Digestive Health and Leaky Gut

Why is Digestive Health So Important?

In Episode 79, Jenny Finke of Good For You Gluten Free and I dive into how to heal your gut, especially when you have a leaky gut. While leaky gut does not have a test on its own, there are several factors that can lead to leaky gut.
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First, you need to have an auto-immune gene that triggers an auto-immune condition or auto-immune disease such as Celiacs. Secondly, you could have a biome imbalance in your gut. Third, a poor diet or a diet high in gluten can assist in triggering a leaky gut.

What is Leaky Gut?

Leaky gut is the condition of your gut lining that has extensive tiny permeations. These permeations, or holes in your gut lining, allowing food to travel from your gut into your bloodstream. Uneaten tiny food particles are seen as invaders in your bloodstream and your body will attempt to get rid of these tiny pieces of food, thus causing inflammation in your body. Unless healed, your food will continue to leak out into your gut, which can cause immune system issues.

The inflammation in your digestive tract caused by leaky gut can result in food intolerances and click an auto-immune gene to “on” even if you’ve never had the disease in your life previously.

She also refers to the work of Dr. Tom O’Bryan and his research on autoimmune disease. He’s found that auto-immune diseases will impact you at your weakest link in our chain. Wherever your weakest link, joints, stomach, skin or bones, is where you will see symptoms. This is the main reason auto-immune disorders are hard to diagnose as they show up with different symptoms depending on the individual.

We also chat about resting your gut and why giving your gut a break is extremely important when you are healing your gut. “Think about celiac disease as breaking your digestive system. It now needs to rest and recover.”

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Jenny Finke, Good For You Gluten Free

Jenny has been gluten-free for more than seven years. She is a blogger, certified integrative nutrition coach and founder of the Denver Bloggers Club, a 500+ member professional development club for bloggers in Colorado.  

Her last piece of gluten she ate was a 6" sub from Subway. While she was eating her sandwich, her doctor called to diagnose her with celiacs disease. She was taken back by the diagnosis and immediately threw away the remainder of her sub. From this point forward, she led a gluten free lifestyle.

With the opportunity to spend six weeks last summer living in London, with weekend trips to Paris and Amsterdam, she learned a lot about traveling gluten free. She also struggled to eat safely during a trip to Israel where she was at the whim of a tour guide. This prompted her to write the article The Emotional Burden of Being Gluten-Free.

​​For great advice on how to travel gluten-free, grab my Guide to Traveling Gluten-Free on Amazon today!