Improving Gut Health for Weight Loss Success

women all the time when your body when your body is telling you you know I don't feel good whether you're bloated or low energy we were not designed to be low energy I don't care at 71 I am not low energy if we're feeding our body well and doing you know mostly doing the right things there's some things out of our control but if we are doing our part usually our body will respond with robust health welcome to health breakthroughs with Dr. Stangler I'm Dr. Dr. Mark Stangler. And each episode, we cut through the noise to bring you practical sciencebacked insights for more energy, better health, and a life that feels like yours again. Hi everybody. Great to be with you. I have my good friend Dana Dmitri with us. She's a registered nurse and an expert in nutrition and weight and stress and all the things that go along with good health. Dana, so great to be with you. Great to be here, Mark, as always. love talking. Well, you know, our topic of today is going to be very popular. I know because, you know, depending what study you look at, 70 to 75% of American adults are overweight. So, everyone needs some support on that. Obviously, nutrition and gut health is intricately tied into that. So, we're going to talk about what you do uh with all the people you work with in terms of helping to manage their weight, uh creating lean muscle mass, healthy diets, and all that. So, let's start and just get a little bit more about your background. You've been into nutrition since I met you. Nutrition, anti-aging, supplements, all that good stuff. I know. I was just thinking this morning. I think we've known each other over 30 years. I was in my 40s back then. Now I'm in my 70s, early 70s. But, uh, yeah, you know, I have background as a registered nurse and I actually specialized in labor and delivery for quite a few years, but always had an interest in fitness and health. And I have a background of having struggled with bulimia as a young woman. So I understand the mental, emotional, physical, the whole scheme of it and then all the stages of life. You know, as we get older, perry menopause could be a challenge. And I learned how to negotiate that. And so my passion for the last 20 25 years has been to coach especially women uh in midlife and beyond to realize they really can have a lean, healthy body no matter what their age. It does get harder and gut health certainly plays a big part in this because as our gut health potentially diminishes as we age if we're not doing uh the right things to support it, weight loss gets even harder and we're you know adding to that that all the hormone issues. And so uh I I love what I do and I love I love it especially because we're seeing such fabulous results. Mhm. You've done everything you were told to do and something still feels off. Health Breakthroughs with Dr. Stangler. We go beyond symptom management to explore integrative sciencebacked approaches to the issues [music] that medicine too often overlooks. Chronic fatigue, brain fog, gut dysfunction, inflammation, hormone imbalance, and healthy aging. If you're ready for real answers and practical tools to support your health naturally, [music] follow Health Breakthroughs with Dr. Stangler on Dr. Talks or wherever you listen to podcasts. Absolutely. Well, here's, you know, the question we'll start off with. Which comes first, weight loss or improving gut health? Or is there no chicken or egg? They're both intertwined. I know. I I I gave it a lot of thought. And and what was so wonderful to me, it's so basic, they support each other. And this is what I think is exciting is when we look at gut health and the kinds of foods that actually diminish gut health like processed sugar, you know, um processed grains, lots of packaged foods, preservatives, all the junk we don't need. And we look at what's causing weight gain for most people. Most people who are eating a really healthy, clean diet aren't having weight issues. Now, you can eat too much good food, but that's not usually the problem. And so, all this this these foods that we think, you know, we need we and they're packaged now if we don't know how to read labels, they're packaged as healthy and natural and this and that, but from GMOs to, you know, just so many preservatives, so many um non-nutritive sweeteners like Splenda, aspartame, you know, and neutrieet and all that. So the good news is if we can just clean up our diet even a little bit, we can start promoting better gut health at the same time as getting those those weight, you know, packing on the pound culprit foods out of our diet. And I'll say, Mark, what we've been doing, I I say we, my my co-author and business partner Robin and I, since we wrote the Eat Lift, Thrive diet five years ago, and actually before that, because we were actually practicing this before it became a book, we've been putting women on a simple elimination diet at the beginning of the Eat Live Thrive diet for about 14 days, sometimes up to 30, but about 14 days. And there's three levels to an elimination, but this what we call level one is simply asking them to remove uh all grains and added sugar. Now, we're not saying that every grain is a problem. What we're saying is probably most women are eating too many. They're getting a lot of those grains and definitely the sugars in packaged processed foods they don't need. They're getting way too many refined carbohydrates. and then they're not getting enough of the foods that do promote gut health. We know these these prebiotics as you know that feed the healthy gut bacteria in our gut come mostly from fruits and veggies and and things like that. And so that is so simple and what I love about this is we don't have to know all the facts before we take action. if we can get a like what's a really good starting point because I find people get uh super overwhelmed sometimes when they're starting a new program. They're like, "Okay, can I do this and can I do that and what's the rules?" And we want to go just take a breath, remove the added sugar and the and the grains for these 14 days and we can add to that later because there might be other food issues. And the other thing I do want to mention, Mark, is um we know that that hidden food sensitivities can be an issue in disrupting gut health and disrupting the ability to lose weight as well. And so an elimination diet can help us identify those. And it can go far beyond grains and sugar, but it, you know, to um nuts and beans and legumes and dairy, eggs, things like that. But that's that's a subject for another day. And I know you also highly recommend when you're coaching people to start with the right mindset so that they're going to be set up for success. Tell us more about that. Absolutely. I this is what I've said for years for my to myself as well as to my clients. Knowing what to do is only part of the equation. Knowing how to get yourself to do it really is essential because we can have all the knowledge in the world, but if we can't consistently maintain a habit change, we're not going to have a long-term health and weight loss change. And so, one of the things that I really encourage everybody to do, male, female, whatever, is to drop this deprivation mentality. We move into a diet because we want results, because we're unhappy with our size, our shape, our weight, how we feel. And in this case with gut health added to it, our digestion, bloating, you know, maybe fibromyalgia and all sorts of things coming from leaky gut. And so we have this this pain motivator, right? But sometimes that desire for those foods we take out that immediate gratification overrides the pain in our life and we want that immediate gratification. So we have to start working on our mindset and instead of saying, "Oh, poor me. I can't have that food. We start looking at that food differently. And truly some of these foods we need to start seeing as poison in our bodies even when we start feeling better because I think one of the things that happens is we start to get a handle on our symptoms when we start to lose a little weight and then well I'll just have a little of this or a little of that. And sometimes we can have a little of this or that. But if we can move out of that deprivation mentality that I need this to be happy. All my friends are eating, you know, the chocolate cocon, you know, the coconut cream pie and I can't. No, you can. You're choosing not to. And little choices and words make a difference. Choosing versus saying, you know, I choose not to have this or I can't have this. No, you can have anything you want anytime you want it. You're choosing not to because you're choosing health over that immediate gratification. Now, that's kind of simplistic because the minute we start, you know, telling oursel that, we're not going to believe it. In the human brain, the most dominant thought wins. And the dominant thoughts often, especially when it comes to to our habits, are, you know, I want, I need, I see, I eat. Uh, but we start to change those dominant thoughts and we we start to kind of squash the the negative lies. I, you know, I h I need this chocolate. I deserve this. Not that all chocolate is bad, but, you know, I need this this packaged food to be happy, to be content. We don't. And we can really change that in huge ways. So, I encourage people to identify someone that the the biggest lies they're believing about changing their health and their wellness and to start saying things like, you know, I crave natural food. I enjoy and crave natural food more than I crave that sugary, sweet, processed food I've been used to. It's going to take a while for the taste buds to catch up with the brain. Absolutely. So, you talked about the elimination diet. I know you you guys have some different like like a 14-day jump start, you know, people changing their diet. Tell us more about that, you know, elimination diet, cleansing, reintroducing foods. Tell us about that. And then what do people notice with their gut health along the way? Yes. Well, as I said earlier in the elimination, the first level is simply the the grains and the added sugar. And I want to say one of the things in my research about gut health and as it pertains to our women and how they're losing weight no matter where they're at in the whole menopause uh scene of things is we say on our diet a person can have up to one tablespoon of organic raw honey or pure maple syrup a day within the context of our recipes because I do want to say there are so many healthy recipes out there that you can tickle your taste buds still, but nourish your gut and your body at the same time. So, so much of this elimination is just not cold turkey. You're never going to taste anything sweet again. But let's find these really healthy replacements. Second level, too, on an elimination diet is what I say to women is if you want to keep it really simple, just do grains and added sugar for these 14 days, great. However, if you're having a lot of symptoms, a lot of gut disruption, bloating, and so forth, we may want to take that to a level two or three elimination, which as I said earlier, we may add nuts. We may add beans and legumes. We may add eggs, dairy, those kinds of things. That's a more stringent diet. But here's the thing. Are you motivated to figure out what is disrupting your health? Not just your weight loss, but your health. And we have found that women that will do that for 14 days, maybe they'll start with level one, but they'll work up. Then we start them testing, what we call the discovery phase, and they start bringing one food in at a time. And you know, I know you can do this with food sensitivity testing, but this is a really simple, economic way to let your body tell you because if you've cleaned the slate for two to three weeks and haven't had those foods, your body will be even more reactive when you put them back in. Now, I'm not going to get into the other side, like there are people that have sensitivity to FODMs and, you know, different fruits and veggies and different things like that. So, that's a whole another level. But we found along the way then on this gut health side of of the elimination diet is what are we going to eat instead? Now we're, you know, we're not eating all those things. Well, hopefully we're going to up the natural fruits and veggies, those probiotic foods, and add things like bone broth, which helps heal the gut. Uh we do a cleansing drink which before every meal which is a combination of 50/50 apple cider vinegar and lemon juice with a little bit of cinnamon and ginger which are great for digestion, great for the health. And we have had women tell us after two to three weeks using the this little concoction we call it the cleansing drink digestive help that their gird is gone. I mean it's counterintuitive. People think, "How do I take this acidy substance?" But it does help the body produce an alkaline response, but it helps digestion and people have a misconception that they have all that heartburn and and acid reflux and all that because they have too much acid, which is not usually the case when we're older. Well, and also of course you're aware of the studies on the apple cider vinegar uh decreasing blood sugar and insulin levels which of course helps with appetite, helps with weight, metabolism. Tell us about that. Well, absolutely. And and the thing is I think that that's so interesting is we don't realize how much our digestion is disrupting our energy, you know, our ability to lose weight, all that. So, as we're we're we're taking that apple cider vinegar or lemon juice and so forth, it's amazing how quickly the body responds to something that it wants and needs. It's like missing link. People have to give it time. And we we do really caution those who have very sensitive, you know, esophagus and all that that you super dilute it. Start, you know, we might say put two tablespoons in 4 ounces of water, but you might take a teaspoon in 4 ounces of water to start. Uh but all these little things start to add up and I just get so excited when I watch women saying I feel better and younger than I have in a decade just because my digestion has calmed down. They their skin starts to look better. It's it's food is medicine. I mean the right food is is you know disease but the right food is is great medicine. Hey everybody, I want to take just a quick moment and invite you to my website drstangler.com. Here we have the supplements that we've been using with our patients for many, many years. High quality and high potency supplements, very pure. So if you're looking for highquality supplements where you can notice a [music] difference both in how you feel and on your lab test, go to our website at drstangler.com. And for most people have irritable bowel syndrome, the most common digestive condition, acid reflux, gird, inflammatory bowel disease, chronic constipation, belching, all these types of things. That diet you're talking about, I mean, a high percent of people are going to improve doing that. Their digestion is going to improve, but like you said, you're getting the whole body health benefits from it as well. And the natural foods you're talking about, you're going to feed, like you said, the microbiome, which of course now there's all these studies coming out how that influences everything in the body, but including your metabolism. Yes. Exactly. Well, and interestingly, as I was researching more too, the whole issue with leaky gut does lend not only to more inclination toward obesity and difficulty losing weight even when you're on a a healthy diet, but also to um potentially higher risk of diabetes. And so it's just so important to I tell women all the time when your body when your body is telling you, you know, I don't feel good. Whether you're bloated or low energy, we were not designed to be low energy. I don't care at 71. I am not low energy. If we're feeding our body well and doing, you know, mostly doing the right things, there's some things out of our control. But if we are doing our part, usually our body will respond with robust health. you know there there's gaps and there's situations completely out of our control. Uh a few genetic things but usually 70% of uh the control comes to our lifestyle and things that we can do if we have the patience and consistency. And that's why again circling back to the whole mindset and looking at our selft talk and looking at our why we want uh to do these things is such an important part because it's consistency that's going to produce long-term results which will produce robust health and that's what we all want no matter what our age. Yeah, that's great. So maybe in summary just tell the uh viewers what people notice on your diet, your protocol maybe the first 14 days and then into the future. What do they notice in terms of gut health and their weight? Maybe give us a summary of what you could typically find. Sure. I would say um even in the first 14 days of course when women remove a lot of those excess empty calories from their diets all the extra most of us are eating way too much carbohydrate. I've seen estimates that the average American woman maybe eats 300 350 grams of carbohydrates a day on elimination. We're not doing we don't even call it low carb, but it's more controlled carbs. So, they're probably eating 120 to 150 grams a day at the most. Um, they see an immediate shift. A lot of that's water weight because carbohydrates hold a lot of water, but they that also brings down the inflammation. So here they've removed all these foods that are irritating the gut, irritating the body, causing inflammation. So the weight comes off in both fat and water, especially those first two weeks. We always say be realistic. Just because you lost, you know, 5 lbs the first two weeks. You're not going to lose, you know, two or three pounds a week. That's not realistic. We want it to be slow, steady, and and hold. But they do feel better. They start to sleep better. The bloating goes away. Uh, and interestingly, if they, as they call it, cheat, say they've been clean for two to three weeks and they cheat, they're like, "Oh my gosh, I feel worse than I have felt in forever." I said, "That's cuz your body's now getting clean." And it's telling you, "I don't want that." So, I find that a really positive motivation. And then again, as they stay on it, we can see it in our Zoom calls when we're we're talking with our women in our life coaching. their skin looks better, their energy is better, they're excited because they feel better. And there's nothing better than feeling better because it influences every aspect of our life, you know, and so we continue to see people not only losing weight, getting it off and having healthier gut, you know, responses. We see lasting weight loss, which is a huge thing because most people gain their weight back. And we've had, you know, dozens and I don't even know, I guess I could say hundreds. We don't we don't we don't talk to every single person, but they've been with us for years now and have kept the off. And that to me is the most important thing. Hey, do me a favor. Grab that book behind you behind your left shoulder in the corner there. Let's take a look at that. This is That's a nice eat, Live, Thrive Diet. Now, the book is on Amazon, all that, but your website, leanhealthyless.com, correct? What what can people learn when they go to that website? We post frequently on a variety of subjects, body, soul, and spirit. So, you'll see a lot right now. We've been talking a lot about women's heart health and uh so you'll see a lot of free resources on there, links to our Eat Live, Thrive Academy, which is our our live coaching program that gives coaching, support, and community. Um, so there's just lots of great resources, free resources there. they can sign up for our newsletter and just stay in the loop. Excellent. Hey, well, thank you so much for your time, Dana. Thank you. Pleasure to be here. Thanks for listening to Health Breakthroughs with Dr. Stangler. If today's episode resonated with you, please follow the show, share with someone who needs it, and leave a review. It helps more people [music] find us. For more resources and wellness support, visit drstangler.com.