Wellness

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When the elements of life are in balance, wellness happens naturally. It is normal to have an affinity towards some but not all of the elements of wellness. Wild Free Organic is here to guide you on your journey towards a balanced healthy lifestyle and provide new paths of exploration.

Fasting for Beginners

Fasting is the process of abstaining from all food, and by activating different aspects of human biology, fasting is an incredible healing tool that can be used to reduce inflammation throughout the body, lose weight, heal the gut, reset the microbiome, improve the immune system, and much more. Get started on the first foot with this beginners guide to fasting.

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter! Stefan Burns YouTube

I have done my best to make this a complete guide on fasting for beginners. As part of a 10 year gut health journey to great gut health I have researched extensively into the gastrointestinal system, cellular biology, and human health, and I found through experimentation that fasting was incredibly effective in healing my gut, improving my digestion, and resetting my microbiome to work with me instead of against me. My complete advice on this subject of gut health and fasting is the Holistic Gut Health Guide. For everyone new to discovering fasting and gut health mindfulness, you will get started on the right foot with a foundation of good information with the guide below. Everything that I have written on fasting I have tried, and research fills in the rest in regards to disease states such as obesity and diabetes, the full reference list is at the end.

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Holistic Gut Health Guide eBook

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Together the digestive system and microbiome are the foundation of health from which everything else is dependent on.

The Holistic Gut Health Guide contains all the information you need to identify and understand the gastrointestinal and microbiome problems you may have while also providing you the most effective natural methods you can use to heal your gut. No gut health problems are unsolvable, give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

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If you haven’t discovered already, a lot of what is written on the internet is by robots, so welcome to my authentic human website backed by common sense and forward looking science. Based on the popularity of my Use Fasting to Reset the Digestive System article, I know this is going to help so many of you which is very exciting! Welcome!

Fasting: Abstaining from food or drink

Water fasting is not consuming any food or caloric beverages, and dry fasting is not consuming any liquids. Dry fasting can be done in different ways, and as it removes the vital resource of water, it is not for beginners and won’t be discussed in this article. Everything written below is for water fasting.

Fasting helps with (1):

Digestive upset and gut health problems
Weight-loss and excess body fat
Autoimmune issues and active infections
Metabolic conditions like diabetes
Neurodegenerative problems along with mental fatigue and brain fog

Fasting is able to help with most heath problems because of how it reduces inflammation throughout the body through the activation of autophagy. There are many possible reasons you have heard of fasting and why you may find it of interest, and it’s beyond the scope of this beginners guide to explore every avenue. Instead we will look at how fasting benefits health by examining some of the universal health actions it promotes, discuss the most popular applications for fasting, and cover the important considerations that need to be made with fasting.

This most common reason people find initial interest in fasting is for losing body fat. Since fasting removes all caloric inputs and forces the body to metabolize body fat, fasting is an effective weight loss technique. Cyclical weight loss is typically not healthy, and a better way to consider fasting than as a weight-loss tool is as a metabolism-enhancing tool. A number on a scale is not as important as a healthy metabolism. Typically having a healthy metabolism means you’re at your perfect body fat percentage and weight, as fat loss and having a healthy body composition is causative from metabolism, but misalignment between the two can occur at times and therefore this is an important mindset distinction to make if seeking best long term success.

Fasting for Metabolic Health

Metabolism: The near infinite number of life-sustaining reactions that occur within the body cellularly every second

Having a healthy metabolism means you have all the normal components needed to complete all the metabolic reactions required for optimal health every day. The largest component of metabolism comes down to human thermodynamics, but there are other pieces that are useful, like using herbs which contain compounds that beneficially facilitate and stabilize chemical reactions throughout various parts of the body.

Fasting is so useful for improving metabolic health because it changes genetic expression. Activating the regenerative state of autophagy requires the stimulation of those parts of your DNA that govern the process, and as DNA expression changes so to does cellular protein production. Mitochondrial function improves, and in the first two days of fasting you often experience an energy surge as the body’s energetic burden from digestion has been lifted. As the gut regenerates, future periods of food consumption will yield greater metabolic resources through improved digestion, the result being better metabolism and being in a better fat burning environment. More energy, resources, and healthy connective tissues means more activity and greater NEAT (2).

Fasting for Weight Loss

Approximately 75% of adults aged 20 and over are overweight or obese. The obesity rate for this age group in the USA is 40% (3). For anyone in either of these categories, the most effective way to improve metabolic function. which is the primary object over simply weighing less, is to improve body composition. Shedding body fat and increasing lean body mass (muscle) does this most effectively. Fasting reduces body fat percentage quickly and can be done safely with proper knowledge and experience, and with proper refeeding and exercise afterwards, fasting has no discernable effect on lean body mass in my experience. Lean body mass have even been shown to improve with repeated bouts of a calorie restricted “fasting mimicking” diet (4).

Let’s say you have twenty pounds (10 kg) to lose. An effective way to lose that weight in order to improve metabolic health and overall wellness is to complete a 48 hour fast once a week, with a 2 meal a day intermittent fasting schedule in-between. This is a 5:2 schedule:

Five days 16 hour intermittent fasting with a daily eight hour eating window
Two days of fasting (i.e. a 48 hour fast)

That weight could also be lost rapidly in a few weeks or a months time if a good diet is eaten and an overall caloric deficit is maintained. That weight could also be lost over time though not as quickly with a daily intermittent fasting or one meal a day (OMAD) schedule. The most rapid way to lose weight is to not eat for 3+ days, and many people who are overweight or obese are successful in multiday/seven day/10+ day fasts. More important than losing excess body fat once is keeping it off, and thus I think it better to take shorter more frequent fasts while improving diet quality in-between than it is to do a mega-long fast and then possibly binge afterwards, which is just another form of yo-yo dieting but riskier.

Croatia, 2021. I was swimming a lot and practicing yoga. Diet of rice, beans, tofu, eggs, and abundant fruits and vegetables. Occasional intermittent fasting as guided by intuition and gut health.

How to Activate Brown Fat

There are two main types of fat in the body. White fat is metabolically inactive, and these stores of calories do not activate easily. Brown fat is metabolically active and generates body heat. White fat is long term calorie storage and can accumulate to dangerous levels that increase risk of disease and all-cause mortality (5). Brown fat on the other hand has active energy in-flows and out-flows. Cold therapy activates and increases brown fat, and having a greater brown fat percentage is correlated with improved metabolic health (6), better heat regulation, and less energy volatility.

As the phytochemicals of herbs like flavonoids have metabolism boosting effects, it’s possible that the metabolism of these plant compounds by the liver and/or microbiome also stimulates brown fat creation and usage, most likely due to selective DNA activation.

Fasting also stimulates brown fat simply because it is advantageous. Brown fat can be activated for energy needs faster than white fat, and a healthy metabolism can shift between carbohydrate metabolism to brown fat metabolism to white fat metabolism (if any exist) with few interruptions in-between. As body composition and metabolism improves, the body is better able to manage its energy requirements and white fat is selectively reduced in favor of keeping a tighter budget in brown fat and if physically training, bigger muscles which can store greater amounts of glycogen.

Eating a higher-fat diet in-between fasts composed of unoxidized fats, primarily monounsaturated fats like you receive from olive oil and avocados, will broadly improve fat metabolism and therefore brown fat activation.

Fasting for Diabetes

Diabetes: Dysfunctional glucose processing and utilization which causing excess blood sugar

As fasting improves blood glucose utilization, it can be useful for those with diabetes, but care should be taken to avoid dangerous moments of too high or too low blood sugar. If you have diabetes please consult with a health practitioner knowledgeable in fasting before scheduling any long fasts. There are two types of diabetes, type 1 and type 2.

Type 1 Diabetes: An autoimmune condition where insulin-producing cells in the pancreas are destroyed by the bodies immune system. About 10% of people who have diabetes have Type 1. Often diagnosed in children and young adults.

Type 2 Diabetes: The body doesn’t make enough insulin and/or the body’s cells don’t respond normally to insulin. Type 2 diabetes occurs most often in middle-aged and older people.

Diabetes and its mismanagement once developed has serious consequences, being stressful much of the body, including the heart, kidneys, and nervous system. As fasting helps with autoimmune conditions and also the normalization of pancreatic function and blood glucose levels, fasting can help type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

If performed safely and with many safety fallbacks, like having food always available on hand, fasting can be useful for diabetics to improve their condition and overall health. By clearing the digestive system of food, or at least by spacing the time out between meals more, fasting relieves stress on the pancreas and allows for insulin levels and blood glucose sensitivity to normalize back to optimal. For those with diabetes, intermittent fasting can reduce insulin requirements and aid in weight loss (7).

If you begin to notice increased energy volatility characterized by too low or too high blood sugar levels, fasting is an effective way to reset the functioning of the pancreas. Insulin is the main anabolic hormone of the human body, and it’s only produced by the pancreas, but this only accounts for about 1% of pancreatic functioning. The other duties of the pancreas that make up 99% of its purpose is secreting pancreatic juice and digestive enzymes into the first part of the small intestine known as the duodenum, which neutralizes stomach acid and aids in the breakdown of food and it’s digestion. And its fasting’s digestion improving effect which is really quite amazing.

Not eating to eat better, who would have thought?

Fasting for Gut Health

There are many ways to relieve stress on the digestive system, from adopting a liquid diet to removing intolerant foods from the diet via an elimination diet. There is no question though that the simplest and most effective way to reduce digestive stress and inflammation is to simply not eat. The epithelial layer of the digestive system regenerates about 20% per day, and this rate is increased even further when the regular stress of digesting food is alleviated via fasting.

That’s right, it is stressful to eat! Eating and digesting requires the production and secretion of many different chemicals from a bunch of organs like the liver, gallbladder, and pancreas. The immune system has to be active to ensure nothing unwanted penetrates through the gut-blood barrier into the blood stream. Digestion requires energy, which is why eating a big meal often induces sleepiness, but the reason we do it is because if we eat nutritious foods we get more out of digestion than we put into it. Fundamentally that’s how life exists.

For some people this isn’t the case though, either because their diet is such a poor nutrient quality that the body puts more into digestion than it receives out of it, or the body does its best to digest food but other issues are causing malabsorption of nutrients, like diarrhea, damaged/destroyed villi, or poorly functional glands which fail to release adequate enzymes and biles vital to proper digestion. An “easy” fix for these problems is to fast.

Evolutionarily it’s in our physiology to fast, it’s another “default mode network” the body that has developed over millions of years of evolution. In fact the body wants you to fast every now and then, it’s the most efficient way to active autophagy, the cellular process that repairs and regenerates the tissues of the body. Fasting also changes the composition of the microbiome quickly, an important aspect of proper thorough food digestion. If you fast off a meal for a day or two, your microbiome will be better at digesting those particular foods than they were when you first ate them.

The most obvious effect that fasting has though is that it reduces inflammation in the gut.

Fasting for Gut Inflammation

The role of the digestive system is to take food, which is made up of animal, plant, or fungal cells which contain complex macronutrients like starches, long-chain fatty acids, and protein chains, and break everything down into the smallest most usable and absorbable compounds. Food is often first broken down and made easier to digest through cooking, and chewing mechanically breaks food down into smaller components. From there stomach acid and digestive enzymes erode and break apart the molecular bonds of food, transporters are utilized to facilitate certain chemical reactions, and as you can imagine the digestive system becomes a very busy environment chemically. Within the chaos of digestion there is an order, but there is no avoiding the inflammation created from the digestive process.

When you are in good health, the inflammation created during digestion is easily mitigated and is no cause for concern, but if a health imbalance exists, then gut-based inflammation can tip the body over into a state of over-stress, which isn’t good over the long term. You may be interesting in fasting as a way to heal the gastrointestinal system and reduce gut inflammation, and fasting is very effective in achieving these objectives. All of chapter 8 of the Holistic Gut Health Guide is how fasting is useful for gut health.

Fasting is one of the best ways to repair the gut because the absence of food activates widespread autophagy.

Autophagy: Body’s cellular recycling system that processes the reusing of old and damaged cell parts

The necessary inflammation of the gut causes the cells of the digestive system to experience rapid turnover, with intestinal digestive linings experiencing about a 20% daily turnover rate. By strongly activating autophagy, fasting increases the digestive systems regenerative systems and cellular resources are better recycled and reused, which places less of a resource drain on metabolism.

It takes time for food to transit through the digestive system, and food spreads out in the digestive system after eating, so the longer the fast and the more time is allowed for food to completely clear out and pass, the more effective the anti-inflammatory and regenerative effects of fasting.

Drinking zero-calorie herbal teas aid greatly in the inflammation-reducing and gut healing fasting process. Well-known and safe herbs like chamomile and dandelion contain abundant antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial flavonoids and other phytochemicals, and drinking a 1:1 ratio chamomile flower and dandelion root tea throughout a fast and on normal eating days improves digestion, quells excess gut inflammation, and helps shift the microbiome towards symbiosis and away from destructive pathogenesis. Endotoxin-producing pathogens can be a large potential source of gut inflammation, and fasting helps to limit their presence in the digestive system.

Herbal Teas and Fasting for Gut Health

Fasting for Microbiome Reset

The microorganisms that live in the human digestive system have a very short life-cycle and cannot survive nutrient deprivation as long you can. By removing food from the system, fasting influences the composition of the microbiome.

Most of the microbiome lives in the large intestine, which food begins to reach at about 6+ hours of digestion. Food is then further digested by the microbiome and body in the large intestine for 24-36 hours typically. To change the composition and diversity of the microbiome in a substantial way with fasting, a complete emptying of the large intestine and a subsequent zero-digestion period are required, which necessitates a longer 48+ hour fast.

Still it’s been found that short fasts, like the 16 to 20 hour fasts common to intermittent fasting can also favorably shift the microbiome over time (8), especially when paired with favorable dietary changes like the consumption of more fiber. Intermittent fasting also helps the body achieve better circadian rhythm through modification of the gut microbiome (9).

There are two main strategies for improving the gut microbiome, and the first is to diversify the microbiome with more symbiotic microbes and to support their growth, and the second is to select against and reduce pathogenic microbe populations. Most effective is to pair both strategies together, and if this is done then it’s possible to shift the microbiome towards greater symbiosis in a significant way quite quickly, and fasting does this effectively especially when paired with certain herbal remedies which you can learn more about with the article on the other side of this button.

How to Restore a Healthy Microbiome

Fasting for Parasite Removal

Fasting is an effective way to reduce and eliminate parasites from the gastrointestinal system as it removes their primary food source which is what you eat, while instead you draw from your fat reserves. If parasites are a serious problem, only a very long fast 7+ day fast will completely eliminate them, so fasting is best paired with a parasite removal protocol.

This can be accomplished in a number of ways. You can fast for a period of time, say 2 days, and then in-between each fast you run an herbal parasite cleanse. If you’re overall healthy and wanting to make a faster more dramatic change, then you can fast and take the anti-parasite herbs at the same time. For both options, I recommend drinking herbal tea throughout the fasting and feeding periods as it will help regenerate the gut, favorably improve the microbiome, improve energy metabolism, and beneficially activate the immune system. A perfect tea for this would be a 1:1:1 ratio blend of chamomile flowers, dandelion root, and peppermint leaves.

The stronger anti-parasite herbs are oregano (specifically oregano oil), clove, black walnut hull, and wormwood. A good premixed supplement I used before which worked great was SCRAM, and I followed those dosing instructions while also taking oregano oil twice a day. To learn more about parasites and parasite removal, you can read my following article.

How to Best Remove Parasites

Fasting for Immune Health

Beyond weight loss and gut health, fasting has been shown to have powerful effects on the immune system. The majority of immune system activity is centered around the gut, as vigilant defense against pathogens and unwanted compounds from entering into the blood stream is needed. When the immune defense requirements of the gastrointestinal system decrease due to less food transiting through (which also means less microbial growth at that moment), the immune system is able to regenerate, recharge, and reset its functions.

Case reports abound from medically supervised fasting clinics of people who have seen complete remission of an autoimmune disease by undergoing long multi-day water fasts (10), usually exceeding two weeks in length. Autoimmune diseases are characterized by the immune system mistakenly attacking parts of the body, and this destructive cellular behavior has the potential to be eliminated and the immune system reset towards normal function through fasting.

Severe calorie restriction (50% and greater) and fasting changes immune function by altering the distribution of immune cells throughout the body, with memory T-cells for example accumulating in bone marrow as a protective mechanism (11). The adaptive immune system enhances survival in the face of infection because it allows the host to rapidly respond to and control infections as they arise. Immunological memory enhances this protective ability especially if new infections are the same or similar in nature to infections previously experienced.

Fasting in effect regenerates the immune system to a more youthful state that is better at fighting pathogens and cancer and less likely to turn on healthy cells of the body.

One reason appetite typically decreases during a cold, flu, or covid is because of the immune-boosting effect that calorie restriction and fasting has. By activating autophagy, the body is better able to fight infections and repair the cellular damage caused by them.

Fasts of different lengths have different effects on the immune system, so if you are interested in fasting to improve immune health, I recommend starting with intermittent fasting, and then trying OMAD, and then trying a 2-3 day fast, making careful self-observations during each fast of how you feel and how your symptoms improve (if you have any).

If you have a serious autoimmune condition and want to try a longer water fast to help with the condition, contact a fasting clinic near you and consult with your health practitioner.

The Simplest Types of Fasting

Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting is the most popular type of fasting, typically scheduled as sixteen hours of fasting followed by an open eight hour feeding window (16:8). This ratio of fasting to feeding can be shortened to and 12:12 ratio or lengthened to a 20:4 ratio, with the longer intermittent fasts taking the body deeper into autophagy.

It’s easier to maintain caloric balance or even a caloric surplus with intermittent fasting than it is with multi-day fasts. Intermittent fasting is useful for athletes who want to improve their insulin sensitivity, hormone profiles, and improve their digestion, all while still increasing in strength, stamina, and possibly lean body mass.

Intermittent fasting is the easiest form for fasting to do for the average person, and overtime it can dramatically transform one’s health.

Intermittent fasting is most effective done consistently day after day, and the daily increase in autophagy intermittent fasting stimulates as compared to a normal 3-4 meals & snacks a day eating schedule is helpful for healing the gut, reducing inflammation throughout the body, and improving energy metabolism.

OMAD Fasting (One Meal a Day)

Fasting for twenty-four hours is also known as one meal a day or OMAD fasting. The most common type of OMAD fasting is eating dinner every night, though it’s not uncommon to do breakfast or lunch OMAD. OMAD is similar to intermittent fasting in that food is still eaten every day, and OMAD is typically done consecutively or for a certain number of days per week.

Since OMAD takes the body deeper into a fasted state of autophagy across twenty-four hours than intermittent fasting, it’s a good way to begin experimenting with longer fasts and to examine one’s relationship with eating behaviors. Physiological hunger is quite different than a psychological food craving, and if struggling to make healthy dietary choices, consistent OMAD fasting is a great way to reset psychological eating behaviors and patterns.

The gut-brain axis is beneficially altered with OMAD and each fast will have you become better at identifying when you’re truly physically hungry or when you simply have a psychological food craving.

48 Hour Fasting

Fasting for longer than 24 hours reduces the body’s glucose sugars stored in muscle cells and the liver, and around the 48 hour mark is usually when all the stored glucose is depleted in the body which forces the body to shift into ketosis.

Ketosis: Metabolic process that converts fatty acids into energy molecules known as ketones.

The brain runs exclusively on simple sugars, or if those are not available, ketones. When carbohydrates are in short supply, either from fasting or from eating a high-fat ketogenic diet, the body begins producing ketones to keep all the metabolic systems running smoothly. Some people with neurodegenerative diseases see a massive reduction in symptoms and their disease state when their brain runs on ketones instead of simple sugars.

Just as fasting is another default mode network for the body, switching from sugar metabolism to ketone metabolism is another metabolic state change that can be used to improve health and diagnose health issues. A 48-hour fast is useful because it takes the body deep into autophagy, deeper than most people have ever gone in their lives except maybe during a bad illness like the flu (hint hint a protective mechanism from widespread viral inflammation and damage). Forty eight hours of fasting really provides the digestive system time to rest and regenerate by greatly reducing stress and takes the body to the edge of or into ketosis.

A 48-hour fast is short enough to be easily completed by most people without serious health issues as long as they have the willpower. a 2 day fast doesn’t require too much planning, and it’s also long enough to bring about noticeable differences in digestion, energy, and weight. Undergoing a 48 hour fast allows for valuable health observations to be made on digestion, metabolism, mental health, and more.

3 Day Fasting

A longer 72-hour fast will take the body fully into ketosis and the autophagy healing effects are even stronger than they are for shorter fasts. It’s recommended to break a 72 hour fast with a small fat-heavy meal, like a mixed green salad with avocado, as this reduces the shock of reintroducing food to the digestive system while also keeping fat metabolism high and ketosis activated. If a fast that has induced ketosis is broken this way, you have a choice with subsequent meals to stay in ketosis or revert back to carbohydrate metabolism.

Your experience may vary, but I have found through personal experience that I don’t need to concern myself greatly with electrolytes during a 48 hour fast, but that electrolytes becomes more important with a 72 hour fast.

Fasting and Electrolytes

Electrolytes such as sodium, potassium, chloride, magnesium, calcium, phosphate, and bicarbonates are required for the basic functions of life like transmitting nerve signals and keeping cells electrically neutral. We derive electrolytes from our our food and drinks, and high or low electrolyte imbalances are health disruptive and can be life-threatening (12).

By removing all food from the metabolic equation, fasting changes electrolyte inflows, outflows, and overall ion balances in the body. For intermittent or OMAD fasting, there is generally little need to concern oneself with electrolytes as food containing electrolytes is still consumed daily. Making sure you acquire sufficient electrolytes and in the right ratios is important during longer fast.

I have fasted many times for 48 hours without taking any electrolytes with zero problems, so “wiggle room” exists. Your experience may vary, and it is better to do the following if fasting for greater than 24 hours:

Add a pinch of sea salt to the water you drink. Sea salt contains an abundant assortment of salts and ions, like potassium (K) and magnesium (Mg), whereas land-derived table salt contains just sodium (Na) and chloride (Cl) ions.
Drinking herbal teas throughout a fast will provide the body a natural and varied assortment of electrolytes. Dandelion root is especially good for this as it contains abundant micronutrients (13)

Pre-made electrolyte fasting mixes exist, often called snake juice, and can be useful if used properly, but I urge caution in using them because they are often dosed incorrectly which results in symptoms like cramps and sudden diarrhea (as you’ll hear from the “never trust a fart” fasting crowd). Gross but worth knowing if you’re going to try fasting so you can avoid that embarrassing situation.

Breaking a Fast (refeeding)

I’ll conclude this fasting for beginners guide with how to break a fast, otherwise known as the refeed.

Fasting is amazing and incredibly healing if done safely and intelligently, and at some point every fast must come to an end. When it becomes more healthy to eat than to continue fasting is the hard limit.

The meals you eat before and after a fast have a dramatic effect on the ease and quality of the fast undertaken. For example, fasting off of a highly processed cheeseburger will be a much lesser experience with greater food cravings, energy volatility, and reduced cellular regeneration, than fasting off a meal consisting of vegetables, pulses (beans, lentils, etc), and a whole grain like rice. Fasting off of cake would be even worse! As it takes about 8-12 hours for food to reach the large intestine, and food can remain there for processing by the body and microbiome for 36-72 hours, the content and quality of the food eaten before a fast has a big impact on how easy a fast is.

A healthy microbiome is able to metabolize indigestible fiber and phytochemicals like flavonoids into short-chain fatty acids and beneficial secondary metabolites respectively. Fasts up to 72 hours in length does not eliminate all resource acquisition from the digestive system, it just encourages complete and thorough digestion of the remaining food while simultaneously shifting towards greater and greater activation of body fat for pure energetic needs.

A meal high in fiber and beneficial plant phytochemicals will beneficially remodel the microbiome towards symbiosis throughout the course of the fast, and then refeeding after the fast further effects the course of development of the microbiome. The final meal before a fast should consist of organic whole foods with an emphasis on vegetables, and the meal breaking a fast should consist of much the same.

For example with a 48 hour fast following this advice ensures that energy levels remain relatively stable during the fast, electrolytes are not in short supply, the microbiome shifts favorably towards greater symbiosis, and that food cravings are avoided.

This may be TMI, but I’ve personally experienced during 48 to 72 hour fasts that the last meal I eat is able to be processed down and absorbed to almost nothing if you have a healthy microbiome and the meal eaten was of a high quality. What this means is that instead of a having a bowel movement of normal volume from that meal, you may experience a much smaller bowel movement, or it’s possible that it doesn’t occur at all because your digestive system work together over the course of 2-3 days to absorb everything. Yes this is possible and really reshapes your understanding of how much food you really need to eat daily, and how many nutrients are wasted everyday, via the typical diet an eating schedule.

Get Fasting

Life has evolved to be adaptable to periods of nutrient scarcity, and fasting is not only useful but necessary from time to time. Optimal heath and longevity requires there to be a balance between anabolism (growth) and catabolism (repair). Over consumption of processed foods in addition to deleterious modern lifestyle factors has led to many of the health problems of the present day.

Fasting is an elegant solution to many of the health problems common today and it’s as old as time. Fasting allows you to experience a greater range of what’s possible biologically: from digestion efficiency improvements, to better metabolism, an enhanced immune system, and improved cognitive function.

Developing an intuition around knowing when to feed and when to fast is an important part of the heath journey and will help you to achieve your best wellness. I hope you find fasting as useful as I have, it has helped me tremendously in improving my gut health, once was my biggest health concern but now I navigate it with ease, and anytime I have the rare gut heath flareup the first thing I do is to begin fasting, whether its just an intermittent fast or I discover a 48 hour fast is needed or a longer period of OMAD fasting is beneficial. Once you have completed a few fasts for each of the primary methods 16 to 72 hours in length, fasting becomes a reliable tool you can use at any time to improve your health so long as it serves you and can be done safely.

I have written a lot more on fasting on this website, you can view the other articles here, or read chapter 8 of the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

The Secret to Longevity

In the field of science it's generally accepted that the simpler the theory, the better. This concept widely applies to life, and as it relates to health and longevity there is a very simple concept you can apply into your lifestyle that few people are aware of. Learn about it here!

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated September 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

I’m going to share with you the secret to longevity.

This is longevity in health and lifespan, and the same concept can also be applied to various other parts of life like friendship, love, your career, etc.

First let’s examine the current trend for health and wellness advice, and wow is there an overwhelming amount of health and wellness practices that are good for you to follow.

Some are well-known and proven like:

Eat more vegetables!
Walk 10,000 steps a day!
Sleep 8 hours a night!
Don’t smoke or drink!
Get some sun on your skin everyday!

Others are very niche and promise magic effects:

Take this one supplement to transform your health
Avoid this one food to lose 20 pounds
Boost your cognition with this rare herb
Increase your testosterone 200% using this special light

What both of these categories have in common, one full of things known to benefit your health, the other possibly helpful but more dubious in nature, is that they are something new to do.

Add this into your lifestyle, change this, remove that.

Whether relatively simple or complex to implement, they require that you make a structural change to your life, whether that’s taking a new supplement every morning, completely changing your nightly routine so you sleep better, or shining red light everyday on your family jewels (if you have them) to increase your testosterone.

Yes that last one really exists (1).

Now I don’t want to discount the importance of structural life changes, whether these are dietary, lifestyle, work-related, or other…but what’s important to recognize is that the best advice, even very simple advice, often fails because it simply is too great of a demand for a very stressed person.

Just the thought of doing something different, even if a lot of what they’re doing currently isn’t helping them, is stressful and gets rejected and dismissed. When this is the case, even if sleeping better and activating their parasympathetic nervous system may be exactly what they need to solve their health problems, a different approach is required.

This different approach is what I believe is the secret to longevity.

The Importance of Frequency

Most people, no matter how unhealthy, are doing at least a few things right in regards to their health.

Consider the obese individual who enjoys a cup of herbal tea every morning, or the person plagued by anxiety who still goes to a yoga class once a week.

Prescribing a new concept, idea, modality, or supplement to these people, who are already overloaded to the max, is nearly impossible because there is simply no bandwidth available to implement the change.

What they can do that doesn’t tax their bandwidth is to increase the frequency of the healthy habits they already have.

These habits are already imprinted into their psyche at some frequency of occurrence, and it’s much easier to change the frequency of something that’s already part of someone’s routine than it is to add or subtract from someone’s routine/lifestyle.

To the overweight individual who drinks a cup of chamomile tea every now and then: Great! Drink chamomile and other herbal teas not just just a few times a week or one cup a day but drink 3-4 cups throughout the day! Mix it up, add in some other herbs like mint, chamomile, dandelion, which benefit health by:

Improving digestion
Shifting the microbiome towards greater symbiosis
Increasing metabolism
Improving cognition
Reducing inflammation

To the stressed and anxious individual who does yoga occasionally: Great! Now practice yoga daily, even if just for 15 minutes. Yoga benefits health by:

Strengthening the body
Increasing metabolism
Balancing the bioelectrical system
Increasing parasympathetic nervous system activity
Releases feel-good endorphins

The secret to longevity is to pulse goodness as frequently as possible

Spend more time outside breathing fresh air, meditate more often even if just for a minute or two at a time. There are so many things that can be increased in frequency safely that will greatly benefit your health and wellness if done so!

Whether you’re at the beginning of your wellness journey or further along the path, the more frequently you incorporate wellness promoting things and activities into your life the healthier you’ll be.

Whether it’s drinking tea or eating vegetables more often, making sure to get some safe sun exposure (and therefore synthesize vitamin D) daily, or to keep your body limber and strong by moving it more often, find the healthy habits you already have that can safely be increased in frequency, and simply do them more often! This will improve your health and provide you more room to then overtime embrace new wellness practices into your lifestyle, which you can ten apply the same principle to them.

This concept of pulsing goodness more frequently doesn’t have to apply simply to one wellness practice. It can be multi-faceted. For example it can be a cup of tea in the morning, then a 10 minute stretch break at mid-morning followed later by a healthy meal and a walk at noon…you get the idea.

Heath is a Wave

You can think of health as a wave that is slowly declining in power as you age. Every time you pulse some wellness goodness into your life, you increase the height of the wave slightly and improve your health, and the more frequently you trigger these upswings, even if minorly, the more stable the wave becomes. Then as life allows, bigger structural changes like improving your sleep, earthing, and changing your diet can be incorporated which cause those big jumps in health and wellness.

Lastly this concept of pulsing goodness more often in order to increase longevity applies to many other areas in life such as friendships, love, and your career. Try it out and see how you can transform those areas of your life too.

Spend some time considering the impact frequency has on your wellness and overall life, identify something in your life that you already do that you can easily increase the frequency on, and try it out!

My top recommendation for this would be to drink herbal tea more often. Herbal tea is amazing for health for a variety of reasons which I discuss more in-depth in the article below.

Herbal Teas for Fasting and Gut Health

References:

Ahn, Jinhee et al. “The effects of low level laser therapy (LLLT) on th e testis in elevating serum testosterone level in rats.” (2013).

Stefan Burns 9/1/22 Stefan Burns 9/1/22

Best Supplements for Brain Fog

Brain fog and overall mental fatigue is a serious health concern that effects executive decision making, focus and memory, and also emotional status. The symptoms of brain fog itself make it difficult to treat, so the use of natural supplements like herbs is a great strategy for quickly making in-roads into the treatment of the condition.

and for Optimizing Cognitive Performance

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated September. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

If you have brain fog you know how helpless it can feel at times to remedy the problem, as the very symptoms of brain fog like an inability to concentrate and focus limit your ability, energy, and drive to find and implement useful helpful solutions.

When this is the case, using the best supplements for focus and concentration can provide some relief from brain fog and mental fatigue and help bring in enough energy and clarity of mind to kickstart the lifestyle changes that need to be made to permanently solve the problem.

Brain fog can be experienced all on its own, or it can be part of a larger health problem like chronic fatigue syndrome. The best supplements that help with mental fatigue aren’t ones that simply stimulate the brain but instead are ones that beneficially target the stressed and dysfunctional parts of the body that are creating the mental fatigue in the first place.

There is no perfect brain fog cure, but with the right supplemental support and then the corresponding necessary lifestyle changes, mental fatigue can be recovered from and brain function can be returned to normal. In this article I share with you my favorite remedies for combatting brain fog and why they work.

Chronic vs Acute Mental Fatigue

There are two types of mental fatigue, chronic and acute. Temporary mental fatigue that is the result of one night’s bad sleep is quite different in effect and in its treatment from daily mental fatigue brought on from excessive stress, constant sleep deprivation, or neurocognitive conditions. When people ask for solutions that help alleviate their brain fog and mental sluggishness, most often they are seeking help for chronic mental fatigue.

Symptoms of Brain Fog

A term commonly used to describe mental fatigue is brain fog. Just like with sleep deprivation, where after a few continuous days of insufficient sleep you begin to not notice your symptoms of sleep deprivation (though they still exist), brain fog has a similar desensitizing effect. A lot of people who have mental fatigue do not realize they have it as they have become used to their chronically sluggish mental processes. It’s usually only when brain fog lifts temporarily for some reason, and clear lucid awareness is experienced before the brain fog returns, that people realize that they’re not functioning at their best. The symptoms of brain fog are subtle, especially when desensitized to the effect, so if you have any of the symptoms below, especially more than one, then it’s worth closely examining the functioning of your brain, your lifestyle, and perhaps taking one or more of the supplements below to see if you experience a noticeable before and after improvement.

Common symptoms of mental fatigue and brain fog:

You have difficulty focusing and concentrating on one task. High distractibility
You get lost in unconscious behavioral patterns (like endlessly scrolling on social media)
Its a struggle for you to hold onto multiple thoughts/ideas at once in order to understand a greater concept, follow a conversation, etc.
You get tired easily, especially with a cognitively demanding task like studying, learning a language, etc.
You experience frequent mood swings, and these mood swings can be triggered from small relatively insignificant events
Your short and/or long term memory isn’t good
You don’t have much patience
You get triggered and angered easily

If mental performance needs to be raised while experiencing acute mental fatigue, like from a poor night’s sleep, then it can usually be treated successfully with a stimulant like caffeine. Chronic mental fatigue is quite different though, and treating chronic brain fog with a stimulant like caffeine can further exacerbate the problem.

Treating long-term brain fog is best done with things that activate the parasympathetic “rest and digest” nervous system. Resting more often, improving sleep, engaging in restorative exercise like yoga, grounding, meditation, breath work, and more are all things that activate the parasympathetic nervous system and help reduce chronic mental fatigue. This article will mostly stick to supplemental measures that help with mental fatigue, so if you wish to examine and treat the very important lifestyle component of the problem, then I suggest you read my article How to Balance Sympathetic and Parasympathetic States.

Sometimes brain fog and mental fatigue is so severe that it can be difficult to even think about let alone implement lifestyle changes that will help and reverse the issue, and when this is the case supplements are a convenient and useful way to jumpstart the turnaround process.

Chamomile for Brain Fog

One of the best things for treating chronic brain fog and mental fatigue is also a very well-known herb, and that’s chamomile!

Chamomile is one of the most ancient and well-known medicinal herbs known to mankind, the two most common varieties being Roman chamomile and German chamomile. Chamomile is identified by its small white flower petals that surround its yellow center, and it’s the chamomile flower that’s used in herbal practices because the flowers contain a wide range of biologically active chemicals such as terpenes, flavonoids, and azulenes that have been shown to be health promotive.

Chamomile is so useful in treating chronic mental fatigue because it provides multi-targeted treatment to the systems which are under the most stress and are causing the symptoms of brain fog as described above.

Chamomile Increases Parasympathetic Activity

First, chamomile helps promote more balanced autonomic nervous system by increasing parasympathetic activity throughout the body, and this helps reduce systemic stress and regenerate the bodily systems that are most worn down, like the adrenal glands.

Chamomile does this by improving heart rate variability (HRV), reducing erratic heart rhythms and instead shifting heart rhythms to be more sinusoidal and coherent in nature (see right half of figure 1). Heart rate variability is the measure of the time interval between heartbeats, and HRV is a key measure of cardiac health, stress, and sudden mortality risk.

Figure 1 - Change in heart rate when emotionally reframing from feelings of frustration to appreciation

CC - McCraty R. The Energetic Heart. HeartMath Institute; 2003

Chamomile’s ability to improve HRV and overall cardiac function is more important than most people realize, because the functioning of the brain is determined to a large degree by the health and functioning of the heart.

Chamomile Increases Alpha Brainwaves

Every heartbeat creates a pressure wave that travels through the circulatory system, and it has been shown that when this blood pressure pulse reaches the brain it generates 8-12 Hz alpha brainwaves. Put another way, the change in blood pressure 1-2 times every second (depending on heart rate) in the brain is the timing signal the brain uses to generate and synchronize alpha brainwaves that cycle 8-12 times per second.

Alpha brainwaves are so important because they are the middle frequency brainwave that sit in-between slow rhythm 0-4 Hz delta and 4-8 Hz theta brainwaves and 12-30 Hz beta and 30+ Hz gamma brainwaves. How well your brain is functioning can be measured quite clearly via brainwave patterns across the head, with the most important factors being brainwave frequency, power, and synchronicity.

There aren’t many (if any) studies that directly show this, but enough evidence exists to greatly suggest that those suffering from mental fatigue and brain fog have weak non-synchronous brainwave activity without clear frequency bands of activity. Chamomile’s ability to increase alpha brainwaves is so important because alpha rhythms are the dominant brain rhythm from which other brainwaves can then be switched to. When alpha brain rhythms are propagating strongly throughout the brain, there’s sense of calm, patience, creativity, and a feeling of relaxed alertness. Sounds like a good resting state of mind eh?

If alpha rhythms are propagating strongly throughout the brain, then it’s easier for the brain to rev up and begin propagating higher frequency beta and gamma brainwaves, which are associated with focus, productivity, and ingenuity. By supporting the stable functioning of the heart and the overall cardiovascular system, chamomile also improves brainwave activity and overtime trains the brain to establish these patterns of activity on its own.

How to Use Chamomile for Brain Fog

There are a few ways chamomile can be used in the treatment of mental fatigue, an important factor to known is that chamomile in my experience acts like an adaptogen for this purpose. If you’re overly tired then chamomile will help to stimulate and gently pick you up because it’s increasing your brainwave frequencies and their coherence of propagation, whereas if you’re overly stimulated and scattered then chamomile will help calm you down by increasing the power of lower frequency brainwaves. In many ways alpha brainwaves are the base from which all brain activity shifts up or down from, and building a strong base of alpha brainwave activity is incredibly useful in coping with stress and for clearing the haze of brain fog.

The three main ways chamomile can be used are as a tea, as an essential oil in aromatherapy, and by dry vaporizing or smoking the herb.

Chamomile Tea: This is the most common way to use chamomile as brewing chamomile tea is simple and very effective. Chamomile tea is also really helpful for gut health, and we’ll discuss further down why the gut-brain axis and the microbiome are really important to address when combating mental fatigue. Bring water to a temperature of 75-100 C (170 - 212 F) and steep dried chamomile flowers for 5-15+ minutes. Chamomile is a pleasantly sweet herb and it can be steeped for hours without the resultant tea becoming bitter. Chamomile makes for a great iced tea, and when endeavoring to remedy brain fog, drinking chamomile tea throughout the day is one of the best things you can do, and it’s so simple! Just brew a large batch of the tea once everyday and drink it often. I usually make 1 liter of chamomile tea (often with other herbs, more on that at the end) at night by bringing water to a boil and then letting the herb steep overnight in the fridge. When I wake up delicious iced tea is waiting for me every morning!

Chamomile Essential Oil: Chamomile essential oil is an ultra convenient and effective way to enjoy the beneficial parasympathetic effects of chamomile. You can simply smell the essential oil from the bottle, place a few drops into a diffuser, or apply it directly to parts of your body like your temples, forehead, the back of the neck, and your chest. I find chamomile essential oil if applied directly to the body to be more sedative in effect than chamomile tea, so it’s best used at night or when you quickly need to calm down and relax.

Chamomile Herb for Vaporizing or Smoking: Dried chamomile flower can also be shredded by hand or with a herb grinder and vaporized or smoked for a relaxant effect. I recommend dry herb vaporization because no carcinogenic smoke is produced in the process, but if you’re already a smoker then incorporating chamomile into your tobacco cigarettes, cannabis joints/bowls, or herbal smoking blend is really simple. Vaped or smoked cannabis has a pleasant sweet taste and has an nice overall calming effect that lasts quite a while.

For those who are struggling with chronic mental fatigue and the symptoms of brain fog, chamomile is my top recommendation for helping with the problem. Chamomile is an amazing herb for overall health and wellness, and while it won’t fix brain fog in one day, if chamomile is used consistently then it will almost certainly have a large positive effect.

Chronic mental fatigue takes time to develop, it sometimes develops over many years, and it’s the beneficial habits that can be done daily for long periods of time that will prove the most useful in reversing brain fog, and chamomile is one of the best herbs for this.

Organic dried chamomile flower and blue chamomile essential oil can be purchased from Mountain Rose Herbs. I like to use and combine both in my self-care practices, and if you pick up one then I recommend you purchase the other too.

Medicinal Mushrooms for Brain Fog

Not all mushrooms are poisonous or cause psychedelic effects, and the medicinal mushrooms I have listed below are safe and have a bunch of great wellness benefits. Every medicinal mushrooms varies in their chemical composition, but in general they contain phytochemicals like polysaccharides, beta-glucans, and triterpenoids which benefit your brain as well as other parts of the body.

Reishi Mushroom

Reishi mushroom is one of my favorite “herbs” for helping with brain fog not only because it’s very effective in doing this but also because in my neighborhood Ganoderma sessile, a type of reishi mushroom, grows everywhere and I have a lot of personal experience in using this mushroom.

Reishi mushroom is polypore mushroom nearly impossible to misidentify once its distinguishing features are known, and it has broad effects throughout the body. One of the main benefits of reishi is that it activates the parasympathetic nervous system, just like chamomile, thereby promoting rest and relaxation after use. In fact you can brew reishi and chamomile together into a tea and just like as described above and drink this tea throughout the day to help remedy long-term brain fog.

Reishi mushroom can be purchased from Mountain Rose Herbs in a variety of formats from whole cap to slices to powder to extract, and 1:1 reishi mushroom supplement capsules and 8:1 reishi mushroom supplement capsules that are more concentrated in active ingredients can be purchased from Nootropics Depot.

I wrote a full article on using reishi mushroom for stress, chronic fatigue, and anxiety, and if you’d like to learn more about the many other health benefits of reishi mushroom then you can read the reishi mushroom herbal page. You can also watch my video below!

Chaga Mushroom

Chaga mushroom is very useful in the treatment of mental fatigue and brain fog because it contains many powerful antioxidants, is anti-inflammatory, and optimizes the cardiovascular and nervous systems by calming erratic heart rhythms and increasing the contractile power of the heart. Chaga also contains antimicrobial compounds which benefit the microbiome of the gut by selecting against harmful pathogens while simultaneously supporting good symbiotic bacteria.

As you can see, these natural products are all similar in their ability to help treat mental fatigue because they target not only the brain, but also the heart and gut . Stress destabilizes the proper functioning of the heart, nervous system, and digestive system, and the herbs that support the actions of these parts of the body, in addition to any direct cognitive benefits they have, improve the functioning of the brain.

Chaga mushroom can be purchased from Mountain Rose Herbs as a course powder which can easily be brewed alongside coffee to create a chaga coffee. Nootropics Depot also sells a 1:1 chaga extract powder which is more concentrated in active ingredients and mixes very easily into any beverage.

Chaga is an ingredient that’s part of a nootropic coffee blend that I absolutely love, and if you’re a regular coffee drinker then I recommend you learn more about the best nootropic coffee, as that provides an easy route to creating a daily habit which will help reduce your brain fog and also dependence on coffee. One cup of this nootropic coffee is enough to power you throughout the day without any need for additional cups of coffee, which helps to reduce the possibility of a caffeine tolerance building up, something which commonly occurs with people who are trying to stimulate away their brain fog. More on that below.

Cordyceps Mushroom

Cordyceps mushroom is another medicinal mushroom that has broad health benefits, it’s especially well-known for its physical endurance and stamina promoting effects. The exact mechanisms for how cordyceps improves energy metabolism isn’t known, but its thought to interact and improve the functioning of mitochondria, the energy powerhouses of our cells. By improving mitochondrial function, cordyceps not only improves physical energy levels but also mental energy levels, especially if taken daily.

I supplemented with cordyceps mushrooms extensively to aid in my weight training a few years back, and I could tell one of the reasons it improves physical endurance is by increasing mental focus. It’s easier to push through something when you’re more focused on your desired outcome, and if chronic mental fatigue is a problem during work or any other time of the day where focus is required, then cordyceps will help. Cordyceps can also be used to help treat acute fatigue, it’s a supplement that can be used for both acute and chronic tiredness and brain fog.

I share my full experience with cordyceps mushroom and talk about it more with my friend Rob in this video interview.

Cordyceps mushroom can be purchased from Mountain Rose Herbs, and Nootropics Depot also sells a 1:1 cordyceps mushroom powder as well as a 10:1 cordyceps mushroom powde, both of which are concentrated in cordyceps’s main active ingredients.

Lion’s Mane Mushroom

Lion’s mane mushroom is another medicinal mushroom useful in improving the functioning of the brain, but it’s a bit different than the others because it has been well shown that lion’s mane promotes neurogenesis! Neurogenesis is the growth of new neurons, and any brain under stress and experiencing chronic fatigue is a brain that is losing brain cells due to increased inflammation and apoptosis. One way to turn around overall neurocognitive conditions, either minor like brain fog or more major like dementia, is to increase neurogenesis in the brain.

Supplementing with lion’s mane mushroom, either with a lion’s mane extract like the one sold by Mountain Rose Herbs, or with more condensed supplements like the 1:1 lion’s mane mushroom powder or the 8:1 lion’s mane mushroom powder sold by Nootropics Depot, is an excellent way to incorporate the neurogenesis benefits of lion’s mane into your everyday life.

My friend Rob from Secrets of the Underground made a good video which explores the benefits of these four medicinal mushrooms along with turkey tail (another good one), and you’ll see a cameo of me starting at 07:44 ;)

Note - Yes lots of YouTube videos in this article from myself or my friend Rob, and if you want to reinforce what you’ve learned in this article then I suggest you add these videos to your watch later playlist and enjoy them at some future point in time.

Gut Health for Brain Fog

While this recommendation isn’t a supplement, for your best success in overcoming mental fatigue it’s necessary to mention the very important role gut health has in the development of mental fatigue and mental health problems. The gut and brain are linked via what’s known as the Gut-Brain Axis, and when the digestive system is functioning poorly and microbiome is pathogenic in nature, then the functioning of the brain suffers. Once you learn of how this connection works, then it becomes much easier to consciously make choices which improve the functioning of your gut-brain axis and therefore your mental health and overall wellness.

Gut-Brain Axis

The gut-brain axis is a bidirectional connection pathway that exists between the gut microbiome and nervous system + brain, and not only does the microbiome effect the functioning of the brain, but conditions of the nervous system and brain like stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and more in-turn effect the microbiome and gut.

Put simply, if you want your brain to work optimally, then attention must be given to gut health and the condition of the microbiome. The gut and brain are connected together via four main pathways:

Neurologic - Neurologic signals are sent between the gut and brain via the vagus nerve, with neurologic signals being the fastest mode of information transfer between the gut and brain.
Endocrine - The digestive system is a key component of the endocrine (hormone) system, and changes in the functioning and expression of the gut alter the overall status of the endocrine system and hormonal secretion as a result.
Metabolic - Compounds with metabolic functions that the microbiome produce like short-chain fatty acids influence overall metabolism which then affects cognitive ability. Having unstable blood sugar levels for example can result in periods of focus-scattered hyperactivity followed by energy crashes and brain fog.
Immune - The immune system protects the body from foreign microorganisms and unwanted compounds, and in the cleanup process they produce inflammatory cytokines. If the immune system is overly stressed then inflammation becomes rampant throughout the body and brain, which effects physical, mental, and emotional status.

Cultivate a Healthy Microbiome

Humans have co-evolved with microorganisms for millions of years, and having a healthy microbiome is so important for overall health and wellness in many different ways. The types of microorganisms that inhabit the gut have a big impact on general brain health, neurocognitive and neurodegenerative disorders, and brain performance.

To explain the relationship in more detail, microorganisms produce chemicals that are either useful or harmful to the body. In the large intestine where most of the gut microbiome resides, symbiotic (helpful) and pathogenic (harmful) microorganisms reside. Symbiotic and pathogenic microorganisms compete against each other for resources and space, and to survive pathogens produce and release toxins into their immediate environment. These toxins hurt symbionts, degrade gut tissues, reduce overall digestive function, and if absorbed into the bloodstream create inflammation throughout the body and brain. Symbiotic microorganisms on the other hand produce natural antimicrobial compounds which keep pathogens in check, and if symbiotic microorganisms are fed with fiber and flavonoids, they respectively produce short-chain fatty acids and beneficial secondary metabolites which are biologically beneficial for metabolism, cognitive health, and gut health.

A microbiome with too many pathogens exposes you to greater levels of toxins than your body can normally cope with and handle without much fuss, and a common result of having this type of microbiome is poor gut health, chronic inflammation, and brain fog.

Luckily shifting the microbiome towards greater symbiotic function is relatively simple! It’s outside the scope of this article but if you’d like to learn how you can do this you can read my article How to Restore Healthy Gut Flora or purchase the Holistic Gut Health Guide which covers how to improve gut naturally in-depth.

Heal Your Gut Naturally

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Ashwagandha for Brain Fog

Ashwagandha is a powerful adaptogenic herb well-known in the ayurvedic system of medicine that contains many beneficial compounds such as alkaloids, lactones, and saponins. Ashwagandha is an herb that can be used to treat both acute or chronic mental fatigue. Ashwagandha has the following cognitive benefits:

Ashwagandha leaf and root extracts reduce symptoms of anxiety, comparable to pharmaceutical drugs
Ashwagandha inhibits nerve cells from over firing
Slows, stops, and even reverses neural decay by promoting the growth of new neurons and by creating new synaptic connections
Comparable to pharmaceutical drugs in reducing symptoms of depression, stabilizes mood
Normalizes dopamine levels to normal, increasing dopamine levels in those suffering from Parkinson’s disease
Intensifies acetylcholine, glutathione, and secretase enzyme activity
Inhibits the production of amyloid beta plaques in those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease
Helps to reverse addiction through its balancing actions on neurotransmitters GABA and serotonin

All of these cognitive benefits help with mental stress, and ashwagandha further helps with mental fatigue through how it supports the functioning of the adrenal glands. An interesting effect of ashwagandha is if it is supplemented before a stressful event/task, the stress response and the amount of cortisol that is secreted after the stressor is greatly blunted, allowing for faster recovery.

Mental fatigue and the corresponding brain fog is often a result of a dysfunctional Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis. the endocrine glands of the HPA-axis influence a lot of biologic functions throughout the body and one’s physiological status, and when the HPA-axis is constantly loaded with greater demands due to stress, it becomes deficient in necessary nutrients and changes its secretion of hormones in response to the demands placed upon it. By stopping the adrenal glands, and the HPA-axis in general, from generating a strong reaction to a stressful event, it provides an opportunity to the body to recharge and begin returning to normal physiological function.

For treating acute bouts of mental fatigue, ashwagandha is best used before the stressful event is to occur, or as soon as possible after it’s happened, and for helping with chronic brain fog ashwagandha should be used daily at a lesser dose.

Various ashwagandha products can be purchased from Mountain Rose Herbs, and ashwagandha can also be purchased form Nootropics Depot in a variety of formulations, the two I recommend being the standard ashwagandha powder and the other being the shoden ashwagandha powder.

Caffeine for Brain Fog

Lastly we arrive at caffeine, probably the most well-known and abused compound used to help with brain fog and mental fatigue. Caffeine has been well-studied in how it affects the brain and how it improves certain measures of mental performance like focus, attention span, reaction speed, and more, and caffeine also helps reduce sleepiness. For these reasons caffeine is very effective in ameliorating some of the effects of acute mental fatigue if a preexisting caffeine tolerance doesn’t exist, and what’s common is after people first notice some success with caffeine they begin to consume too much caffeine too often in hope of treating not the acute but the chronic brain fog they have. Caffeine is not useful in treating chronic mental fatigue because its stimulatory, and if overused in this manner it’ll usually make the situation worse.

If you have chronic daily brain fog and mental sluggishness, then I recommend you reduce your caffeine intake (if you’re consuming it) to under 100 mg a day, the equivalent of 1 cup of coffee or a couple cups of tea. To learn more on the science behind how caffeine works and how to do, this read my Caffeine Usage and Tolerance Reset Guide.

With that disclaimer said, caffeine is very effective for helping alleviate an acute bout of brain fog brought on from one-off events like a poor night’s sleep or temporarily increased mental and/or emotional stress. The feeling of brain fog can also sometimes descend when dealing with/studying a very mentally complex and demanding subject, and caffeine can also be used in these situations to assist with the increased information processing demands.

One important note with caffeine is that it blocks the binding of adenosine to adenosine receptors in the brain. If caffeine is consumed too early after waking up, adenosine builds up in the brain, and then when the caffeine wears off the flood of adenosine then causes an energy crash. A better method of using caffeine is to wait 90+ minutes after waking up to consume it, which allows the brain to process a lot of the adenosine in that first 90 minutes, and then when the caffeine wears off later, not as much adenosine is pooled up and ready to activate adenosine receptors.

The most common ways to ingest caffeine are by drinking tea or coffee, though caffeine pills are also a viable alternative.

Green Tea

Green tea is my favorite way to consuming caffeine because each cup of green tea only contains about 30-45 mg of caffeine versus 95 mg per cup of coffee, and green tea also contains plant polyphenols known as green tea catechins which have many beneficial health effects. Green tea also naturally contains L-theanine, an amino acid that helps to stabilize the energy increasing effect of caffeine while simultaneously promoting better sleep. Green tea is a wonderful beverage with a broad holistic effect for treating acute mental fatigue, and with each cup of caffeine containing much less caffeine than a cup of coffee, it’s easier to carefully dose caffeine upwards in a sequential manner with green tea to avoid a caffeine overload and subsequent energy crash.

A variety of green teas can be purchased from Mountain Rose Herbs, Nootropics Depot sells a green tea extract powder and a green tea extract + piperine supplement (piperine is another cognitive boosting compound), and Pique Tea sells green tea crystals that are super convenient and dissolve easily in both hot and cold water.

Coffee

Coffee is the classic beverage of choice fueling millions of people around the world day in and day out, and for good reason! Coffee contains a bunch of beneficial plant phytochemicals, and at ~95 mg of caffeine per cup, one cup of coffee is a significant pick-me-up which can reduce brain fog and the feelings of mental fatigue. Since coffee contains more caffeine than tea, it’s best to stop coffee consumption after 4pm in order to not deviate the circadian rhythm and cortisol secretion (remember caffeine simulates cortisol) too far off normal. The beneficial effects of caffeine greatly taper off after 300 mg, so if you are going to drink more than one cup of coffee, stick to a maximum of three cups in the ideal 90 minutes after waking up to 4pm drinking window.

Other nootropics mix well with coffee, and if you want to experiment with boosting the beneficial mental effects of coffee, then read my article on the best nootropic coffee.

Brain Fog Treatment

How you treat brain fog and mental fatigue is dependent on whether the effect is acute or chronic in nature. Chronic mental fatigue is best treated supplementally with herbs and medicinal mushrooms that activate the parasympathetic nervous system and support the HPA-axis, whereas acute brain fog can be treated preventatively by supplementing with ashwagandha or by using a stimulant like caffeine.

Each of the herbs and mushrooms listed above can be used independently for the treatment of chronic brain fog, but my recommendation would be to brew a tea from a combination of these herbs, for example a 1:1:1 blend of equal parts chamomile:reishi mushroom:green tea would be broadly supportive to the body and brain and overtime will help greatly in reducing chronic fatigue.

If you suspect your mental fatigue is just a symptom of a larger problem like chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as adrenal fatigue, then I suggest you read my article on adrenal fatigue to learn more about the condition and what you can holistically do to turn the issue around.

References:

Miraj S, Alesaeidi S. A systematic review study of therapeutic effects of Matricaria recuitta chamomile (Chamomile). Electron physician. 2016;8(9):3024-3031.
McCraty R. The Energetic Heart. HeartMath Institute; 2003
Batra P, Sharma AK, Khajuria R. Probing lingzhi or reishi medicinal mushroom ganoderma lucidum (Higher basidiomycetes): a bitter mushroom with amazing health benefits. Int J Med Mushr. 2013;15(2):127-143.
Shashkina MYa, Shashkin PN, Sergeev AV. Chemical and medicobiological properties of chaga (Review). Pharm Chem J. 2006;40(10):560-568.
Das SK, Masuda M, Sakurai A, Sakakibara M. Medicinal uses of the mushroom Cordyceps militaris: Current state and prospects. Fitoterapia. 2010;81(8):961-968.
Ryu S, Kim HG, Kim JY, Kim SY, Cho KO. hericium erinaceus extract reduces anxiety and depressive behaviors by promoting hippocampal neurogenesis in the adult mouse brain. Journal of Medicinal Food. 2018;21(2):174-180.
Zahiruddin S, Basist P, Parveen A, et al. Ashwagandha in brain disorders: A review of recent developments. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 2020;257:112876.
Cooper R. Green tea and theanine: health benefits. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition. 2012;63(sup1):90-97.
Smith A. Effects of caffeine on human behavior. Food and Chemical Toxicology. 2002;40(9):1243-1255.
Papadopoulos, A., Cleare, A. Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis dysfunction in chronic fatigue syndrome. Nat Rev Endocrinol 8, 22–32 (2012).

Stefan Burns 7/18/22 Stefan Burns 7/18/22

How to Heal Leaky Gut with Fasting

16, 24, and 48 hour fasts are one of if not the best way to heal leaky gut easily and effectively. By giving the digestive system time to rest from the rigors of digestion and by activating autophagy, digestive barriers can be restored to their normal integrity and leaky gut is healed.

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated July 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

Systemic inflammation throughout the body can cause many health problems and chronic diseases, and one way chronic inflammation occurs is through a gut health condition known as “leaky gut”. When the barriers of the digestive system are degraded and intestinal permeability is higher than normal, things like too-large food particles, microorganisms, and toxins that normally are unable to cross the digestive barrier into the bloodstream and the body as a whole are in fact able to do so. When this happens, the immune system goes on high alert and works to cleanup and detoxify the body, and the worse the condition of the mucosal and epithelial layers of the digestive barrier, the worse leaky gut is.

Leaky gut is most commonly a gut health condition that is experienced alongside other gut health problems like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but it can be experienced by itself, and leaky gut is often the first gut health problem that is experienced before other gut health problems develop. The tissues of the digestive system are highly dynamic and undergo cellular turnover quite rapidly, and at the same time the integrity of digestive barriers can degrade rapidly depending on what one eats, environmental or lifestyle stressors, and exposure to pathogens. What this means is that leaky gut can develop rapidly. Everyone has had leaky gut at least a few times in their life due to eating a poor diet, excessive stress, or illness, and while normally leaky gut will go away as everything returns to normal, leaky gut can persist if certain conditions remain.

Because leaky gut is characterized by excessive inflammation caused by chronic activation of the immune system, symptoms of leaky gut can be quite diverse, ranging from skin inflammation to joint pain to cognitive impairment to the typical digestive problems of bloating, gas, constipation, and/or diarrhea. To recover from leaky gut, digestive barriers must be restored to their normal integrity, and this can be done rapidly by fasting. By abstaining from all food and emptying the digestive system over the course of many hours or days, the presence of gut barrier degraders like food particles, gut microbiota, and toxic chemicals like pesticides are dramatically reduced and the digestive system is able to rapidly regenerate in a much quieter immune system environment. Combining fasting with stress reduction practices, certain herbs, and supplements like probiotics and zinc amplify the healing effect further.

Leaky gut can persist for a long time if left untreated and can set the stage for more serious gut health problems or inflammation-based diseases to develop, but it is relatively easy to treat when the right steps are taken.

In this article we cover:

The science and biology of digestive barriers, the microbiome, and the immune system
Things that cause leaky gut, symptoms of leaky gut, and food intolerances
How fasting can rapidly heal leaky gut
Beneficial dietary changes for leaky gut, herbs that help with leaky gut, probiotics and zinc
How to combine fasting with dietary changes, herbs, and supplements to heal your leaky gut

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Some of the information in the Holistic Gut Health Guide isn’t common knowledge but when implemented it is highly effective in healing the gut and shifting the microbiome towards symbiosis. Give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

Intestinal Permeability and Gut Health

The Role of Digestive Barriers

Digestion is the process that takes nutrients from the outside world and converts them into components usable by your body. As far as the human system is concerned, something is not truly in the human body until it has passed through the intestinal lining and into the bloodstream. Everything inside the digestive system is technically “outside” the cells and tissues of your body. The body wraps around this long, high surface area tunnel that end to end (mouth to anus) is exposed to the outside world, sealed by various gates (sphincter valves) along the way. All the food that is transiting through the gut, the acids and juices that are released into the gut, and the microbiome that reside in the gut all exist outside the human tissues of the body. For there to exist an outside and an inside there must exist a separator between the two; a wall, barrier, divider of some sort. In the case of the digestive system the linings of the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine are that divider.

Digestive barriers exist for the following reasons:

To create a immune-silent environment inside the body, stopping viruses and pathogens from entering into the bloodstream and beyond
To limit the exposure of epithelial cells to chemically-reactive digestive juices like stomach acid, bile, and digestive enzymes
To differentiate and select nutrients usable by the body from those that aren’t fully digested and broken down small enough yet
To protect the body from unwanted chemicals and toxins, like environmental toxins such as pesticides or endotoxins produced from pathogenic bacteria

Healthy intestinal epithelial barrier with no weak tight junctions.

DOI: 10.1038/s12276-018-0126-x | CC4.0

The Mucosal Layer

The digestive lining starts with a layer of mucus which sits over the one-cell-thick internal lining of the gut made of different types of epithelial cells. The mucosal layer is a chemical barrier that limits contact between the epithelial cells and the microbiome, which is of critical importance. Mucus also protects epithelial cells from the various digestive juices such as stomach acid, bile, and enzymes. Depending on the gut health of an individual, mucosal layers can be thick and healthy or eroded and unhealthy, and this can vary between the different sections of the digestive system.

In the context of leaky gut it’s typically the intestinal mucosal layer that is degraded, whereas an eroded mucosal layer for the stomach can lead to issues like gastritis and acid reflux (GERD). If the gut is healthy when viruses and pathogens in the digestive system make contact with the mucosal layer, there is a robust immune response from white-blood cells like T-cells and monocytes that occurs. Dysregulation of the mucosal immune response is a very important factor in the progression of gut health problems like leaky gut, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and more serious conditions like irritable bowel disease (IBD).

Epithelial Cells and Tight Junctions

Underneath the mucosal layer are epithelial cells, the main component of digestive linings. Once food particles are fully digested they pass through the mucosal layer and upon reaching the villi of the intestinal epithelium are transported across the cell membrane and into the bloodstream. Epithelial cells are wedged tightly together to stop things from passing in-between them, and the strength of these tight junctions are a key component of gut health.

The layers of the digestive system are selectively permeable, and the status of the mucosal layer and the epithelial cells determines intestinal permeability. The defining characteristic of leaky gut is that intestinal permeability has increased because the mucosal layer is thin and the tight junctions of the epithelium are degraded and gaps exist in-between the epithelial cells.

An increase in intestinal permeability allows food particles, chemicals, toxins, and microorganisms to pass from the digestive system into the body, which then triggers the immune system to clean up the “mess”. If digestive barriers are degraded and inflamed, restoring these digestive barriers to optimal health and function is one of the most important things that can be done to improve gut health. Restoring intestinal permeability to normal is the key to healing leaky gut.

Symptoms of Leaky Gut

Increased Intestinal Permeability

Leaky gut is a gut health condition characterized by increased intestinal permeability caused by eroded protective mucosal layers and an inflamed epithelial cellular layer. Leaky gut isn’t a health condition currently recognized to exist by the medical establishment, but its existence is undoubtable simply due to the sheer volume of people who suffer from health symptoms caused by increased intestinal permeability. Leaky gut can exist by itself as a gut problem, though more typically it is a gut health problem that exists concurrently with other gastrointestinal issues like IBS and IBD.

It’s the inflammation of the epithelium and the systemic response of the immune system that is primarily responsible for the symptoms of leaky gut.

Leaky Gut and Inflammation

By far the most notable symptom of leaky gut is that it triggers a constant inflammatory response in the body. It’s this inflammation that causes a lot of the symptoms commonly associated with leaky gut like:

Skin problems like acne, rashes, auto-immune skin issues
Joint pain, swelling, arthritis
Chronic fatigue and energy an overall deficit
Neurocognitive problems such as brain fog, anxiety, depression,
Asthma

Being caused by the inflammatory response of the body, when leaky gut is healed and inflammation goes down these symptoms can disappear quite rapidly.

More common are symptoms digestive in origin which themselves are effected by the inflammation leaky gut causes but are triggered primarily through mechanisms before the inflammatory response. These symptoms are:

Bloating and gas
Abdominal and stomach pain
Changes in gut motility like constipation and diarrhea
Food sensitivities and intolerances
Nutrient deficiencies

The body is always doing its best to heal itself, and with leaky gut it recognizes that its digestive barriers are functioning poorly, so it alters digestion how it can to help the digestive barriers heal. For example this could mean that if a meal is eaten that will make the leaky gut condition worse because it contains damaging foods, the transit of the food through the digestion system may be expedited and diarrhea experienced. Or since leaky gut is typically paired with some degree of microbiome dysbiosis, bloating from excess gas production of an overgrown pathogenic microbiome is common. As it is with gut health problems, the answer to the problem can be found in the symptoms experienced.

With leaky gut every meal feels like an unknown in whether symptoms will be triggered and which ones at that. The reason fasting is so effective in healing leaky gut is that it completely empties the digestive system of food, and food is one of the main triggers of leaky gut symptoms. Food may trigger symptoms of leaky gut, and certain foods can cause leaky gut, but leaky gut can be caused by factors other than food.

*Read till the end to receive a special discount code for the Holistic Gut Health Guide, the all-in-on eBook on how to heal the gut using natural methods.

Things that Cause Leaky Gut

Pesticides and Leaky Gut

Pesticides are well-known to increase intestinal permeability and thin mucus linings. In the USA ~2.5 kg of pesticides (herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, bactericides, and rodenticides) are applied per hectare of land (100 x 100 meters). What this means is that most of the food sold in grocery stores is contaminated with significant amounts of pesticides. Excessive pesticide exposure also causes gut dysbiosis and unfavorably alters the gut-brain axis because pathogenic bacteria like Clostridium spp. and Salmonella, which produce noxious health-disrupting endotoxins, are more resistant to common pesticides like glyphosate (the herbicide roundup) than symbionts like Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria.

Pesticide residues are found in high concentrations on many fruits and vegetables as well as wheat, oats, rice, beans, and legumes. Eating these foods, particularly wheat and oats in excess (multiple times per day), exposes the body to pesticide concentrations beyond tolerable and can contribute greatly to leaky gut.

Pathogens Increase Intestinal Permeability

Toxic pesticide exposure in excess will lead to gut dysbiosis, a condition marked by an increase in harmful pathogenic microorganisms in the gut microbiome while helpful symbionts decrease in population. Pathogens and the toxic metabolites they produce degrade digestive linings and increase intestinal permeability. An especially troublesome situation is when hard-to-dislodge pathogenic biofilms are able to adhere close to or directly onto epithelial cells because the mucosal lining is thin/non-existent. Biofilms are protective structures both symbiotic an pathogenic microorganisms make for a variety of reasons and to increase the survivability. In the worse cases of leaky gut the presence of pathogenic biofilms on the intestinal epithelium is almost assured, and this creates many complications.

Drugs and Antibiotics Increase Intestinal Permeability

Certain pharmaceutical drugs and antibiotics erode and degrade digestive linings. For example oral low-dose antibiotics are often prescribed for skin acne, and this daily antibiotic will slowly degrade digestive linings while simultaneously altering the microbiome towards gut dysbiosis. A short-course of antibiotics or certain drugs will also unfavorably alter intestinal permeability and the microbiome, but the effect is generally less than that caused from the constant use of these drugs, and can be recovered from quickly if the right steps are taken.

Stress/Anxiety and Leaky Gut

The gut-brain axis is a bidirectional connection pathway that exists between the gut microbiome and nervous system/brain, and not only does the microbiome effect the functioning of the brain, but conditions of the nervous system and brain like stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and more in-turn effect the microbiome and gut. Excessive stress and anxiety in particular degrade digestive function and the integrity of digestive barriers.

For example an extended stressful period of one’s life can lead to gut health problems like gastritis (stomach inflammation) and IBS. The depth of the connection between stress and the gut isn’t well-known by most, and it’s often a mystery to people who are experiencing gut health problems like leaky gut why they are having these problems; they never consider that the stress they are experiencing day by day may be a large contributing factor in their gut health problems.

Food Intolerances and Leaky Gut

A food intolerance occurs when the digestive system has a difficult time breaking down a particular food or chemical, and it can be common to be intolerant to many foods at once. When intestinal permeability is high and undigested food particles are slipping past epithelial tight junctions and into the bloodstream, then the immune system begins to recognize that certain food nutrients are constantly causing problems and a preemptive immune response can develop to those foods. If the body is having difficulty breaking down certain food macronutrients in the digestive track, like with fructose, lactose, or wheat proteins, then greater numbers of those nutrients will be not fully digested as compared to other food nutrients that are being adequately digested, and they will trigger the immune system strongly causing greater amounts of inflammation.

Food intolerances are highly individual, and it’s often hard to diagnose what food(s) is causing the digestive problems without first performing a few carefully observed 48+ hour fasts or with a 6+ week elimination diet.

The Case of Joe and Kate

To understand how all these leaky gut causing factors interplay with each other let’s examine a hypothetical scenario that unfortunately is all too common.

Joe and Kate eat a typical American diet high in wheat, other grain products, and ultra-processed foods. Their poor quality diet causes chronic inflammation of the digestive system (and body), and the high levels of pesticides they expose their gut and microbiome to through their diet exacerbate the problem more by further degrading digestive barriers and promoting the growth of pathogenic microorganisms. Both Joe and Kate take a few different pharmaceutical drugs for health conditions they have, and then when they mention that their developing gut health problems to a gastroenterologist they are prescribed a low-dose antibiotic, worsening the problem. Overworked and underpaid, the stress from each of their jobs bleeds over into their daily life, and one of the few ways they find comfort is by eating highly-pleasurable junk foods that trigger the food intolerances they’ve developed (but don’t yet know they have). With limited gut health consciousness, the health of their gastrointestinal systems and their overall wellness goes down day by day.

As you can see every factor is influencing the others, creating a feedback loop that degrades gut health further and further, and whereas leaky gut was the first and only gut health problem that existed, if things aren’t changed then eventually IBS and then IBD develops. If those conditions aren’t treated, then long term chronic diseases and cancers can develop. To unravel this knot of problems is no easy task, but one way significant progress can be made quickly is stop the downward spiral at the beginning and to abstain from all food for a period of time.

Fasting for Leaky Gut

There are many ways to reduce stress on the digestive system, from a liquid diet to removing intolerant foods from the diet, but there is no question that the simplest and most effective way to reduce digestive stress and inflammation is to simply not eat. The epithelial layer of the digestive system regenerates about 20% per day, and this rate is increased even further when the regular stress of digesting food is alleviated via fasting.

Luckily it’s in our physiology to fast, it’s a second “default mode network” for the body that has developed over millions of years of evolution. In fact the body wants you to fast every now and then, it’s the most efficient way to active autophagy, the cellular process that repairs and regenerates the tissues of the body.

With leaky gut the barriers of the digestive system are highly degraded and dysfunctional, and to heal leaky gut these tissues must be repaired and regenerated. Not only does fasting create an environment in the gut free of triggering food particles and greatly reduces microorganism populations, it also triggers this value process of autophagy which is essential in recovering from leaky gut. Leaky gut will not be remedied if autophagy isn’t activated, and autophagy is most powerfully activated by nutrient deprivation.

Intermittent Fasting for Leaky Gut

Most information out there that discusses how fasting can be used to remedy leaky gut focuses on daily 16:8 intermittent fasting. Most people eat every few hours, so food is constantly transiting through their digestive systems, and intermittent fasting changes this by condensing food consumption to an eight hour window (typically) with the other 16 hours of the day being free of all food consumption. Intermittent fasting is a good place to start for people brand new to fasting and interested in experimenting with fasting for gut health, metabolism, and overall wellness benefits. To see the biggest benefit from intermittent fasting, it should be done consistently everyday.

Intermittent fasting can certainly be effective in reducing leaky gut, but it can take a long time (weeks to months) to see beneficial changes because the digestive system is still processing food everyday. To really heal the gut and regenerate the digestive barriers quickly, the digestive system should be completely emptied of all food, and this takes 24+ hours of fasting. Longer fasts are much more effective in healing the digestive system, and intermittent fasting is a good protocol to follow in-between longer fasts to keep autophagy elevated.

OMAD for Leaky Gut

A 24 hour fast will take the body deeper into autophagy than intermittent fasting will, and it’s a good way to begin experimenting with fasting for healing leaky gut because it’s easy to perform with a little preparation and the beneficial effects are more likely to be felt and experienced. The best way to stick to something is to actually feel how it’s helping you, and guaranteed after a 24 hour fast if you pay attention you’ll notice that your gut health has noticeably improved and whatever symptoms you normally have have reduced in severity. Twenty four fasting can be done daily with what’s known as one-meal-a-day (OMAD) fasting. As has been shown intermittent fasting is useful for treating leaky gut, and OMAD is even more so.

48 Hour Fasting for Leaky Gut

Most effective for treating leaky gut significantly and quickly is a 48 hour fast. While not eating anything for 2 days may seem daunting, in fact a forty-eight-hour fast is short enough to be easily completed by most people without serious health issues as long as they have the willpower and do a little bit of planning. Remember the body is physiologically designed to go through periods of nutrient deprivation, and most people carry around enough body fat to make fasting for 48 hours, let alone a week or two, no problem. Abstaining from eating for 48 hours really clears the digestive system of all food and greatly reduces the size of the microbiome through nutrient deprivation. Symbiotic microorganisms are more adaptable to conditions of nutrient deprivation than pathogens and better survive the conditions an extended fast, and this makes fasting an excellent way to treat gut dysbiosis, which is often a main contributor to leaky gut.

Fiber and Fasting

The size and composition of the 1-2 meals before a fast is critical for the success of any fast. A final pre-fast meal rich in fiber with a balanced fat, carbohydrate, and protein macronutrient profile will provide long-lasting energy to the body during the first 24 hours of the fast, and once it has transited to the large intestine, the microbiome there will metabolize the fiber present into short-chain fatty acids and other useful metabolites which provide energy to the body and are useful for the brain for the next 24+ hours. It’s remarkable how much easier a fast can be when the last meal eaten is for example a grain bowl loaded up with fresh vegetables, versus a highly processed meal like pizza with glass. Fiber also normalizes gut motility and helps to remedy gut dysbiosis by promoting the growth of symbiotic microorganisms like Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria.

I don’t recommend you try fasting off a low-quality meal. If you really want to heal your leaky gut you should make healing your gut a priority, make a plan, eat the right foods, and provide yourself the time you need. How well you stick to the plan is up to you and no one else.

For example when I do a 48 hour fast I will schedule it during the weekend so I have no outside responsibilities that require my energy or attention. I specifically set aside those two days for deep relaxation which reduces my stress levels, and the biggest physical activity I may do is go for a walk and practice some yoga/stretching. While fasting, keep physical and mental energy demands on the body low and dip into a deep state of parasympathetic relaxation and healing. This places less stress on the metabolic and energetic systems of the body and greatly reduces the chance of experiencing any unwanted side effects from fasting like low blood sugar and lightheadedness.

Before embarking upon your first fast I recommend you learn more about the nuances of fasting, either by reading my article on fasting to reset the digestive system, or by reading chapters 8 and 9 of the Holistic Gut Health Guide. You should also consult with a medical professional to make sure fasting will be safe for you to do.

Heal Leaky Gut in Two Weeks

By utilizing fasting and a few other gut health boosting strategies, significant progress can be made in healing leaky gut in just two weeks.

First and most important is to eat a very simple and gut health promoting diet during this period of time. Only organic/biodynamic foods should be eaten in order to reduce pesticide exposure, lifestyle and environmental stress should be reduced as much as possible, and the use of drugs/antibiotics should ceased if possible.

Diet to Reduce Intestinal Permeability for Leaky Gut

Different people can react to the same food quite differently, and for this reason I won’t give sweeping dietary advice, but there are a few best practices I am comfortable recommending which you can try and evaluate for yourself.

The first step is to increase your fiber and vegetable intake. Aim for 40+ grams of fiber in a day. A healthy symbiotic microbiome is critical in having healthy digestive barriers, and eating sufficient fiber and flavonoids is the main way to promote a healthy microbiome through dietary measures. Polyphenols and flavonoids are plant phytochemicals found in fruits, vegetables, and herbs that possess strong anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antimicrobial (for pathogens) properties. Flavonoids in particular are well-known to strengthen intestinal tight junctions, decrease intestinal permeability, and decrease gut dysbiosis, which are the exact things needed to heal leaky gut.

Second step is to eat more rice. Rice is a very easy grain to digest that can be prepared into a wide variety of meals, and I recommend eating rice over other grains when healing gut health problems like leaky gut. Organic rice will contain much less pesticides than non-organic rice, and rice flour is also the backbone of many gluten-free products.

Third step is to remove the most common food allergens from the diet, these being eggs, fish, milk, peanuts, shellfish, soy, tree nuts, and wheat. With some preparatory meal planning, it’s not difficult to eat a nutritious and filling diet without these foods.

Begin Fasting Regularly

Alongside these dietary changes you can begin experimenting with fasting regularly. Start with daily 16:8 intermittent fasting, and then on the easy days in your schedule add in some 24 hour and 48 hour fasts. One 48 hour fast for example will cause a huge improvement in your leaky gut condition, and during this focused two week effort to heal your leaky gut you should aim to complete two separate 48 hour fasts and a few 24 hour fasts. It is possible to keep caloric intake at maintenance while fasting, but if you have some body fat to lose then don’t worry about eating the same volume of food and let your body burn some body fat for energy as that’s beneficial for your health too.

Supplements and Herbs for Leaky Gut

Lastly the whole gut healing process can be helped along significantly by utilizing the gut healing and normalizing properties of herbs like black pepper, dandelion, and chamomile in addition to supplements like multi-strain probiotics and zinc. Herbs are so useful for gut health because they contain abundant amounts of useful flavonoid phytochemicals like apigenin, and a tea brewed from herbs like dandelion and chamomile contains no calories making it the perfect drink to enjoy during fasting. In fact a herbal tea like this makes fasting much easier metabolically and more effective in healing the gut via an upregulation of autophagy.

Black Pepper: One of the main chemicals found in black pepper is piperine, it’s the chemical responsible for black pepper’s pungency. Piperine is a gut health wonder chemical because it improves digestion by stimulating the body to release more digestive enzymes, restores healthy mucous linings, is antimicrobial against pathogens, increases the bioavailability and absorption of nutrients, reduces inflammation and mitigates stress, reduces the toxicity of certain chemicals, and boosts the metabolism. Black pepper and piperine by extension are great for gut health problems because not only does black pepper improve digestion and balance the microbiome, but it also aids in nutrient absorption, and many people who suffer from gut problems like leaky gut have problems absorbing the nutrients they consume.

Nootropics Depot sells a good piperine supplement which is useful taken with meals or during fasting. The main way I dose piperine is to simply grind extra black pepper on all my meals. Piperine makes up 3-10% of peppercorns by weight, so if you grind up enough black pepper, you’ll receive a significant amount (20+ mg) of piperine every time.

Dandelion Root: Dandelion is useful for fasting and healing gut problems because it normalizes gut motility (the speed of food transit through the gut), increases gastrointestinal mucus production thereby restoring protective mucous linings, applies beneficial antimicrobial pressures on pathogens in the microbiome, increases bile production (improving fat metabolism), and helps heal gastric ulcers. In addition to these amazing benefits, the phytonutrients found in dandelion help purify the blood of pathogens, reduce inflammation throughout the body, and heal blood vessel epithelial linings.

Dandelion also boosts fat metabolism, improves blood cholesterol parameters, and reduces unwanted platelet aggregation, which improves energy and oxygen transport throughout the body. Dandelion also aids the autophagy process by inducing unhealthy cells to undergo apoptosis while protecting healthy cells.

Dandelion is a wonder herb, use it often and you’ll be amazed by how much it helps you to heal your leaky gut.

Chamomile Flower: Chamomile is a digestive aid, calms the nervous system, and improves cardiovascular health. Chamomile is one of the best herbs for fasting and gut health because it improves gut motility, applies a gentle antimicrobial pressure to the microbiome, and increases gastrointestinal mucous production. Chamomile improves blood cholesterol levels, reduces excessive platelet aggregation, and normalizes blood sugar levels.

Chamomile is notably calming and increases the parasympathetic activity of the nervous system, which aids in relaxing and improving digestion. Balancing the activity of the autonomic nervous system is foundational to good health. Sometimes during a fast, energy levels will dip and become more volatile, and chamomile tea helps normalize metabolism and promotes relaxation, which smooths out the energy volatility that otherwise might have been experienced. The autonomic nervous system is also responsible for the waves of smooth muscle activity that propel food through the digestive system, and by normalizing these peristaltic waves, chamomile stabilizes gut motility to the Goldilocks zone, with food not transiting too quickly or too slowly through the digestive system

Mountain Rose Herbs sells organic dried dandelion root and chamomile flower which can be blended together into a 1:1 tea blend. Steep with boiling water for 5-15 minutes and drink daily to enjoy the gut health and overall wellness benefits it promotes. Drinking this tea in-between fasts with every or in-between meals is another way to keep autophagy increased and the gut healing.

Multi-Strain Probiotics: Probiotics containing strains of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria appear to be the most effective in helping with gut health problems, and these probiotic formations have also shown small but consistent benefits for those experiencing IBS. A multi-strain probiotic is usually more effective than a single-strain probiotic, and probiotics should be taken with a meal so more of the beneficial microbes survive the harsh acidic conditions of the stomach and can begin populating in the intestines, specifically the large intestine. I have used the following multi-strain probiotic from Nature’s Bounty successfully, I recommend you try it if you have leaky gut.

Zinc: Zinc has been shown to strengthen epithelial tight junctions, and you can consume more zinc by increasing your consumption of zinc-rich foods like oysters, pumpkin seeds, pulses (beans, lentils, etc), cashews, leafy greens, mushrooms, and avocado. You can also take a zinc supplement. Taking zinc in too high of doses (>25 mg) can cause digestive upset and nausea, and it’s for this reason I recommend the 15 mg Zinc Balance supplement from Jarrow Formulas. This Zinc Balance supplement also comes with 1 mg of copper which helps to keep zinc and copper levels balanced in the body.

More on How Herbal Teas help with Fasting and Gut Health

Signs Leaky Gut is Healing

The clearest sign that your leaky gut is healing is that your gut motility normalizes and you experience much less bloating and gas after eating a meal. If you are having inflammatory health problems as a result of the leaky gut, then you’ll begin to notice that these issues are decreasing in severity and/or becoming less frequent. For example you might notice your skin clearing up, your brain fog go away, joint pain lessens in severity or vanishes, and chronic fatigue lessens.

These are the initial signs that leaky gut is healing, once intestinal permeability has returned to normal because the mucosal lining is restored and the epithelium is once again strong and intact, then you may notice that foods which previously triggered your leaky gut symptoms now no longer cause problems. To elaborate on this further I will describe how I healed my leaky gut and the changes I noticed.

How I Healed my Leaky Gut

Leaky gut was one of the many gut health problems I had for many years, alongside IBS, small intestinal bacteria overgrowth (SIBO), food intolerances to gluten and fructose, gut dysbiosis, and other issues. Yeah it was a handful, and my gut health problems are one reason I started Wild Free Organic.

Restoring the integrity of my digestive barriers was a key step in healing myself of my many gut health problems as leaky gut was one of the main contributing reasons to my IBS and food intolerances.

The main way I healed my leaky gut was by focusing on the following:

Fasting regularly with intermittent, 24 hour, and 48 hour fasts scheduled at regular intervals.
Constantly optimizing my diet to increase my vegetable and fiber intake. Introducing more fermented foods like pickles into my diet also helped considerably.
Reducing environmental stressors like pesticide exposure by shopping organic and by growing my own food. I also switched from drinking tap water which is bad for the gut microbiome to drinking only spring water free of added chemicals like fluoride and chlorine.
Reducing lifestyle stress by being more mindful of my energy levels and being careful with the intensity of the exercise I did, listening to my body and resting more when needed, and not letting factors beyond my control (like at work) stress me out needlessly.

I hope you found the information in this article on leaky gut and fasting useful, and if you really want to heal your gut then I recommend you continue your gut health and wellness education by purchasing the Holistic Gut Health Guide. Use the code LEAKY10 for 10% off at checkout, and best of luck!

Heal Your Gut Naturally

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Holistic Gut Health Guide eBook

$12.95 $18.95

Purchase

If you read all the way here then it’s clear to me that you’re ready to do what it takes to finally restore your digestive system and gut microbiome back to healthy and optimal function.

References:

Chelakkot C, Ghim J, Ryu SH. Mechanisms regulating intestinal barrier integrity and its pathological implications. Exp Mol Med. 2018;50(8):1-9.
Cleveland Clinic | Disease and Conditions. my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases
Suzuki T. Regulation of the intestinal barrier by nutrients: The role of tight junctions. Anim Sci J. 2020;91(1).
Rudea-Ruzafa L, Cruz F, Roman P, Cardona D. Gut microbiota and neurological effects of glyphosate. Neurotxicology. 2019;75:1-8 5. Zhao GP, Wang XY, Li JW, et al.
Imidacloprid increases intestinal permeability by disrupting tight junctions. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety. 2021; 222:112476
Wang X, Valenzano MC, Mercado JM, Zurbach EP, Mullin JM. Zinc supplementation modifies tight junctions and alters barrier function of CACO-2 human intestinal epithelial layers. Dig Dis Sci. 2013;58(1):77-87.

Stefan Burns 6/10/22 Stefan Burns 6/10/22

Coffee and Digestion - The Complete Guide

Coffee is enjoyed the world over, and its destabilizing effects on digestion have been experienced by a majority of people who drink coffee. By effecting the autonomic nervous system coffee influences digestion, but if the right steps are taken, coffee can improve digestion and favorably alter the microbiome.

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated July 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

Besides water, coffee is one of the most consumed beverages worldwide next to tea. As a bitter drink containing various phytonutrients, coffee has an effect on digestion that can be quite variable, and depending on the gut heath of an individual, quite noticeable. Coffee exerts antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects on the digestion system while also increasing gut motility and thinning gut mucosa.

Coffee is one of the most well-known foods to effect digestion, most commonly known to cause heartburn or to need to use the restroom soon after consumption in sensitive individuals. There are a few reasons why coffee has these heartburn and/or laxative effects, and in this article we’ll explain why this so frequently occurs for many people. This article will also discuss coffee’s overall effect on digestion and gut motility, the phytonutrients it contains, how coffee can change the microbiome for the better, coffee’s effect on the gut-brain axis, and specific ways to drink coffee so it improves gut health rather than make it worse.

Digestion and the Large Intestine (colon)

Roasted coffee contains thousands of bioactive compounds that together exert numerous biologic effects on the body. Coffee affects the nervous system, brain, cardiovascular system, and the digestive system. Before any discussion on the effects coffee has on digestion can be had, the basics of digestion must be understood.

A Simple Summary on Digestion

Digestion starts before anything is actually eaten, as before eating food just the sight, smell, or thought of it releases digestive enzymes in the mouth. These digestive enzymes assist with the breakdown of food that is chewed in the mouth, and they also prime the stomach to release more stomach acid. Chewing food physically breaks it down into smaller pieces, then it’s swallowed and moves down the esophagus before dropping into the stomach where strong acids break the food down even more at a chemical level. Once the stomach has done its job the slurry that the food has become moves into the small intestine, more digestive enzymes and bile are released, and muscular contractions further break down food into absorbable proteins, fats, and carbohydrates that pass through the lining of the gut and into the bloodstream.

If all is normal, what’s leftover after this are harder to break down food particles, namely soluble and insoluble fibers. It’s in the colon that the microbiome can then break down the final food remnants and produce beneficial compounds, such as short chain fatty acids from fiber. These fatty acids are absorbed by the colon and provide base-load energy to the body. The longer the microbiome of the large intestine has to work on the food there, the more beneficial nutrients can be metabolized by the microbiome to then be absorbed into the body, and this overall increases the stability of human metabolism.

It’s the introduction of new food/energy that stimulates the bowels to release the stool that it has been holding onto, as the body senses it needs to make room for a new influx of nutrients. It’s a balancing act between what new nutrients can be taken in (eating new food) and what nutrients can be synthesized and absorbed from the stool in the large intestine already mostly digested of its fats, carbohydrates, and proteins.

Gut Health Problems and Incomplete Digestion of Food

A lot of gut health problems stem from the incomplete digestion of food. Certain biologically valuable nutrients and chemicals are only produced by the microbiome in the colon, for example short chain fatty acids, metabolites of polyphenols, and neurotransmitters. If the microbiome consistently isn’t given enough time to breakdown the final remnants of food in the colon, then nutrient and neurotransmitter deficiencies can occur over time.

An easy way to directly experience the ability of the microbiome to very efficiently break down and upcycle food is to fast for 48 hours. If the final meal before a fast is of high-quality and consists of whole foods, like a grain bowl (rice, beans, vegetables, healthy fats like avocado), then once that final meal reaches the colon the microbiome will have plenty to begin breaking down as whole grains and vegetables contains an abundance of material not extractable by the small intestine. If the normal defecation stool volume from that meal is a “1” with a normal eating schedule, then during a 48 hour fast what’s likely to occur is that defecation isn’t induced for the entire two days until a refeed meal is eaten, and then when defecation of that pre-fast meal does occur, the final stool volume may only be 1/2 to 1/4 of normal, or even less.

When there is a physiological need to extract more nutrients from less input, and the microbiome is given time to do this, food is more efficiently absorbed than normal. I’ve personally experienced during many a 2 day fast that my pre-fast meal was nearly completely absorbed. In 2 days the microbiome was able to completely break down and upcycle what I ate before the start of the fast such that I simply absorbed nearly everything. It wasn’t until a normal eating schedule was resumed that “normal” bowel movements returned. What this indicates is that “normal” bowel movements are more wasteful bowel movement as compared to the maximum level of extraction possible under conditions of nutrient scarcity.

Most people haven’t experienced long periods of nutrient scarcity like during a 48+ hour fast so what I described may seem outlandish, but all that’s required to prove this effect and ability for yourself is to go on a 48-72 hour fast. The quality of the last meal is very important to observe this effect, eat only whole unprocessed foods for final pre-fast meal. As shown by this phenomenon, fasting is one of the best ways to improve the functioning of the gut and to come to a better understanding of how the digestive system truly works.

As coffee alters the rate of digestion among other effects, it was important to present the information above as context for coffee’s specific impacts on digestion, which we’ll now dive into.

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Coffee and Gut Motility

One of the most obvious effects that coffee has on gut health for many people is how it speeds up gut motility. Gut motility is the speed of movement of food through the digestion system, and one of the hallmark signs of poor gut health is highly variable gut motility. If some meals sometimes takes days to transit through the digestive system leading to constipation, while other meals seem to transit through the entire gastrointestinal system in under a day or even just hours, and this variability in gut motility is common, then that’s a clear indication that the gut is not in a state of ideal health. This state of variable gut motility is often referred to as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

How does Coffee make you Poop so Fast?

Coffee exerts a diuretic effect on gut motility through its stimulation of the hormone gastrin. Gastrin stimulates the secretion of gastric acid (HCl) in the stomach, aiding the breakdown and digestion of food. For about 90 minutes after drinking coffee the stomach environment is made more acidic because greater amounts of gastric acid are released. The release of gastric acid signals to the body that more food is incoming and therefore an increase in gut motility is observed, specially in the large intestine (colon). Melanoidins found in roasted coffee also increase gut motility through direct activation of the smooth muscles of the digestive system.

Caffeinated and decaf coffee significantly increase motor activity of the colon, activating greater propagated and simultaneous contractions. Eating a meal causes an increase in colonic motor activity as well (gotta make room), and caffeinated coffee is comparable in effect to consuming a meal. Caffeinated coffee is about 25% stronger in this effect than decaf coffee.

At least one-third of the population is susceptible to being stimulated to defecate soon after drinking regular or decaf coffee, with the effect more frequently observed in women then men. Within five minutes of drinking coffee rectosigmoid colon activity increases significantly and lasts for 30 minutes of more. The rectum is the final section of the colon a few inches long that attaches to the anus, and the sigmoid colon is the 1.5 foot long (40 cm) section of the colon just before the rectum. Coffee stimulates muscular contractions in these sections of the colon in a large percentage of the population, and this can cause rapid defecation for sensitive people, especially those who have IBS.

The colon stimulating effect of coffee is generally beneficial for people who regularly experience constipation, whereas people who suffer from already rapid gut transit times should stay away from drinking coffee.

Coffee and Frequent Bowel Movements

If coffee is consumed multiple times per day, as is commonly done by a large percentage of the population, then it’s ability to trigger waves of increased colon motor activity can result in bowel movements becoming more frequent, even to the point where it is problematic.

This is significant for reasons made clear by the earlier section on digestion and also in the microbiome section below. If food that recently made it to the large intestine is being released preemptively, then the body is missing out on a lot of beneficial compounds and metabolites only the microbiome can produce. Without a consistent stream of short chain fatty acids from the colon, metabolism suffers and energy volatility is more likely to be experienced. One of the functions of the large intestine is also to draw water out of the remaining food/waste, and frequent bowel movements can make dehydration a very real problem, or at least make dehydration more likely to occur.

In 1992 it was published in the British Medical Journal that nearly one quarter of the general population has smooth muscle dysfunction and other symptoms consistent with irritable bowel syndrome. Considering that the majority of the world’s population on average has become less healthy in the 30 years since that study, it’s likely that IBS affects an even greater percentage of the population now than it did in 1992.

Coffee Digestive Issues

Before we get into all the ways coffee improves digestion let’s finish covering how coffee can cause digestive issues for people with sensitive gastrointestinal systems. How is it that coffee can cause digestion problems while also having the ability to improve gut health?

Certain herbs have a dual ability to improve a bodily system or to cause problems. A good example of an herb that does this is cannabis. Cannabis that contains an even ratio of cannabinoids like THC and CBD if used in moderate amounts occasionally is neuroprotective and stimulates neurogenesis, increasing connectivity within the brain while also boosting creativity overall. Cannabis that is too high in THC though, and if used in excessive amounts, can cause mental health problems like paranoia, insomnia, and anxiety, and long term use of cannabis in this way can shrink the gray matter of the brain and cause memory problems. The dose of certain herbs like cannabis or coffee is critical in how their consumption will affect the body, and what’s also important is the state that the body is in prior to use.

Coffee (and cannabis, among other herbs) has the characteristic of exacerbating certain health issues if a bodily system is already out of balance. Think of it as a wake up call, with coffee highlighting preexisting health issues by making their symptoms more obvious, and in this manner this effect is beneficial in diagnosing health problems. So if drinking coffee is causing digestive issues like heartburn, stomach pain, or diarrhea, then that’s a big sign that coffee consumption should be stopped until gut health is improved, because when the gut and microbiome are healthy, coffee has a net positive influence on the digestive system and gut microbiota as we’ll see later.

Coffee and Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is the most common gastrointestinal disorder, with up to 30% of the population or more having regular symptoms consistent with IBS. Most people with gut health issues never seek the help of the medical system, and as a result the prevalence of gut health issues is thought to be much larger than what’s reported in the literature. Irritable bowel syndrome is most prevalent in people in the 20-40 and over 60 age groups, and women in their 30’s-40’s in particular seem to have higher rates of IBS

The main symptoms of IBS are abdominal pain which is relieved by defecation, abdominal distension, more frequent and looser bowel movements progressing up to diarrhea, general digestive pain, and heartburn. Less common symptoms of IBS that are still experienced at a higher rate than in the normal population include rectal bleeding and the passage of mucus. Underlying these symptoms of IBS are smooth muscle abnormalities.

What is Smooth Muscle?

Smooth muscle is a type of non-striated muscle that is activated by the autonomic nervous system to apply pressure to various organs by contracting. Smooth muscle is a critical component of the digestive system, as it’s waves of smooth muscle contractions that cause food to move through the gut. Smooth muscle contractions are stimulated by nerve impulses, certain hormones (like gastrin), and other chemicals released by various organs. Smooth muscle contractions are much slower but sustained longer than skeletal muscle contractions. The amount of intracellular free Ca2+ is a key regulator of smooth muscle tone and contractility.

Why does Coffee make my Stomach Hurt?

Coffee lowers lower esophageal sphincter pressure while simultaneously stimulating the production of gastric acid via gastrin. For sensitive individuals with thin stomach mucosa linings and/or preexisting stomach ulcers, increases in stomach acid can cause stomach pain, and with the sphincter valve separating the stomach from the esophagus becoming more relaxed, the chance of acid reflux also increases.

If drinking coffee is causing stomach pain then the consumption of coffee should be ceased and steps should be taken to heal the stomach back to normal function. Coffee has not been shown to modify gastric wall compliance, wall tension, or sensory function.

Why does Coffee give me Diarrhea?

Alongside its effects on the stomach, coffee also increases contractile pressures in the rectosigmoid area of the colon, which can cause an increased and sometimes very rapid need to defecate. Both the possible symptoms of heartburn and diarrhea from drinking coffee point to coffee’s ability to affect smooth muscle function, and both of these symptoms are also common to IBS irrespective of coffee consumption. Basically if smooth muscle function is dysfunctional overall, then the smooth muscle stimuli that coffee causes can be too powerful and further exacerbate symptoms of IBS.

Having covered how coffee can trigger the same pathways already imbalanced in those who have IBS, we’ll now discuss the phytonutrients coffee contains and how these nutrients can benefit gut health and the microbiome.

Coffee Phytonutrients

Roasted coffee contains thousands of biologically relevant compounds, and many of them have beneficial antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, and metabolism boosting health effects. Together these chemicals influence the functions of the digestive system, cardiovascular system, nervous system, and the gut-brain axis.

Coffee and Caffeine

The most well-known chemical found in coffee is caffeine. Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant that is rapidly absorbed into the body by the stomach and small intestine. Caffeine increases fat oxidation, in general boosts metabolism, and has been shown to improve cognition, especially for the elderly. One cup of black coffee contains ~95 mg of caffeine, and the upper bound for caffeine that shows health benefits is ~300 mg per day. Consuming more than 300 mg of caffeine per day causes significant hormonal alterations and can cause health problems best avoided.

If you have a built-up caffeine tolerance that you want to reset, and/or also want guidance on how to best use and dose caffeine, then read our guide on the subject for more information.

Caffeine Usage and Tolerance Reset Guide

Coffee Polyphenols

Coffee also contains abundant polyphenols, which possess strong antioxidant properties. The polyphenols in coffee are not greatly effected by the decaffeination process. Flavonoids, a subgroup of polyphenols that are abundant in coffee, significantly increase the expression of proteins at epithelial tight junctions, improving their strength and reducing intestinal permeability which is a good thing. Weak tight junctions are a key symptom of leaky gut, food intolerances, and food allergies.

The polyphenol chlorogenic acid (CGA) is a major component of coffee, and chlorogenic acids have a regulating effect on glucose and lipid metabolism, which is why they have anti-diabetic, anti-carcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-obesity effects. One-third of free chlorogenic acids are absorbed in the small intestine and the rest of the polyphenols reach the colon where they are broken down into simpler molecules by the microbiome. Polyphenols influence the microbiome directly (more on that below) while also requiring microbial activity for their alteration into other compounds that have beneficial health effects when absorbed by the body.

Coffee Melanoidins and N-Methylpyridium

The chemical composition of green coffee beans is noticeably altered by the roasting process, and two of the notable chemicals produced from the heat-driven Maillard reactions that occur are melanoidins and N-Methylpyridium.

Melanoidins are brown pigment chemicals that are created when sugars and amino acids combine under high heat. Melanoidins have several health promoting properties such as being antimicrobial, antihypertensive, anti-inflammatory, antitoxin, and antioxidant in nature. Melanoidins are mostly indigestible and therefore act as dietary fiber, being fermented in the gut by the microbiome. People who drink a lot of coffee along with eating other foods that have undergone Maillard reactions (like crusty bread) may receive up to 20% of their dietary fiber from melanoidins. Melanoidins have a pro-motility on the gut not only because of their fiber effect but also through direct activation of the smooth muscles of the digestive system. In addition to melanoidins, dietary fiber is present in coffee.

N-methylpyridium (NMP) is an interesting chemical found in coffee that exerts an opposite effect on the stomach than coffee in general, as it reduces gastric acid production by stomach cells. NMP is only generated by the roasting process, and as such darker-roasted coffee contains more NMP than lightly roasted coffees, up to twice as much. For people who want to enjoy coffee and its health benefits but want to reduce their chance of experiencing heartburn and increased gut motility, drinking a darker roasted coffee is recommended.

Coffee and Gut Microbiome

On average 75% of feces are water, with the remaining 25% being solid materials. Bacterial biomass make up 25-55% of the solids in feces (6-14% total). This bacterial biomass is composed of dead and also living bacteria, and therefore as you can see, every bowel movement changes the microbiome because it’s removing a portion of the total microorganism population out of the body.

Coffee through its ability to trigger increased smooth muscle activity for the colon can cause defecation, and through this mechanism coffee influences the development of the microbiome. Microorganisms divide and reproduce on very fast timespans on the timespan of 20 minutes to 24 hours, with bad pathogenic bacteria typically dividing faster than good symbiotic bacteria. The longer stool stays in the colon, the longer the microbiome has to divide and evolve, which changes the overall population characteristics and diversity of the microbiome. If a healthy meal is eaten rich in vegetables and fiber, then symbiotic microorganisms will increase in population numbers, whereas if a junk food meal is eaten containing lots of highly processed foods and chemicals, then pathogenic microorganisms will better be able to survive and expand in population.

Coffee’s ability to trigger defecation can then be considered good or bad for the microbiome depending on the context. If the content of the stool in the large intestine is of a poor quality, then triggering defecation is a good thing as it’ll reduce the growth of pathogenic bacteria and remove toxins from the body. If the stool is composed of what’s left of a healthy meal from whole unprocessed foods, then triggering defecation early won’t be advantageous as valuable nutrients will be lost and symbiotic microorganisms will have less time to diversify and expand their populations.

Here’s the thing though, in my personal experience it’s the current contents of the digestive system that determine coffee’s defecating activating effect. When I eat healthy meals full of whole unprocessed foods, such as a rice and bean bowl with vegetables and avocado on top, coffee doesn’t trigger any significant increase in motor activity in the colon. If I eat a lower quality meal though, then I can definitely feel that coffee creates a stronger urge to use the restroom. At the beginning of the article I discussed how coffee can improve gut health because it highlights existing gut health issues like IBS by making the symptoms worse, and diet quality is a factor as to why that is the way it is. If you’re struggling with eating a good diet, resetting your dietary beliefs is an important step towards eating healthier.

How to Cleanse the Microbiome in One Day

If low quality junk food is in the digestive track, then it behooves the body to push it out quickly and hope for a higher quality meal to follow. Of course if junk food continues to be eaten then nutrient deficiencies develop and other health issues can compound, but having a longer transit time for these foods wouldn’t necessarily be better than a short transit time due to the presence of toxins in the food.

“There’s no way to win by eating poor quality food”

The benefits of coffee on the microbiome are further amplified by the abundant polyphenols that coffee contains. Coffee decreases populations of pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Enterococcus spp., Clostridium spp., and Bacteroides spp., while increasing populations of beneficial microorganisms like Lactobacillus spp. and Bifidobacterium spp., and this is thought to be primarily an effect of polyphenols, as polyphenols from things like herbs have shown similar effects.

Polyphenols both influence microbiome populations, and are also metabolized into different beneficial chemicals by the microbiome. By containing abundant polyphenols, dietary fiber, and melanoidins coffee exerts a strong influence over the microbiome and shifts microbial populations towards greater symbiotic function and away from pathogenic overgrowth. Drinking herbal teas are another way to shift the microbiome towards greater symbiosis, as an herbal tea blend like a 1:1:1 chamomile, peppermint, and dandelion tea contains abundant flavonoids and each of those herbs is already well-known for improving gut health.

Herbal Teas for Fasting and Gut Health

Coffee and the Gut-Brain Axis

Coffee as a natural source of many chemicals like caffeine and polyphenols exerts an influence on the gut-brain axis, from changing emotional status to altering neurogenesis and neurodegeneration. Caffeine is the main psychoactive compound found in coffee, easily crossing the blood-brain barrier and stimulating the sympathetic nervous system in addition to the overall central nervous system. Caffeine increases extracellular dopamine concentrations and causes a greater expression of dopaminergic receptors and transports, leading to an overall cognitive improvement, especially amongst the elderly.

Additionally caffeine reduces the activity of the Gamma-aminobutyric (GABA) system and modulates GABA receptors. GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that acts on the central nervous system, lessening the ability for nerve cells to create, transmit, and receive signals to other nerve cells. Through this inhibitory effect GABA can produce a sense of calm as it reduces the activity of the nervous system, but as with anything too much GABA isn’t beneficial. Chronic caffeine intake is related to a long-term reduction in GABA, and that is also not good, as GABA plays a role in controlling stress, anxiety, and feelings of fear.

The gut-brain axis is also heavily influenced by the microbiome because it’s the microbiome that produces a large portion of the neurotransmitters the body uses, directly producing dopamine, GABA, and norepinephrine, and indirectly influencing the bodies natural production of serotonin in epithelial enterochromaffin cells (intestinal epithelial cells that play a governing role in intestinal motility and secretion). The gut microbiome also regulates stress hormones produced by the HPA-axis and sends direct signals to the brain via the vagus nerve. Through these interactions with the brain the microbiome has a strong ability to influence human behavior.

How the Microbiome Influences Behavior

A Better Coffee

After learning everything that has been outlined in this coffee and digestion guide, there are a few key takeaways to remember:

If currently experiencing gut health problems like IBS (either knowingly or unknowingly) coffee consumption has the possibility of increasing the negative symptoms being experienced as it’s a mechanism to bring consciousness to the problem and attempt to shift the microbiome to a more favorable symbiotic state.
If gut health is good then coffee consumption can further improve gut health by modulating the microbiome towards greater symbiotic integration with the host by increasing populations of beneficial microorganisms such as lactobacillus and bifidobacteria, while also providing the body a rich source of health boosting polyphenols, fiber, and other unique compounds.
Coffee consumption within reasonable parameters (<3 cups a day) improves brain health, especially for the elderly.

The darker the roast the less likely coffee is to trigger the excessive production of gastric acids thanks to greater concentrations of N-methylpyridium, and darker roasted coffees also contain more melanoidins which have beneficial effects on the colon.

With all this taken into consideration, when eating a healthy diet and with a healthy gut, drinking a dark roast black coffee has little chance of causing gut health disturbances and overall has gut health and metabolism boosting benefits. The cardiovascular and cognitive systems also benefit from reasonable coffee consumption.

Coffee can be made even better though!

When certain herbs are added to coffee, it improves the metabolic effects of coffee while smoothing out the increase in sympathetic nervous system activity that coffee causes, which can lead to energy volatility in some individuals. And if the autonomic nervous system is already unbalanced between sympathetic and parasympathetic states, with the sympathetic nervous system being too dominant, then drinking coffee can make that imbalance worse.

Adding cacao, ceylon cinammon, chaga mushroom, cistanche, and a small amount of honey to a black coffee creates what I call a dark mocha, and having enjoyed a bunch of dark mochas in my time it’s my experience that they have a much greater beneficial nootropic effect than regular black coffee while also improving energy metabolism noticeably. While a dark mocha still has a stimulant effect, it’s much more even keel and balanced than a regular cup of black coffee (or a cup of coffee with sugar), and the metabolism boosting effect seems to last all day rather than just for a couple hours.

I encourage you to learn more about why adding these ingredients to coffee makes it even better as it’s a good introduction to herbalism and it should significantly improve your day to day if you drink coffee often.

The Best Nootropic Coffee

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If you read all the way here then it’s clear to me that you’re ready to do what it takes to finally restore your digestive system and gut microbiome back to healthy and optimal function.

References:

Iriondo-DeHond A, Uranga JA, del Castillo MD, Abalo R. Effects of coffee and its components on the gastrointestinal tract and the brain–gut axis. Nutrients. 2020;13(1):88.
Jones R, Lydeard S. Irritable bowel syndrome in the general population. BMJ. 1992;304(6819):87-90.
Bitar KN. Function of gastrointestinal smooth muscle: from signaling to contractile proteins. The American Journal of Medicine. 2003;115(3):15-23.
Rubach, Malte, et al. Identification of a coffee compound that effectively inhibits mechanisms of stomach acid secretion in human gastric parietal cells. Abstracts of Papers of the American Chemical Society. Vol. 239. American Chemical Society, 2010.
Rose C, Parker A, Jefferson B, Cartmell E. The characterization of feces and urine: a review of the literature to inform advanced treatment technology. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology. 2015;45(17):1827-1879.
Strandwitz P. Neurotransmitter modulation by the gut microbiota. Brain Research. 2018;1693:128-133.

Apigenin is Nature's most Powerful Flavonoid

When it comes to fighting cancer few other phytochemicals if any can match the effects of apigenin. Apigenin is a flavonoid most notably found in parsley and chamomile flowers that in addition to its powerful anticancer effects also improves mental health disorders, heals the gut and microbiome, is neuroprotective, and so much more! Learn more about apigenin and the best way to supplement with it.

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated May 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

In the English Ballad Scarborough Fair, most well-known as sung by Simon and Garfunkel in their album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme, a man and women ask of each other impossible tasks so the other may demonstrate their true love, and sprinkled throughout the song is the refrain of “parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme”.

To many curing cancer and other chronic inflammation-based diseases likewise seems an impossible task, but if the herbs of the ballad are sprinkled liberally throughout life then true healing is no longer out of reach thanks to the presence of a unique and very powerful anti-cancer phytochemical contained in all those herbs known as apigenin.

In this article we discuss the health benefits of apigenin, what foods to eat to receive more apigenin into the diet, and other high-density ways of supplementing apigenin so you can enjoy all the amazing health benefits of this unique flavonoid phytochemical.

Curly parsley from my 2021 summer garden, zone 7a. Yum!

Pharmacology of Apigenin

Apigenin is a phytochemical flavonoid (more specifically a flavone) naturally produced by plants shown to exhibit several biologic activities such as being an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anti-cancer, neuroprotective, and cardioprotective.

Apigenin is synthesized in a number of plants as secondary metabolite via the shikimate pathway* (how all flavonoids are synthesized). Once apigenin has been produced by a plant it’s bound to sugar molecules in various ways creating what are known as glycosides which are another class of powerful health-promoting phytochemicals. Flavonoids like apigenin are produced by plants for functions like protection against ultraviolet light, defense against insects, fungi, and microorganisms, as antioxidants, and as plant hormone controllers. Just as plants use flavonoids to improve their lot in life, so too can we, with flavonoids like apigenin and quercetin (among many others) raising the efficiency and stable functioning of biologic systems.

Note* - The reason pesticides like glyphosate are so effective at killing bacteria, fungi, and plants is because they turn off the shikimate pathway. Non-organic produce having been grown with disrupted shikimate metabolism will therefore contain much less of the valuable phytochemicals that our bodies crave! Something to consider next time you’re purchasing vegetables and are wondering whether to buy conventional (sprayed with glyphosate) or organic (not sprayed with glyphosate) fruits and vegetables.

Apigenin Bioavailability

Apigenin glycosides are more bioavailable than free apigenin as free apigenin has very poor water solubility.

In the intestines, apigenin is extensively metabolized into forms more readily transported to the liver before being distributed out to tissues of the body. Any apigenin that makes it past the small intestine transits to the colon where it also has biologic effects before eventually being eliminated from the body. Remaining apigenin from the tissues (and some from the liver) are eventually processed by the kidneys and excreted via urine.

From the whole-food source of parsley (the densest source of apigenin known), the excretion half-life for apigenin was observed to be about 12 hours. There exist significant individual variation in the bioavailability and excretion of apigenin, but in general apigenin is absorbed slowly by the body and eliminated slowly by the body (important to discuss further, see side effects section below). No difference in the mean excretion of apigenin has been observed between men and women.

If apigenin is taken in reasonable amounts the long half-life of apigenin proves to be one of its main benefits as a wellness promoting phytochemical. The longer a chemical can stay in the body, the more time it has to exert biologically-relevant effects, and by eating a diet high in apigenin, over time the body builds up consistent levels of apigenin in the bloodstream that keep inflammation low, among many other health improvements.

Apigenin Benefits and Uses

If you’ve read through the herb section of Wild Free Organic, you’ll have found that the theme of many health-promoting herbs is that they are always possess antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties. Antioxidants help neutralize free radicals in the body which otherwise would cause oxidative stress and DNA damage. Inflammation isn’t bad per-say as it is vitally important in the healing process, but the out-of-balance modern lifestyle has inflammation elevated way beyond normal levels chronically for many people. And the natural antimicrobial properties of herbs keep the gut’s microbiome healthy and in-check while also sweeping the bloodstream clear of pathogens which increases immunity.

When antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-microbial properties are combined together thanks to flavonoids like apigenin, and biologically relevant amounts are consumed consistently, beneficial actions at the cellular scale are felt at the human scale for example as reductions in cancer, improved sleep and less anxiety, better gut health, and optimized hormone levels for men and women. Apigenin is most popularly known for its anti-cancer, anti-mutagenic, and chemoprotective effects so we’ll start there when discussing the health benefits of apigenin.

Apigenin for Cancer

In most situations when a cell undergoes a genotoxic mutation DNA repair mechanisms kick in and repair the damage or the cell undergoes apoptosis (programmed cell death) and is terminated. If the DNA damage isn’t fixed and the cell doesn’t undergo apoptosis then the mutated cell begins to deviate from its normal behaviors and becomes cancerous.

Apigenin plays an important role in cancer prevention by inducing apoptosis and inhibiting cell proliferation in mutated cells. Apigenin triggers various anti-cancer pathways and activates tumor suppressive genes. Apigenin also further combats the rise and spread of cancer through its binding action to certain proteins and also in how it adjusts certain cellular receptors in their expression and density. Apigenin bolsters all of these anti-cancer effects but also inhibiting excessive platelet adhesion thereby improving the transport of oxygen, nutrients, and immune cells throughout the body.

One special trait of apigenin is that it is able to overcome the multi-drug resistance some tumor cells have by inhibiting the viability of the mutated cells while increasing their cellular uptake of doxorubicin (a chemotherapy medication).

Apigenin is one of the most powerful anti-cancer phytochemicals currently known and for anyone who has cancer reading this I would suggest you read the full research paper linked as the sixth reference for this article (see end).

Apigenin for Sleep

Apigenin binds to benzodiazepine receptors in the brain which, if taken in high enough doses, can trigger muscle relaxation and sedation.

Chamomile is a common source of apigenin, and chamomile is well-known for it’s relaxation and sleep benefits, which can be partly ascribed to apigenin’s neurochemical interactions. Not only does chamomile activate the "rest and digest” parasympathetic nervous system, it also improves day-time functioning because 8-12 Hz alpha brainwaves are increased in power. Alpha brainwaves are the gateway between wakefulness and sleep, and strong alpha brainwave activity in general is correlated with higher levels of consciousness.

Apigenin for Anxiety and Depression

Anxiety, depression, insomnia, and other mental health issues are central nervous system (CNS) related disorders, and apigenin’s influence over the CNS is beneficial in reducing these mental health issues. There is increasing awareness surrounding the effectiveness of phytochemicals like apigenin or sulforaphane in treating mental health issues, and an important thing to know then if seeking to use natural alternatives for mental health treatment is the effectiveness of a bioactive compound is determined in part by its ability to pass through the blood-brain barrier. Of the many flavonoids that exist, apigenin is near the top of the list in its ease of penetration of the blood brain barrier.

Apigenin reduces anxiety, depression, and other central nervous system disorders through a few different factors. Apigenin upregulates the production of brain-derived neurotropic factor, an important protein for nerve cell growth and survival. Apigenin lowers stress-induced alterations in the brain and it reverses mild stress-induced increases in corticosteroid hormones. Apigenin possibly has a role in modulating the neurotransmission activity of noradrenalin, dopamine, and serotonin, and by doing this apigenin helps to prevent abnormal behavior.

The beneficial neuroprotective effects of apigenin listed in the next section are also applicable to this section.

Apigenin is Neuroprotective

As a neuroprotective agent, apigenin reduces oxidative damage, neural inflammation, and activation of the central nervous system’s immune microglial cells. Apigenin has been shown to cause a reduction in amyloid deposits in the brain and it has an ameliorating effect on Alzheimer’s disease. Apigenin causes improvements in memory, most notably spatial learning and memory.

Possibly one of apigenin’s most important effects is that is has a neurovascular protective effect, helping to keep the brain well supplied with oxygen and nutrient-rich blood. Not only does apigenin have an easy time passing through the blood-brain barrier, its presence also maintains the healthy status of the brain’s vascular network, which is a win-win.

Apigenin for Gut Health

Not all flavonoids will be absorbed in the small intestine, and any flavonoids (like apigenin) that reach the colon beneficially interact with the microbiome there. Flavonoids and their metabolites alter the microbiome by inhibiting the growth of various pathogens while increasing the beneficial genera such as Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus. Through these actions gut health is improved because endotoxin production is reduced, the conversion of primary into secondary bile acids is increased, and overall nutrient absorption increases. Flavonoids are one of the best things to ensure you’re getting adequate amounts of in your diet if looking to heal gastrointestinal issues or maintain good gut health. Flavonoids improve intestinal barrier function by strengthening epithelial tight-junctions which has a big impact on reducing gut inflammation.

If you are experiencing gut health problems then the Holistic Gut Health Guide is the all-in-one-guide you need to begin healing your digestive system and microbiome.

Apigenin for Women

As women age hormone levels decline, notably progesterone which affects the functioning of various neurotransmitters like GABA. Women with lower progesterone levels at any age have a greater likelihood of experiencing depression, anxiety, irritability, and insomnia. Headaches, migraines, and mood changes are more common, as is irregularity in the menstrual cycle. Apigenin has some effect in improving progesterone levels and thus can help mitigate the effects of low progesterone levels in women of all ages.

Apigenin for Men

The two main ways apigenin specifically helps men is in regards to their hormonal and prostate health.

Apigenin and Testosterone

Apigenin broadly improves the function of Leydig cells, the cells responsible for testosterone production in the testes. Apigenin also reduces heat-induced damage to the extremely heat sensitive Leydig cells. Apigenin enhances steroidogenesis by increasing the sensitivity of Leydig cells to cAMP stimulation.

In addition to improving steroidogenesis, apigenin can promote skeletal muscle hypertrophy and myogenic differentiation of muscle cells through its actions as a potent aromatase inhibitor (like most plant flavonoids). Aromatase is an enzyme that converts androgens like testosterone into estrogenic hormones like estradiol, and by inhibiting the action of aromatase enzymes throughout the body more androgenic hormone levels can be maintained.

Apigenin for Prostate Health

Plant flavonoids like apigenin induce apoptosis in prostate carcinoma (epithelial cancer) cells by inhibiting fatty acid synthase, a long chain fatty-acid synthesis enzyme that is over-expressed in prostate cancer cells. Apigenin also changes various cellular pathways the inhibits the growth of prostate cancer. One of these pathways is the uptake and accumulation of apigenin in the nuclear matrix of a cell, binding apigenin to DNA which reduces oxidative DNA damage and apoptosis in healthy prostate epithelial cells.

One of the main concerns regarding any chemotherapy treatment is how it also damages and kills healthy cells alongside mutated ones. By protecting healthy cells and by fighting cancer in its own way apigenin is truly a miracle flavonoid that is easily and safely added alongside existing cancer treatment options.

What is Apigenin Found In?

As a plant-created flavonoid apigenin is found in a variety of herbs, fruits, and vegetables. Most commonly apigenin isn’t found in its free form but bound as one of its various glycosides. For example apigenin does not occur in living chamomile flowers, instead residing in the plant as apigenin 7-glycoside and its derivatives. Once harvested some of the apigenin glycosides convert into free apigenin.

Whether an apigenin containing food is eaten fresh or dried (a denser source), the apigenin will be absorbable.

Herbs High in Apigenin

Parsley is the richest known source of apigenin and there is nothing else that comes close. Fresh parsley contains ~2.2 mg of apigenin per gram of fresh parsley. With its water content removed dried parsley is an even denser source of apigenin coming in at ~45 mg/g.

Chamomile (Matricaria recutita) is another source of apigenin that’s well-known, with dried chamomile flower containing 3-5 mg/g.

Peppermint contains 0.055 mg of apigenin per gram of fresh leaves, and the apigenin density is higher in dried peppermint.

Thyme contains ~0.025 mg of apigenin per gram of fresh leaves, and dried thyme has a higher apigenin density.

Oregano contains ~0.025 mg of apigenin per gram of fresh leaves, and dried oregano is an even denser source of apigenin.

Sage, rosemary, and tea leaves are other sources of apigenin. Lastly one important thing to note regarding the apigenin content of herbs, and this also applies more broadly to all polyphenols found in herbs, is that there typically is a significant increase in total polyphenols from April to September, so the apigenin content of food does vary with the seasons.

Fruits and Vegetables High in Apigenin

Since apigenin is a common flavonoid it’s found in some concentration in most fruits and vegetables.

Celery is a vegetable known for its high apigenin content, and all parts of the celery plant contain apigenin in different ratios. Celery seed has the densest concentration of apigenin at 0.8 mg/g, whereas celery hearts have a lower density of 0.02 mg/g, and celery stalk is even lower still at only 0.003 mg/g.

Other fruits and vegetables known for their apigenin content are rutabaga, green chili peppers, onions, and oranges.

Liposomal Apigenin

The health benefits of apigenin are becoming more well-known in the medical field and it’s common to be recommended liposomal apigenin for a variety of health reasons. A liposome is a spherical drug delivery vehicle made of a lipid bi-layer that increases bioavailability of the nutrient encapsulated within it into the bloodstream. Apigenin is already very bioavailable and liposomal apigenin is only really useful in the context of shuttling the majority of the apigenin into the bloodstream, whereas normally the tissues of the digestive system will absorb and use some apigenin themselves, some apigenin will make it into the bloodstream, and some apigenin will also make its way to the microbiome of the large intestine.

There are benefits to letting apigenin naturally be distributed throughout the body, specifically having apigenin make it to the microbiome is very valuable for the gut-brain axis, metabolic health, and the cardiovascular system. The microbiome produces biologically useful secondary metabolites from flavonoids like apigenin, and for this reason supplementing with a natural source of apigenin like dried parsley is preferred.

Apigenin Side Effects

There is some concern that exist regarding apigenin and its potential to build up in the body based on its half-life in rats, which is 92 hours. The half life of apigenin in humans though is 12 hours, and there is little evidence to suggest that apigenin builds up to dangerous levels or promotes adverse metabolic reactions when consumed as part of a normal diet.

Direct supplementation of high doses of isolated apigenin can result in liver toxicity over time, and its for this reason that I believe its best that those who wish to supplement with apigenin capsules don’t supplement with them daily and instead follow a more holistic approach, sticking with whole foods and herbal teas. Information for those interested in supplementing with high doses of apigenin and for others who want to follow the holistic approach is below.

Supplement Apigenin

There are two main methods to follow when supplementing with any compound or chemical. The first method is to supplement with the desired chemical just 1-3x at a high dose for an acute effect. The second method is to incorporate into the diet natural sources of the desired chemical for much broader long term health benefits. With good understanding of what a chemical does and its safety profile methods 1 and 2 can be combined. We’ll start with the low-dose daily way to add apigenin into the diet and then progress upwards towards the most potent forms available.

Chamomile, Dandelion, Peppermint Tea for Apigenin

An excellent way to add extra apigenin to the diet is to drink a 1:1:1 chamomile, dandelion, and peppermint herbal tea. This herbal tea blend is so powerfully healthy for you because of the presence of flavonoids like apigenin, quercetin, and hundreds of other health-promoting phytochemicals.

All three of these herbs are powerful antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, and natural antimicrobials. Drinking this tea will boost your immune system and help you get over a cold/flu/covid faster, will reduce symptoms associated with inflammation-based and autoimmune diseases, and is excellent for healing the digestive system and keeping it functioning at a high level. I’ve writen more about the benefits of drinking herbal teas for improving gut health and for use during fasting, and if you’re currently facing gut health problems I highly encourage you to learn more.

Herbal Teas for Fasting and Gut Health

Drinking herbal teas is one of the best preventative health strategies that exists. Each cup is packed with biologically useful phytonutrients that the body craves, and with so many different herbs that exist it never gets boring. Drink a cup or two of chamomile/dandelion/peppermint tea a day and with the 12 hour half life of apigenin it’s not an issue if a few days are missed every now and then. All three of these herbs are extremely safe with no known toxicity concerns.

Mountain Rose herbs sells organic dandelion root, chamomile flowers, and dried peppermint leaves.

Dried parsley for Apigenin

Dried parsley is a ridiculously dense source of apigenin coming in at ~45 mg/g. While pure apigenin supplements do exist as you’ll see below, dried parsley is the best way to supplement with high amounts of apigenin because in addition to receiving the apigenin you also receive all the other useful vitamins, nutrients, and phytochemicals that parsley has to offer. Parsley is a dense source of vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin K, calcium, and iron. All of the components that make up parsley aid in the bioavailability and health effects of the other components in what’s known as the entourage effect. So when using dried parsley to intake higher levels of apigenin (for example to aid in the fight against cancer), you not only receive abundant apigenin but lots of other health promoting goodies that would not come when supplementing with apigenin in a standardized pill form.

You can purchase dried parsley in the spice section at the local supermarket or save some money by buying dried parsley online. You can purchase dried parsley on amazon, where it’s usually sold in greater quantities and cheaper in price than the supermarket, or from my favorite supplier of herbs, essential oils, and other health and wellness products Mountain Rose Herbs who also sells organic dried parsley leaf.

Easy ways to incorporate dried parsley into your diet is to mix it into different spreads like cream cheese and hummus, to sprinkle it liberally on top of meals like a grain bowl, mix it into soup or paste-type dishes, you get the idea.

Pure Apigenin Supplements

Highly standardized apigenin supplements can be useful under certain circumstances. For example if someone is having severe gut health issues and even dried parsley is likely to cause too much gastrointestinal upset, then a pure apigenin supplement can be useful combined alongside herbal teas. Nootropics Depot sells a few different supplements that contain apigenin, most notably they sell a raw 98% apigenin powder that’s also available as 98% apigenin capsules.

Try Herbalism

A final message to leave you with is to never underestimate the healing power of natural remedies, a great introduction being herbal teas. A lot of supplements are very expensive and have poor safety and quality testing. For the same price or less as a few different health supplements an entire assortment of health-promoting herbs can be acquired through a supplier like Mountain Rose Herbs. Try natural herbal remedies at least once and see if they can help you. A good place to start learning more about herbs is on the herbs section of this website.

References:

Ali F, Rahul, Naz F, Jyoti S, Siddique YH. Health functionality of apigenin: A review. International Journal of Food Properties. 2017;20(6):1197-1238.
Nielsen SE, Young JF, Daneshvar B, et al. Effect of parsley (petroselinum crispum) intake on urinary apigenin excretion, blood antioxidant enzymes and biomarkers for oxidative stress in human subjects. Br J Nutr. 1999;81(6):447-455.
Salehi B, Venditti A, Sharifi-Rad M, et al. The therapeutic potential of apigenin. IJMS. 2019;20(6):1305.
Pei R, Liu X, Bolling B. Flavonoids and gut health. Current Opinion in Biotechnology. 2020;61:153-159.
Higdon J. Flavonoids. Micronutrient Information Center, Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State University. https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/dietary-factors/phytochemicals/flavonoids
Shankar E, Goel A, Gupta K, Gupta S. Plant flavone apigenin: an emerging anticancer agent. Curr Pharmacol Rep. 2017;3(6):423-446.

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5 Incredible Health Benefits to Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkins are a large squash that can grow to exceptional size, and the real treasure of pumpkins is their seeds. Pumpkin seeds have many notable health benefits, from their excellent micronutrient and macronutrient profiles to their anti-microbial and anti-parasitic effects. Learn the top five reasons why you should regularly include pumpkin seeds into your diet.

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated June 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

Pumpkins are a large squash that can grow to exceptional size, used the world over for Fall decorations and made into pumpkin-flavored treats like pumpkin pie and pumpkin spice lattes. The real treasure of the pumpkin is their seeds. Pumpkin seeds have many notable health benefits, from their excellent micronutrient and macronutrient profiles to their anti-microbial and anti-parasitic effects. Learn the top five reasons why you should regularly include pumpkin seeds into your diet.

In a world that’s go go go and fixated on supplements for correcting nutrient deficiencies, pumpkin seeds are the ultimate snack. Pumpkin seeds are very high in zinc, magnesium, manganese, iron, and phosphorus, while also having appreciable amounts of vitamin B1, vitamin B3, vitamin E, and choline. If you are taking a supplement for one of the minerals listed above, you can replace it by adding pumpkin seeds to you diet!

Pumpkin Seeds Micronutrients

Pumpkin seeds are packed full of vitamins and minerals and are especially notable as a rich source of magnesium and zinc, minerals deficient in most of the modern population. A ¼ cup of dried and shelled pumpkin seeds contains 64% DV manganese, 57% DV phosphorus, 48% DV copper, 45% DV magnesium, and 23% DV zinc. Pumpkin seeds also contain appreciable amounts of B vitamins 1, 3, 5, and 9 as well as choline and vitamin E. The recommended daily value for magnesium is 400 mg, and ¼ cup of pumpkin seeds contains half that amount.

Pumpkin Seeds are High in Minerals

Values from a 1/4 cup of dried and shelled pumpkin seeds. Y-axis is % Daily Value

Pumpkin Seeds Notable Vitamins

Values from a 1/4 cup of dried and shelled pumpkin seeds. Y-axis is % Daily Value

Magnesium deficiency can cause high blood pressure, reduce vitamin D synthesis, worsen asthma, lead to sleep disorders like insomnia, cause mental illness, and increase bone fragility. Pumpkin seeds because of their high magnesium content can be incorporated into the diet to help improve sleep quality and reduce mental illness. Low levels of zinc can weaken the immune system, delay growth, lower testosterone levels, can cause psychological disorders, and reduce the ability to heal from wounds. Solely for the magnesium and zinc eating pumpkin seeds is highly beneficial, and eating pumpkin seeds has other major health benefits in addition to those two minerals.

Vitamin E is an antioxidant best known for its ability to minimize damage from free radicals. The recommended daily intake of vitamin E is 15 mg/day, and only 21% of the global population reaches this threshold daily (1). What’s unique about the vitamin E found in pumpkin seeds is that it comes in a wide variety of forms, with alpha-tocopherol, delta-tocopherol, gamma-tocopherol, alpha-tocomonoenol, and gamma-tocomonoenol all being versions of vitamin E found in pumpkin seeds. Alpha-tocopherol is the most biologically active form of vitamin E, yet gamma-tocopherol is the most common form found in the North American diet, and pumpkin seeds contain both.

The vitamin E content of pumpkin seeds is a good illustration of the concept of vitamin and mineral complexes. Micronutrients found in whole foods come in complexes containing other micronutrients, phytonutrients, macronutrients, and much more. The structure of food also has an effect on it’s digestibility and the bioavailability of the micronutrients it contains (2). An isolated vitamin or mineral supplement, often synthetically derived and taken without food, will not be as bioavailable or holistic in its effects as micronutrients derived from whole foods.

Including a 1/4 cup of pumpkin seeds into your diet everyday has the potential to eliminate many of the daily micronutrient supplements or multi-vitamins you may take, and the vitamins and minerals from pumpkin seeds will be much more bioavailable than those from pills.

Pumpkin Seeds Macronutrients

Pumpkin seeds have a very favorable macronutrient profile. The same ¼ cup of shelled pumpkin seeds has 10 grams of protein, 2 grams of fiber (mostly insoluble), and 16 grams of fat split into a balanced mix of monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and saturated fats. The three most satiating macronutrients are fiber, protein, and fat (with refined sugar being the worst), and pumpkin seeds contain predominately all three!

Pumpkin Seed Micronutrients

Pumpkin seeds are truly the ultimate grab-n-go snack because a few handfuls will keep energy levels high by increasing fat metabolism, satiate the microbiome with fiber, and provide a sizable amount of protein for use as amino acids. For these reasons, if you suffer from junk food cravings, pumpkin seeds would be the ideal snack to eat to reduce or eliminate the cravings. Fasting also can be used to reduce food cravings, and to learn to identify them in the first place.

Pumpkin Seeds are Anti-Parasitic

Raw dried pumpkin seeds have been used the world over for their anti-helminthic effects, and an amount like the ¼ cup of seeds used earlier is enough to disable, stun, or kill parasites in the body without causing harm to the host (3). Parasitic infections are common in immune compromised people in which a low diversity pathogenic microbiome is often a common association. Autoimmune diseases are increasingly rapidly the world over caused by a myriad of issues such as increasing pesticide use (4) and declining immune system health, and parasite infections are silently becoming more and more common. Industrial feed lot operations for beef, pork, chicken, and fish are highly contaminated in blood, pus, and feces, and it is in these conditions that parasites thrive and enter into the food supply.

Regularly incorporating pumpkin seeds into the diet can help cleanse your body of parasites, pathogenic microbes, and fungal infections, while also keeping you protected from future exposure. Raw pumpkin seeds, being unpasteurized, also can help repopulate and diversify the gut microbiome with symbiotic microorganisms that will work with the host instead of against it (as is the case with pathogenic microorganisms).

Pumpkin Seeds are Anti-Inflammatory

Pumpkin seeds contain beta-carotene, a type of carotenoid which has anti-inflammatory properties, and when pumpkin seeds are added to diet, they show an efficacy on par with anti-inflammatory drugs in reducing anti-inflammatory symptoms of arthritis (5). The anti-inflammatory effects of pumpkin seeds are from a combination of its healing anti-fungal, anti-parasitic, and-microbial effects on the gut, in addition to the useful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory phytonutrients like beta-carotene.

With most people in western society suffering from chronic inflammation, any addition to the diet which is anti-inflammatory is a huge plus and will help return the body to a state of balance. Resetting the digestive system with fasting can greatly help with lowering systemic inflammation throughout the body, and pumpkin seeds are a great food to break a fast with.

Pumpkin Seeds are Good for the Heart

Pumpkin seed oil has been shown to reduce LDL “bad” cholesterol and raise HDL “good” cholesterol significantly (6). Pumpkin seeds contain oleic acid, linoleic acid, pectin, and phytosterols, with these compounds highly responsible for the total blood cholesterol reduction. Blood pressure is also reduced notably by pumpkin seed oil, and as pumpkin seed oil is derived from pumpkin seeds, eating the seeds would have the same effects.

Pumpkin seeds through their beneficial healing effects on the gut reduce systemic inflammation which is a leading factor in causing heart disease, and their fiber, fat, and protein content stabilizes blood sugar levels. Heart disease has many complicating factors such as stress, poor diet, lack of exercise, but much of this boils down to the systemic chronic inflammation caused by poor gut health, an unbalanced pathogenic microbiome, and a highly stress immune system. Because of these mechanisms, and through its constituent elements, that pumpkin seeds ultimately are a very heart healthy food.

In addition to pumpkin seeds, pushups improve heart health drastically if done regularly. An action plan for someone suffering from heart disease, or someone more predisposed to heart disease, would be to do 50 pushups and eat a 1/4 cup of raw pumpkin seeds everyday.

The many Health Opportunities of Pumpkin Seeds

It is amazing how pumpkin seeds so perfectly address many of the common health issues that plague western society. With topsoil increasingly being depleted, and fruit and vegetable nutrient content decreasing as a result, pumpkins are still able to extract from the soil significant levels of vitamins and minerals which many people are dietarily deficient in while being able to grow to incredible size. The unique macronutrient profile of pumpkin seeds is satiating while simultaneously shifting the microbiome to a healthier state and healing the gut.

Through its positive interactions with the digestive system and because of its abundant phytonutrients, pumpkin seeds have a noticeable impact in reducing inflammation, with inflammation being a large driver for hundreds of health issues and diseases. As a result, the simple addition of ¼ cup of raw shelled pumpkin seeds to the diet regularly can reduce risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, sleep issues, mental illness, arthritis, and more.

References:

Péter S, Friedel A, Roos FF, et al. A systematic review of global alpha-tocopherol status as assessed by nutritional intake levels and blood serum concentrations. Int J Vitam Nutr Res. 2015;85(5-6):261-281.
Hiolle M, Lechevalier V, Floury J, et al. In vitro digestion of complex foods: How microstructure influences food disintegration and micronutrient bioaccessibility. Food Research International. 2020;128:108817.
EI-Aziz A. Antimicrobial proteins and oil seeds from pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata).
Herbicides. Wild Free Organic.
Yadav M, Jain S, Tomar R, Prasad GBKS, Yadav H. Medicinal and biological potential of pumpkin: an updated review. Nutr Res Rev. 2010;23(2):184-190.
Majid AK, Ahmed Z, Khan R. Effect of pumpkin seed oil on cholesterol fractions and systolic/diastolic blood pressure. Food Sci Technol. 2020;40(3):769-777.

Dangers of Pesticides

Herbicides are chemicals used to kill or affect plant growth, and they were first created in the 1940's for use in war. Now in the 21st century herbicides are the most commonly used pesticide, and residues from herbicides like glyphosate and chlorpropham can be found in most foods. 90% of Americans have pesticides or byproducts in their body, and this can cause serious and deadly health effects.

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2021. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

The human body, the foods we eat, the air we breathe, and the planet we live on are made up of millions of chemicals. Water, with the chemical formula of H2O, is the main chemical that our bodies are comprised of, being necessary for thousands of essential chemical reactions, and without water you die. Still, water intoxication is possible though. With any chemical, the dose determines the poison, as does the length of exposure to it. For some chemicals like water, multiple gallons of water consumed very quickly is required to reach a median lethal dose (LD50), while some chemicals can be fatal at even less than a gram. Other chemicals like pesticides might not kill you directly, but will affect your health in more insidious ways, and 90% of Americans have been found to have pesticides and byproducts in their bodies (1).

Pesticide usage in agriculture is widespread, being used on 90% of agricultural lands in the US. Herbicides are a type of pesticide.

Exposure to chemicals overtime is very important to consider for this reason. A small dose of a chemical like a residual herbicide might acutely cause no apparent harm, but over time and with consistent exposure to many different herbicides, chronic health conditions can arise which severely impact overall health and wellness and ultimately lead to fatal outcomes. Reducing exposure to chemicals that harm human health over long periods of time as much as possible is a very important aspect of a healthy lifestyle. Herbicides are so widespread in their use that limiting exposure to them can be difficult and requires lifestyle modifications. Therefore consciously voting with your dollar and purchasing foods and products that aren’t contaminated with pesticides is important. Once food and product changes have been made, monitoring your chemical exposure doesn’t require any conscious thought more than an periodic check-in.

One class of chemicals that is out of sight and out of mind for most are pesticides. Pesticides are chemicals used to control pests and weeds, and include all of the following: herbicide, insecticides, fungicides, bactericides, rodenticides, and insect/animal repellents. Herbicides like glyphosate and chlorpropham are the most commonly used pesticide in the United States, and they trace their origins back to the military industrial complex of World War 1 and 2.

Increased Usage of Herbicides

Herbicides were first synthesized in the early 1940’s, and originally researched for use during WW2 as a warfare agent. The primary intention of herbicidal warfare was to destroy the plant-based ecosystem of an area. Fiction turned to reality with Vietnam when herbicidal warfare was carried out to thin the thick jungles of Vietnam, and thousands perhaps millions have suffered the effects of this massive herbicidal warfare campaign. Herbicidal warfare has been forbidden since 1978, yet the chemical and agricultural industry increasingly wages herbicidal warfare on the civilian populations of the world through the broad usage of herbicides on agricultural crops. Millions of acres are now heavily contaminated with herbicides that take up to decades to break down.

90% of agricultural cropland is treated with chemicals each year, and an estimated 300 million acres are treated with pesticides each year (also about 90 percent). In the U.S., cropland receives on average about 3 pounds of active ingredient per acre, equating to nearly a billion pounds of pesticides used in total per year. Divide that by the U.S. population and that equals pounds of pesticide active ingredient used for every woman, man, and child (see image 2). Pesticides are commonly used on urban lands too, and at a higher rate of usage (2).

Notice the massive increase in the use of herbicides (red bars) . Also notable is the increase in fumigants/nematicides for nematode control.

In 1997, 17.4 lbs of active pesticide ingredients were used per person in the united states. Much of that ends up in the soil and our water supply, and the rest ends up in you.

By the end of the 20th century, pesticide usage had increased three fold from the early 1930’s.

The data above compiled by the Center for Integrated Pest Management only goes up to the year 2000. Since 2000, world pesticide usage has gone up, with some countries decreasing their pesticide usage while others have increased their pesticide usage (3). Pesticide usage in the United States is at the highest its ever been from 2010 onwards.

Mechanisms of Action as Weed Killers

There are many plants labeled as weeds and sprayed with herbicides that are in fact helpful native plants that create beneficial habitat and food for many different insects, birds, and animals. The term weed is incorrectly used very broadly and to the detriment of holistic ecological understanding.

There are many different mechanisms of action that herbicides take to kill plant life. There is significant overlap and interdependence in biology, and it is through the same or similar mechanisms as below that herbicides cause health issues in humans and negatively affect the human microbiome.

ALS Inhibitors: Acetolactate synthase is the first step in the synthesis of the branched-chain amino acids leucine, valine, and isoleucine. ALS inhibiting herbicides starve plants of these amino acids, inhibiting DNA synthesis and causing death. The ALS pathway does not exist in animals, but many organisms in animal microbiomes utilize the ALS pathway.
EPSPS Inhibitors: Enolpyruvylshikimate 3-phosphate synthase enzyme (EPSPS) is used in the synthesis of the amino acids tryptophan, phenylalanine and tyrosine via the shikimate pathway. Glyphosate (Roundup) is a systemic EPSPS inhibitor.
Photosystem I and II Inhibitors: Photosystem inhibitors affect electron flow, ultimately causing oxidation reactions in different cellular structures which can kill a plant.
Synthetic Auxins: Synthetic auxins mimic plant hormones in various ways. Growth of plants can be controlled via their hormone systems, with synthetic auxins exerting their effects by docking on the membrane of cells.
HPPD Inhibitors: 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD) inhibitors affect the breakdown of the amino acid tyrosine, the breakdown products of which are used to make carotenoids. Carotenoids protect chlorophyll from damage by sunlight, and without protection plants that have inhibited carotenoid production turn white as chlorophyll die and then the plant dies.

The general way herbicides function is through affecting biochemical processes involving amino acids, oxidative systems, and hormonal systems of plants. These are very important foundational biologic systems that when disrupted kill plants and other organisms like bacteria. To introduce into your own biochemistry any of these chemicals can affect your health and the health of your microbiome over long periods of time.

Glyphosate (aka Roundup)

Glyphosate is used as a herbicide because it is very effective at killing plants. Glyphosate is an herbicide which disrupts the shikimate pathway, a metabolic pathway used by bacteria, archaea, fungi, algae, some protozoans, and plants. The shikimate pathway consists of seven-steps, and is used by these organisms, but not animals, for the synthesis of folates and certain amino acids. Animals instead must obtain these essential amino acids through their diet, and it is for this reason that agrochemical companies say that glyphosate exposure is okay for humans.

Glycine-Glyphosate Substitution

The interactions of glyphosate in the human body are more complex than claimed by the agrochemical industry. Glyphosate is composed of the amino acid glycine, an important amino acid that is commonly deficient in humans (4), and a phosphonomethyl group that replaces one of the hydrogen atoms. Glycine is a non-essential amino acid, meaning the body can produce it, but its synthesis requires other nutrients, and depending on the biochemical situation, the body might decide to not synthesize glycine. Glycine then could be pulled from connective tissues, where it is the dominant amino acid, and then utilized throughout the body (but to the detriment of joint health), and/or glyphosate could be substituted in. This swap can happen because glyphosate is similar to glycine, and the process is known as glycine-glyphosate substitution (5). Most of the health effects of glycine-glyphosate substitution are still unresearched.

A common glyphosate side effect is poor gut health. Since glyphosate targets the shikimate pathway, it acts as an antibacterial to the microbiome, and this can lead to problems like food allergies and intolerances, IBS, IBD, leaky gut, and malabsorption of food. Glycine can be synthesized internally, but it is easier to acquire via diet by eating the connective tissues of animals or by eating glycine rich foods like pulses (lentils, beans, chickpeas, etc). Glyphosate through its mechanisms disrupts the health of the digestive system, weakening digestive tight junctions, in the process reducing the ability to absorb glycine from dietary sources. Through this insidious effect the body begins to start glycine-glyphosate substitution, and the process gradually worsens while other bodily system that have incorporated glyphosate into their protein structures instead of glycine become newly stressed.

Glycine-glyphosate substitution is bad news because glycine is a very important amino acid throughout the body. Glycine has been shown to improve sleep (6, 7), is an integral component of connective tissues, helps heal injuries (8), and has anti-inflammatory effects (9). Some common glyphosate side effects include poor sleep, digestive problems, brain fog, skin issues, joint problems, thyroid issues, and fatigue.

Glyphosate can be a contributing factor to gluten intolerance. I personally have had gluten intolerance, and it took me many years to heal my gut to perfect health. Take it from me, determining whether gluten or glyphosate is the problem is difficult, so when making dietary modifications it is best to remove both.

The foods which are the most contaminated with glyphosate are GMO products. GMO crops like wheat, soybeans, and corn have been genetically modified to better resist the effects of herbicides like glyphosate. Now with better herbicide resistant GMO crops, the agricultural industry can spray glyphosate and other herbicides in much greater quantities, contaminating the food supply in even greater amounts. When tested non-gmo crops were found to have glyphosate residues at 0.07 mg/kg to 0.09 mg/kg. For a GMO crop, the range was found to be between 3.3 and 5.7 mg/kg (10). This is approximately a 100x difference. Look for the Non-GMO Project verified label on foods, and for your health and the health of the Earth don’t buy GMO foods. Buying only GMO can be difficult, especially if you live in a food dessert.

Finding glyphosate free flour or glyphosate free oats, two commonly contaminated foods, is difficult, though it is becoming easier as more organic and non-gmo products are brought to market. Non-GMO and gluten-free bread products are readily available now in most grocery stores, and these will be much less contaminated, or even free, of glyphosate residues. Finding oatmeal, buckwheat, cereals, and beers without glyphosate is possible when shopping for Non-GMO gluten-free products, of which there are many…and they are very tasty! For the best chance of buying foods without glyphosate, purchase organic, non-gmo, gluten-free products.

If you are unable to buy foods free of glyphosate contamination, focus your diet on whole unprocessed foods and plenty of fruits and vegetables. Glyphosate residues can be washed off on some fruits and vegetables using a dilated mixture of baking soda and water, which is an effective surface pesticide rinse (11). Growing your own fruits and vegetables is the best way to ensure you’re no exposing yourself to the dangerous herbicide glyphosate among many other pesticides.

Chlorpropham and Propham

Propham and chlorpropham are synthetic herbicides and plant growth inhibitors most commonly known for their ability to stop potatoes from sprouting. Chlorpropham applications are also used on spinach, blueberries, garlic, tomatoes, carrots, onions, soybeans, and much more. Chlorpropham’s mode of action is by altering microtubule structure and function in plants resulting in the inhibition of cell division (12). Once potatoes are harvested and ready for storage, chlorpropham dust or propham dust is applied to potatoes via a method known as hot fogging. The potato growing industry will store potatoes for up to 9 months, and during this time chlorpropham will be hot-fogged many times to keep sprout suppression under bay.

During storage, mean concentrations of chlorpropham in tubers decreases with time, with 25% gone in a month and 40% gone in two months. Chlorpropham primarily resides in the peel of potatoes, washing potatoes will remove approximately 40% of the chlorpropham while peeling the potatoes will remove 95% of the herbicide. If the potatoes are boiled or fried, chlorpropham residues can be found in the water and oil used (13).

A naturally grown potato will sprout after some time, like shown here, as it’s still alive and able to perform cellular division.

Through chlorpropham’s growth inhibition characteristics, it has been shown that mice, rats, and beagle dogs feed chlorpropham for short periods of time become anemic, undergo weight fluctuations, and have altered thyroid function, with the hematopoietic system being the main toxicological target found with chlorpropham exposure (14). The hematopoietic system is the bodily system involved in the creation of the cells of blood, with the blood cell genesis sites being bone marrow and the lymph nodes.

Chlorpropham has low mammalian toxicity, but it can bioaccumulate and begin to affect major systems of the body.

The EPA assessed the dietary risk posed by chlorpropham (15), and based on a reference dose not believed to cause adverse effects if consumed daily over 70 years, they found chlorpropham to be safe. 42% of the U.S. population is exposed to that much chlorpropham daily, and while the short chlorpropham studies lasting no greater than 24 months showed very troubling health concerns for the animals involved, 70 years of chronic exposure has been signed off by the EPA as OKAY. The fact that chlorpropham is used in great enough concentrations to cause a physiological effect in potatoes, inhibiting their natural life cycle and stopping sprouting, is reason to believe that chlorpropham is used at great enough concentrations to cause long term health effects in humans with regular ingestion.

Through these mechanisms and how often exposure occurs, chlorpropham and propham can be classified as endocrine disruptors. Just as these herbicides affect cellular growth and reproduction (mitosis), low doses over time can threaten thyroid, lymph node, and hematopoietic health. Thyroid conditions affect ~20% of the U.S. population (16), and this percentage is increasing. There are a lot of diseases of the hematopoietic system (17), and some of them could be caused or affected by chronic herbicide exposure.

How to Avoid Herbicides

There are four steps that can be taken to limit your exposure to herbicides. Each step will reduce your exposure, and if all three steps are followed then your herbicide exposure risk will be close to zero.

Wash Fruits and Vegetables: Washing and/or soaking fruits and vegetables with a 1% baking soda and water mixture can remove pesticide residues. Some pesticides that only coat the outside of produce will break down or bind to the baking soda and be rinsed away, whereas this method is less effective with pesticides that penetrate deep into fruits and vegetables. To create the pesticide rinse, mix 3 tablespoons of baking soda into a gallon of water.
Buy Non-GMO Food: With the advent of gene editing technology, genetically modified organisms have been created and are now abundantly in the food supply. Through selective breeding has influenced plant and animal genetics for thousands of years, direct genetic modification can insert genetic code from a other organisms such as a worm into the DNA of a plant. The long term health effects of consuming genetically modified organisms is unknown, and the larger concern comes from how GMO crops are managed compared to non-GMO crops.
Buy Organic Products: The organic certification is regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture (18), and while it is a step in the right direction, it has many loopholes. It only takes 36 months to transition from regular production to being organic certified by the USDA. Since hazardous chemicals can contaminate soil and water for years, there is still risk of herbicide contamination with organic products. Additionally, animal manures from conventional feedlot and confinement systems are allowed in organic production, and so is manure from animals that have been fed genetically engineered feeds (aka highly herbicide contaminated feeds).

With that said, organic farms use techniques such as composting, soil building, chemical free pest management, crop rotation, and many other holistic agricultural techniques. The variability within the organic standard is wide ranging. There can be an organic farm which uses no chemicals or contaminated materials, and there are organic farms which skirt the edge of the regulations. It’s the same product same quality fallacy. As an informed purchaser it’s your responsibility to research the companies you purchase food and products from, and to only support those who practice ecologically safe and sustainable farming practices.
Shop at Local Farmers Markets: Sourcing your food from local farmers markets, or growing it yourself, is the final and best way you can distance yourself from herbicides and other chemicals. If you grow your own food, you can complete control from start to finish, and there is no reason to use chemicals when environmentally friendly methods of soil building, weed management, and pest management exist and are easy to apply at a small scale.

If you don’t have space for a garden, or during the seasons where growing without a greenhouse is difficult, shopping at a local farmers market is an excellent solution to the problem of where to acquire high quality contamination free fruits, vegetables, and animal products. When shopping at a farmers market, you can speak with the grower and find out how they grow their food. Additionally, produce at farmers markets is typically less expensive than found in a grocery store, and every dollar spent goes directly to a member of the local community.

Engage with the community, save money, and buy interesting and unique foods at your local farmers market.

There are also micronutrients which can internally help protect you from pesticides. Boron protects against the oxidative stress from pesticides (19), as do powerful antioxidants like anthocyanins found in elderberries.

Your Health is Your Responsibility

Agroindustrial chemical companies will argue that herbicides and other pesticides are not harmful to human or animal health at the limits required by law, and while a lot of research has been done, it has not been conducted across the right time scales or with the right combinations of pesticides. Chemical producers have betrayed the trust of the public many times through faulty science, redacted data, chemical pollution, cover-ups, lobbying, and millions have died from the chemicals produced by these large multinational corporations formed during WW1 and WW2.

Your health is your responsibility, and when there are food alternatives not contaminated by hundreds of pesticides and herbicides which are easily accessible at a local farmers market, the right choice is easy to make. The risk of eating conventional produced grains, meat, and produce is simply too great, and the only short term reward from purchasing food from the agroindustrial complex is a few dollars saved. The long term effects could be chronic health conditions that untreated could lead to death.

Find a farmers market near you, support your local community farmers, and thrive.

References:

Chiu, Y., ., Williams, P. L., Mínguez-Alarcón, L., Gillman, M., Sun, Q., Ospina, M., Calafat, A. M., Hauser, R., & Chavarro, J. E. (2018). Comparison of questionnaire-based estimation of pesticide residue intake from fruits and vegetables with urinary concentrations of pesticide biomarkers. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, 28(1), 31-39.
Arnold L. Aspelin. Pesticide Usage in the United States: Trends During the 20th Century. CIPM Technical Bulletin 105
Max Roser (2019) - "Pesticides". Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/pesticides' [Online Resource]
Adeva-Andany, M., Souto-Adeva, G., Ameneiros-Rodríguez, E., Fernández-Fernández, C., Donapetry-García, C., & Domínguez-Montero, A. (2018). Insulin resistance and glycine metabolism in humans. Amino Acids, 50(1), 11-27.
Brewster, D. (1991). Metabolism of glyphosate in sprague-dawley rats: Tissue distribution, identification, and quantitation of glyphosate-derived materials following a single oral dose*1. Fundamental and Applied Toxicology, 17(1), 43-51.
Yamadera, W., Inagawa, K., Chiba, S., Bannai, M., Takahashi, M., & Nakayama, K. (2007). Glycine ingestion improves subjective sleep quality in human volunteers, correlating with polysomnographic changes: Effects of glycine on polysomnography. Sleep and Biological Rhythms, 5(2), 126-131.
Bannai, M., & Kawai, N. (n.d.). New therapeutic strategy for amino acid medicine: Glycine improves the quality of sleep. Journal of Pharmacological Sciences, 118(2), 145-148.
Zhang, Z., Zhao, M., Wang, J., Ding, Y., Dai, X., & Li, Y. (2011). Oral administration of skin gelatin isolated from chum salmon (oncorhynchus keta) enhances wound healing in diabetic rats. Marine Drugs, 9(5), 696-711.
Zhong, Z., Wheeler, M. D., Li, X., Froh, M., Schemmer, P., Yin, M., Bunzendaul, H., Bradford, B., & Lemasters, J. J. (2003). L-glycine: A novel antiinflammatory, immunomodulatory, and cytoprotective agent. Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care, 6(2), 229-240.
Glyphosate-tested. (n.d.). Healthy Traditions.
Yang, T., Doherty, J., Zhao, B., Kinchla, A. J., Clark, J. M., & He, L. (2017). Effectiveness of commercial and homemade washing agents in removing pesticide residues on and in apples. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 65(44), 9744-9752.
Paul, V., Ezekiel, R., & Pandey, R. (2016). Sprout suppression on potato: Need to look beyond cipc for more effective and safer alternatives. Journal of Food Science and Technology, 53(1), 1-18.
Lentza-Rizos, C., & Balokas, A. (2001). Residue levels of chlorpropham in individual tubers and composite samples of postharvest-treated potatoes. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 49(2), 710-714.
J. van Engelen. Pesticide residues in food 2000 : CHLORPROPHAM. Centre for Substances and Risk Assessment, National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, Netherlands.
Chlorpropham. EPA R.E.D Facts. October 1996
The Endocrine Society. Endocrine Facts and Figures: Thyroid. First Edition. 2015.
Michael T. Busch, Amy L. Dunn. Diseases of the Hematopoietic System. Musculoskeletal Key. July 2016.
Agricultural Marketing Service. Organic Certification and Accreditation. USDA
Coban FK, Ince S, Kucukkurt I, Demirel HH, Hazman O. Boron attenuates malathion-induced oxidative stress and acetylcholinesterase inhibition in rats. Drug and Chemical Toxicology. 2015;38(4):391-399.

Stefan Burns 11/29/19 Stefan Burns 11/29/19

Health Benefits of Panax Ginseng

Asian ginseng is one of the most popular herbal supplements in the world. Panax ginseng has been used for millennia in Eastern traditions as a medicinal herb for its health-giving properties. It’s proven to be safe, and modern scientific research has now proven many of it’s widely known health benefits such as reduced risk of cancer and a strengthened immune system.

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2021. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

You’ve probably heard of ginseng before, either American, Asian, or Chinese ginseng. Asian ginseng, also known as panax ginseng is one of the most popular herbal supplements in the world, and for good reason. This medicinal herb has been used for millennia in Eastern traditions for its health-giving properties. It’s proven to be safe, and modern scientific research has proven many of it’s already known health benefits such as reduced risk of cancer and a strengthened immune system. Read on to learn how you can incorporate panax ginseng into your wellness routine in order to improve your health!

What is Ginseng?

Raw ginseng root

To establish the health benefits of ginseng, it’s important to understand the plant genus.

Ginseng is a root plant found in temperate climates across the globe. There are three sub-types: Korean ginseng (P. Ginseng), Chinese ginseng (P. Notoginseng) and American ginseng (P. quinquefolius). All three types of ginseng are used medicinally. Korean ginseng is also known as panax ginseng, and this type of ginseng is the focus of this article.

Panax ginseng is the most thoroughly studied of the three types of ginseng, and therefore the safest in terms of dosing recommendations. American ginseng is relatively well-studied, and Chinese ginseng is far less common in both the environment and the medical literature. All three species of ginseng appear to have potent health benefits if taken appropriately, from reducing cancer risk to improving subjective well-being.

Ginseng reduces Inflammation and lowers risk of Cancer

Panax ginseng is a powerful antioxidant (1), especially after extraction and concentration of ginsenosides (the active ingredient). To accomplish this, the root is processed and the active components are extracted using ethanol. The other health effects, namely lower inflammation and reduced risk of cancer, appear to work downstream of it’s ability to increase all three main antioxidant enzymes (OD, glutathione peroxidase, and catalase). Antioxidants are important for human health because they reduce inflammation.

The process of oxidation (redox), where a chemical loses electrons, releases free radicals (hydrogen ions). Free radicals are highly reactive and can lead to chain reactions that may damage the cells of organisms. This is the root cause of chronic inflammation.

The study cited above used dermatitis patients as the trial group. Dermatitis is an inflammatory skin condition. Antioxidant products like ginseng have the potential to reduce symptoms for a wide range of inflammatory conditions, and also for conditions with inflammation as a secondary side effect.

Inflammation is also a main driver of cancer (2), and panax ginseng has been studied to notably reduce colorectal, ovarian, pancreatic (3), and overall cancer risk (4).

Ginseng strengthens the Immune System and lowers Blood Glucose

One of the best ways to test the immune-boosting qualities of a research compound is to test it on cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, and ginseng has been studied under these conditions and was shown to alleviate adverse affects from chemotherapy (5). Chemotherapy significantly inhibits immune function because it destroys many cells that are necessary for proper immune function. The study, which administered ginseng to cancer patients that received chemo treatment, found that the group taking ginseng had notably improved immune function once the treatment was completed.

Stop viruses with ginseng

Immune-boosting products like ginseng and elderberry aren’t only good for those with cancer, and it’s believed those beneficial effects from the ginseng can still be useful for preventative health. Year round or even just seasonally during the winter, or for those who get sick with the common cold or flu more frequently than normal, ginseng is a supplement to take for a trial run. These products are also typically known and recommended to people in fields of work that expose them to increased pathogens, like schoolteachers, doctors, or those in public service.

Ginseng has powerful immune regulating effects, and it also has the ability to beneficially assist the circulatory system. As you can see the postive effects of panax ginseng are wide ranging. By boosting the circulatory system, ginseng is able to lower blood glucose levels (6), for most a very good thing) an increase blood flow (7).

Ginseng improves Mood, promotes Calm, and enhances Sleep.

It’s been known for over one thousand years in Traditional Chinese Medicine that panax ginseng can improve mood in humans with mood disorders, but modern medicine is just now catching on to studying these more subjective health markers. Ginseng can be especially effective for those with depressive disorders since the product is a minor stimulant and a tonic. And even though ginseng is a mild stimulate, it helps bring about a sense of calmness (8).

Knowing panax ginseng helps with depression is worthwhile because it’s better to use natural medicine to solve health problems at their onset. This is important because mental health drugs tend to be some of the most addictive and laden with side effects. You never want to reduce your health to improve one other.

Panax ginseng not only improved general mental health, but also aided social functioning in those struggling with socializing. These issues are uniquely connected for each individual. Elderly Koreans with Alzheimers reduced their rate of cognitive decline with ginseng (9), and ginseng helps improve sleep quality (10), which everyone knows is vital to proper brain health and function.

Keep Ginseng in your Cupboard

When you’re more likely to get sick, periods of high stress, traveling, and to help improve your mood and well-being, ginseng is helpful to have on hand. Especially with a cold or flu, the sooner you can begin supplementing with panax ginseng, elderberry, and zinc the more symptoms will be damped and duration of the sickness will be reduced.

Ginseng can be taken daily safely for up to a few months. As a holistic health supplement, panax ginseng can be taken to improve health while factors like diet, exercise, sleep, and sun exposure are improved. Keep taking the below recommend dosages of ginseng until you feel better. For daily preventative health 200 mg once a day up to 3000 mg spread out for acute uses are safe. Store all supplements somewhere cool and dry and the ginseng supplement should stay good for a long time.

My Recommended Ginseng Supplement

There are two factors I consider when choosing a supplement brand: whether the company tests their products and whether the product is based on research. Illuminate Labs does both. They’re a supplement manufacturer that shares all of their test results on their website which is unheard of. They also share all of the medical research papers that went into their product formulation. The Illuminate Labs ginseng extract supplement is my favorite panax ginseng supplement it’s great knowing that what I use is safe and tested.

References

Hong CE, Lyu SY. Anti-inflammatory and Anti-oxidative Effects of Korean Red Ginseng Extract in Human Keratinocytes. Immune Netw. 2011;11(1):42-9.
Coussens LM, Werb Z. Inflammation and cancer. Nature. 2002;420(6917):860-7.
Yun TK, Choi SY. Preventive effect of ginseng intake against various human cancers: a case-control study on 1987 pairs. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 1995;4(4):401-8.
Yun TK, Zheng S, Choi SY, et al. Non-organ-specific preventive effect of long-term administration of Korean red ginseng extract on incidence of human cancers. J Med Food. 2010;13(3):489-94.
Cheng Lin. Ginseng alleviation of adverse effects from radiotherapy or chemother apy in liver cancer patients. Shanghai Cancer Hospital, Shanghai Medical University, Shanghai 200032. 1989-02
Luo JZ, Luo L. Ginseng on hyperglycemia: effects and mechanisms. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2009;6(4):423-7.
Jovanovski E, Jenkins A, Dias AG, et al. Effects of Korean red ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. Mayer) and its isolated ginsenosides and polysaccharides on arterial stiffness in healthy individuals. Am J Hypertens. 2010;23(5):469-72.
Reay JL, Scholey AB, Kennedy DO. Panax ginseng (G115) improves aspects of working memory performance and subjective ratings of calmness in healthy young adults. Hum Psychopharmacol. 2010;25(6):462-71.
Heo JH, Lee ST, Chu K, et al. An open-label trial of Korean red ginseng as an adjuvant treatment for cognitive impairment in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Eur J Neurol. 2008;15(8):865-8.
Kitaoka K, Uchida K, Okamoto N, et al. Fermented ginseng improves the first-night effect in humans. Sleep. 2009;32(3):413-21.

Stefan Burns 10/24/19 Stefan Burns 10/24/19

Improve Digestion in Three Steps

If you suffer from gastrointestinal issues, then careful attention needs to be paid to your meals and activities around meal time. With a simple three step method, you can radically improve your digestion and make progress in reclaiming your gut health.

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated July 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

The old adage goes “You are what you eat”, and few times have truer statements been made. And humans have known this to be true for thousands of years. Millennia ago, Hippocrates, Greek physician and the “Father of Medicine” said:

“Let food be thy medicine, let medicine be thy food”

— Hippocrates

This statement, so simple encapsulates so much truth to it. Wellness truths like this, so simple and obvious, have continually been met with skepticism and disbelief over time. In fact, much of the food industry at large endeavors to prove these truths false through new food product iterations such as “protein” candy bars, meal replacement shakes, and more ultra processed foods created from highly processed powders and syrups.

Hippocrates is also famously quoted with the following:

“All disease begins in the gut”

— Hippocrates

If you are what you eat, and if all disease begins in the gut, then it follows that the food you eat, and how you digest it, can have a huge impact on whether you have a healthy or diseased mind, body, and soul.

Whether you follow a diet such as primal, paleo, Whole30, keto, vegan, or a combination, what’s important overall is eating a diet full of whole, unprocessed foods and learning and understanding what foods work and don’t work for your body in order to achieve optimal health. Changing your dietary mindset to be inclusive of all foods and to be mindful of what you eat, is the true path towards effortless health. Once dietary mindfulness is developed, it’ll be common sense to buy foods of the highest quality, which will further improve your health.

A lot of people know what a healthy diet should be like, some people understand, and a few have earned true dietary wisdom by acting on this knowledge. Even less so than diet, there is a lack of understand for the second part of the equation, digestion.

Just as you can choose healthy foods, there are also choices that can be made which impact your digestion, for better or worse. Luckily, sticking to a healthy diet consistently is the hardest part of this two part equation, and with just a little conscientiousness, you can guide and assist your bodies digestive system to smoothly and effectively break down and assimilate everything you’ve eaten.

In fact, you can get started in improving your digestion in three easy steps, one after the other! Make an effort to do these three tips for each meal, but even starting off, implementing these 3 easy digestion hacks for just your smallest meal of the day will have a noticeable impact on everything from your gut health & regularity to energy levels & mood. By following these three steps, you’ll reduce or eliminate painful bloating, uncomfortable gas, and more.

Eat your Meals with Chopsticks for Better Digestion

Before you ask...yes, chopsticks!

Around the world, just as many people use chopsticks daily as fork & knife users, around 2.5 billion. And in the countries where chopstick use is predominant, such as Japan, health outcomes are typically better than their western counterparts (1). This isn’t a permanent suggestion, but there is a really great lesson to be learned here.

The goal of this first digestion improving tip is to improve your mindfulness during meals. Few things will make you slow down and focus on your meal more than swapping out your typical utensils for chopsticks. If you already use chopsticks for the majority of your meals, fantastic, you’re ahead of the pack.

With chopsticks, especially for new users, you’ll eat slower, and those who eat slower are much less likely to be obese than those who eat quickly (2). Why? Well this is due to a multitude of factors. Eating slower you’ll:

End up full faster, reducing overall calories consumed.
Chew more, increasing digestive enzymes and decreasing food particle size, making digestion easier.
Be more attuned to your body and the feedback it's giving you, whether that’s positive or negative.
Reduce your stress, eating in a relaxed parasympathetic state (which improves digestion) rather than a fight-or-flight sympathetic state.

An additional plus is the foods you can easily eat with chopsticks tend to land on the healthier side of things. Have you ever seen a person eat junk food with chopsticks?

A healthier meal consumed more slowly in a less stressful state and chewed (aka predigested) more can only be considered a win. And if you have frequent gut problems such as gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, or worse, eating slower will only improve upon your current digestive situation.

Try eating with chopsticks for a week! You have nothing to lose. In fact, if you walk away from it all at the end unconvinced, at the very least you’ll be better at eating with chopsticks than you were when you started. With new found chopstick prowess, Chinese stir-fries, Korean BBQ, and Japanese sushi will no longer be meals out of reach, literally!

Eat your Vegetables Last for Better Digestion

First, if you’re not already eating vegetables, start now. Vegetables are full of fiber, micronutrients, and phytochemicals. The health benefits are too numerous to list here. Nine cups of vegetables and fruits daily is encouraged.

Second, eat your vegetables last.

Now if you’re not eating any vegetables at all to begin with, following the conventional wisdom of eating some vegetables at the beginning of your meal isn’t bad advice. Changing any bad dietary habits you have is most important, and eating vegetables overall is more important than timing your vegetable intake. With that said, if it makes no difference to your overall vegetable intake, there are serious benefits to eating your vegetables last.

First, you won’t eat dessert as often. Having just finished a meal followed by a salad or a head of broccoli, you probably won’t be reaching for the cookies or ice cream. You’ll already be comfortably full from the vegetable fiber!

And it’s the fiber that’s important. Considering we ate this meal slower and more mindfully, the food will be better “layered” and predigested from the start. Take the following typical meal format:

Carbs → Proteins & Fats → Micronutrients & Fiber

Note - A great example for the above would be a meal of rice, protein, and zucchini.

Carbs are quick and easy to digest, and eating them first allows your body to quickly break down and use the carbs for energy instead of fat storage. Proteins and fats follow, with protein being used for tissue repair and muscle gain, and fats being used for various cellular structures and as a steadier, longer lasting energy source. Lastly vegetables provide your body ample micronutrients and very importantly, fiber for your microbiome. Buy organic non-gmo (or biodynamic) vegetables to ensure your pesticide exposure is as minimal as possible.

The microbiome is so important when it comes to digestion and overall health (3). After your stomach empties from your last meal, you begin to enter a state of fasting. If you only highly processed foods, your microbiome will be starving for a fresh source of energy in a couples hours time. By providing your microbiome tough vegetable fiber to digest in-between meals, overtime you create an evolutionary pressure to improve microbiome diversity while preferentially selecting for the good gut bacteria (4). If you only provide your microbiome carbs and fats with no fiber, after that meal is quickly digested you’ll start to experience cravings for another meal, usually junkier than the last. As most people know but few understand, that’s a state of stomach and mind known as being “hangry”, and it’s governed by the microbiome’s ability to influence your mood via your hormone system (5). Plus, the flavonoids from the colorful vegetables and fruits like elderberry will help heal the tight junctions of the digestive system, stopping microbes from entering into the blood steam improving gut and immune health.

To quickly put an end to a cranky microbiome, fasting can be used to reset the digestive system, or for a slower approach eat your veggies last. Provide your microbiome a snack they can chew on in-between meals, in the process stabilizing your digestion and energy levels.

Your microbiome will thank you and your waistline will thank you as your wellness improves.

Go for a Walk after Eating for Better Digestion

After you’ve eaten your meal with chopsticks, reserving a heaping serving of vegetables for last, you’re ready to implement the final part of this three-step digestion hack, walking.

Walking at a leisurely pace after a meal, undoubtedly an enjoyable and healthy activity in and of itself, has also been shown to improve your digestion and overall response to food. 15 minutes of walking after a meal will lower your blood sugar more than a full hour of walking before a meal (6), and walking also increases the rate of gastric emptying (7), meaning you’ve digested your food better. In fact, walking for just 15 minutes after a meal will improve your blood glucose levels for over 24 hours (8).

Movement of the body is so important for your health and wellness, and walking is one of the easiest & lowest impact ways to incorporate movement into your daily lifestyle. Paired after a meal and it’s a great way to breathe some fresh air outdoors, get grounded, connect with your body, and maintain that parasympathetic stress-free state that your mindfully created by first eating your meal slowly with chopsticks.

There you have it, try it out for a month! Make a habit of incorporating these three digestion hacks into your daily routine and take notes as to how you feel.

Eat Fermented Foods for Better Digestion

As a fourth recommended tip, discover the secrets of kombucha. Yes, that wonderful lightly fizzy drink, kombucha is fermented tea, each batch home to a “mother”. The mother is a unique microbiome colony that created the fermentation (0.5% ABV) in the tea..

The secret to kombucha is that you drink it after a meal. Not a whole bottle, but a small amount as a refresher. A bit of kombucha throughout the day after meals is ideal. Now instead of just having eaten a meal, which can range from raw to pasteurized in microbial diversity, kombucha “seeds” each meal it is drinken with. The residual sugar in the tea provides a bolus dose of easy sugar energy for the mother and the preexisting microbiome in your digestive system to get started in breaking down the main meal. This is one of the few times having added sugar in the diet is OKAY.

If you have kombucha or other fermented foods regularly, the greeting of the fermented microbiome to your existing microbiome is a smooth meeting. Eating a varied diet full of new healthy foods and drinking/eating fermented foods is the key to a successful diet.

My favorite brand of kombucha is from GT’s Living Food. Drink a variety to always be exposed to new mothers and for fun flavors! Mystic Mango, Guava Goddess, and Cosmic Cranberry are the best.

You might be thinking, no way can these three simple steps and kombucha radically change how I digest my food, improving my mood and energy levels while also reducing the unpleasant effects of bloating and more.

Well, sometimes the simplest of things can lead to the biggest changes and results in ones life. Likewise these three digestion tips are simple in practice, and used together, powerful in their effect. “All diseases begin in the gut”, and to live life to your fullest healthiest and happiest, taking care of your gut means taking care of you.

Ready to Heal Your Gut?

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Holistic Gut Health Guide eBook

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Together the digestive system and microbiome are the foundation of health from which everything else is dependent on.

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References:

World Health Organization, Japan Health Statistics
Hurst Y, Fukuda H. Effects of changes in eating speed on obesity in patients with diabetes: a secondary analysis of longitudinal health check-up data. BMJ Open. 2018;8(1):e019589.
Makki K, Deehan EC, Walter J, Bäckhed F. The Impact of Dietary Fiber on Gut Microbiota in Host Health and Disease. Cell Host Microbe. 2018;23(6):705-715.
Menni C, Jackson MA, Pallister T, Steves CJ, Spector TD, Valdes AM. Gut microbiome diversity and high-fibre intake are related to lower long-term weight gain. Int J Obes (Lond). 2017;41(7):1099-1105.
Smithsonian Magazine, Your Gut Bacteria May Be Controlling Your Appetite, Brian Handwerk November 24, 2015
Colberg SR, Zarrabi L, Bennington L, et al. Postprandial walking is better for lowering the glycemic effect of dinner than pre-dinner exercise in type 2 diabetic individuals. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2009;10(6):394-7.
Franke A, Harder H, Orth AK, Zitzmann S, Singer MV. Postprandial walking but not consumption of alcoholic digestifs or espresso accelerates gastric emptying in healthy volunteers. J Gastrointestin Liver Dis. 2008;17(1):27-31.
Loretta DiPietro, Andrei Gribok, Michelle S. Stevens, Larry F. Hamm, William Rumpler. Three 15-min Bouts of Moderate Postmeal Walking Significantly Improves 24-h Glycemic Control in Older People at Risk for Impaired Glucose Tolerance. Diabetes Care 2013 Jun; DC_130084.

Stefan Burns 9/9/19 Stefan Burns 9/9/19

Five Wellness Habits to Follow

Life moves fast, and when responsibilities and stress begin to pile up, bad habits can form which make the situation worse. While it takes time to create the wellness lifestyle you desire, you can speed up the process and reduce your stress in the process by following these five simple wellness habits.

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2021. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

Depending on your current lifestyle, life can move fast, with responsibilities and stress pilling up. When this happens, unhealthy habits are created and used as coping mechanisms which only serve to make things worse. Once habits are formed, it can be hard to get out of those unhealthy routines. Humans are creatures of habit - and that isn't necessarily a bad thing! If mindfulness throughout the creation of a new habit, we can let our unconscious actions better serve our health and wellness.

To make sure that the changes you want to make become healthy habits that don’t cut into your free time or morph into an added stress, start with the basics. The goal is to make life less stressful, and to aid you in the journey here are five easy-to-follow habits to speed your growth into a healthier you!

Drink More Water

Everyone knows the importance of drinking water for optimal health, but 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. Dehydration causes fatigue, lead to heat exhaustion, or even cause death in extreme cases. When you keep your body in a state of chronic dehydration, all the major systems of the body are stressed to critical levels. If you were hoping to find a magic wellness potion that will change your life forever, water is the closest thing you've got! Below is a small slice of how water intake impacts your health:

Drinking enough water improves mood, aids concentration, and promotes a clarity of mind.
The detoxification system of the body, led by the kidneys and liver, uses water to filter and flush out toxins through sweat, urine, and feces.
Water is absolutely vital for skin health, and remember the skin is the largest organ of the body!
Water aids in digestion, improving and stabilizing intestinal motility.
Adequate water intake can balance blood pressure to healthy levels by lowering or raising it.

“Water is the foundation of all life as we know it”

If you’ve never made a habit to drink pure water consistently and in adequate volume, then you’ve been missing out of a whole new level of health and wellness. To remedy that, make it a habit to drink water at certain times of day. For instance, have 16 - 32 oz of filtered water everyday right when you wake up. Pairing water intake to events like waking up, finishing work, or before a meal is a good way to ensure you drink the recommended 1 gallon (4 liters) of water per day. There are many ways to make sure you're staying hydrated throughout the day, brainstorm what works for your current lifestyle, so even if you're busy, you’re well hydrated and your fluid intake isn’t a stress factor.

Incorporate Movement into your Life

If you don't have time everyday to exercise or go for a long walk, that doesn't mean you can't move! By squeezing in some movement in-between your regular activities, you can improve your energy levels while laying the foundation for a more structured exercise routine.

If you already work, small bouts of movement done consistently throughout your day will accelerate your fitness goals.

Burn some calories, make small health improvements, and all without a trip to the gym. That’s a win-win and a textbook example of a healthy habit.

To start incorporating more movement into your everyday life, choose exercises you can do quickly and without any equipment. Connect those simple exercises to activities you do often, and eventually that daily task acts as a movement trigger, becoming a habit.

Movement Habits to Follow

Before or after you use the restroom, do 15 squats.
If you're reading a long email or article, hold your arms up high above your head as you're reading and stretch a bit. Don’t be surprised by how quickly your shoulders start to work!
If you watch TV, use the natural breaks to exercise! If you're watching cable, perform sit-ups during the commercial breaks. If you're watching a streaming service like Netflix, do a 1-minute plank or push-ups a couple short of failure in-between episodes.
While heating up food, do some stretching! Quad and hamstring stretches are particularly accessible and can be done anywhere.
Perform a wall sit while brushing your teeth! The guideline for oral health is to brush your teeth for 2 minutes; work your way towards holding the wall sit for the entire duration.
If you're walking up stairs, do 15 calf raises from a step when you get to the top of the flight. The step lets you get a full range of motion, and really gets the calves burning. Practice your balance on the bottom step.

For a more structured exercise routine calisthenics is highly recommended as zero equipment is required, and calisthenics can be performed by all ages. Calisthenics is easy to scale to the individual; if you don’t know how to start, follow a simple calisthenics routine.

Plan Your Meals

Meal-prepping is a game changer, not only for your finances, but also for your diet and time management.

If you have a hectic schedule, once or twice a week, plan out your lunch and dinners for that period of time. Knowing exactly what to shop for while you're at the grocery store keeps your trips short and effective, and keeps you from wasting money on impulse food purchases, which might be more unhealthy or go unused. Cooking ahead of time and having a prepared lunch means you'll consistently be eating healthier, nor will you misuse money or time ordering out. Planning ahead on what to eat for dinner saves you time, money, and increases your schedule flexibility. If a time crunch arises, a healthy meal has been prepared and is ready to go.

For some, meal prepping is the end destination. Personally I like cooking my meals fresh everyday, but meal prepping was certainly a very valuable step on the way towards fully intuitive healthy eating. make sure when meal prepping that you store your food in glass containers to avoid exposing yourself to endocrine disruptors like phthalates, BPA/BPS/BPF.

Eat More Vegetables

As you're preparing your meals, make it a habit to include a serving or two of vegetables with every container. You've already made the decision to eat healthier, and eating more vegetables is universally recognized as one of the best ways to accomplish that goal. 7-9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day should be your target, and it's easy to accomplish that since if meals are pre-made and ready to go. As an added benefit, changing the vegetable side dish to a meal helps keep every lunch and dinner interesting, so you can prepare your carbs and protein in bulk and then add fresh vegetables with every meal. To prepare veggies fresh really quickly and healthily, use an air fryer. Lightly cooking broccoli, cauliflower, or squash in an airfryer only takes 5-10 minutes and doesn’t require the use of any oils.

Pack Healthy Snacks

It's okay to get hungry between meals, and if energy levels hit a slump, having a healthy snack on hand can support your health and wellness goals by keeping you aware from tempting junk food. Fruits like an orange or apple contain satiating fiber, or a granola mix with nuts and seeds can help improve your fat metabolism.

Practice Mindfulness

Taking a few moments for yourself every day, breathing, and practicing mindfulness is a great way to reduce stress, prevent burnout, and lead to a healthier happier life.

When and how you want to use your time is up to you, but make a habit of spending some me time to yourself at least once a day. Spending time in nature and grounding is of the best things you can do everyday for your mental health, and can reduce feelings of anxiety, loneliness, and depression.

In the morning, this "Me time" could be taking a few extra moments after waking up to stretch, do your daily hygiene, and prepare a delicious breakfast. At work, it could mean pausing from an assignment to step outside and take ten deep breaths of fresh air. Later in the evening a walk of any length clears and calms the mind while also incorporating more movement into your daily routine.

All these recommendations seem like common sense, but when caught in the rat race it takes a conscientious effort to make time for yourself and make wellness a priority in your life. Once mindfulness habits are set, you’ll be amazed by how much less stress you have in your life, how much calmer you are, and how much more focused and productive you’ve become!

Sleep a Full Eight Hours

When responsibilities pile up and there is so much to do, it's convenient to think that getting a couple hours less sleep per night will be OKAY. well, It isn't. The eight hours of rest you should be getting every night is the time when the mind and body heal and restore.

““Our bodies used long periods of sleep to restore and rejuvenate, to repair tissues, grow muscle, prune synapses, and synthesize hormones.””

Sleep is when the brain takes the information from the previous day, parses it, and turns it into long term memories. It may seem like staying up to finish work is the better option, but 9 times out of 10 you're better off getting a good night's rest and coming back to finish your work in the morning. Quality sleep is crucial to productivity and overall happiness.

If you have trouble establishing a set bedtime, set an alarm an hour before your desired bedtime and begin your bedtime routine. Turn down the lights, place your phone on the charger, brush your teeth, and do all the things you want to do in order to wake up the next morning bright and alert. Be conscientious of your circadian rhythm and let the cycle of the sun guide your morning, afternoon, and evening activities. Plan your bedtime slightly earlier than the eight hours of sleep you need, that way in case it takes a while to fall asleep, you still get eight quality hours of sleep per night.

Improving your sleep is one of the best things you can do for your health and wellness, and it’s really quite easy with the creation of some habits and a little discipline.

Five Habits to Healthy

There you have it, five wellness strategies to help you live a happier, healthier, and more appreciative life. Be patient during the process and start by adding one new habit at a time, and as one becomes a permanent habit, add another in. There is no first place winner as it relates to your wellness journey, everyone’s life if unique and takes a different path. The best way to see long term success is with small consistent steps forward which result in accelerating forward progress.

Stefan Burns 4/30/19 Stefan Burns 4/30/19

Use Fasting to Reset the Digestive System

Fasting is a powerful tool which can be used to hit the reset button on an out-of-control microbiome. Fasting also provides the digestive system a chance to rest and heal. A 48 hour fast is the quickest method possible for favorably altering the microbiome and healing the gut, and its easier done than you think.

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter! Stefan Burns YouTube.

Fasting for an extended length of time can quickly heal the gut, balance the microbiome, and improve digestion, and as a result fasting can be used to help overcome many health problems such as obesity, inflammatory diseases and conditions, a malfunctioning metabolism, and poor sleep.

Abstaining from food for a significant period of time heals the lining of the digestive system, reduces stress on the immune system, and resets the microbiome by increasing symbiotic microorganism diversity while simultaneously eliminating sugar-loving and disease-causing pathogens through nutrient starvation.

Performing a 1 to 2 day fast after consuming a nutrient dense and fiber-rich meal is a powerful method of healing not only the digestive system but can be used to correct many common health and wellness ailments.

When the digestive system is functioning properly and the microbiome living within is healthy the metabolism is increased and stabilized which provides abundant consistent energy, sleep is deep and restful, bathroom visits are dependable, skin clears up, and a thin waist line becomes possible. Through it’s selective evolutionary pressures on the microbiome (one of the main production centers of neurotransmitters in the body) fasting also has the capability of improving mental health. A healthy gut produces the neurotransmitters we need for proper cognitive function at the right ratios required for optimal wellness. Fasting therefore can be used to help with depression, anxiety, and even neurodegenerative mental disorders.

In this article we discuss the following:

How to improve gut health with fasting and 48-hour fasting
What microorganisms inhabit the gut and characteristics of an unhealthy microbiome
Tissues of the digestive system
How drinking herbal teas while fasting helps
A 48-hour fast action plan
Practicing gut health mindfulness

With proper planning and the right structure, a 48-hour fast is a short enough time period to be accomplished without great stress and is a great way to experience all the amazing benefits of fasting for yourself.

If you’re completely new to fasting, I recommend you read this article and my article titled Fasting for Beginners. After reading both you’ll have a good handle on what fasting is, how it is beneficial to health, and how to perform it safely. In addition to these resources, Chapter 8 of the Holistic Gut Health Guide is entirely devoted to fasting and how it can be used to improve gut health.

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Improve Gut Health with Fasting

Restoring the digestive system back to a state of normal functioning will liberate you of digestive woes everyone has experienced at some point, which include brutal stomach aches, intense bloating, waves of nausea, or even running-to-the-bathroom trips. Poor gut health places a huge energy drain not only on health but on life as a whole as it’s hard to deal with anything else when dealing with a gut flareup.

From my personal experience in healing my gut, I have found fasting to be an absolute gamechanger and the quickest way to heal an ailing digestive system. Once all the organs of the digestive system are healed and functioning normally, fasting does not need to be done as frequently.

Healing my gut was a ten year health journey that led me to research the cutting edge of metabolic and microbiome science as well as study the ancient wisdom of herbalism. Tempered with ample personal experience, I discovered that most people need to reexamine their relationship with food, not only what they eat, but when and how often they eat. The body has two metabolic operating systems which are vastly different in how they function; eating places you into an anabolic state of growth and inflammation, whereas fasting places you into a catabolic state or repair and healing. Both are useful and necessary states of the body but they must stay in balance to one another.

Changing the food you eat doesn’t matter much if fundamentally the reason why you’re experiencing any number of health problems is because the body needs to go catabolic in order to heal and repair at a cellular level. Until then, staying anabolic will only exacerbate any health issues that exist. Only by going catabolic and by spending sufficient sufficient time catabolic in the protective state of cellular cleanup and repair known as autophagy will certain health issues resolve and then a more normal eating schedule can be resumed.

Making the changes necessary to incorporate fasting into your everyday life is far less risky than doing nothing at all. Never letting anabolism and catabolism enter into unbalanced territory is the real key to staying healthy and fit over the long term, and I’ve developed a simple dietary framework known as the FoodFast Method to make living this balanced lifestyle easy. The FoodFast Method teaches you when it’s best to eat and when it’s best not to eat, and it also offers guidance on what foods are best in terms of nutrition, gut health, and the microbiome.

The 48 Hour Fast

The first reaction many people have to the suggestion of a two day fast is “You’re telling me I can’t eat for 48 hours? I won’t do that, it’s crazy!”

In western culture fasting is rarely done, and going without food for more than a few hours is uncommon. If unaccustomed to fasting, long lengths of time away from food leave most with stomach convulsions, intense hunger, and maybe a side dish of hangry.

It’s best to ease into new health modalities. whether it be fasting, keto, vegetarian, etc. Going all in often leads to going all out shortly later, so my advice is if you’re completely new to fasting, then completing 2-3 introductory 24-hour fasts is recommended over starting right off with a 48-hour fast. A 24-hour fast is logistically and psychologically much easier to complete successfully, will help reset and heal the gut noticeably, and will provide you valuable experience on how to identify and control food cravings. Now that my gut is healthy, a 24 hour fast is my favorite way of gently nudging my gut health back to balance if disrupted for some reason.

If you are ready for a full 48 hour fast, the process is simple. You don’t consume any calories from food or drinks for 48 hours. Water of course is allowed, as are natural zero calories beverages such as black coffee or tea. Using artificial sugars are a strict no-go, more on that below. I recommend only drinking pure spring water during fasts as natural electrolytes will be present without the chemical contamination that tap water has. Drinking tea is also okay during a fast and in many ways is actually beneficial. For those with inefficient metabolisms, drinking green tea while fasting is a very effective way to reduce appetite while increasing the metabolism of body fat. Green tea fasting is the most powerful form of fasting that i’ve discovered. Herbal teas are also very useful, for example dandelion and chamomile are herbs both great at normalizing digestive function and a 1:1 herbal tea blend of dandelion and chamomile is a great way to expedite the gut healing process during a fast. More on that below.

I recommend starting fasts 24 hours or longer after a 6 pm dinner. With this schedule, the first 10-14 hours will be easily accomplished with a full stomach during the evening and then during sleep. Breakfast is easy to skip if one drinks plenty of water and keeps moving, and skipping breakfast is something everyone has done before. It’s during the afternoon when the real challenge of having not eaten appears, as it’s a natural lazy point in the day. For a 24 hour or longer fast, a quick walk, 15 minute nap, or cup of green tea fixes any dip in energy experienced.

If you’re performing hard mental or physical work during a fast it will be more difficult as energy demands will be higher. In this context a fast is not recommended unless safeguards are put in place and fat metabolism is already strong and well established. Fasting is a profound healing tool, but in its own way it is a unique stressor to the body, especially if never experienced before. Respect the process and don’t overutilize your energy reserves. One thing that fasting teaches is how to balance the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Periods of time spent in both sympathetic (go go go activity) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) states are needed for optimal wellness. Fasting is a great tool to use to help deeply relax.

With a fast that starts at 6 pm if lunch is eaten at noon the next day then that marks the end of a 18-hour intermittent fast. Waiting to eat until dinner at 6 pm would be a 24 hour fast or the halfway point for a 48-hour fast. At 24 hours into a fast the body is burning body fat for energy while extracting the final nutrients available from the digestive system. The quality of the last meal eaten is very important for this reason.

After 24-hours energy levels may begin to dip. Others report experiencing a surge in energy due to their unique physiology. To be successful in fasting for a full two days, cruise control must be maintained. On day 2 the goal is to avoid the traffic jams of life, simply skipping breakfast and lunch again, relaxing when possible, and eating your first refeed meal at 6 pm for dinner. Staying grounded in the present moment is they key to successfully completing a fast and it’s all worth it in the end because you’ll feel significantly better and also because the refeed meal will be one of the best of your life.

By the end of a 48-hour fast there should very little to nothing left in your gut. No fresh food means the microbiome has to scavenge and work extra hard to survive in a low resource environment. Fasting has all these amazing health benefits partly because of the selective evolutionary pressure it applies to the microbiome. Microorganisms that depend on sugar die off while hardier microorganisms that can process more difficult nutrients like fiber survive in greater proportions. There are many ways to cleanse the microbiome, and fasting is one of the easiest and most powerful.

What Microorganisms Inhabit the Gut?

There are three types of organisms that make up the microbiome: symbiotic, commensal, and pathogenic. Pathobionts are a subsection of commensal organisms which lean pathogenic.

Symbiotic microbes work with us, and the relationship between host (us) and microbe is beneficial to both parties. Symbiotic microbes will provide nutrients and/or energy in exchange for shelter and food. The microbes which primarily digest indigestible fiber are symbiotic, in the process releasing short chain fatty acids in the colon for our metabolic use. Symbiotic microorganisms also help by breaking down nutrients into pieces small enough to be transported into the body across the gut-blood barrier. The cellular mechanisms of the body are unable to transport and use nutrients that haven’t been broken down sufficiently, so microorganisms that assist in fully digesting food down to the smallest parts possible is advantageous to the host.
Commensal microbes coexist with us without harming us. They’re like your friendly neighbors you never talk too. They assist in the breakdown of food but more for their benefit than yours. The issue with commensal microbes is when they start to overpopulate the small intestine, a condition known as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), which has many health complications such as gas and inconsistent gut motility. Additionally, when commensal microorganisms reach populations that are too large, they begin out-competing helpful microorganisms though the power of numbers, reducing the nutrients you uptake while further growing their population in size. If this trend isn’t stopped, commensal microorganisms can evolve into pathobionts.
Pathobionts are commensal organism that can cause harm under certain circumstances. A good example of commensal that turn into pathobionts are those who form biofilm colonies. Biofilms are communities of microorganisms that are difficult to dislodge due to the protections they have been built up around them. Biofilms have a hard time forming on mucous layers, which is one reason why sufficient and consistent digestive mucous production is important, and if mucous coatings are thin then pathobionts will form biofilms directly on the surface of human epithelial cells, causing inflammation and a strong immune response. The immune system has a difficult time breaking apart biofilms as they typically lie outside the body and in the digestive system. As a defense mechanism biofilms that are disrupted release harmful chemicals. Pathobiont biofilms are hard to readily identify and treat, but are usually a contributing factor in gut health problems, especially unexpected gut health flare-ups.
Pathogenic microbes are harmful to health. When their populations are low, their detrimental effects on health are negligible, and the immune system keeps them actively under check, but when the gut is inflamed and epithelial tight-junctions are eroded and unhealthy processed foods are the norm, then the perfect environment for pathogenic microbes is created. Pathogenic microbes aren’t content gnawing on a thread of fiber, they seek out quick energy, and under the conditions of a fast when energy is scarce, pathogenic bacteria are the first to go. This die-off reaction can cause symptoms like fatigue, headache, and stomach pain, and this is something to be aware of when performing fasts longer than 24 hours. Selecting against pathogenic microbes is highly desirable for long term health and wellness, and if a large pathogenic microorganism population exists in the gut, a die off reaction will occur during fasting which may cause symptoms. During a fast keeping the kidneys and liver stress free by limiting the chemicals or medications that are used is best (examples being alcohol, NSAIDS, or prescription drugs).

An Unhealthy Microbiome

With an unhealthy gut, beneficial microorganisms are in short supply, commensal populations are large and unruly, and pathogenic microorganisms exist unchallenged. This type of microbiome is one that preferentially craves sweets, fried foods, and excess salt, and after having its demands met produces metabolic waste products known as endotoxins that leads to symptoms of brain fog, unstable energy levels, and fat gain.

The pathogens that contribute to you feeling awful are not helpful in any way (besides bringing awareness to the problem that exists), and a primary objective in transitioning from a diseased digestive system to healthy gut is to restore the microbiome to a state of symbiotic balance. Fasting is effective at doing this as fasts longer than 24 hours eliminate microbial overgrowth and assist in the removal of biofilms as protective mucous layers are restored. A 48-hour fast will wipe out a lot of pathogenic microorganisms, and if you don’t feel them what they need afterwards then their populations will stay low. With reduced nutrients available some of the symbiotic microorganisms will not survive either (we’re talking about trillions of microorganisms dying), but with a healthy refeed meal symbiotic microorganism populations quickly rebound and will have evolved to be more resilient to future periods of resource scarcity.

After a few 24 and 48-hour fasts with healthy eating in-between the composition of the microbiome will be radically different and the digestive system will have healed tremendously. The secret with fasting is to be extremely discretionary with what enters into the body. Limiting intake to just water (and herbal teas), air, and sunshine makes for the best effect. No diet soda, no chewing gum, and limit the black coffee.

Now let’s discuss artificial sugars. Artificial sugars have an undesirable effect on your microbiome by eroding mucosal linings. Artificial sugars reach the deep recesses of the gut by eroding protective viscoelastic mucus lining, creating an energy-rich pathway for commensal and pathogenic microorganisms to get into direct contact with now unprotected epithelial cells. Once directly on these cell membranes pathobionts create their biofilm strongholds. Biofilms are resistant to probiotic and antibiotic treatments and are often the source of unexplainable reoccurring gut problems. Pathobiont biofilms are very tough to dislodge, and the double whammy of consuming artificial sugars is that they are toxic to many other microorganisms. For these reasons never consume artificial sugars, especially during a fast.

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Cells of the Digestive System

Epithelium cells are the barrier of the digestive system that separate the contents of the gut from the bloodstream. Epithelium cells are on the front line every minute, allowing nutrients to pass through them to enter the bloodstream but blocking entry to microorganisms, nutrients too large for easy transport, or toxins.

If all things are functioning normally the epithelium regenerates completely every 5 days. Therefore, 20% of the epithelium is regenerated daily. When fasting, autophagy (cellular cleanup and repair) increases and healthy cell turnover of the intestinal epithelium quickens now that it is no longer being setback by the active digestion of food.

A two day fast is enough time for about 40% or more of the epithelium to completely regenerate in a low-inflammation environment.

The human digestive tract

When the digestive barrier and mucosal lining are fully regenerated and the tight-junctions between cells are strong, then when normal inflammation from digestive returns, the responsibilities of the immune system are decreased compared to when excess inflammation is present. With greatly reduced numbers of microorganism invaders and undigested food particles entering into the blood stream, the immune system can regenerate after a period of overactivity and stress, taking the time it needs to heal. The immune system requires certain components in sufficient amounts to function properly, and micronutrients such as zinc, vitamin D, and vitamin C are critically important for normal immune function. When under stress, the greater demands of the immune system can cause nutrient deficiencies to occur which then place stress on other areas of the body. Healing the digestive system, diversifying the microbiome, and improving diet can help remediate or even eliminate diseases of the immune system.

Fasting for Auto-Immune Diseases

For those who suffer from auto-immune issues, fasting can be a major breakthrough in recovering from their condition. The digestive system is the main patrol ground of the immune system, it’s where the most interactions between the human body and the outside world occur on the microscopic level. A cross-wired immune system that attacks itself is increasingly being found to result from a dysfunctional and diseased gut environment. Auto-immunity and the microbiome are intricately linked.

After thousands of years of gut health education from wise ancients like Greek philosopher Hippocrates, the collective consciousness is now beginning to understand the huge importance of the digestive system for overall health and wellness.

Simultaneously the importance of the microbiome is being better understood by the general public. The impact of the microbiome passed from mother to child during birth has lifelong health implications. A healthy birth from a healthy mom results in a healthy baby and future adult. If microbiome inoculation that occurs during birthing is disrupted, such as during a caesarian section, then that child is more likely to experience a range of undesirable health outcomes such as asthma, auto-immunes, troublesome weight-gain, and more. Thankfully the microbiome is simply a collection of microorganisms that is relatively easy to manipulate once you have the tools to do so. Fasting is the most powerful of those microbiome altering tools, and therefore it’s also one of the most powerful tools for people looking for relief from their auto-immune issues.

Autophagy & Apoptosis

We’ve touched on autophagy already and now we’ll go more in-depth.

Autophagy is the protective state that the body goes into when nutrients are scarce. Autophagy increases the recycling of malfunctioning cellular components, helps old cells die peacefully, and promotes the regeneration of new cells in their place. The longer a fast goes for and the scarcer nutrients become, the deeper into autophagy the body goes. 16 hour intermittent fasting boosts autophagic processes throughout the body noticeably, whereas 24-72 hour fasts increase autophagy to a much greater degree, and for an even more profound regenerative healing effect, fasting for a week or longer can work miracles. Many “incurable” diseases and severe auto-immune issues have been cured through multi-week fasts under medical supervision at fasting clinics worldwide.

Autophagy is also incredibly important in the fight against cancer. Cancer cannot be cured until the autophagic system can be deployed to destroy the cancer cells plaguing the body. In the case of cancer, fasting-induced autophagy has been shown to protect healthy cells from chemotherapy treatments while increasing the effectiveness of the chemotherapy on cancer cells.

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Autophagy is clearly a very useful process that thankfully is encoded into human DNA. It has to, we wouldn’t be able to live otherwise because without rate limiters reactions in the body would spiral out of control and life simply wouldn’t be able to sustain itself.

Autophagy is difficult in its own way though. Autophagy increases as available nutrients and energy decreases. To go into autophagy means to dive into nutrient and energy scarcity. If purposefully utilizing the power of autophagy for deep cellular healing and renewal, be mindful and listen to the needs of your body. Recording how you feel and any observations you make in a health journal is highly recommended.

If you want to learn more about extended-length fasting, I highly recommend you watch an amazing documentary, The Science of Fasting.

Drink Herbal Teas while Fasting

As touched on earlier, one way to greatly increase the efficacy and safety of fasting is to drinking herbal teas throughout the fast. This can be green tea, or herbal teas like a 1:1:1 blend of dandelion root, chamomile flowers, and peppermint leaves.

Green Tea for Fasting

Green tea fasting is one of the easiest types of fasting I’ve experienced. Drinking 2-3 cups of green tea (zero additives) everyday during a fast reduces appetite and increases fat oxidation. Energy levels are more stable throughout the fast when drinking green tea, and the amino acid L-theanine found in green tea promotes a sense of calm and relaxation.

Pique Tea sells a wide selection of organic teas in their unique “tea crystal” format. Tea crystals readily dissolve in hot or cold water and are super convenient for on-the-go use.

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Mountain Rose Herbs has a wide selection of organic green teas that are perfect for use in green tea fasting. I prefer their pearl jasmine green tea for its flavor and extra flavonoids.

Steep the leaves in 170 F (75 C) water for 3-5 minutes and enjoy!

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Herbal Teas for Fasting

Green tea is an excellent beverage to drink while fasting, and so are herbal teas in general. For example a dandelion root, chamomile flower, and peppermint leaf herbal tea has the following benefits for the digestive system:

Reduces inflammation of the digestive system from the stomach to the large intestine.
Exerts beneficial antimicrobial pressures on pathogenic microorganisms while promoting the growth of helpful symbiotic microorganisms.
Increases the production of digestive enzymes and restores beneficial mucous linings.
Strengthens epithelial tight junctions thanks to flavonoids like apigenin.
Restores normal gut motility (the transit of food through the system).
Boosts fat metabolism which reduces energy lulls from improper digestion or from the fasting process itself

Another herbal tea that would be very helpful to drink during a fast would be a ginger, elderberry, and ginseng tea. Endless combinations exist, and drinking a new tea in the place of breakfast, lunch, and dinner helps to keep the fasting process exciting which has clear benefits.

Mountain Rose Herbs carries a huge assortment of organic herbs perfect for those interested in adding herbal remedies to their fasting and gut health protocol. Next to fasting drinking herbal teas are the next best thing you can do to improve your gut heath. Again the introductory herbal tea I recommend is a 1:1 blend of dandelion root, chamomile flowers, and peppermint simply because its so effective.

More on Herbal Teas for Fasting and Gut Health

Meal Recommendation for Breaking your Fast

Next to the action of actually completing a fast, refeeding after the fast is the second most important part of the gut healing process. The body and microbiome are longing for food so feed yourself and your microbiome only with the best. The body is uniquely poised to use the new influx of nutrients for the proliferation of new healthy cells, and the greater the quality of the the refeed meal the greater the healing effect that will be experienced overall. Make no food mistakes*!

Refeed meals also influence the composition of the microbiome that will soon rebound in population, as bacteria double in as little as twenty minutes under ideal conditions. A meal which is undesirable to pathogenic bacteria but loved by healthy symbiotic bacteria like lactobacillus and bifidobacterial is ideal. Raw and fermented foods harbor their own healthy microbiome populations and assist in the digestion of the first reintroduced meal while also diversifying the surviving microbiome.

The foods that make up a refeed meal and its size depends on the length of fast completed. A 48 hour fast for example should be broken with a high-fat content meal as it’s likely that the first stages of ketogenesis is being experienced and to eat a sugar-heavy meal would cause quick metabolic and blood glucose changes which wouldn’t be beneficial. Fiber is another beneficial nutrient to select for in refeed meals as fiber influences the microbiome beneficially and is transformed into short chain fatty-acids in the colon which benefits fat metabolism.

*Note - Pesticides are to avoided at all costs as they erode the lining of the digestive system and function similarly to antibiotics. Eat organic non-gmo foods to reduce your exposure to dangerous pesticides like glyphosate.

Post Fast Salad:

2 Cups Mixed Greens
1/2 cucumber, sliced
1 Tbsp raw pumpkin seeds
Drizzle extra virgin olive oil
Drizzle raw honey
Drink - GT’s Raw Kombucha

The meal above is great as a first refeed meal after a 24 to 48-hour fast because it is easy to prepare, completely raw, and will supercharge the regenerative effects of the fast. Having a salad shifts the microbiome favorably, and the addition of a fermented food helps to diversify it further. The body will absorb every nutrient possible from this meal. A fast is a period of low sugar intake, so only drink a quarter of the kombucha in order to limit the amount of quick sugars ingested.

When a salad and kombucha are combined as a meal, the mother (microbiome) of the kombucha begins attaching to and breaking down the raw foods of the salad right away, improving digestion as compared to if the salad was eaten only by itself. The cucumber and pumpkin seeds go great on a salad, adding nutrient and flavor variety to the meal, while both having antimicrobial and anti-parasitic benefits. Parasite infections can also be a huge source of gut health issues.

Pro Tip - Take a piperine supplement with your refeed meals to further improve the digestion of the meal. Piperine is derived from black pepper and it one of the most gut-helpful phytochemicals known, improving digestion and enhancing the bioavailability of other nutrients. Nootropics Depot sells a 10mg piperine supplement which you can take 1-3 of with a meal, or if you want to keep it 100% natural simply crack extra black pepper onto your plate.

In my introductory FoodFast Method article I have many more pre-fast and refeed meal suggestions that are worth checking out. Eating the right food after a fast is very important and don’t underestimate the important of a refeed meal in helping the gut to heal as quickly as possible. Fasting to fix gut health issues but continuing to eat poor quality foods in-between will only make limited progress. Best progress will be making in resetting the gut with fasting when equal attention is paid to both fasting and feeding.

My Personal Experience with Fasting

Ever since grade school I noticed I had an unruly digestive system which manifested in various ways, and as I entered into the world of strength-training and bodybuilding in my twenties, I increased my food intake in order to build muscle, which placed even more stress on my digestive system. I did begin improving my diet dramatically during this time, increasing my consumption of whole and unprocessed foods, but this did not provide all the relief I was hoping for.

The only way things were going to turn around was if I provided my digestive system an extended break from the stress and rigors of digestion, and once I stumbled upon fasting my gut health began to quickly take a turn for the better. Some health issues take a long time to heal, but thankfully most of the tissues of the gut turns over so quickly that once the right solution is found the digestive system can be healed quite rapidly. It took me many years to figure out what I needed to do to heal my gut simply because almost no one, from my gastroenterologist to discussion online, was examining the situation from a broad enough vantage point. That’s the still mostly the case it seems, though awareness on natural healing methods for the gut like fasting and herbal teas is increasing.

After some periods of daily intermittent fasting and a few longer 24, 48, and 72 hour fasts, I quickly learned which foods were best for my body, what foods I was intolerant to, and what foods I needed to 100% avoid. Fasting gave me control over food and sugar cravings and eventually eliminated them as I began to crave more vegetables. Healing my gut shifted my microbiome to the point where it could actually process fiber and other plant materials without creating excess gas and flatulence, a serious problem for me before.

Quickly into my discovery of fasting for gut health, I noticed a few things always happen at the end of long fasts:

First, the digestion of vegetables improves. Desperate for energy, the microbiome and digestive system is happy to work together to fully break down tougher to digest foods such as lightly cooked or raw vegetables. A 48-hour fast improves microbiome balance and diversity, and the newly evolved microbiome helps to breakdown and process fiber and other complex plant-based nutrients that before may have been difficult.

Second, fat metabolism improves noticeably. After a period of fasting, energy dips throughout the day are filled in faster by a metabolism that is able to quickly switch to fat burning, whether from short-chain fatty acids produced by microorganisms digesting starches and fiber in the colon, or from body fat stores. A 48 hour fast takes the body right to the edge of ketosis, a metabolic state where only fatty acids and amino acids are used to fuel the body in the absence of carbs, and visiting ketosis regularly, even if just for a few hours, is good for the development of a strong metabolism.

Third, the gut is very thankful for the break in digestion with every fast. When eating a regular breakfast, lunch, and dinner day 24/7, it’s easy to overwork and stress the digestive system, which leads to chronic gut inflammation. To use a quote from Yoda as inspiration:

“Chronic gut stress leads to leaky gut, leaky gut leads to IBS, IBS leads to gut disease”

Humans evolved in conditions of ever changing nutrient availability. In conditions of resource scarcity, the body most regenerate to stay alive. During autophagy, epithelial tight junctions heal rapidly, solving many of the problems of leaky gut, IBS, and SIBO. Healing intestinal tight junctions helps to reduce systemic inflammation of the body and overtime can reset food intolerances and allergies. I have experienced this myself, having fully eliminated a fructose, gluten, and dairy intolerance that my body knew I had but my brain refused to recognize for many years.

Having practiced the FoodFast Method for a few years now, I have a lot of experience with how different diets may affect a fast.

Other Fasting Lessons Learned

Before I was a vegetarian, fasting was relatively easy because meat protein takes a long time to digest, and I consumed a lot of meat protein (>2 grams per kg daily). That said, my gut health significantly improved after transitioning into a vegetarian diet because it caused me to eat way more vegetables and living foods. With a vegetarian diet, fasting can be more difficult if fat metabolism isn’t well developed, so consuming a diet abundant in healthy fats from sources such as avocado, nuts, and seeds will maintain and improve fat metabolism in-between fasts, in turn making the fasting process easier.

For most people going vegetarian will be a big benefit for gut health for more reasons than I can discuss in this article, but care must be taken to not go too high-carb and to stick away from junk food and sweets that are technically vegetarian but really shouldn’t even be characterized as food.

Ready to try a 48 hour fast? Here’s the Action Plan

Below is a step by step guide to help you safely and easily accomplish a 48-hour fast so you may experience the powerful healing effects of fasting for yourself and with the least amount of stress and complications.

Starting before the fast begin drinking more water. Less food intake means you’ll need to drink more to intake the same amount of water, so drinking sufficient water beforehand will be prepare you to be successful and not become dehydrated. Water quality is very important, I recommend only drinking spring water, reverse osmosis water is okay too.
After a full dinner it’s easy to put the snacking and cravings aside, so in my opinion it’s the perfect time to start a fast. Eat your last meal before the fast as an early 6pm dinner. The meal eaten before a fast should be hearty and nutrient rich with plenty of fiber, a vegetable grain bowl with avocado being an excellent option. Go to sleep around 10 pm and after a full eight hours of sleep you’ll be well rested and ready to attack the day while already being one quarter of the way into the 48-hour fast.
Once you’ve waken up, you now have to make it to bedtime again without eating. Listen to your body, keep drinking water or herbal tea, and flow with your energy levels. About 16 hours into the fast you’ll have exhausted all quick sources of glycogen (carbohydrate) energy sources for your body and will be burning body fat in greater amounts. The food in your digestive system is also still providing a slowly dwindling stream of nutrients and energy for your body to run on, that’s why the couple of meals before a fast are so important.
If you feel sluggish and hungry while working, change what you’re doing find a different way to stimulate yourself. Going outside into nature is always highly refreshing and keeps a fast on track. Stay active but don’t overexert yourself, drink something lightly caffeinated like green tea if experiencing an energy slump, or simply take a short nap if tiredness really sets in. Don’t reach for the food unless it’s absolutely necessary! You should never feel bad about breaking a fast if you truly need too.
Once you’re comfortably in cruise control, look at your future schedule and plan around the chaos of the everyday. Building order and structure into your routine allows you to persevere and stay on track in case of unexpected events happening.
If at any point you experience extreme dizziness, loss of vision, or other troubling signs of low blood sugar, end your fast with a small healthy snack like apple slices with almond butter. Be happy with the progress you made and prepare to try again for a longer attempt when better prepared. Every fast completed better prepares you for the next.
For safety I recommend having a small healthy meal prepared and ready at all times during a fast so the fast can be broken with a healthy meal and not with whatever is most immediately available.
Once you’ve finished your fast of whatever duration, reintroduce food back into your system. I would not recommend eating a huge meal after a fast; start simple! Bone broth, steamed veggies, a salad, or soup are all good choices. The longer the fast the longer the food reintroduction period should be. Buy the food needed for the first couple refeed meals the day before you end the fast so you’re prepared even if you have to break the fast early. Eat the freshest food possible for the refeed meals.
To track how long I’ve been fasting, I use the app ZERO (found on iTunes and the Google Play Store). It can be used to track mood and how you feel throughout the fast, and you can keep a record of your fasts to compare to each other. Very useful!

You Successfully Completed a 48 Hour Fast!

Congratulations, you’ve finished your first 48 hour fast! I’m sure you experienced positive gut health changes from the beginning to the end of the fast.

I developed the FoodFast Method to make it easy to incorporate fasting into one’s lifestyle at the right frequency for optimal health and wellness. I wish I had discovered the FoodFast Method when I first began healing my gut and microbiome because it would have saved me years of gut health suffering, but I am grateful I experienced what I did because that is what led me to develop the method that others can now use. Now that I’ve been following the FoodFast method intuitively for a few years now, I can confidently say that it’s the single most effective way of keeping the gut healthy that I know of.

“Practicing a lifestyle centered around wellness does not have a singular end destination, but rather is an ever evolving journey. Be open to all health possibilities and trust your instincts.”

Practice Gut Health Mindfulness

During any fast or health experiment, be observant! Pay attention to everything you experience. At any given time ask yourself “How does my body feel, what emotions am I experiencing, and what is my current state of mind?” If you’re going to be your own doctor, then you need to play the role of the observant scientist.

Only with careful observation will the truth of what’s happening in your body be fully realized.

Because fasting severely restricts what enters into the body, used correctly it can be used as a diagnostic tool that by its own right is powerfully transformative.

Heal Your Gut Naturally

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Holistic Gut Health Guide eBook

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If you read all the way here then it’s clear to me that you’re ready to do what it takes to finally restore your digestive system and gut microbiome back to healthy and optimal function.

IMPORTANT - Please only attempt a fast if you are ready, physically and mentally, to go through a period of no food consumption. If this will be dangerous to you, please do not attempt this.

References:

Correction to Lancet Infectious Diseases 2020; published online April 29. https://doi.org/10.1016/ S1473-3099(20)30064-5. Lancet Infect Dis. 2020;20(7):e148.
Suez J, Korem T, Zeevi D, et al. Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiota. Nature. 2014;514(7521):181-6.
Harpaz D, Yeo LP, Cecchini F, et al. Measuring Artificial Sweeteners Toxicity Using a Bioluminescent Bacterial Panel. Molecules. 2018;23(10)
De luca F, Shoenfeld Y. The microbiome in autoimmune diseases. Clin Exp Immunol. 2019;195(1):74-85.

Stefan Burns 3/23/19 Stefan Burns 3/23/19

How to Reset Dietary Beliefs

Fad diets all have one thing in common: they tell you what you can't eat. Diets don't address the underlying psychology behind why overeating or poor health exist in the first place. Developing mindfulness and an inclusive, long-term mindset for diet and health is the first step towards sustainable lasting progress.

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated July 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

There exist hundreds of popular dietary protocols, each diet having a hallmark distinction. The paleo diet advocates you as our paleolithic ancestors did 10,000 years ago, which means no processed foods. The vegan diet eschews all animal products, from meat to honey. Whole30 cuts out added sugars, beans/legumes, alcohol, dairy, and grains. As much as these diets might seem different from each other, they all are the same in one respect, they restrict and limit your food choices. If you want to break the viscous cycle of lose weight → gain weight → lose weight→ gain weight then a different mindset is needed.

Many individuals have great success following the paleo, vegan, or Whole30 diets, even though the foods that are allowed to be eaten vary dramatically. And for some this new diet fits their lifestyle and they are able to remain permanently at a healthier weight. For most though, dietary restriction only works in the short term. In the long term, it has consistently been shown that 80-95% of dieters who lose significant amounts of weight regain the weight they lost months later (1). In fact, almost everyone who has dieted before has experienced life-changing weight loss at one time or another.

When foods are restricted and activity levels increase, dramatic short term changes in body composition and health can be achieved, but during the diet, psychologically it’s like a rubber band being slowly being pulled back more and more.

Once the rubber band can stretch no one, and the initial goal of twenty, thirty, or fifty pounds lost is achieved, dieters let their discipline slip and reintroduce the foods they crave back into their diet. The rubber band snaps back. A small reward for a job well done becomes a binge, and then snowballs back into old dietary habits. Dieters didn’t break their sugar addiction or eating disorder, they created a temporary bubble where they put bad habits on pause, and then the bubble popped.

If the psychology of dieting isn’t addressed, then most diets will end in failure.

Inclusion > Exclusion

When a new diet, habit, or lifestyle practice is started, the first thought might be to conceptualize all the foods, bad habits, and environmental factors that will be cut out of your current life in order to improve your health and wellness.

On the surface, this appears good. Undoubtedly there are many things can be damaging to your health in excess, and eliminating them from your life can be a huge step forward.

The issue is, exclusionary ideologies do not take into account human behavior or psychology. Humans are not machines or robots. To permanently change your dietary mindset, it is imperative to switch to a mindset of inclusion rather than exclusion. As omnivores, we evolved with digestive systems that are capable of digesting most any food.

To heal a damaged dietary psychology or food disorder, the first step that needs to be taken is for all the foods of the world to be made available and OKAY to eat to the dieter.

Often times, it is the fact that a food is restricted that makes it so appealing. Likewise, and we’ll use the example of ice cream, if ice cream is made off-limits, then once the protocol has been broken, feelings of guilt and shame can compel someone to begin an ice cream binge, which spirals back into their eating disorder. If the ice cream isn’t made strictly off limits (even if it is best to avoid the processed calories), then a bowl of ice cream is much less likely to turn into a binge. Having a bowl of ice cream might not have been the best decision, but it is much better than a binge session fueled by negative emotions. Since the ice cream isn’t odd limits, and the consumption of food comes from a place of self love rather than self hate, feelings of guilt, shame, or self loathing never manifest. With personal growth and patience, you can empower yourself to skip the ice cream or eat something else entirely, even if the ice cream is allowed.

Empower Yourself to Eat Healthier Foods

To elevate beyond the junk food, practicing a inclusive diet is much more powerful when we examine healthy foods. Take the following example:

Let’s say you have a goal to reduce your processed grains consumption, and now it’s dinner time. On your plate you have a baked potato, chicken breast, and bread. You notice that there are no green vegetables.

If your goal is to reduce processed grains consumption, there are two ways to approach the issue.

The first is to totally exclude the bread and test your discipline. The second option is to simply add an additional healthy food to the meal. For example, add some salad greens and make sure to eat the salad greens before the bread. By doing using this method, the bread isn’t banned, but rather selected against. Overtime habits like this will become second nature, and overall food quality eaten day to day will improve.

When following inclusive dietary practices, time is given to the dieter to make the health connections they need to understand in order to fix the underlying problem. In this example, this person realizes when they eat bread, they don’t feel well, experience big energy swings, and have poor digestion. Once realized, why would they want to eat bread?

By practicing mindfulness and the gradual reduction of trouble foods, these connections between trouble foods and negative physiological effects are made possible. Once the connection is made, it’s no longer a question of willpower to not eat something, it’ll be a decision that is consciously made and stuck with.

With an inclusive mindset, unhealthy foods can initially be used to encourage healthy food behaviors. If these inclusive principles are structured right, lasting healthy food behaviors can be established. As healthier foods start to make up a majority of the diet, taste-buds will change and now junk food once desired becomes gross and overly sweet.

You might have noticed this strategy is one that many parents will use with their kids to encourage them to eat their vegetables. “You can’t have your dessert until you finish your vegetables!” For old or young minds alike, this strategy works.

One of the caveats to this method is that food allergies and intolerances should be strictly avoided. It is possible to reverse a food allergy and/or intolerance, but it takes a significant amount of time, as the gut needs to heal many times over and the immune system needs to completely forget the trigger it learned and become non-reactive to those food proteins. For allergies or intolerances, it will take many months if not years for these issues to possibly be resolved.

Food Frequency: Weekly vs Daily

Another important aspect of any diet is food frequency. Everyone has their stable foods they enjoy, and the depending on what someone eats in a day, their calories, macronutrients (fats, carbs, protein), fiber, vitamins, and minerals can vary dramatically.

When considering starting a new diet, often macronutrient and micronutrient goals are established. For example, a new diet could dictate the following:

Macronutrient Ratios:

35% fats
40% carbohydrates
- 40 grams fiber daily
25% protein

Micronutrients:

100% RDA magnesium, calcium, potassium, zinc
100% RDA B-vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, B12)
2000-5000 IU Vitamin D
100% RDA vitamins A, C, E, K

If using a calorie tracking app like MyFitnessPal, it can satisfying hitting macronutrient and micronutrient targets daily, but what happens is overtime discipline wanes and it becomes harder and harder to hit exact macronutrient targets. Or maybe you hit your protein target early in the day through protein heavy meals. Later in the day, in order to stay “in range”, all protein must be avoided. Having a healthy unprocessed meal without any protein is difficult, but it sure is easy with a large bowl of ice cream! Macronutrient tracking certainly can be effective, but it also create situations at times when it is okay binge on junk food because macros must be met.

For micronutrients, things get even trickier. When trying to hit exact micronutrient targets everyday, it is very difficult to get every exact micronutrient to 100% daily with a healthy diet composed primarily of unprocessed foods

Supplements then can be seen as the answer, with certain supplements needing to be taken on certain days to bump everything to 100%. You can use protein shakes, ice cream, and supplements to hit macronutrient and micronutrient targets, but is the diet healthy or sustainable?

“For a diet, when macronutrients and micronutrients are the priority, and not the consumption of whole organic unprocessed foods, it is still possible for food quality to decrease while being within the parameters of the diet”

For further illustrate the point, let’s use magnesium. Magnesium is the second most common micronutrient deficiency worldwide, a master micronutrient used in hundreds of chemical reactions and cellular tasks. Clearly it’s important to get enough magnesium, and in the context of a holistic diet, which do you think is better? A magnesium supplement, or eating a 1/4 cup of pumpkin seeds? Both with provide 200 mg of magnesium, but the bioavailability of the magnesium in pumpkin seeds will be much greater, while also providing unique phytochemicals, helpful health benefits, and satiating fiber, protein, and fat. The supplement won’t come with calories, but the bioavailibility will be lower, and the fillers it is combined with is questionable. You need calories to survive, so don’t shun calories from health foods so you can indulge in junk foods.

Macronutrient ratios and micronutrients are lower priority than eating for health, longevity, and wellness. When eating a well-rounded diet from a variety of whole unprocessed foods, macronutrient and micronutrient targets might not be achieved everyday. The mindset of hitting targets daily can be very limiting, but thinking of hitting targets on a weekly time schedule is very liberating. This is especially true in the context of the modern agricultural system, where quality and nutrition of the same foods have been declining for decades. Think depleting soil nutrients, increased pesticide and dangerous herbicide usage, monoculture farms, etc.

The body is able to store glycogen, fat, amino acids, and micronutrients (2). On some days ratios or RDAs might vary from the weekly target, but over a week long period, everything typically will come into balance. Additionally, with a weekly mindset, having a treat now and then isn’t “allowed” or “banned” based on macronutrient rations. Instead emotions and energy levels can guide food choices intuitively, an important step towards outgrowing an eating disorder. How you arrive at a desirable outcome is just as important as the outcome itself.

Think and Act Long Term

The journey towards wellness is one of patience. When your health is suffering, it is highly seductive to reach for the solution that promises the quick fix. If it took many years to develop an eating disorder or add 30 pounds of body fat, you cannot expect the fix to be quick. It might take as long to heal as it took to become unhealthy, though typically the journey is shorter by at least a factor of two.

Patience, love, understand, and being at peace with your current situation are the first steps that need to be taken in order to begin the healing process. Until honesty and truth are at the forefront of your wellness journey, expect to yo-yo between progress and setbacks.

Mindfulness is one of the most powerful tools available at your disposal. Bring conscious awareness to your actions and the decisions and you’ll be surprised by how fast things can accelerate when setbacks no longer occur.

Develop a long term mindset, and instead of eliminating your worst food offenders, incentivize the healthy foods, making sure to include those first into your day. Before you realize it, you’ll be past any prior plateaus you struggled with accelerating towards your long term health goals!

References

Wing RR, Phelan S. Long-term weight loss maintenance. Am J Clin Nutr. 2005;82(1 Suppl):222S-225S.
James Collier. Storage of Micronutrients in the Body. Dietetics

Stefan Burns 2/24/19 Stefan Burns 2/24/19

Daily Supplements for General Health

Micronutrients are best obtained naturally, but some vitamins and minerals are harder to obtain than others. Common nutrient deficiencies which remain untreated can lead to chronic health effects. To fortify your health in times of uncertainty and stress, supplementing with these five micronutrients will improve you wellness, alleviate the most common deficiencies, and increase your resiliency.

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated December 2021. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

Some nutrients are absolutely essential for good health, and with a healthy, balanced diet, it is possible to get enough of them to avoid any health issues. The Standard American Diet (SAD), the diet most common in the western world, is high in sugar, acellular carbs, heavily processed and oxidized oils, unknown additives, and chemical contamination; it’s a diet disaster. And if you do follow a healthier diet predominately featuring unprocessed foods, you won’t be eating as nutritious as you believe. Modern agricultural practices have reduced the micronutrient loads of most fruits and vegetables over the past 50-100 years (1). Even if you follow a healthy diet you might not be receiving the micronutrients your body needs to function at its best due to declined soil nutrition.

From left to right - Fish Oil, Zinc Balance, Vitamin D3, Borax, Magnesium Citrate

When switching from a Standard American Diet (SAD) to a healthier diet consisting primarily of organic, micronutrient-rich unprocessed foods, there is an awkward transition period that can be stressful mentally, physically, and emotionally. During periods of stress it is doubly important to make sure you are getting enough of the most commonly deficient micronutrients, as this will improve your stress response. Otherwise if your diet is overall good and you’re really trying to optimize your health, then I recommend taking the following daily supplement to cover common nutrient imbalances and deficiencies.

Again the goal should be to get all nutrients from a healthy diet over the course of a week, but with a modern lifestyle that’s not always possible. Having these supplements on hand allows you to intelligently supplement these key nutrients when needed for a healthier lifestyle.

Optimize Health with Five Supplements

All values listed for the minerals are in reference to the elemental form. The weights listed on a supplement bottle are always in reference to the elemental weight per serving, not the overall chemical weight per serving.

Take every morning/early afternoon (with a meal):

5000 - 10000 IU Vitamin D3
15:1 mg Zinc:Copper
1.5 - 3 grams EPA + DHA Omega-3 Fatty Acids (fish oil or algae oil)

Take every evening (with a meal):

200 - 400 mg Magnesium
3 -10 mg Boron

Supplement with Vitamin D

Vitamin D is produced endogenously through sunlight exposure. How long you need to stay in the sun to synthesize your daily amount of vitamin D depends on the color of your skin, but this ranges from 10-60 minutes. Darker skin colors need more time in the sun to produce the same amount of vitamin D as lighter skin colors.

Vitamin D is the most common micronutrient deficiency worldwide, affecting an estimated 50% of the global population (2). Even “healthy” adolescents are commonly vitamin D deficient (3), and that’s a big deal when vitamin D is critically important for growth and development during adolescence (4). A vitamin D deficiency can have wide ranging negative effects on your health, such as increased risk of infection, fatigue, depression, muscular pain, bone loss, hair loss, and more.

If you are experiencing very cloudy weather, live in a low-sun area, or can’t work some sun exposure into your schedule for whatever reason, supplementing with vitamin D3 is a good thing to do.

A Note on RDA’s: The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for vitamin D is 600 IU’s of vitamin D a day for adults, and 800 IU for those 70 and older. Keep in mind though that the RDA for a micronutrient isn’t set based on optimal health outcomes, but rather the bare minimum of that micronutrient required to prevent disease for 97.5% of the populace. Preventing disease =/= optimal health, as anyone can tell you. The RDA for vitamin D is the minimum amount needed to prevent rickets.

So what is optimal then? The Vitamin D Council recommends vitamin D blood levels between 40 and 80 ng/mL to be optimal. 40 to 20 ng/ml are classified as normal, and levels below 20 ng/mL are deficient. Vitamin D levels beyond 80 ng/ml are not achievable naturally, instead requiring supplementation, and levels beyond 150 ng/ml are classified as being toxic. After testing your vitamin D blood levels, use the graphic below to determine the amount of vitamin D needed to reach the recommended 70 ng/ml via supplementation.Without blood testing, most people average vitamin D levels of 15 - 30 ng/ml.

Vitamin D blood levels and the amount of vitamin D supplementation to reach them.

I recommend taking the vitamin D in the morning, as vitamin D is typically synthesized via sun exposure. Vitamin D with it’s link to the circadian rhythm is stimulating, and taking vitamin D at night might impact sleep quality. I recommend the Vitamin D3 5000 sold by Nordic Naturals . I like their supplement because they suspend the vitamin D3 in extra virgin olive oil instead of lesser quality expeller-pressed soybean oil which is common practice for most Vitamin D3 supplement manufacturers.

Supplement with Zinc + Copper

Zinc deficiency, defined as a lower intake than the RDA, can be caused through reduced dietary intake, inadequate absorption, or increased body system utilization (i.e. gaining muscle, bodybuilding). The most common cause of zinc deficiency though is reduced dietary intake, which illustrates just how little of this micronutrient most people consume. Remember the RDA is the bare minimum needed to not enter a diseased state.

Copper and Zinc are synergistic and antagonistic, and if too much zinc is consumed, a copper deficiency can occur, or vice versa.

Most common is copper excess, with zinc being deficient. In order to stay balanced, it is recommended to take a supplement which balances both minerals.

An excess of copper can lead to a variety of serious health issues (5), and a zinc deficiency leads to many of the same health issues:

Copper Excess Health Issues

Learning disabilities
ADHD, Autism
Anxiety, Depression
Acne, Hair loss
Allergies
Anemia
Poor Immune function
Sleep problems
Poor concentration and focus,
Chronic fatigue, and much more.

Zinc Deficiency Health Issues

Compromised immune system
Delayed growth
Psychological and cognitive disorders
Decreased testosterone levels
Loss of appetite
Wounds that won’t heal
Lack of alertness
Increased rates of anorexia.

Copper and zinc are absolutely essential to the proper functioning of the immune system, the endocrine system, and the nervous system, and an imbalance of copper and zinc throws those systems out of balance. The optimal ratio of zinc to copper to 10:1, but in the context of a copper rich diet, a supplement containing zinc to copper at a 15:1 ratio is more desirable. Jarrow’s Zinc Balance supplement (pictured above) contains 15 mg of zinc and 1 mg of copper, and I recommend to most people to take it daily to mitigate any zinc deficiencies and to help balance out their immune and endocrine systems. Have digestive issues? Zinc helps by healing epithelial tight junctions.

I find zinc to have a slight stimulating effect, so it’s best taken in the morning, and also with a meal. Zinc taken on an empty stomach can cause nausea. The higher the dosage, the greater then nausea, and that’s one of a few reasons why I don’t recommend 50 mg zinc supplements. 50 mg is above the tolerable upper limit (TUL) of 40 mg per day, and taken daily can quickly lead to a copper deficiency. Even with a zinc-demanding lifestyle (intense exercise, regular sex, heat therapy like a sauna), 15 mg supplemented is sufficient, and paired with a zinc rich diet, one zinc balance pill a day should balance out zinc and copper levels nicely.

Supplement with Magnesium

Magnesium is the second most common micronutrient deficiency (6) behind vitamin D, and it’s critically important for a variety of processes throughout the body, such as cognition, high blood pressure, asthma, osteoporosis, muscle cramps and twitches, fatigue and muscle weakness, and an irregular heartbeat. In fact, low levels of magnesium have often been found to be a contributing factor for people with chronic diseases.

Magnesium is high in foods like pumpkin seeds, cashews, avocado, dark chocolate, bananas, and black beans.

Magnesium Breakthrough by biOptimizers

The RDA of magnesium for adults (7) is 300 mg for women and 400 mg for men. If you exercise a lot an experience changing pressure in your ears, you have a magnesium deficiency. Magnesium citrate is a common supplemental form of magnesium, but magnesium citrate can cause diarrhea at higher dosages of 200+ mg.

Magnesium glycinate is a better alternative, and taken before bed can also help get the body relaxed and ready for sleep. Both magnesium and the amino acid glycine have been shown to increase deep restorative sleep when supplemented with.

Start with 200 mg of magnesium glycinate per night and see how you feel after a couple weeks, then bump to 400 mg and if there is a noticeable improvement, stay at that nightly dosage. Magnesium glycinate is a low-cost, widely available supplement. I recommend Magnesium Breakthrough by biOptimizers, they sell a highly absorbable magnesium supplement containing seven different bonded forms of magnesium that is highly bioavailable and easy on the stomach. If you prefer a natural food source, pumpkin seeds have lots of magnesium, with a 1/4 cup containing nearly 200 mg.

Supplement with Boron

For modern agriculture, Boron is the second most common micronutrient deficiency in plants, and therefore deficient in everything else moving up that food chain. This is very important because we know boron is essential for the growth and maintenance of bone tissue, greatly improves wound healing, beneficially improves hormone levels (estradiol and testosterone), improves vitamin D status, and is cancer protective, just to name a few.

If you want to experience some of Wolverine’s superpowers, you can easily supplement with boron yourself.

On average most people ingest about 2 mg of boron a day, which is under the 3 mg or greater ideal dietary intake. For a person with a diet low in plant products such as fruits, vegetables, and nuts, their dietary intake of boron could be lower than even 1 mg of boron per day.

As more research is done on Boron, its importance as a trace micronutrient is becoming better understood. In the meantime, take zero chances and add boron to your daily supplement stack. You can either buy a boron supplement which is mostly filler, or use borax. Borax (sodium borate) has the same safety as table salt (similar LD50 as NaCl for Rats, and by extension, humans), and since it is a salt, borax is highly bioavailable. Buy a box from 20 Mule Team which is pure and nicely refined, and save a small jar for personal use. Use a 0.5 ml scoop (G82 Ultra Small Measuring Spoon), to dose ~10 mg boron per scoop.

Most studies on boron supplementation use a dose of 3 mg of elemental boron often through a compound like borax. Occasionally boron fructoborate has been used in studies on boron, but I prefer borax as it orders of magnitude cheaper, easier to use, and extremely bioavailable. I’ve supplemented with 10 mg a day for years, and that dosage covers all the scientifically supported beneficial effects boron has, and I’ve never experienced any negative health effects.

Supplement with Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Omega-3 fatty acids are a type of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), and there are three main types of Omega-3 fatty acids: α-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). The two Omega-3 fatty acids that humans require are EPA + DHA. ALA is an Omega-3 fatty found in plant foods such as flax meal and chia seeds, and while it’s not necessarily bad for you, only approximately 5% converts into EPA and DHA, the primary Omega-3’s shown to have wide ranging health benefits.

Omega-3 fatty acids are a necessary and incredibly important fatty acid needed throughout the body, from the cardiovascular system to the brain. DHA and EPA have slightly different functions throughout the body, but overall Omega-3’s are essential for pre- and postnatal brain development, have a major influential on behavior and mood, are critical for cardiovascular health, reduce inflammation, and are required for the building of various tissues throughout the body (skin, brain, etc).

In the context of the overall diet, the higher your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, the better. And don’t worry about an Omega-3/Omega-6 ratio that is too high. It’s very difficult to achieve a 1:1 ratio in the context of modern society, and it would be nearly impossible to consume a diet dangerously rich in omega-3’s (over 10:1 possibly). Unless you are already consuming a seafood heavy diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids and also minimize your omega-6 intake, the best way to ensure a good omega-3 to omega-6 ratio is through supplementation.

Algae Omega by Nordic Naturals is the best balance between price, purity, and environmental impact. Being derived from algae, each Algae Omega pills contains a higher amount of DHA Omega-3 fatty acids that is typically found in fish oil, which is better for brain health. Vitamin D3 is best taken in the morning because of it’s energizing impact due to circadian rhythm pathways.

Omega-3’s are also synergistic with turmeric and curcumin supplements, with both taken together reducing pain and inflammation more than if taken separately. For a curcumin supplement I recommend BioSchwartz Turmeric Curcumin Supplement.

Live Healthier with Five Supplements

Before starting supplementation of any of the above micronutrients, please consult your health practitioner, and ideally get blood work done for reference to see if you are below the levels suggested for optimal health. If your vitamin D, zinc, an omega-3 levels are low but your magnesium is fine, then you can skip the magnesium supplementation!

There are a few ways to implement this supplementation routine. If you really wish to feel the unique effects of each supplement, and learn the most about how each of these compounds can improve your general health, energy, and mood, introduce one new supplement into your routine weekly. Take notes of how you feel and any positive or negative symptoms you experience. I would introduce them in this order.

Week 1 - 5000 IU Vitamin D

Week 2 - 200 mg Magnesium

Week 3 - 10 mg Boron

Week 4 - 15 mg Zinc + Copper

Week 5 - 2 grams of EPA + DHA Omega-3’s

If you want to dive in head first, taking all five supplements simultaneously at their prescribed dosages and timings, will cause a noticeable effect. It will be harder to determine which supplements fixed the most glaring nutrient deficiencies compared to if you follow the weekly plan above.

References:

Donald R. Davis. Declining Fruit and Vegetable Nutrient Composition: What Is the Evidence? American Society for Horticultural Development.
Nair R, Maseeh A. Vitamin D: The "sunshine" vitamin. J Pharmacol Pharmacother. 2012;3(2):118-26.
Gordon CM, Depeter KC, Feldman HA, Grace E, Emans SJ. Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among healthy adolescents. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2004;158(6):531-7.
Kremer R, Campbell PP, Reinhardt T, Gilsanz V. Vitamin D status and its relationship to body fat, final height, and peak bone mass in young women. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2009;94(1):67-73.
Judy Tsafrir M.D. Copper Toxicity: A Common Cause of Psychiatric Symptoms. Psychology Today.
Guerrera MP, Volpe SL, Mao JJ. Therapeutic uses of magnesium. Am Fam Physician. 2009;80(2):157-62.
Magnesium Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. National Institutes for Health, Office of Dietary Supplement

Disclosure: Amazon affiliate links are used throughout the article. Wild Free Organic makes a small commission when a purchase is made through those links. This does not affect the purchase price and the proceeds go towards the growth of Wild Free Organic.

Stefan Burns 2/16/19 Stefan Burns 2/16/19

Dairy vs Plant Protein

Protein is an important macronutrient, used throughout the body. Protein supplements are one option for increasing protein intake, with diary and plant proteins both being commonly available. Dairy and plant proteins both have their pro and cons; let's discuss!

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated January 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

There are many different types of protein found in nature, but for protein supplements the divide begins at whether the protein is animal or plant based. A protein molecule is made from a long chain of amino acids, and each type of protein has a unique sequence of amino acids. Therefore, the protein chains found in broccoli differ from those found in eggs. As science had discovered the different types of protein, we have started to learn the chemical differences between different types of plant and animal proteins and how they affect the body differently. Proteins differ in their effects on muscle protein synthesis, level of satiety, and immune system response.

For both athletes looking to improve their performance or regular folks trying to look better and live healthier, protein is an important macronutrient to understand and to know how to utilize. The general recommendation for protein intake is 2 grams/kg body-weight, or 1 gram/lb. For a 70 kg (155 lb) individual, that means they should aim to consume 140-155 grams of protein daily for optimal body composition and maximum wellness benefits.

Dairy vs Plant Protein Shakes on scales in a kitchen

It can be difficult to achieve that target consistently solely from whole and unprocessed foods, especially if you follow a lower protein vegetarian or vegan diet, and protein supplements like shakes and bars can help you meet your daily protein goals. For decades the only protein supplements were dairy based, specifically casein and whey protein, but now plant proteins are more and more popular. Uncommonly used supplemental protein sources like beef and egg proteins will not be discussed. Below we examine the pros and cons of dairy and plant-based proteins so you can understand how to best use either protein source when appropriate.

Dairy Proteins

Dairy-based proteins, typically derived from cows milk, can be separated into casein and whey proteins. Before whey and casein are separated, they are known as "milk protein", and that's the type of protein Orgain uses in their Grass-Fed Clean Protein Shake (as pictured).

PROS:

Milk proteins are extremely bioavailable (1), easily absorbed from food sources and then efficiently incorporated into the proteins of an organism's body.
Milk proteins contain abundant Branched-Chain Amino Acids (BCAA's) (2), the main amino acids responsible for stimulating an increase in muscle protein synthesis (MPS). With all other factors equal, more MPS, more muscle!
Milk proteins are widely available! Due to the size of the dairy industry, milk, casein, and whey protein can all be had at a relatively inexpensive cost, with different levels of quality from concentrates to hydrolysates all having different price points.

CONS:

Any food can be allergenic, but dairy-based foods are the most common food allergy (3), and should be strictly avoided if you have a dairy allergy. Likewise, those with a lactose intolerance should steer clear, even from products from like whey isolate which contain virtually zero lactose.
Dairy protein products are derived from animals and for vegans and vegetarians looking to reduce their animal product consumption, plant proteins are a lower impact alternatives.

Plant Proteins

Plant-based proteins, once a niche product, have dramatically increased in popularity recently. Soy protein, once the plant protein of choice, has recently taken the backseat to newer options such as pea, pumpkin seed, and hemp proteins. The Vega protein drink pictured contains those three plant-based proteins.

PROS:

Plant proteins are not commonly allergic, with soy protein being the exception (4), and in my experience, it's harder to develop an intolerance to plant-based proteins. For those with sensitive guts and damaged intestinal tight junctions, plant proteins are a better choice until gut health is restored.
While plant proteins typically contain less protein per gram of product, they also contain more fiber! As it has been shown, fiber is one of the most important variables which determines the satiation value of a food (5), and a plant-based protein drink will stave off hunger longer than a dairy alternative.
Vegan friendly!

CONS:

Plant proteins, due to their structural makeup, don't have as pleasing of a texture or taste as dairy derived proteins, and often protein manufacturers add extra sugar, emulsifiers, and stabilizers to plant protein products to make them more palatable.
Plant proteins aren't as efficiently absorbed as dairy protein, having lower biological values. This means that you'll need to consume more plant protein than dairy protein to ensure you receive an adequate amount of protein for your desired goals.

Protein Recommendations

To simplify, there are two reasons you would consider buying a protein powder or drink.

Your goal is to build muscle and improve body composition as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Your want to improve protein intake for overall health and wellness inspirations.

If your goal is #1, and you are not lactose intolerant, then a hydrolyzed whey protein will be the best protein supplement for your goals. Whey hydrolysate empties out of the stomach faster, is absorbed faster, increases muscle protein synthesis the most, and creates the biggest insulin response. Hydrolyzed whey protein is the most anabolic form for protein known. Whey hydrolysate should not be used by those with blood sugar problems.

If your goal is #2, then a plant-based protein is recommended. Soy protein is not recommended because it is allergenic, contains high levels of phytoestrogens, and doesn’t stimulate muscle protein synthesis well. Pea, pumpkin, and hemp seed proteins are recommended instead. These proteins, used individually or together act as a complete protein source, digest easily, stimulate muscle protein synthesis, and come paired with plant fiber.

The best protein source though is from whole unprocessed foods. Protein supplements are a means to an end, not the end destination. Protein drinks should not be your main source of protein. Having a protein drink occasionally is OKAY, but consistent protein drink use is overall more less healthy than eating whole nutritious foods.

References:

Hoffman JR, Falvo MJ. Protein - Which is Best?. J Sports Sci Med. 2004;3(3):118-30.
Rafiq S, Huma N, Pasha I, Sameen A, Mukhtar O, Khan MI. Chemical Composition, Nitrogen Fractions and Amino Acids Profile of Milk from Different Animal Species. Asian-australas J Anim Sci. 2016;29(7):1022-8.
Milk Allergy Vs. Lactose Intolerance. Food Allergy and Research Education.
Soy Allergy. Food Allergy and Research Education.
J. Slavin, and H. Green. Dietary fibre and satiety. British Nutrition Foundation.

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