Carbs seem to be highly controversial at the moment. Some guidelines suggest that half of our food intake should be in the form of carbs, but others suggest that carbs are the source of many health problems from excessive weight gain, to diabetes and a whole host of other diseases. The arguments from both sides seem to be valid and ultimately whether you should eat carbs, and how often, depends largely on the individual. So, low carb diets, are they good for you?  Read on to find out.

Why do we need to eat carbs?

The main purpose of carbohydrates in the diet is to provide energy, and most carbs get broken down or transformed into glucose to fuel the body. The molecule which delivers this energy is called adenosine triphosphate (ATP).

Any excess carbs can be stored by the body as glycogen for later use.

Low carb diets – different types of carbs

Sugars:  You may also hear of these called ‘simple carbs’.  These are found as added sugars in foods, in fruit juice and packets of white and brown sugar, for example.

Starches:  These are long chains of glucose molecules, which eventually get broken down into glucose in the digestive system. When you eat ‘carbs’ these are the ones that are the best for your health – you want the ‘wholegrain’ varieties though, not ‘white’ versions. More on that in a second.

Fibre:  This does not provide energy directly, but it does feed the friendly bacteria in the digestive system. These bacteria can use the fiber to produce fatty acids that some of our cells can use as energy.

Low carb diets – which carbs to avoid?

Well, there are plenty of studies around which demonstrate time and time again that refined carbohydrates are associated with dozens of health problems, ranging from obesity to type 2 diabetes.

They tend to cause major spikes in blood sugar levels, which lead to a subsequent crash that can trigger hunger and cravings for more high-carb foods. This is the blood sugar rollercoaster that many people are familiar with.

Refined carbs have had almost all the goodness taken out of them, including any minerals, vitamins and fibre. In other words they are empty calories.

Examples of carbs you’d be better off avoiding include –

• Fizzy drinks
• Fruit juices
• Pastries
• ‘White things’ – bread, pasta, rice etc
  Sugary breakfast cereal

Which carbs should you eat?

Whole food sources of carbohydrates are packed with vital nutrients and fibre, and don’t tend to give rise to the dreaded blood sugar rollercoaster, particularly when combined with good quality protein.

If you’re worried your diet is impacting your gut health, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support both your digestive sysem and hormone health, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

Examples of whole carbs include –

• Whole fruits
• Vegetables
• Legumes
• Potatoes
• Sweet potatoes
• Whole grains (rice, bread etc)

So what’s the deal with low carb diets?

These types of diets restrict carbohydrates, while allowing plenty of protein and fat.  Numerous studies have now shown that low-carb diets are much more effective for weight loss than the standard low-fat diet that has been recommended for the past few decades.

These studies show that low-carb diets cause more effective weight loss and lead to greater improvement in various health markers, including cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure.

But they certainly don’t suit everyone. Some people feel dreadful when they eat a low carb diet, whereas some people flourish, even on very low carb diets such as the ketogenic diet.

In fact, in certain health conditions a ketogenic (very low carb intake) diet has been proven to be very effective.

If you’re going to look at dropping your carb intake that low always work with a professional to make sure you do it safely. I won’t talk about ketogenic and very low carb diets in this article, as that’s a whole different topic.

So, for most people, which carbs should you focus on?

As a general rule, carbohydrates that are in their natural, fiber-rich form are healthy, while those that have been stripped of their fiber are not.
If it’s a whole, single ingredient food, then it’s probably healthy for most people, no matter what the carbohydrate content is.

As with many things nutrition related the whole carb situation is rarely black and white, or one size fits all. It’s the overall picture which needs to be looked at – not just one aspect. Remember we are all unique! Just because dropping carbs worked for one person, doesn’t mean it will work for you.

If you have a lot of weight to lose, or have health problems like metabolic syndrome and/or type 2 diabetes, then working with a professional to drop your carb intake safely will likely have huge benefits for you.  This is why a personalised approach to nutrition is vitally imporant.

Thyroid problems are very common indeed, and surprisingly it’s estimated that roughly 60% of people with some kind of sub-optimal thyroid problem don’t realise there’s an issue.  So what’s the link betwen IBS & thyroid health?

Thyroid symptoms can be quite vague, and overlap with a lot of other health problems, making them difficult to distinguish.

This article will address five things you need to know about the important links between your gut health, and thyroid health.

Although quite small, your thyroid gland is extremely important and impacts just about every other system of your body. It helps to regulate your –

• Metabolism
• Heart
• Digestive function
• Mood

1. IBS & Thyroid

The thyroid impacts gut health mostly because the hormones your thyroid produces directly affect how your digestive system functions. In the case of hypothyroidism, not enough thyroid hormone is produced, causing a general slowing down of everything. Your gut function included.

To keep your hormones functioning optimally its really important to use ‘clean’ skincare.  Tropic is a super range (I use it myself and have seen an amazing improvement in my skin since I have) click here if you’d like to learn more.

When your digestive system is functioning optimally, the muscles lining the digestive tract contract regularly in what is known as peristalsis. This peristaltic action keeps the gut moving, ensures nutrients are digested and absorbed, and waste eliminated.

Slow gut function results in slow motility and constipation.

2. Your microbiome

Since sub-optimal thyroid function impacts digestion in this way, it also has a very negative impact on your gut flora – the colonies of bacteria that live in your gut. There are beneficial strains of bacteria, and not so helpful ones and we need the beneficial strains to ‘crowd out’ the less helpful ones. You can read more about the microbiome and the effects it has on health here.

If you’re worried your thryoid health is impacting your gut health, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support both your digestive sysem and hormone health, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

3. Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)

Alterations in gut motility may potentially give rise to a condition known as SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth). SIBO causes a lot of the typical IBS-type symptoms such as abdominal pain, excessive gas and bloating. When SIBO occurs you end up with bacteria (or sometimes yeasts) which should be flourishing in the large intestine, taking up residence in the small intestine. Needless to say this causes a great deal of distress and discomfort if you happen to be affected.

Unfortunately, as is often the way with these things, the health of your digestive system also determines how well your thyroid functions.

We can end up in a vicious cycle …

Your body converts T4 hormone into the active form of thyroid hormone, T3, in your gut. So if your gut health is imbalanced, for example, through –

• IBS
• Chronic constipation
• Coeliac disease

or anything else, you may not be getting as much conversion of T4 to T3 that you need, to function optimally. 

I hope that helps to shed some light on the link between IBS & thyroid health.

No matter what type of issue you’re facing – whether it’s hormonal, gut related or weight loss, for example, then some form of intermittent fasting may well help you.

Although it sounds scary, and let’s face it some of these ongoing fasts seem pretty hair-raising, a lot of them are really, really easy.

Considering there are a lot of people benefitting enormously from these techniques let’s take a closer look at how and why they help, together with some simple techniques to try.

Here are a few simple techniques and FIVE HUGE BENEFITS to be had from allowing your digestive system to rest and reset.

Why do You Need to Give Your Digestion a Break?

If you think about it, it’s only recently that we’ve had access to round the clock food. In the past we would’ve had to have fasted for long periods, we just wouldn’t have had any choice.

Sometimes your healing plan should focus just as much on how you’re eating as what you’re eating.  Your Migrating Motor Complex (MMC) is a series of muscle contractions which propel undigested food residue through the small intestine. This only kicks in after you haven’t eaten anything for 90 minutes or more – so essentially, if you keep munching, your gut won’t be able to have a spring clean.

The root cause of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is often some kind of imbalance with this system, which allows bacteria to flourish in the wrong place.  Bacteria then multiply in the small, rather than the large intestine.

You can read more about SIBO here.

The important thing to remember here is that your gut clearing process, or MMC, doesn’t kick in until you haven’t eaten for 90 minutes or more.

Ensuring you’re eating a diverse diet can be a nightmare when you’re suffering with your gut, especially as so many of these ‘healthy’ foods are also big trigger foods. If this is the case for you I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help you eat safely, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

Intermittent fasting – a quick note on stress

Stress is really bad for your digestive system – you can read more about this here – so don’t restrict your eating so much that it makes you anxious. You really won’t do yourself any favours by putting the pressure on.

With that in mind if you’re just starting to experiment with making dietary changes, adding restricted eating into the mix is perhaps something best left until you’re well into the swing of things. You don’t want to put too much pressure on yourself.

Needless to say, fasting or restricted eating is only another tool in your toolbox, it’s important to eat healthily too.

Intermittent fasting – different methods

As I mentioned, the simplest way is to just go 12-16 hours overnight and into the next day without eating.
You can practice lengthening these timings as you get used to it.

Another popular choice is choosing an eight hour block to eat within – for example 1pm to 9pm. This works for a lot of people. Of course the fine tuning will all depend on your lifestyle and commitments.

An important point to note is that you don’t have to eat your first meal at ‘breakfast time’.  It’s often said that you have to eat breakfast before you leave for work, but really it’s best left until your digestive system has had a chance to wake up properly.  Or even leave it until much later in the day – whatever feels best for you.

Another popular method is the 5:2 Diet whereby you eat normally for five days of the week. On the other two days, calories are restricted to about 500–600 a day.

I wouldn’t, personally, recommend going overboard and fasting for days on end – although seasoned fasters can get great results from doing this. BUT aiming for not eating anything for 14-16 hours overnight is usually very doable and beneficial (unless you suffer from a health condition which prevents you from doing this).

I think a better way to look at it is to avoid grazing all day and evening. Grazing and snacking isn’t good for your digestion.

Intermittent fasting – some points to consider

Small, frequent meals

If you’re someone who finds that small, frequent meals are better for you and your symptoms, then restricted eating is possibly not for you. Remember we’re all different.

I hope that helps, give it a try and see if it works for you!

There’s still loads of disagreement over whether or not caffeinated drinks, such as tea and coffee are good or bad for you.  It can be very confusing to read in the media one minute that coffee’s so bad for you that everyone should ditch it immediately. Then the next thing it’s practically a superfood – you just don’t know what to think. On the one hand, it can make you more alert, productive and motivated, or, for some, it can make them anxious, jittery and lack concentration.  And we know all about how important our mental state is for our gut health.  So, is caffeine bad for you?  What’s the verdict?

Is caffeine bad for you?  Let’s start with the good part.

Here are six reasons caffeine can be good for you –

1 – Coffee seems to promote longevity.  Several studies have found that drinking coffee is linked to a lower risk of death. This is what the science says, so we can’t argue with it!

2 – Coffee also contains several important micronutrients such as potassium, manganese, magnesium and niacin.

3- It’s very rich in antioxidants called polyphenols.  In fact, a lot of the time tea and coffee can be the main source of polyphenols and antioxidants in someone’s diet.  Although ideally we want to be obtaining these through our fruit and veg intake and not simply relying on coffee!

4- Coffee and tea seem to protect against diabetes, heart disease and depression.  They also increase concentration and improve physical performance – fantastic!

5 – They also protect against cirrhosis of the liver.

6 – Caffeine is also thought to promote weight loss by boosting metabolism BUT I’m not so convinced it does (sorry!!) …. will come to that in a minute.

Is caffeine bad for you?  Here’s why it might be –

1 – It’s addictive.  In some people, very addictive.  Sometimes people can have a really tough time trying to come off it – they get headaches, fatigue, digestive problems and so on. In these cases the only way to get it out of your life completely is to cut down slowly as the headaches can be atrocious.

2 – It can massively overstimulate your body and eventually burn out your adrenal glands – not what we want at all.
For a start, when the adrenal glands are overstimulated your system will become flooded with glucose. Essentially you’re in ‘fight or flight’ mode.

This is where your system becomes saturated with glucose to fuel your muscles so you can escape from danger, e.g. lions. Except there are no lions if you’re sitting in front of your desk trying to meet a deadline. You can read more about your stress response here.

So if you’re a candida sufferer that’s a big no-no.  If you have candida, or suspect you have candida, you’ll probably know all about avoiding sugar and caffeine. If not you can read all about it here.

Also, if you’re trying to lose weight all this glucose isn’t going to help.  I know some studies demonstrate that coffee is great for weight loss, but how can it be if it keeps flooding your system with glucose?  If you’re not ‘fleeing from danger’, all that glucose will just end up being stored as fat.

My guess would be that at best one cancels the other out. I.e. the boost in metabolism just cancels out the rise in glucose.

4 – Caffeine can make you grumpy and increase anxiety.

It has a massive effect on the brain and impacts neurotransmitter activity and hormones. So, if you suffer from anxiety, nervousness or other mood disorders then ditching the coffee may well be a great thing for you.

Is caffeine bad for you?

Ultimately it depends on the individual as to whether or not caffeine can work for you.  Some people tolerate it much better than others, but how do you tell?

If you suffer with gut, sleep or anxiety issues, I’d definitely recommend having a few days off the tea and coffee and see if it makes you feel any better.

It’s really just a case of taking it out for a week or so and see if you notice any improvements in any aspect of your health.  If it doesn’t make any difference you know you’re good to go.  If it does, well, it’ll be disappointing, but at least you’ll know.

Widely considered to be the root cause of most (if not all) disease states, inflammation is something we definitely need, but we certainly don’t want too much of it.  Read on to learn more about inflammation, particularly inflammation and your gut health.

Acute inflammation

Acute inflammation is part of our innate immune response. Without it we’d end up with festering wounds, and any infection we encountered would be deadly. Think about when you cut your finger or or bang your leg – the redness and swelling that follows is inflammation, and as part of our natural defences it protects and helps our body to heal.

Examples of situations that may result in acute inflammation include:

• Sore throats which accompany viral infections
• Cuts to the skin
• Sinusitis
• Infected insect bites

The other type of inflammation we encounter is chronic. While acute inflammation starts quickly and generally disappears in a few days, chronic inflammation can last for months or years as a result of failure to eliminate the root cause.

Some symptoms and signs of chronic inflammation include:

• Ongoing fatigue
• Abdominal pain
• Skin rashes
• Joint pain
• Asthma
• Cardiovascular disease
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Systemic lupus erythematosus
• Ulcerative colitis
• Crohn’s disease

Inflammation and your gut

Having an imbalance in your gut bacteria, ie. too many less desirable species and not enough beneficial species may result in low grade inflammation, and may give rise to digestive health symptoms such as IBS.

But it doesn’t stop there unfortunately, as this type of intestinal inflammation may contribute to further inflammatory conditions such as neurological problems, depression and arthritis.

So what can cause this state of chronic inflammation?

• Chronic low grade food allergies or sensitivities
• Stress is a huge trigger
• Toxins from the environment
• Too much processed food and sugar, dehydration and too much caffeine can increase inflammation in the body.

Luckily there are a few simple tweaks you can make to your diet and lifestyle to really help with inflammation and your gut health:

Drink red wine

Yes really!  The occasional glass of red wine can be highly beneficial as its so anti-inflammatory. It contains the highly effective anti-inflammatory substances quercetin and resveratrol. If you’re not already a drinker I wouldn’t start just to get these anti-inflammatory benefits, but if you do already drink alcohol, switching over to red wine occasionally will offer a host of health benefits. Always drink in moderation as alcohol itself is a well known toxin if consumed in excess.

If you’d rather avoid wine, quercetin is also found in green tea, kale and blueberries.