Our health focus for 2023... the microbiome!

I’m not much into New Year’s resolutions.

Don’t get me wrong, I am fine with setting goals and reaching milestones. But to me, every year is just a chance to improve. To make this year better than last year. Every year is a choice to get healthier. To improve performance. To get stronger. Every year is another trip around the sun, another chance for you to improve your life, to give back more to your community, to lead your family farther, to be a lasting influence on those around you. Another step on the road that is your life, to make changes that will most benefit you and your family’s journey.

But I will admit that I do have interests that usually progress yearly. I am always reading a new book or studying a new protocol and those naturally will encourage me in my journey to optimal health. I will develop a focus for a few months to a year, concentrate on that, and the things that contribute positively to my health will stick, and the things that don’t will be put aside. Last year, our focus was minerals (like copper, magnesium and iron). The year before that it was the history of the infiltration of our food supply with toxic (vegetable) seed oils. I have spent past years focusing on fasting, or getting stronger, or optimizing sleep.

This year, I have decided to focus on the microbiome.

Of course, I have studied the microbiome for years (I have homemade my own kefir, kombucha, yogurts and ferments in the past, and I still maintain a sourdough starter). But I got a little carried away. At one point years ago, I was taking several high potency probiotics that I was sure was going to fix all my gut woes. At the same time, I was on a strict ketogenic diet and had been for months. This combination did not treat me well, and gave me a bad case of SIBO, or Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth, which is as bad at is sounds.

Every time I ate, my belly swelled up like a balloon. I was much happier fasting all the time because my gut was happier. In truth, my long stint on keto had caused a die-off of the very bacteria I needed to digest food properly in my gut. The bad bacteria had been given free reign to multiply, so much so that it had seeded my small intestine, causing all the gas and bloating. Taking a high-dose random species probiotics just contributed to this problem.

As I am wont to do, I decided to take massive action. I decided I needed to kill off all these extra bugs and the best and most efficient way to do that was to go strict carnivore for 30 days. So I did it, and it worked. Kinda. To an extent.

The gas and bloating were gone. My gut woes were gone. But it wasn’t until I added back fruit and raw honey, and cut out the veggies (which you eat a ton of when you are keto), that I really began to feel normal again.

But I’m never one to be ok with “normal.”

So this year is all about optimizing gut health. And we will learn this together, through a book I have been reading over the past several months called Super Gut by Dr. William Davis.
 

From the description of the book:

“Because of our highly processed diet, pesticides, and overuse of antibiotics, our guts are now missing so many of the good bacteria required to be healthy. As a result, many of us have lost control over health, weight, mood, and even behavior.

The ancient bacteria that keep our gut in alignment and our digestion easy have been dying off, replaced by harmful microbes that don’t serve to keep us physically healthy and mentally fit. With cutting-edge research, Dr. Davis has connected the dots between gut health and modern ailments and complaints.

 ‘Super Gut’ shows readers how to eliminate bad bacteria and bring back the missing ‘good’ bacteria…to reprogram your microbiome based on research and techniques that not only get to the root of many diseases but improve levels of oxytocin (the bonding/happy hormone), brain health, and promote anti-aging, weight loss, mental clarity, and more restful sleep.”

Sounds pretty awesome, doesn’t it?

I have been familiar with Dr. William Davis for many years, ever since he wrote the book Wheat Belly in 2011 which inspired many people to completely give up grains. That book exploded the conversation on the history of wheat and hybridization, and how our modern GMO wheat is terrible for our health. What everyone now knows to be true in common wellness circles was a cutting-edge concept back then. So Dr. Davis is credited with launching the conversation.

But everything is nuanced, of course. Have we completely cut out grains? We did, for a long season. However, over the years, we have found that if we stick to Einkorn, the only original wheat strain, our guts are fine. We still look with suspicion at every store-bought or restaurant-served loaf of bread, cracker or bun (even if it says “sourdough” on the label). Not only because of the GMO grains, but the seed oils that are most likely in them all. Check out our post with more information on the subject of seed oils here.
 

So we will approach this book on the microbiome the same way. The book touts a “four-week plan,” but I’m not big on four-week plans. I’m interested in lifestyle changes. Massive action. Keeping the best and discarding the rest. We will dive in and see if Dr. Davis could be correct in his bold statements, and then we will implement the best aspects to our lifestyle.
 

Up next, a summary of the book and our approach to the process.

Stay tuned!