3 Common Ingredients To Avoid Because They Hurt Your Gut Microbiome Balance | Ep. 139

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I'm Bridget Walton, a Women's Hormone Coach helping ambitious women ages 25-40 naturally restore hormone balance, fix irregular periods, feel confident in their fertility, and resolve gut health issues without restrictive dieting.

If you struggle with missing periods, PCOS symptoms, bloating, or unpredictable cycles, this women's health podcast will teach you how to support your hormones through strategic nutrition and lifestyle changes that actually fit your busy life.

On I'm Hormonal, you'll discover natural solutions for period problems, learn how gut health impacts your hormones, and get practical hormone balance tips from a functional nutrition perspective - no more guessing what your body needs.

This episode give you 3 sneaky, common ingredients that have a negative impact on your gut microbiome. Want to support better long term hormone health? Start by becoming aware of your exposure to these 3 ingredients and then making a plan to reduce or eliminate consumption of them. You've got this.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Gut Health Drives Hormone Health
• 0:42 Link to Antibiotics & Today’s Focus
• 1:09 Ingredient #1: Refined Sugar/HFCS
• 2:11 Ingredient #2: Artificial Sweeteners
• 4:05 Ingredient #3: Emulsifiers in Processed Foods
• 4:51 Three-Step Action Plan & CTA
• 5:22 Disclaimer & Stay Connected

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

The health of your gut is absolutely critical for your hormone health. And that is why today we are going to be talking about three common ingredients in food that could be disrupting your gut microbiome and maybe even contributing to an imbalance in your gut microbes. Welcome to the I'm Hormonal Podcast. I'm Bridget Walton, a women's hormone coach, helping busy, ambitious women through personalized coaching and science-backed solutions. Whether you are working with me one-on-one or listening here, my goal is the same. Help you to stop guessing about your hormone health and start seeing real progress. So let's get into it. If you listened to this week's earlier episode, you will be already understanding how antibiotics can throw your gut health for a loop. And this is a continuation of that conversation. Because, as I mentioned just a moment ago, we're gonna be talking about three everyday ingredients that can be, you know, secretly contributing to these imbalances. So let's just go ahead and hit Numido Uno. The first ingredient that I want you to be hyper aware of is refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup. These ingredients, this ingredient can directly feed opportunistic bacteria. For example, you may have heard of yeast like candida. These are um these are components of your gut that really love a little sweet treat. And if you're over there thinking, Bridget, you cannot seriously be telling me to just not consume sugar ever again. I hear you. For some people, right? No, first. For all of us, our bodies are designed to break down these sugars, yes. But if you have some type of imbalance or I don't know, if you're listening to this podcast because you are looking for a solution to something that is a little bit out of whack, then um paring down your refined sugar, your high fructus corn syrup consumption is going to be an absolutely solid first step. Now, let's move on to item number two, which gosh, are you over there thinking, cool, I will just swap my Coca-Cola for a diet coke? Well, I hate to break it to you then because the second ingredient that I want to talk to you about are artificial sweeteners. So thinking of like sucralose or aspartame, those are some of the common names that you might be familiar with. There have been studies that show that these artificial sweeteners can alter gut microbiome composition and can potentially reduce the beneficial bacteria in your gut as well. So remembering that the beneficial gut, when the beneficial bacteria rather, um, if they are in low quantities, if they're not super abundant, then that could allow space for these other opportunistic or kind of bad guys to flourish. So artificial sweeteners, could they be a net positive in some regards? If blood sugar is a huge thing for you and you are trying to um really reel in your blood sugar, maybe an artificial sweetener would be supportive for your goals. Actually, that being said, you can still have a blood sugar spike, even if you're consuming an artificial sweetener. Aside from that, though, I'm saying this to say avoiding these will absolutely be helping you to A, investigate what's going on with your gut health, B, support optimal gut health, and B, it's gonna be a good um, a good emphasis for you, good suggestion, reminder for you to focus on those whole foods anyway, because that's where you're gonna get the most nutrients. They're of course going to be the least processed, and that's what I would love for you to focus on. This brings me right into everyday food number three, or I should say another ingredient. And this one is an emulsifier that's found in processed foods. So a couple of examples are um carboxymethylcellulose, also polysorbate 80. What these do, um, they can disrupt the mucus layer that protects your gut lining. So when you eat foods that are highly processed, if they have these ingredients in them, it's just another source of inflammation for your gut lining and can be, of course, disrupting the actual balance of those bacteria of the microbes within your gut. So this is just a little mini short episode. Three suggestions for you. Consider, like first, what is your exposure to refined sugar or high fructus corin syrup? What is your exposure to artificial sweeteners or to emulsifiers found in processed foods? Once you have an idea of your interactions with them. Second, make a plan to reduce that. Third, make a plan to track any changes that you observe, improvements or otherwise, so that you can get more of these clues. You are your own detective as you figure out what is going to be helpful for you and what is going to get you closer to your hormone health goals. That is just about all I've got for you today. Go ahead and share this episode with a friend or with your roommate or partner because what's a better way to influence what you're eating and get on a different track than sharing this with other people in your life that you're eating food with, that you are consuming liquids with. Shouldn't be used as a replacement for any sort of medical advice or diagnosis. Thank you so much for listening. Again, my name is Bridgia Walton, and I will see you on the next one. Hit me up on Instagram at I'm underscore hormonal if you have any questions in the meantime.