Are you Tailoring your Lifestyle to YOU?

Are you really tailoring your lifestyle to your needs?

• Is your probiotic working for you?
• Do you really need fermented foods in your diet?
• Are your supplements matched to your metabolic needs?
• Is your diet compatible to your genetics?

Probiotics

Most probiotics you buy at the drug store are quite generic and contain very small amounts of the healthy bugs you need which may be almost like taking a blank capsule. If you want to really customize your probiotic to your gut needs, a stool sample is the way to go since it shows which of your good gut bugs may be under or overgrown. 

For a probiotic to make an impact on your gut health look for names of common probiotic organisms such as Lactobacillus species or Bifidobacterium species.

Look for the CFU (colon-forming units). CFUs represent the ability of the bacteria to survive the acidity of the stomach and should be provided at the time of manufacture and the time of consumption (opening the package). At least 25 billion CFUs is a good place to start. For those with significant gut challenges 100 billion CFUs may be needed.

Fermented Foods

You’ve probably heard that eating fermented foods are great for your gut. This information may be true IF your gut is healthy but if you have dysbiosis (some type of gut challenge such as bacterial overgrowth or other) fermented foods may be a challenge for your gut to digest. In addition, for those who have the HNMT or DAO genes your body may have difficulties with fermented foods which may result in a histamine response leading to headaches and other unwanted challenges.

Supplements

You’ve heard that it’s important to take supplements if you want to maintain your health.  However, what are your specific needs for supplements?

More than two million people in our country are suffering from nutrient deficiency. 

Nutrient deficiency is due to reduced soil quality, creating nutrient deficiencies in plants. Combine that with increased processed foods, lifestyle changes, and lack of awareness around nutrient needs and you have a problem. Over-reliance on pesticides and toxins in our environment combined with pharmaceuticals that can deplete nutrients becomes a perfect storm for deficiencies. 

Any apple from 1950 is equal to eating 5 apples a day now in terms of nutrients.

More than half of the population has vitamin D deficiency. Those living above the 37 degrees latitude are at risk for vitamin D deficiency. It’s essential to have your vitamin D measured annually, ideally bi-annually due to the changing seasons. Optimal levels of vitamin D are over 60-70 ng/dl. Those with the highest risk of COVID had low levels of vitamin D. Levels above 70 are associated with much lower rates of metabolic syndrome and cancer.

Macronutrient Balance

Diet balance and macronutrients can actually be customized to your body and genetics. Are you fat or carbohydrate sensitive? What specific genes do you have for brain or metabolic health? The tests that measure these things are inexpensive and can be a game-changer rather than trying to follow a meal plan by guessing at your needs.

Testing not guessing can be a game changer for optimal metabolic and mitochondrial health. Next time you are scrolling and hear about a super food, or a friend tells you something that worked great for their health, do your due diligence and decide if that specific thing is a good thing for your health.