, and it helps others
discover my show. Once again, thank you for being part
(14:44):
of my community. Until next time, have a blessed day.
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