A healthy gut is essential for comprehensive health and hormone optimization. Gut health is so paramount for hormone optimization that I devoted an entire section of my hormone optimization lecture series to it many years ago. If you have deleterious gut health you can forget about absorbing maximum nutrition and likely not even adequate nutrition from the foods you consume. This will inevitably contribute to poor mental health, lack of vitality, and just an overwhelming feeling of being off. Gut health and mental health are intrinsically connected. There is no way you’re going to have an optimal hormone profile or come close to feeling your best with gut issues. If you live off of Pepto Bismol, Tums, and Gas-X it is time to get serious and turn things around while you still can. Hormone optimization is energy intensive and relies on an adequate intake of macronutrients, micronutrients, and polyphenols and if your gut health is off you will have difficulty extracting these nutrients. Why go through life feeling like a shell of what your actual potential is? Take charge of your gut health, prioritize optimizing hormones, and have the energy to thrive.
To improve your gut health you need to support your microbiome, the 38 trillion microorganisms living in your body. According to Ruairi Robertson PhD, A healthy gut microbiome controls gut health by communicating with the intestinal cells, digesting certain foods, and preventing disease-causing bacteria from sticking to the intestinal walls. Experts in the fantastic Netflix documentary, Hack your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut recommend consuming at least thirty different fruits and vegetables over the course of a week, and going higher has more benefits as the greater the diversity the greater the benefits. Fruits and vegetables contain prebiotics from fiber to nourish your microbiome. While consuming what seems like a tremendous amount of fruits and vegetables may seem like a daunting task, remember it is thirty different fruits and vegetables over the course of a week not every day. If variety is seriously lacking in your nutrition plan, start with ten different fruits and veggies and build up to thirty over time. Legumes, mushrooms, nuts, and seeds also contain the prebiotics that an advantageous microbiome requires to thrive so add several servings to your regimen every week to maximize the benefits of greater diversity for the healthiest microbiome possible.
Here is a list of fruits and vegetables I consume over the course of a week
- Cucumber
- Celery
- Zucchini
- Eggplant
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Orange bell pepper
- Yellow bell pepper
- Green bell pepper
- Argula
- Spinach
- Kale
- Baby Red Butter Lettuce
- Beet
- Pear
- Apple
- Orange
- Tomato
- Raspberries
- Blackberries
- Lime
- Baby carrots
- Frozen Acai
- Frozen blueberries
- Frozen strawberries
- Frozen mango
- Frozen peaches
- Frozen cherries
- Frozen passion fruit
I also consume a variety of mushrooms, legumes, nuts, and seeds every week including shiitake mushrooms, garbanzo beans, pistachios, and pumpkin seeds.
I have a smoothie every morning for breakfast which is a very efficient method to pack a great deal of nutrition into an easily consumable and absorbable meal. Here is an example of my morning shake loaded with nutrients to support the microbiome.
- 40 grams of plantbased protein powder (Variety of brands including FYTA, Wellious, Ascent)
- 3 tablespoons of pumpkin seeds (loaded with zinc and magnesium)
- 1/4 cup of blueberries
- 1/4 cup of strawberries
- 1/4 cup of mango
- 1/4 cup of passion fruit
- 1 frozen unsweetened Acai block
- 1 piece of celery
- 1/4 cup of cucumber
- 1/2 cup of arugula
- 1 tablespoon of cacao powder (improves circulation and heart health)
- 2 tablespoons of wheat germ (rich spruce of spermidine for healthy cell regeneration)
- 1 teaspoon of beet powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of ginger (anti-inflammatory and gut health benefits)
- 1 cup of coconut milk
- 1 cup of water
Just this meal alone covers eight fruits and veggies. In addition, cacao powder, wheat germ, pumpkin seeds, and beet powder also help nourish the beneficial microbiome.
Here is a sample dinner recipe I have often
- 2 cups of garbanzo beans
- 1 cup of mushrooms (white button, shiitake, maitake)
- 1/2 cup of baby spinach
- 1/4 cup of zucchini
- 1/4 cup of orange bell pepper
- 1/4 cup of marinara sauce
- 3 tablespoons of hempseeds
Spices added: garlic, oregano, basil, and turmeric
Stir-fried at medium heat for 20 minutes in 1 tablespoon of olive oil or coconut oil
Take your time building up to thirty-plus different sources of healthy foods over the course of a week to nourish your microbiome. It is all too easy to get stuck into repetitive habits in which we consume the same foods every day and it is perfectly fine to have staples you consume often. For example, I consume frozen berries daily. However, variety is important for microbiome diversity so try some new things each time you go to the grocery store. If you haven’t been consuming fruits, veggies, legumes, nuts, and seeds regularly then it is important to take your time as introducing too many foods rich in prebiotics too soon can cause some serious flatulence and bloating so ease into it gradually.
