Jeremiah Farias (00:00.014)
In this video, we’ll discuss the secret link between gut health and diabetes. You’ll also learn how a happy gut can balance blood sugars and discover five key concepts to optimize your gut health for ultimate blood sugar control. Hi, my name is Jeremiah Farias. I’m a functional registered dietician and I help adults suffering from blood sugar dysregulation issues. Conditions like diabetes, pre -diabetes, using a bio -energetic approach to optimize cellular energy production.

I review the science and mechanisms involved in optimizing overall health and blood sugar metabolism while also providing you with practical takeaways. I hope you enjoy today’s content. So is there a connection between gut health and diabetes? There is. Just as poor gut health is associated with a variety of chronic health conditions, diabetes and blood sugar issues are no exception. For example, a diet consisting of processed foods, devoid of nutrients, and also containing other problematic compounds,

is going to drive diabetes and something else called dysbiosis. Dysbiosis is considered an imbalance in the microbial community in the gut. This can mean less than ideal amounts of beneficial or commensal bacteria. It can also mean elevations in more pathogenic or harmful bacteria. Dysbiosis is problematic because dysbiosis will decrease the production of short chain fatty acids.

Now normally when someone consumes indigestible carbohydrates like prebiotics or fiber, they’re going to make their way down to the colon and the bacteria within the colon are going to ferment these prebiotics or indigestible carbohydrates and produce short -chain fatty acids. These short -chain fatty acids are then going to nourish the cells of the colon known as the colonocytes. Short -chain fatty acids play an important role in protecting the gut. They’re going to align the epithelium and they’re going to help the formation of things called tight junctions.

Type junctions are going to prevent intestinal permeability or leaky gut. Additionally, this dysbiotic state also alters the ratio of bacterioidetes and fermicutes. And this altered ratio between these two bacteria is going to reduce the proteins that are used to form tight junctions. Therefore, there are at least two ways that this dysbiotic state is going to impair the integrity of the lining of the gut and increase leaky gut or intestinal permeability.

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And this intestinal permeability is problematic because it increases the potential translocation of LPS or endotoxin. And when LPS or endotoxin makes its way into the bloodstream or circulation, it can bind to tol -like receptor 4 and lead to downstream activation of a variety of kinases. These kinases include Zijun N -terminal kinases and inhibitor KappaB kinase. And these kinases induce insulin receptor substrate serine phosphorylation.

And this induction of IRS serine phosphorylation is an important step in establishing insulin resistance. This is how poor digestion can lead to diabetes and blood sugar dysregulation. In a moment, we’re gonna dive into how we can start optimizing the health of our gut. Before looking at the five key concepts for gut health, let me know in the comments what you’ve heard is important for a healthy gut. All right, so the five key concepts we’ll look at today are first, avoiding hard to digest foods, optimizing thyroid function,

optimizing stomach acid production, including enough fiber and polyphenol rich fruits and vegetables. And finally, fifth is managing stress. We’ll begin with the concept of limiting hard to digest foods. Hard to digest foods are going to be any items, foods that cause gastrointestinal symptoms. These can include gas, bloating, reflux, but also looking into foods that might cause issues locally in the intestinal tract.

However, they may not bring about any obvious symptoms. The three categories of hard to digest foods are going to include grains and pseudo grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes. Also some higher FODMAP fruits and vegetables, and finally, polyunsaturated fats. So grains, pseudo grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds contain a variety of anti -nutrients. They also can contain some fermentable carbohydrates that can cause gastrointestinal distress. Grains, pseudo grains, and legumes include barley, rye, wheat, quinoa, oatmeal,

rice, and finally lentils and beans. And anti -nutrients include lectins, phytic acid, and enzyme inhibitors. Lectins are carbohydrate binding proteins and they can act both locally and systemically. Locally, they can affect the turnover and loss of gut epithelial cells, damage the luminal membranes of the epithelium, interfere with nutrient digestion and absorption, even stimulate shifts in the bacterial flora and modulate the immune system state of the digestive tract.

Jeremiah Farias (04:35.982)
Systemically, lectins can disrupt lipid carbohydrate protein metabolism and promote enlargement or atrophy of key internal organs and tissues. Next, we have phytates or phytic acid. These are problematic because they will bind to key minerals that are often found in our food. These include iron, zinc, calcium, magnesium, and manganese. And these minerals are responsible for creating cellular energy. So if we have insufficient amounts of any of them,

we’re gonna see impairments in cellular energy production. Lastly, we have enzyme inhibitors. These include trypsin, chymotrypsin, and elastase inhibitors. And all of them are known as proteases and are responsible for the digestion of proteins, but elastase also is responsible for digesting carbohydrates and fats. Now, before you try to cut all these foods out of your diet, there are proper preparation methods that you can use that are going to reduce these anti -nutrients in the foods like the grains, the pseudo -grains,

nuts and seeds and legumes. Properly preparing includes soaking, sprouting or fermenting, and then you want to thoroughly cook these foods. When soaking grains, pseudo grains, nuts and seeds or legumes, you’re going to soak them in an acidic medium. This can mean adding some water, also with a little bit of apple cider vinegar, whey or lemon juice. The soaking process is gonna reduce the phytic acid content in these foods. Then pressure cooking is going to reduce the lectin content,

and any trypsin inhibitors or other digestive enzyme inhibitors. Now with nuts and seeds, the most that is typically done is soaking and sprouting. And this means it’s gonna reduce the phytic acid content and it’s going to allow the minerals that are found in these nuts and seeds to be more bioavailable, but you’re still going to have some elements of these digestive enzyme inhibitors and the lectins, unless you’re cooking them, which people typically don’t do. And lastly, even through properly preparing some of these foods,

you may be someone who still experiences digestive issues. If that is the case, I would still encourage you to avoid them or limit them while you accomplish a certain degree of healing in the gut and then you can assess your tolerance at a later time. Next, we’ll discuss high FODMAP fruits and vegetables. Now, FODMAPs is an acronym. It stands for fermentable oligo, di, monosaccharides, and polyols.

Jeremiah Farias (06:51.662)
These carbohydrates are again, highly fermentable in the gut and in states of dysbiosis or SIBO, which stands for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, high consumption of these higher FODMAP fruits or vegetables can lead to gastrointestinal symptoms, namely excessive gas and bloating. So if you’re experiencing symptoms when you’re consuming high FODMAP foods like lentils, beans, cruciferous vegetables, and even certain tubers, you may have some degree of dysbiosis,

and for a short period of time, identify the most problematic foods and reduce them in your diet while you attempt to improve the dysbiosis. Lastly, we have polyunsaturated fats. I’ve talked about polyunsaturated fats in many previous videos, and as a reminder, these are found in fatty fish, fish oils, vegetable oils, nuts and seeds, also fatty chicken and fatty pork. Unfortunately, polyunsaturated fats not only cause issues with oxidative stress and impairing cellular energy production,

they also can disrupt the gut. They can do this through a variety of mechanisms. First, they can impair the integrity of the gut. Specifically, they can decrease the height and the width of the villi in the intestinal tract. Pupus can also induce tight junction permeability. Tight junctions are those structures that keep everything within the intestinal tract contained within the intestinal tract and prevent any LPS, endotoxin, or other foreign proteins from entering circulation.

Finally, just when you think you can’t get any worse, Pufas can also increase dysbiosis and inflammation in the gut. The same dysbiosis and inflammation that can lead to insulin resistance or diabetes. So if you’re gonna have certain grains, pseudo grains, or legumes in your diet, I would make sure that you properly prepare them and assess your tolerance. The same goes for higher FODMAP foods, figuring out which ones you can have in your diet that are not gonna cause any gastrointestinal issues. In some circumstances, when dysbiosis or SIBO is present,

The use of antimicrobials or spore -based probiotics may be warranted, however, I would recommend working with a competent practitioner. Now, if you need ideas for preferred sources of fats and even some easier to digest vegetables and carbohydrates, you’ll want to download my free macronutrient guide. The link for that will be in the description below. Alright, that first section on hard to digest foods was extensive. I promise the remaining four sections, I’ll be much more succinct.

Jeremiah Farias (09:13.422)
The second key concept is optimizing or supporting thyroid health. Optimal thyroid function is going to support overall health, blood sugar metabolism, and digestion. When it comes to digestion, thyroid function influences gut motility. This is the speed at which contents in the intestinal tract move throughout the intestinal tract. Specifically, low thyroid function leads to slower esophageal transit time and gastric emptying. This decreased gut motility can actually increase the incidence of SIBO.

as bacteria are able to make their way up to the small intestine and take up residence there. Lastly, hypothyroidism can lead to decreases in stomach acid and this reduction in stomach acid can increase the risk of developing SIBO or dysfiosis because the foods that one consumes may contain bacteria. The bacteria, because the stomach acid is not acidic, will not kill those bacteria that are remaining. They will then get past the stomach into the

large intestine and the small intestine causing either SIBO or dysbiosis. We’re now on the third concept, which is supporting stomach acid production. As I just mentioned in the thyroid section, we want to support sufficient stomach acid production. Unfortunately, due to the overuse of proton pump inhibitors, PPIs, there are many people with a less than ideal level of stomach acidity, and this is associated and can lead to other chronic health conditions.

We just reviewed the importance of supporting thyroid function to influence or positively influence stomach acid production and overall digestion. But when it comes to stomach gas production, two other nutrients are just as important. That is salt and protein. First, salt contains both sodium and chloride. And both of those are key for optimizing digestion in the stomach. The chloride is going to be a component of hydrochloric acid, which is part of stomach acid. And then the sodium is required.

required to transport the hydrochloric acid to the stomach. Next, prioritizing sufficient high quality protein is also necessary for optimizing stomach acid. And when I say high quality proteins, I’m referring to animal proteins. This is because animal proteins are better at stimulating the release of gastric acids compared to plant -based proteins like soy. So by optimizing thyroid function, getting enough salt in the diet, and getting enough high quality protein in the diet, we’re going to do all that we can to support

Jeremiah Farias (11:39.598)
and optimize our stomach acid production. We’re now in the fourth key concept, which is getting enough fiber and polyphenol -rich fruits and vegetables in the diet. So dietary polyphenols include catechins, flavonols, flavones, anthocyanins, proanthocyanins, and phenolic acids. And these are actively studied for the antioxidant properties that they possess. And according to the literature, polyphenols not only possess antioxidant properties, they also are antiviral, antibacterial, anti -inflammatory, anti -carcinogenic,

and they have a positive effect overall in the intestinal tract. One of the ways that polyphenols have a beneficial effect in the gut is they reduce the process of putrefaction. Putrefaction is when amino acids make their way down to the colon and microbes are going to ferment them and produce toxic byproducts like sulfides, indoles, and ammonia. Now fiber is well understood to be beneficial for our gut health and our overall health. I previously mentioned that fiber is going to get down into the large intestine.

microbes will ferment it, produce short chain fatty acids, and these will nourish the cells of the colon. Additionally, fiber is also going to reduce the process of putrefaction. This is because when the microbes have fiber to ferment, they’re less likely to ferment these amino acids. The last thing I wanted to mention in this concept is fruits and vegetables not only contain fiber and polyphenols, some of them also contain sufficient amounts of carbohydrate, which is going to provide the body with glucose.

Believe it or not, glucose can actually protect the gut endothelium during times of stress and reduce the likelihood of one experiencing intestinal permeability. Meaning that during times of stress, glucose reduces the likelihood of one experiencing leaky gut. We’re now at the fifth key concept, which is managing stress. Stress, as one can imagine, causes gastrointestinal issues. This is because stress will divert blood flow from the intestinal tract. Meaning when you restrict blood flow,

you’re restricting the nourishment that can go towards the gastrointestinal system. This lack of nutrients being delivered to the gastrointestinal tract can result in the degradation of the gut mucosa, increasing one’s risk of developing ulcers. It can also impair the digestion of various protein, carbs, and fats from the food we consume, impair or slow down motility, and reduce the integrity of both the small intestine and the large intestine.

Jeremiah Farias (13:59.726)
Therefore, we want to have stress management strategies in place. This can mean using prayer, deep breathing, meditation throughout the day, going for walks, playing with your children, and even exercising for some people. The key is finding an activity that works for you and brings down your stress, gets you out of that sympathetic state and into the parasympathetic or rest and digest state. The next point on stress can be a bit challenging to implement. However, it has a lot of benefits for managing stress,

and improving digestion. This is eating in an environment without distractions. So not watching TV, not being on one’s phone or social media. The goal is to be fully present for the meal. This can mean saying a prayer before the meal or even taking a few deep breaths to again, activate that rest and digest system. Also, thoroughly chewing one’s food, eating slowly is going to allow for proper digestion of various macronutrients. It’s gonna…

lead to extracting the most nutrients from your food, optimizing pancreatic enzyme production, digestive enzyme production, and it makes it easier on the digestive tract when these foods are broken down as much as possible. Lastly, on the topic of stress, in previous videos, I’ve covered the importance of getting enough calories from protein, carbs, and fats, but also ensuring you’re meeting your micronutrient needs as a way…

to lower physiological stress. Additionally, ensuring you are meeting your energy demands is gonna increase one’s tolerance to stress that you encounter day to day. So by limiting hard to digest foods, supporting thyroid function and stomach gas production, including enough polyphenol and fiber rich fruits and vegetables, and finally managing stress, you’re going to start experiencing improvements in digestion and blood sugar metabolism.

One of the points that I covered today was the importance of optimizing thyroid health. If you’re wanting to learn more about how to improve the health and function of your thyroid, you can check out this video. If you enjoyed today’s video, please be sure to hit that like button, share it with someone that you believe would benefit from it, subscribe and turn on notifications so you don’t miss any future videos. Take care and I’ll see you next week.