In this episode, Dr. Kumkum Patel shares valuable insights into gut health, fiber, and the impact of diets on the gut microbiome.

the-secret-to-improve-your-gut-health-with-this-easy-diet-tip-ft-kumkum-patel

The Secret to Improve your Gut Health with this easy Diet Tip! Ft. Kumkum Patel

you should be able to get your probiotics and prebiotics from your food you shouldn't have to rely on XYZ probiotic pill in order to get good gut bacteria and so is it helpful yes is there one perfect one no and so you know when people say oh which which straight I see you know this pill has eight strains of bacteria but this one has 12 so this one's got to be better we don't know if you need all those 12 strains or what the mechanism or composition of the bacteria is in your gut and so giving you the one with 12 strains in it versus eight strains may not be the best blueprint for you and so really you know there isn't one Silver Bullet probiotic supplement pill that's out there so that's why you won't really see someone making a you know recommendation saying this one more than that one um that that is needed and of course there is studies showing certain bacterias that strains that are beneficial for you but no one's going to come out outright and say this is it this is the silver bullet and you must take this you can get them from Foods so how many servings of prebiotics and probiotics should be getting in a day oh there isn't a an amount of prebiotics and pro probiotics it's the amount of fiber that you should really be concentrating on and so the Ada recommends uh that women get 25 grams of fiber per day and men get up to 38 and so you know that can be in different forms whether you're getting that as a soluble fiber or insoluble fiber but that's what's going to help get a good amount a healthy amount of pre- and probiotic types of foods CU your body responds to that fiber by creating the bacteria the bacteria eat the fiber correct right and so is that ADA recommendation enough I've heard on the internet that you should be getting a lot more fiber per day and we're and I think average we get like what 12 grams is that right like people are getting significantly less than the recommended correct and and some people are us using the the Fiber Gummies right and those have about three grams of fiber in one I mean you'd have to eat the whole damn jar in order to get a sufficient amount right so I think that it's more important to figure out if you can get up to that 30 I feel that chia seeds are actually a quick and easy way to get fiber because one two tablespoons actually of chia seeds have U approximately 10 grams of fiber in them so really if you're trying to get to that 38 number or that 25 number doesn't take that much of chia seeds which can really be mixed into you know anything and everything to get at least some degree of fiber so what are some other food hacks for fiber what would you say are some other like really good foods that have a high amount of fiber that we can be adding to our diet to get to that amount so yeah so first things first I would say Chia is the number one because it's a small small tiny seed it's pretty tasteless you can put it in water you can put it on food you can put it in your salad and if you have kids who are constipated you can literally make them a chia seed pudding with any form of other liquid whether it's in their milk whether it's in a pudding and you could kind of mix it in and make it into a jelly-like substance and it's pretty filling and you know it's great for kind of also satiety right if you're trying to avoid eating a lot have fiber first right that'll prevent your sugar Spike it'll help fill your belly it'll help going to expand and so that's going to help so that's your number one for fiber number two I think any cruciferous vegetable that you can get if it's green and leafy and hard to cook and or smells like a fart that is probably what you want to eat right if it makes you feel bloated because it produces a lot of gas likelihood is that it's really good for you those are not the ones you want to avoid people are like oh I'm I'm I'm going to not eat fibrous vegetables because they make me bloat yeah because they produce certain gases but are you going to not give your gut what it needs no this is a temporary thing where that gas needs to pass that's great in terms of gut health again are there effects of C you know people are doing all sorts of diets they're doing carnivore diets keto diets what is the effect of your gut microbiome with these sort of diets so you know there is that that old saying right everything in moderation and we're learning more and more that red meat has delerious effects on the microbiome increases the risk for colon cancers so of course you want to if you're going to eat meat then you want to have leaner white meat if you're going to eat something in terms of filling you up eat fiber that's going to kind of help that bacteria make those store chain fatty acids so try to be more plant-based try to have more fiber and I'm not going to tell you to avoid all alcohol or avoid all sugar and you know everything in moderation right am I going to tell you zero sugar for the rest of your life no that's that's impossible being that restrictive is going to be very hard am I going to tell you to avoid as much sugar as you can yes because sugar again overall changes the gut microbiome you become more insulin resistant it's going to increase your weight and So eventually it'll have you um you know craving more carbohydrates more sugar which is then going to impact it and that leads to obesity having a you know piece of chocolate here and there that's fine right in moderation have a glass of wine here or there but is it daily no and maybe have your fiber first absolutely the order in which you have things definitely matters right if you're going to eat and you've been fasting intermittent fasting and the first thing you do in the morning is you're going to eat the first thing you should probably do is eat something with a protein and a fiber that is going to prevent your blood sugar from spiking and instead of having your doughnut first store you know your sugary orange juice first right because that's going to cause the blood sugar to P Spike significantly so instead of doing that have your fiber first so that the spike is much lower when you do add that orange juice in second so gut health and your skin so this is something that I I realized like actually learned from you on your TV segment that gut health has a huge impact on the quality of your skin and the collagen so tell us a little bit about that yeah so you know our gut Flora has so much to do with the overall all skin uh health of our skin and so you want to really stimulate collagen production and your body really depends on vitamin C for that right so a lot of these fermented foods have a lot of one a lot of good beneficial bacteria and two a high content of Vitamin C in them so again sauerkraut kombucha and Kiwis ton of vitamin C that helps with collagen and elastin production and that can actually stimulate for the collagen elastin to grow in your skin and gives you that smooth texture that's awesome man what you eat eat forget Botox Man start eating real food start eating fermented food start eating kiwi and see the benefit on your skin 100% that's awesome so there's some data on fecal transplants for people who have bad gut microbiome right like would this is something that occurs due to diet but also is passed down generationally I understand and so at some point like you know it may be difficult to repopulate good bacteria is that is do I understand that correctly yeah so especially in people who've got something called recurrent claustrum defil infections and you have tried antibiotic horses to help you know treat and get rid of this uh bacteria overgrowth of this bacteria if over time and multiple rounds of treatment for C dip is not working then and it is indicated to get something called a feal microbiotic transplant there are actually now new pill forms of the fmt that have come out that are FDA approved to actually get that good bacteria back to kind of repopulate your gut such that it actually prevents the recurrence of another CF infection so do you see a future where we'll be able to assess the bacterial load of someone's microbi gut microbiome and then be able to either take a pill or do like a a feal transplant to repopulate like a healthy gut is that something that you think you know could happen in the future some version of it I mean there are so many of these tests out there that are like you know that are testing your microbiome that are testing you know how much you sensitive what sensitivities you are and all that kind of stuff I think it's in the works you know we certainly haven't perfected anything of that nature yet and you know it's going to take a lot of time because each of us has a variable microbiome that is ever changing right every time you eat something or let's say you eat something bad or you have an infection whether you have a cold or you ate a bad taco right your your microbiome changes so it's an everchanging thing so how often are you going to sequence it how how expensive is it going to be how accurate is it going to be right those are all things that we don't quite know yet but in an ideal world where money isn't an issue and access is not an issue and you know you know getting to a scientific you know validity yeah that'd be great where we could you know have it sequenced all the time live you're like all right I'm missing a little bit of Bio bacterium today and I'm going to eat just a two more ounces of kefir and you know that is it I'm back down to Perfection yeah I would love that and so yeah some of these so you make a good point that like some of these things are taking one snapshot in a moment right these at home tests and so they're not necessarily giving you data of like a long time stand so it may not be relevant is that right that's correct that's correct and a lot of it is also you know because it's ever changing we don't know one it's very long and two it's again it's a snapshot and so it it's too versatile for us to really hone it down say okay this is the exact formulation that you need today and that's that in terms of other things that can affect gut gut health how about fasting or artificial sweeters or cleanses like how are these things playing a role ooh okay so let's let's tackle each of those intermittent fasting intermittent fasting as you do it for a longer and longer time it helps by reducing your insulin levels and um also lack of stimulation by food specifically sugars helps to allow for certain types of bacteria to grow and allows for the bad bacteria to be able to not proliferate as much which is certainly helpful helps in terms of insulin sensitivity okay so that will alter the microbiome and to have you craving things that are healthier rather than always CRA craving maybe more sugary more carbohydrate rich foods okay is there like a length of fast that's like that's been looked at specifically I mean is it good to do a shorter fast or a longer fast or like people are doing weekl long fasts that that is a varied and an entire Topic in itself I think there have been studies that at least 16 hours to 18 hours is a good window as to when you start seeing an effect in terms of insulin sensitivity but there are so many varying studies out there you know some say you know you just need at least 12 hours to see some benefits some people say you know 16 hours a day makes a big difference but for some people hormonally you know genetically and also with their underlying stress levels that may not be possible for them because if you're putting your body under constant stress by fasting you may be raising your underlying cortisol levels and if on top of that you have a stressful life or you have psychological distress it may not be as effective for you right and so you know while you're doing it all correctly you may be starving for 5 days on end and then not seeing some of the results because other hormones have come into play and so that's what's really important to remember yeah yeah that's really helpful and then what about cleanses ooh cleanses so there isn't really a cleanse out there that is you know perfect or recommended because one it's just temporarily wiping out the Flora of your gut and

Dr.

Related Videos

Consultation & Treatment

Consult With Loading Doctor Data