Carbs are good – Carbs are bad – Do you have carb confusion?

Here are some carb facts:

• Carbs are good
• Carbs are bad

Both, really? Yes, because the term “carbohydrate” is a broad one, and there are two very different sides to carbohydrates.

Man used to eat a lot of fiber/carbs

Before the processing of grains and the industrial revolution and the grain mills, the carbohydrates eaten were vegetables, including starchy potatoes, sweet potatoes, roots, fruit in the summer and early fall, cooked beans, lentils, some honey from beehives and that was about it.

Carbs were good. Man ate a great deal of healthy carbs that came with healthy fiber, to the tune of over 100 grams per day. He produced several large bowel movements per day to attest to that fact.

Carbs cause inflammation and disease

Enter in white flour and refined sugar and suddenly man is fat, inflamed, and constipated. And all he wants is to eat more of the white stuff because he’s addicted.

Well, no wonder carbs got a bad name for themselves.

We know inflammation is at the root of the degenerative diseases we’re all trying to avoid – obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, an autoimmune disease. And simple, refined carbs play a leading role in such inflammation.

Your gut bacteria can be pro- or anti-inflammatory

We also know that our gut bacteria, or microbiome, dictates whether we are pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory.

Basically, just as there are good carbs and bad carbs, there are also health-promoting and health-destroying gut bacteria. And wouldn’t you know, good carbs, the lovely complex carbs that are resistant to digestion, until they’re low in your intestine, keep your microbiome healthy and happy and anti-inflammatory.

Just like momma, when the gut organisms are happy, everyone is happy and healthy.

Healthy gut bacteria aid in detoxification and brain health

Healthy gut bacteria do many good things: they aid in your ability to detoxify, they keep bad genes turned off and good genes turned on. They protect and regrow your brain!

As Dr Perlmutter was recently quoted as saying: “The health, vitality and diversity of gut bacteria are critical in determining our health destiny.”

“Health destiny” – that’s pretty profound. We need to keep those little guys happy.

Keeping your gut bacteria happy

Let’s look at a few more things, dietarily speaking, gut bacteria like and dislike.

It turns out that how and what you eat determines the populations of bacteria you have.

People who eat a lot of eggs (rich in choline and carnitine) for example, this also includes meat and dairy eaters, have a community of bacteria that turns something called TMA (trimethylamine) into TMAO in your liver. TMA is a product of the decomposition of plants and animals.

TMAO is a toxic compound increasing your risk of not just heart attacks, heart failure and strokes, and kidney failure. TMAO affects your brain negatively as well. It’s bad stuff.

Interestingly, if you eat predominantly plant-based and only occasionally eat an egg, you don’t possess the bacteria in your gut to turn TMA into TMAO. Your body just won’t do it. This is a very good thing.

You see the predominantly plant-based eater has a whole different set of organisms in their gut as compared to a meat-eater. Our gut bacteria play a role in how inflamed we are. It turns out that plant-eaters are much less inflamed and have healthier gut bacteria.

Happy gut – happy brain?

We mentioned that gut bacteria, when healthy, aid in detoxification. Did you also know they play a role in manufacturing BDNF, which stands for brain-derived neurotrophic factor? BDNF actually helps you to grow new brain cells and maintains the connectivity of your brain cells.

If you want to prevent cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s, memory loss, and the like, BDNF is your friend.

Happy, healthy gut bacteria is the solution, but what do they like to eat? Healthy carbs, mostly in the form of fiber.

What about leaky gut?

If you’ve been reading up a bit about your health you’ve likely run into the term leaky gut. It’s a big problem caused by inflammation and it, in turn, creates all sorts of health issues including autoimmune disease, digestive problems, infections and more.

How does the microbiome play into leaky gut?

Healthy, correctly located gut bacteria maintain your gut lining, the very integrity of your gut, thereby preventing and healing leaky gut.

Happy gut bacteria – that’s our goal

Unhappy gut bacteria = inflammation = cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, autism, Alzheimer’s and more.

It’s no overstatement to say that without a healthy gut, good health is impossible.

Granted we have a lot more to learn about our 100 trillion friends in our gut, but from what we do know, feeding them well is vital.

Summary

Here’s what we know:

1. Our gut bacteria need a lot of healthy fiber.
2. They do poorly with refined carbohydrates.
3. Certain populations of bacteria are negatively influenced by animal protein, especially eggs, meat and cheese.
4. A personalized assessment of your current gut microbiome, if possible, is an excellent step to help direct your health efforts.

How’s your health?

Are you ready to improve your health but just don’t know where to start? It doesn’t have to be difficult but you do need a team who understands how to get to the true underlying cause of your complaints. You’re not just your symptoms, your “pain” or your “fatigue” or your “digestive problem”. You’re you and there’s a reason your body is giving you certain symptoms.

You can have many complaints but underlying them is just 2 or 3 key causes.

We create personalized programs to identify and address those underlying causes.

How do we do it? We have tools to isolate and identify why your body isn’t functioning optimally. There’s always a reason. You’re not destined to feel bad and remain ill. Your body can heal.

It just needs a little help.