Well with Arielle Lorre - 151: Why We Bloat and How to Fix It with Dr. Heather Finley

Episode Date: January 26, 2022

In this episode I’m talking to Registered Dietician (with a Doctorate in Clinical Nutrition) Dr. Heather Finley, about gut health, bloating and how to navigate digestive problems. We discuss what bloating is and what it is not; common causes of bloating; how to get to the root cause of bloating and digestive upset; why elimination is not always the answer; practical steps you can take to figure out the cause of your symptoms; the reality of foods like gluten and dairy; how disordered eating and bloating and digestive issues are interconnected, and so much more.    www.Athleticgreens.com/blondefiles for your free 1 year supply of vitamin D and 5 free travel packs with your first purchase. www.Arrae.com with code 'blondefiles' for 10% off one time purchases or 25% off your first month on subscription. www.Keanhealth.com with code 'blonde' for 20% off your order. www.Helloned.com/BLONDE for 15% off your order.   Produced by Dear MediaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The following podcast is a dear media production. Hey, welcome to the Blond Files podcast. I'm your host, Ariel Lori, and I'm here to talk all things wellness. From how to achieve optimal health and well-being to the best beauty tips and everything in between, no topic is off limits. I know there is so much information out there, so I'm here to help you navigate it all and live your best life. Thanks for listening.

Let's get into it. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the show. I have an amazing episode today for anybody who has ever experienced any kind of digestive issues, anybody who experiences bloating. I am talking to Dr. Heather Finley. She's a registered dietitian. She also has her doctorate in clinical nutrition.

And I love her perspective so much because she went through gut issues herself. And in her experience, which is I think so many people's experience when it comes to this stuff, she thought that food was the cause and food was the cure. And in some cases, it is. So if that's your experience, I don't want to invalidate that. But she went through crazy elimination diets. And I know that like in my experience, I did that as well. I think it happens to a lot of people. And then you're kind of stuck where you're still experiencing symptoms. You're not finding any relief. And suddenly your diet is super restricted. And this can lead to unhealthy behavior, unhealthy habits. And I think it's super, super common nowadays, especially with social media and so many, like, fad diets and

every influencer and everybody with a platform touting a different solution. So I wanted to get a professional in here to talk about this. And we talk about everything having to do with digestion and bloating in particular. So we talk about like what exactly bloating is and what it isn't and when it becomes problematic. And we talk about how to get to the root cause of bloating and digestive issues. We talk about why elimination is not always the answer. She has a bunch of really simple practical steps that you can take starting today to figure out the cause of your symptoms. We talk about, of course, the reality of foods like gluten and dairy. We talk about how disordered eating and bloating and digestive issues and elimination diets and all of that are in.

interconnected and so much more. So I think you're really going to get a lot out of this episode. And with that, I hope you enjoy Dr. Heather Finley. Okay, welcome to the show. So excited to talk to you today. Thanks so much for having me. This is such a hot topic, bloating. We're going to be talking about bloating, gut health, all of that. So I think my audience is going to really be looking forward to this one, really benefit from this one, because it's something that so, many of us, seems like women in particular, struggle with. And actually, when I started my account, gut health and bloating was something that I was really dealing with. And so I think a lot of my followers probably started following me back then because of that. So big topic with my audience.

To start, why don't you just introduce yourself to everybody and tell them a little bit about you and what you do. Okay. Awesome. My name is Dr. Heather Finley. I am a registered dietitian. And a gut health expert. I decided to specialize in gut health because of my own gut health issues, just like you. I spent years in my life constipated, bloated, really struggling, trying to find the answers as to why I felt the way that I did. And it really wasn't until I realized more and learned more about functional nutrition and functional medicine on how the entire body works together that I was able to finally find relief. I think I spent so many years, thinking, I just need to know what food it is that's making me bloated or I need to know what

supplement I need to take. And although food and supplements can be extremely beneficial for digestive health, there's lots of other missing pieces and I was definitely missing all of them. And so as I went down this journey learning more about my own digestive health, I thought, okay, there's no reason that someone should have to get a doctorate to figure out why they're bloated. So now I have the pleasure and honored of helping women in a similar situation as me, find relief from their digestive issues. And it's amazing. I love it. It is so hard because especially when you're going through it, it's uncomfortable. I don't know like all of your story, but I know for me it was really getting in the way of everything,

my social life, my work, my confidence, you know, how I felt about it. It was very shameful. At the time, it felt like nobody was talking about it. and you feel like you just like there's just one puzzle piece that you're missing, right? So you think it is just the supplement or it is just the gluten or the dairy or whatever and you start to go down this road. And I think especially now like with social media and a lot of people are talking about it, you can still kind of get caught in this misconception that you can fix it overnight. And it is just that one thing. And maybe in some cases it is. maybe someone's eating something that's like they're having a bad reaction to. But just out of curiosity, like how long did it take you with your own bloating and digestive

issues to navigate all of that and to find a solution that was sustainable? Yeah. It took at least a year. I always tell my clients like prepare for longer. And if it happens sooner, then that's an added bonus. But it's not like I felt terrible for a year and then woke up a year later and all of sudden felt amazing. It was a progressive change over a year because the body can't fix everything at once. So as I started really kind of digging into why I was bloated using testing, using nutrition,

using supplements, using lifestyle changes, using mindset shifts, et cetera, I progressively started feeling better and then could look back and think, oh, wow, I am so much different a year down the road than I was a year ago. But it's always a continual journey just because, you know, your gut is affected by everything that you do. And not to say that you're ever maybe going to be in the same spot that you were before, but it's something that you're always a little bit cognizant and aware of. And once you know really what your triggers are,

you're a lot more empowered to be able to address them in real time versus feeling like, all right, now I'm going to head back towards exactly how I felt before, like you're not going to end up there again, which is hopeful. Yeah, that's so true because, I mean, the things that worked for you maybe six months ago might not work for you now. And it is kind of this constant, I hate the word journey, but it is kind of a constant journey. And I think, like, for me, maybe the best thing that came out of going through all of that and trying so many things and not finding a solution was learning how to be really intuitive with my body. So that would be like the silver lining.

and it sounds like that was kind of your experience as well. So to start out, why don't we just kind of define bloating? Like what is bloating and what is it not? Maybe. Yeah, I know I love that question and I love when people ask that because I think it's important to differentiate what's normal and what's not. So bloating is distension and there's a huge scale of bloating. it would be normal to eat like a massive plate of broccoli and be pretty bloated after.

Broccoli is a gas forming food. You're going to be pretty bloated after you eat a plate of broccoli. And you should expect that and, you know, it should go away. Bloading like what we're referring to that we both experienced is like this chronic distension, this chronic feeling like you're full of hot air, chronic feeling like no matter what I eat, I am bloated or within an hour of eating, you feel like, okay, why do I look six months pregnant? Or by the end of the day, okay, I have to change my pants because I'm so bloated and nothing fits. We've had many clients in that situation, myself included.

So there's normal bloat from eating some foods and just becoming a little bit more bloated. And then there's chronic bloating, which, you know, typically results. it's in that six months pregnant feeling bloated towards the end of the day that happens regardless of what you eat and what you do and what supplements you try, et cetera. How long does it have to last for it to be considered chronic? I don't know that that's technically, that's actually a really good question. I don't know that there's like a definition of that, but I would say if you've experienced bloating that's daily or multiple times a week and you're feeling six months pregnant bloated

for more than a couple weeks, like there's something going on that you might want to look into. If it's like a day here and there, you know, maybe it's sleep related or stress related or you had food poisoning or something like that. But if it's happening day after day and there's nothing that's giving you relief, I would consider that chronic. Yeah, it sounds like we know our body's best and if it's not normal for us and it's not going away, that would be chronic. Yeah, and I love that you said that because, you know, like you said earlier, you know, one thing that comes out of the gut journey for a lot of people is that they're super in tune with their body. And I tell our clients that all the time, you know your body best and you know what feels good more than even I do. So if something doesn't feel right, then we need to look into it. This is a perfect time to tell you guys about one of my favorite remedies for bloating, which is, of course, my rider die array, Now, I want to make an obvious disclaimer here that if you are experiencing really abnormal

bloating, like what we're discussing in this episode where it's interfering with your life, it's causing you a lot of pain or distress, definitely seek professional help to rule out something serious. But if you find that you get bloating after like eating certain foods just kind of randomly or after heavy meals or around your period, et cetera, array could help you so much. So all of Array's products are formulated by a naturopathic doctor. They are all 100% natural, filler-free and organic. And what I really love about the bloat capsules in particular are that they were basically designed to give people food freedom. So like we're talking in this episode about

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that food was. And I never really had an issue. And they can also be taken for maintenance. So I've gone through periods where I will take a few before I go to sleep just to keep everything kind of soothed. So you figure out what works for you. They also have really amazing calm pills that have of magnesium and altheonine. I love those as well. And you guys should definitely go check them out. So you can go to array.com, A-R-R-A-E dot com, and use the code Blond F-L-E-E-F-I-L-E-S, at checkout for 10% off a one-time purchase or 25% off the first month of your subscription. So again, that's array.com and the code is blonde files. One thing that we know affects gut health in a major way is stress and anxiety. That is usually the

culprit for me. And even if I do all the lifestyle things, I still need help in that area sometimes. And that's where CBD comes in. And not just any CBD, but the purest, absolute highest quality certified organic hemp oil, which of course is by my friends over at Ned. So all of Ned's full-spectrum hemp oil is extracted from USDA certified organic hemp plants grown by an independent farmer in Colorado. They put so much thought into their products. And they're also very transparent. So there are third-party lab reports on their website that you guys can see so that you know exactly what you're putting into your body, which is so important when it comes to something that you're ingesting. And especially when it comes to CBD, when the market is so saturated with not so great

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You know, those things you are too embarrassed to talk about when it comes to dating, like when to say I love you, how to define the relationship. Well, we met at Acme touches upon all of those subjects and more, and we get right into it with our guests. and talk about their dating lives and also what not to do when it comes to dating because we're all kind of confused together. So you can tune in every Sunday to We met at Acme and maybe you can learn a thing or two while I learn a thing or two. So what are some of the common causes of chronic bloating? Some of the common causes that are often missed would be low stomach acid. That's a really common one.

intestinal dysbiosis, which I'll define that. When you have two to five pounds of bacteria in your gut, which is so crazy to think about, but you actually have more bacteria in your gut than you do cells on your body. So we could say maybe we're more bacteria than human. I don't know. But these bacteria should be fighting for you. And when the quote unquote bad bacteria outweigh the good, oftentimes you'll eat food and get extremely bloated.

And so when there's an imbalance of good and bad bacteria that is termed as dysbiosis, so that's another common cause. Other causes that people can actionably address right now would be like eating too quickly. Sometimes we're not chewing our food. If we're not chewing our food well, that's the first step of digestion. That can be a huge trigger for bloating, drinking lots of carbonated drinks, drinking through straws. That can cause bloating as well.

Typically, if you're six months pregnant bloated by the end of the day, it's not just because you're drinking lochroy all day long, but it could be. I don't know. as I'm drinking my sparkling water, by the way. It's a payoff, right? So like if you're drinking it and you know it's going to make you a little bloated, it's worth it because you know like it's delicious. So it's okay. Some other things that can cause bloating would be like not digesting your food very well or being constipated.

I know that's like not a sexy topic to talk about. But if you're not having a daily bowel movement, you're going to probably be pretty bloated because there's a lot of area for stool to accumulate in your gut. So those are, those are some of the top, I think, unaddressed things that typically cause bloating. I think the most challenging thing for anybody dealing with this is, like, where do you start? And this is what I really want to talk to you a lot about, because you work with people on how to get to the root cause and how to heal themselves without being super restrictive. And I think for a lot of people, you don't know what's causing it. So you start

taking things out. And then by the end of it, like, I'll speak for myself. I had eliminated gluten, dairy, corn, soy, sugar, eggs, green beans, flax seeds, trying to think what else. I mean, so many things. And, oh, FOD maps. I mean, everything. And you're kind of left with just this, I don't know, like you have to eat. It just. And then the stress around finding something to eat, it just gets very overwhelming, which of course is not conducive to having good digestion because then it's like a whole other added stress. So if someone's listening to this and they're like, this is me, I have chronic bloating. I feel six months pregnant. It's been going on for a long time. Maybe I can't afford

to enlist a professional to help me. Where do they start? Yeah. And I love that reflection of your own journey as well, because that's typically the journey of everyone. It's like, okay, well, I'm bloated. It must be because of something that I'm eating. And what I tell our clients all the time and what I'll tell the listeners as well is oftentimes if you're bloating, regardless of what you're eating, it's not really a food issue anymore. It's more of a processing issue. And so the solution might feel like, oh, well, if I can just figure out what food it is that's causing me to be bloated, then I won't be bloated anymore because food is tangible. You can see it, you can taste it, you can smell it. You can't necessarily see taste or smell your gut bacteria or your stomach acid

or anything like that. So it's a lot harder to conceptualize these things. So it's not necessarily the wrong pursuit that seems very reasonable, right? Like, okay, I'm eating, I'm getting bloated. What is it? So just to kind of like validate that that is a general like a recent. response that people have to their bloating is, okay, what food is it? But where to start? It's typically a combination of things. So what we typically do when we're working with someone and someone else can do this on their own as well is first look at when did you last feel good? You know, when did this start? Did this start as a result of food poisoning? Did it start as a result of a stressful incident? did it start as a result of taking a new medication? What was kind of the trigger? We typically will

have our clients kind of map out their health history from like birth until now, like looking at all the triggering events and see like, okay, when did I feel better? When did I feel worse? And what could potentially be some of the triggers here? Then looking at patterns and your symptoms. And sometimes this is a little bit harder to do on yourself because you're emotionally connected to it. But writing down, like not necessarily in like a calorie tracking kind of way, but like I ate this and I felt this way or I had this bowel movement. Looking at kind of all the patterns in your day, what the triggers are. Did you sleep well the night before? Did you go on a walk today? Were you out in the sun? Did you work a long night? You know, were you, did you have better symptoms because you were spending

time with people you loved and you were laughing, kind of looking at all these different patterns. And then we do utilize them testing also to help our clients get to, quote, unquote, the root of their symptoms. So we use some specialized stool testing to look at like their good gut bacteria. They're quote unquote bad gut bacteria, how they're digesting food, little friends that could be living inside of you, parasites, worms, et cetera, that give us a really, really good idea of what could be going on. But even if you don't. have access to that testing, I would start with the first two steps because usually if you're able to kind of trace it back to when you felt good last and what the patterns are, you have a lot

of information to go off of. So if somebody's like, I started getting bloated when I was on this medication or had to take antibiotics or something, I'm sure that's kind of a common one. Speaking from experience that happened to me, what would the next step be for them? So specific to antibiotics, you know, antibiotics are great. I think, you know, they save lives, but they can also destroy your gut balance because they not only kill the good bacteria, but they also kill the bad bacteria. And so it's very common, just like you, that someone might experience digestive symptoms after taking antibiotics.

So one thing that you can do is really look at like the quality of your diet and really what I mean by that is the variety of your diet. So those two to five pounds of bacteria that I was talking about earlier, each of those different strains of bacteria prefer different foods, which is why it's not a good long-term solution to eat only the same five foods. The gut bacteria that like green beans are different than the gut bacteria that like flax seeds. And so if you're eating only five foods, then you're restricting the diversity of gut bacteria. So if you've taken an antibiotic and you've kind of wiped out all the bacteria in your gut, and then you're only eating a couple different foods, you're not necessarily repopulating your gut in the best way

because there's only certain bacteria that like those foods. That being said, that might be easier said than done for some people. So some other things that you can do would be like taking a broad spectrum probiotic to help repopulate your gut. And you could go super, super slow. You don't have to even introduce one whole capsule at the same time. Making sure you're getting plenty of prebiotics in your diet as well. Those are the types of fibers that actually feed your probiotic bacteria. You can take prebiotics in a supplement. You can also get them from food. So that's something that you can definitely do. And then looking at all the other things that affect the gut, like, are you getting sunshine every day? Are you laughing every day? How's your stress management? How's your sleep? How much water are you

drinking? Like all of these things affect your gut. Okay, I have so many follow-up questions. I'll start with when is it appropriate to try eliminating foods? I mean, even if someone's like keeping a food diary and they're like, I don't know. Like it's just everything. Just everything is triggering me. Then would you say, okay, let's try eliminating this? I mean, I live in L.A., which as you know, nobody here eats gluten, nobody eats dairy, nobody eats sugar. But like how many people actually, if you're just not eating it because you think you feel better, whatever, but how many people actually benefit from not eating those things in particular? Yeah, well, I grew up in L.A., so I definitely understand. Yeah, I would say more people avoid it than need to. Again, like you said,

if you feel better, then, you know, that is great. But I would say, that, you know, it's pretty nuanced. Like a lot of times people don't necessarily need to avoid all dairy and all gluten. Maybe they can't tolerate dairy because they're lactose intolerant. And so a lactose-free form of dairy would work for them. Or something like goat cheese might work better because it's lower in lactose. Oftentimes the issue with gluten isn't actually the gluten itself. it's the fructans.

So you mentioned earlier that you had done low fodmap. Fructan is a type of fadmap that's a highly fermentable carbohydrate. So if you have bacterial imbalances or you have something going on in your gut, it makes it harder for you to tolerate fructans. And so a lot of times people are saying, oh, it's the gluten that's causing the problem. And it's actually the fructan that's causing the problem, not the gluten, which that might be more of a science lesson than people want.

But yeah, to answer your question, I would say more people probably avoid it than necessary and they maybe just need to consume a different form. So for example, like maybe fermented forms of dairy work better. So like yogurt or kefir or maybe like a sprouted form of gluten works better for them or like a sourdough form of gluten works better versus like a piece of whole wheat bread. So there's always like a big spectrum of ways that you. you can introduce things and ways that you can try things to see if it works for your body. So are you a proponent of like doing any kind of elimination diet or only under the care of a

dietitian or like how should people navigate that? I mean, I know that sometimes you can, if you're working with a dietitian, eliminate FODMAPs, for example, for a short period of time, but obviously those are rich in prebiotics, right? So you can't just starve the bacteria of that. So how do you navigate that part? Yeah. So I'm not 100% against elimination diets. I think they definitely have their time in place. I mean, especially if someone's in a huge flare in like everything you're eating is just causing you to not feel good, it might be helpful to do some kind of elimination.

But that being said, it might be helpful to do that with the guidance of someone who knows what they're doing. Because like you said, if you're just going to do low FodMap and you don't have a play. for reintroducing these things, you could be doing more harm in the long run than good if you're restricting all these prebiotic fibers that feed your good gut bacteria. So elimination with reintroduction, I think can be a great option for someone who isn't a flare or is just really like triggered by everything while you're getting the gut to settle down while you're addressing some of those underlying issues like I mentioned earlier. It might not be the worst thing to do. And obviously there's other things to consider, you know, if someone has a history of disordered eating or like can't even

eat enough calories right now to sustain their gut, then it's probably not appropriate. But I think there's a time and a place for sure. Let's talk about how all of this can kind of lead into disordered eating habits because I'm sure that you have so many people coming to you where they've kind of like eliminated themselves into this corner. And I know for me like I became definitely orthorexic for a while where I was like adamantly against, petrified of like any kind of food that had any bit of gluten, dairy, sugar, whatever that was like, you know, not deemed quote unquote, clean or healthy. How have you seen that in your practice? Yeah. Unfortunately, it's really, really common, like you said. You know, most of our clients have had some

disordered eating or maybe even an actual diagnosed eating disorder in their past. And it's sometimes a chicken or egg scenario where it's like, was it the gut issues that caused the eating disorder or the eating disorder that caused the gut issues? And it can go both ways for sure. So it's something that we're always conscious of when we're working with clients because you never want to create more fear. Sometimes the fear of the food itself causes more digestive problems than the actual food. You know, if you're sitting down to eat something and you're.

you're thinking, I'm going to get bloated. Your nervous system is responding to that. And instantly, you're bloated from eating that thing. And so working on like the mindset around food and the relationship with food and how you eat and when you eat and all that is so important as well. But yeah, there's a huge, huge overlap. I think too, just because like in our society, gut health has become so trendy where it's like to have a healthy gut, then you have to do X, Y, and Z or like do X, Y, and Z trend or take like X, Y, and Z supplement, which, again, there's a time and a place for all of these things, but people almost feel intimidated by improving their gut health because they feel like if I don't go to an extreme, I've been told or I've seen in the media that I won't ever feel better. And that's just a really sad place to be in. Yeah, I feel like gluten and dairy and these, you know, different foods have been kind of like demonized to the point where you feel like you're doing

something wrong if you eat them when you're in this place. Not everybody feels this way. And I totally can relate to like being caught in that loop of every meal sitting down, you know, wondering if this was going to cause a bad reaction or believing that it was going to cause a bad reaction. And that probably causing the reaction, not the food itself, which is kind of, ironic. What are some things that people can do when they're eating? Like you mentioned chewing. And that was something that my nutritionist years ago told me. And I was like, seriously, dude? Like. And then I, but then I sat down and when I actually paid attention, I was like, oh yeah, I'm chewing three times and then I'm swallowing. So what are some things that people can do,

aside from that, maybe around their meals that can help optimize their digestion? Yeah. And I love giving these tips because kind of like you just said, like they might seem super obvious, but most people don't do them. So I think if you actually can apply them and incorporate them, like you can notice a huge difference without even lifting your fork because digestion really truly does start before food ever even enters your mouth. So one thing that you can do is smell your food. There's this whole phase of digestion called the cephalic phase of digestion. There's actually research and science about it. But basically when you can think about a time where you've like walked past a bakery and you've

smelled that scone and you're like, I wasn't hungry until I smelled the scone and you start salivating, that saliva is then triggering your stomach to produce stomach acid and enzymes. So you can do that at home. You might not be making scones. But if you smell your food, you're stimulating that salivary response and that stomach acid response to help you digest your food. So that's one thing that you can do. Another thing that you can do is activate your vagus nerve. So this is like probably a whole episode in itself, but your gut and your brain are connected via your

vagus nerve. And when you stimulate your vagus nerve, you are getting your gut to contract. And it can help with bloating. It can help with digestion. It can help with constipation, et cetera. So one thing that you can do is hum happy birthday twice before you eat your meal. And that will help stimulate your vagus nerve. That's something you can do and get your kids to do, or your friends or your spouse or whoever is sitting with you. I'm going to do that tonight and my husband is going to be like, what the fuck are you doing? You can be like, just blame it on me. It's okay. Yeah. He's so used to all my antics by now. I would just do that completely unprompted and then tell me what happens after.

I will. But yes, hum happy birthday twice and freak everybody out that you're sitting with. You can chew, like you said, ideally you want to chew your food to applesauce consistency. So two, two, two, and then choose some more. And that can really, really help your digestion. And the other thing is like your thought process. So if you're having really negative thoughts about food, your body, your symptoms, think about how you can shift those thoughts, not even necessarily to a positive, but could you be neutral about it?

I think a lot of times people feel very intimidated by like, well, I'm so negative. about my symptoms or I'm so negative about my body. I can't possibly be positive, but could you be neutral? So instead of thinking, oh, this food is going to make me bloated, could you just shift to a space of this food is going to give me energy and just leave it at that and slowly start to shift your thoughts to this place of neutrality and then eventually potentially to a positive place of this food is going to, you know, give me energy and help me heal or help me recover from my bloating or whatever you want to add in there. But it could definitely be a process. So those would be some things that I would recommend doing to start. Since we're talking about gut health, this is the

perfect time to talk about getting to the root cause of digestive or other health issues, which could be linked back to the gut. So you guys probably know that there's a whole world in your gut like we're talking about in this episode, your gut microbiome. It's an ecosystem of good and bad bacteria and it impacts not only your digestive system, but it really influences your physical and emotional well-being. And when something is off in your gut, it can affect your entire body and even your mind. So I want to tell you about this amazing new brand that just launched Keene Health, although they are a new brand, their parent company has over 17 years of experience in the healthcare industry. And the keen health gut plus test is the perfect tool to take the guesswork out of gut health.

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blonde, that's B-L-O-N-D-E, if you visit keenhealth.com. That's K-E-A-N-Halth.com. Again, you guys can get 20% off with the code blonde at keenhealth.com. My next partner has a product that I literally use every day. Of course, I am talking about athletic greens. This is a daily habit that I implemented beginning last year, and it really simplified my morning routine and my overall wellness routine. So basically one scoop of athletic greens that I mix into about eight ounces of water with a couple ice cubes has 75 high quality vitamins, minerals, whole food sourced, superfoods, probiotics and adaptogens that really help to just start your day right. It is easily absorbable by your body, which a lot of supplements are not.

And also it kind of eliminates the need for so many different supplements because it has everything packed into that one scoop. I personally love it because it's just such a simple routine. Like I said before, I do it in the morning, before I have my matcha, before I do my workout. And I just get like a little bit of energy. I feel like my gut health has been so much better since I started doing it. And I just feel like all my bases are covered. So since we're talking about gut health in this episode, a little backstory. on why Athletic Greens was created is that the founder experienced a ton of gut health issues and ended up on a super complicated supplement routine to recover that cost him over $100 a day.

And he created Athletic Greens after experiencing how difficult it was to create an optimal nutrition routine on your own. And Athletic Green's is also lifestyle friendly, whether you eat keto, paleo, vegan, dairy-free, or gluten-free. It contains less than one gram of sugar, which so many regular green juices have tons of sugar. It has no GMOs, no chemicals, no artificial anything, and it still tastes really good. I think it tastes a little bit like pineapple with a little hint of vanilla, but it's not overly sweet. It also supports better sleep quality and recovery. It helps to support mental clarity and alertness. And it's basically just the one thing with all of the best things. So right now, it's time to reclaim your health and

arm your immune system with convenient daily nutrition, especially heading into the flu and cold season. And to help you support your body even more, Athletic Greens is going to give you a free one-year supply of immune-supporting vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athletic greens.com slash blondefiles. Again, that's athletic greens.com slash blonde files to take ownership over your health. What are some egregious bloating myths that you've seen floating around the internet? If there are any that come to mind for bloating and digestion, I guess. I'm trying to think probably the one that I get the most, and I think it's top of mind because

someone asked me about it yesterday, but that celery juice fixes bloat. And I mean, if you want to drink celery juice, drink celery juice, that is totally fine. But most of the time, I think the reason that people feel better when they drink it is because they're hydrating and they are drinking more fluid and that's helping them go to the bathroom. So that's just something to keep in mind. You know, yeah, celery juice does have some minerals in it, which is great. But like typically if you have like chronic bloating or sebo, the celery juice, it could be a piece of it, but it's probably not going to like completely fix it.

Do you think some of that is placebo effect too? Like if people are drinking it and they think and they're like, oh my God, I think I'm actually feeling better. yeah, wait, like this isn't happening in it. And then if you're truly internalizing that and you truly believe that, I mean, the placebo effect is real, right? Totally. And I tell clients all the time, I'm like, if you think it's working, then great. Like, keep doing it. I mean, obviously, you know, depending on what it is. But like, you know, even if it is a placebo effect, it's kind of that nervous system response. If you believe something's going to work for you, it probably will. So same thing. If you believe something's not going to work for you, it probably won't. So if you think

it's working and it's helping, then great. Like, go for it. What are some other miss? Probably just the extremes. Like, honestly, those are the things that like drive me the most nuts is I just think the messaging of gut health in general. People think, like I said earlier, like unless I am extreme, then I cannot have a healthy gut. And that's just not the case. So, you know, if you take, if you have to take antibiotics one time, you're not like screwed for the rest of your life. Or if you eat gluten in the form of your birthday cake, you're not like set back six months or anything like that. There's like, you have to live your life as well. Yeah.

Yeah. People always ask me about food combining because I feel like that's a really popular thing. And anytime I have like an expert on my show, I ask them about it, my understanding is that like there's no perfect carb. There's no perfect protein, no perfect fat. So like even if you think you're doing food combining, like you're still combining all these different things. what is your professional take on that? Because that's one that really got super popular, especially on like TikTok. It is. Yeah, I feel like it's kind of up there with like some of the other fads right now, like keto and everything else. But I think you answered it. Like there's no perfect like food. There's no like one thing that you should be eating at one time. And I've seen a lot of clients develop really restrictive and disordered habits around food combining.

that then really negatively affect their digestion. And there's like absolutely no science to support at all that food combining works. So I think for a lot of people, it probably is placebo kind of like you mentioned earlier. But the question that I always ask people whenever they're wanting to try something is like, can you do this long term? You know, like there might be short term things that you have to do to feel better and that's different. But like how is this going to affect your life on the day to day?

you know, if you can't eat certain things at certain times, like, how does that affect, like, the overall quality of your life? Mm-hmm. Let's talk about some non-food lifestyle things that can affect bloating either positively or negatively. So what are some things that we might not think of right off the bat? Yeah, one of the biggest is sleep. I think, like, especially in, like, this day and age in our, like, go, go, go culture, it's kind of like, I'll sleep when I'm dead and, like, rest,

never. And that was one of the biggest things for me is I always had that mentality of like, I don't need sleep. I'm someone who can like function with no sleep and I'll wake up early to run every day and I'm fine. And I did not realize how like overtrained my body was and how underrested. When you sleep, you actually rest and digest. And if you're not sleeping enough, you're not resting and digesting. And so one of the biggest shifts that we see with our clients and that I've seen personally in my own life is getting enough sleep and how that really helps your body to repair and heal and digest and they can make a huge difference. The other piece is hydration. Sounds really, really obvious, but drinking enough water and making sure you're getting

enough minerals throughout the day can definitely make a huge difference. Sometimes more water is not necessarily better. It's more that you need more minerals. or electrolytes in your water to help actually enhance hydration. So that's something that we can see as that we see as well in our clients. And then kind of along like the rest side of things, another thing that we see that really helps our clients is actually scaling back on exercise. I think kind of on the same thing on the same theme of like,

I'll sleep when I'm dead. It's kind of this mentality of like the harder the workout, the better. And again, there's a time and a place. but for a lot of our clients, like when they're on their healing journey, they do need to scale back on their exercise because their body is working so hard to heal that yoga and Pilates and walking in some of these lower intensity exercise routines are much more beneficial than like waking up at 6 a.m. to do a hit workout every single day. I feel like it's hard. I'm sure some people feel like they if they can't eat anything, they lose weight. But I feel like sometimes. with the bloating too. You get a little bit like dysmorphic about your body and so you think that you need to exercise because maybe you're kind of confusing the bloat with weight around your midsection. So you feel like you have to exercise more. And that as you're saying, it sounds like

it kind of exacerbates the symptoms a lot. Oh, 100%. Yeah. Because you think, oh, I'm bloated. Therefore, I need to lose weight. And the reality is you don't. It's just that you're bloated and rest is actually going to help you the most, even though it's so counterintuitive to what you've been told or what you think you should do. So we talked earlier, you mentioned a little bit about like prebiotics, probiotics, supplements. I have a few questions about that. So with prebiotics, if somebody is low FODMAP, are they, they are having a reaction to FODMAPs? Can they still take prebiotic supplements? or does that have the same kind of effect on that bacteria as like if you were eating a FODMAP? Yeah, that's a great question.

There are certain ones that you can take. So there are specific low FODMap prebiotic fibers. So like Sun Fiber is a great example of that. There's a product called Regular Girl that's pretty popular that a lot of low FodMap people will take. And so that's pretty tolerable. You're going to be feeding your good bacteria without. maybe some of the fermentable side effects of FODMAPs. And another indirect way that you can get not exactly prebiotic fiber,

but the same effect as prebiotic fiber is resistant starch. So resistant starch is kind of an emerging science, but it happens when you, for example, like cook and cool a potato. So think any starch, potatoes, rice, et cetera. If you cook a potato and you cool it to room temperature, then it actually increases the amount of resistant starch. And even if you reheat it, it still maintains that level of resistant starch.

And resistant starch does actually feed your gut bacteria in a similar fashion as a prebiotic fiber does, but with less of the gut side effects. Similarly, there's a whole classification of foods called polyphenols. It's found in like cranberries and green tea and chocolate and blueberries and a lot of foods that people actually really love. And those act similarly to prebiotic fibers as well and can feed good gut bacteria. So there are some workarounds and things that you can do if you are on low FodMap or feel really limited by FodMaps and are working on adding them in. And then as far as probiotics, what should people look for in a probiotic? Or is it different for different people?

It's totally different for different people. So the analogy that I like to give for this is just, Just like if you had a migraine and you went to the pharmacy, you would want to know exactly what medication to take and what dose and for how long to take it. Same thing with probiotics. They are bacteria and they all have different jobs. So if you are constipated, that's going to be different than if you have a UTI or if you have cardiovascular disease. There are probiotics that do specific things.

So it's important to make sure that you match the strain of the probiotic with the condition that you're trying to treat. There's lots of resources for this. There's a site called Probiotic Advisor where you can actually look up probiotics. I published a couple of papers on like different strains of probiotics and like what foods there in and what supplements and all sorts of stuff too. But in general, if you Google like probiotic for, you know, X, Y, and Z,

you'll be able to find some research about the different strains that you might need. So more is not necessarily better. Just because it's 50 billion doesn't mean it's better than it's, the 2 billion probiotic. It depends what you need it for. And the strains matter. Yeah, I was going to ask, like, can you take the wrong strain that can exacerbate whatever symptoms you're having? Yeah. Sometimes people find that probiotics make their symptoms worse. And it's not necessarily going to make your condition worse, usually, that they might make your symptoms worse. And if you're having trouble tolerating probiotics, it's probably a sign of a deeper

gut issue that needs to be addressed first or it just might be too strong. Sometimes, especially with like the spore-based probiotics, you can get pretty bloated by taking those. And just because you're having symptoms doesn't necessarily mean that it's bad. It just means that it's affecting your gut. And so going slow can definitely help. But if you just really can't tolerate probiotics or any type of fermented food like a yogurt or kefir or anything, it could be a sign that your gut needs a little love before you start introducing something like that. And then are there any like gut supporting supplements or even just things like ginger tea? I mean, is that really beneficial?

Is there something that people should be looking for if they want to like maybe have something after dinner that's like very calming? Yeah, there's lots of really simple supplements or even teas that you can do that really improved digestion. One of the best things for digestion is bitter herbs. So if you're really struggling with like that post-meal bloat or feeling like your stomach is just like gurgly or not feeling super great, either like digestive bitters or consuming more bitter foods. So things like dandelion, root, arugula, et cetera, those foods are really helpful at stimulating digestive juices and can be super beneficial. Even like really bitter, dark chocolate can kind of do the trick as well.

So an excuse to have more of that. But bitter foods and like bitter tonics can be really helpful. Ginger tea like you mentioned is amazing, especially if you struggle with incomplete bowel movements or bloating. Ginger is amazing at getting the gut to move. So a couple cups of ginger tea a day can be wonderful for that. Omega-3s are amazing for gut health. So found in like salmon and fatty fish,

there's actually research showing that omega-3s actually help increase the diversity of your gut. So consuming more of those types of foods. But overall, honestly, the best thing for your gut is diversity. So trying to include as many different types of fibers from plants as possible and not just fruits and vegetable plants, things like nuts and seeds and legumes and herbs and spices. If you can think of food more from an abundant standpoint and more from a standpoint of, hey, what can I add to this versus what do I need to take away? Your gut's going to be. in pretty good shape. Yeah, that was my last question.

It was going to be, can we get everything that we need through our diet for the most part? I would say sometimes. Sometimes people can. The largest study on gut health by the American Gut Health Project was showing that the more diversity of foods you can eat, the healthier your gut is long term. And what they found was 30 different plants a week is kind of what is like the benchmark. And so that might sound overwhelming. But really, if you think about, like, let's say you made a salad and you had, you know,

spinach and kale and mushrooms and tomatoes and maybe you had some berries on there and some walnuts and you had an olive oil and something else, that's already seven or eight different plants in one meal. So if you're thinking about 30 a week, it really is doable, especially if you're consuming, you know, grain bowls or salads or smoothies or things that are easy to add to or trail mixes that you can add to. So in general, I think most people can, but if you're really struggling with gut issues, you might not be at a place where that's possible right now. And that's okay. Low and slow is the motto. If you're eating five foods, you probably aren't going to eat 30 tomorrow.

But if you're slowly kind of adding things in and making an effort to slowly address whatever's going on in your gut, that will be possible for you. Yeah, that was actually my last question, which is going to be if somebody's listening to this and they're like, okay, I've like restricted myself down to nothing. I want to start reintroducing things. Is it just like maybe one thing a week or for two weeks or how slow is slow? Yeah. And that's going to be different for everyone. So I would say like not to be cheesy, but like trust your gut. You know your body best. So for some people, that might be one thing a week for others. Maybe it's two or three things a week. And as you kind of build that then it gets a little bit easier. But yeah, slow and steady wins the race. You don't need to go from five foods to 30 foods in one day. Nolan is expecting you to do that. So whatever makes you feel comfortable.

Amazing. Well, I think that's going to help so many people. I mean, there's so much information there for everybody, regardless of what they're dealing with. But if someone wants to work with you or find out more, how can they do that and where can they find you? Yeah. So you can find me on Instagram. That's where I hang out the most. My handle is Dr. Heather Finley. You can also check out my website. It's Dr. Heather Finley.com. And there's information about our different programs and things that we do there. But if you learned anything, please reach out and let me know like what stuck out to you. I love chatting with people over on Instagram. Amazing. Thank you so much for coming on. Yeah. Thanks for having me.

that episode. If you liked it, and if you like the show in general, please take a second to rate, review, and subscribe. It goes a long way, and it's actually the best way to support the show. Also, if you want to see more about each episode, you can head over to The Blonde Files podcast on Instagram. I'm always posting about each episode there or over on my personal page at Ariel Lorry.