Real Food Solutions for Diarrhea

Transcript:

Melanie: Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition. I'm Melanie Beasley, a Registered and Licensed Dietitian, and today we're going to talk about a topic that might make some folks squirm a little: diarrhea. Yep. We're going there because guess what? It's more common than you think.

Britni: It sure is.

Melanie: And I think a lot of people don't talk about it, because it's embarrassing. But we're here to offer hope because you can get back to having control over your bowel movements with the right diet plan and gut healing protocol. So I see it with my clients, Britni, I know you do too all the time.

Britni: Yeah.

Melanie: We talk about stool and diarrhea almost on a daily basis. What I love is I love to see my clients period. But then I love to see the look on their face when they go from having diarrhea, the embarrassment of it to having control over their bowels again and feeling like there's hope in their world.

Britni: Yes.

Melanie: And that they're not going to be embarrassed at every turn. It's so rewarding to see my clients get that control back in their life. So if you are currently experiencing diarrhea, that is really, it's taking control of your life, keep listening because we're going to share some knowledge with you today that could be life-changing information, and I want to welcome my cohost, Britni Vincent. She is also a Registered and Licensed Dietitian, so welcome to the topic, Britni.

Britni: Thank you. I’m, yeah, I am glad we're talking about this. And, because people are so embarrassed to talk about it.

Melanie: And don’t you find that clients always say, I know this is TMI, and I'm like, there is no TMI in this office.

Britni: That's exactly what I say. I feel like I've heard it all and at this point, nothing really eeks me.

Melanie: No. In fact, we want to know what's happening with their stool because we can't unzip them.

Britni: We’re asking a lot of details.

Melanie: We are asking.

Britni: Wanting you to look in the toilet, examine, and then provide us that feedback.

Melanie: Yes, we are the poop police.

Britni: Yeah. And, and because people don't talk about it, people don't really know what your bowel movements should look like. So I think that's part of the issue too, is, you know, somebody could be suffering from diarrhea but don't realize how abnormal that really is.

Melanie: And that it's fixable.

Britni: Yes.

Melanie: That's the good news.

Britni: It's so fixable.

Melanie: Yeah. I mean, I think it's really heartbreaking when people come in, they're dealing with diarrhea on a regular basis. They're afraid to leave their house, or if they do, they need to know exactly where the bathroom is in case they have urgent diarrhea. And then there starts to become this anxiety cycle as well, because they get really anxious to go anywhere outside of their home. 'cause you just don't know when it's going to happen.

Melanie: Yes. Or you're living long-term on Imodium.

Britni: Yes.

Melanie: I have a lot of clients. That's not great for you either.

Britni: Yeah. And sometimes that anxiety cycle can just exacerbate those symptoms. But today we are going to talk about first, what could be causing this? And then what you can do to get back to having healthy bowel movements.

What goes on in our gut & why is gut health important?

Melanie: Yeah, I love this. So let's start with some simple biology explaining what goes on in our gut. And our delicate intestinal wall is only one cell thick and it acts as a barrier that selectively allows nutrients in and keeps harmful substances out. That's the goal. A healthy gut lining prevents leaky gut, which is when undigested food particles, bacteria, and toxins can escape into the bloodstream, causing immune reactions or inflammation. So it's really, really important part of our overall health. And it's not just, just your “guts”.

Britni: Yeah.

Melanie: I think it's like your second brain.

Britni: Mm-hmm.

Melanie: The microbiome inside of your intestinal wall is made up of a delicate balance of trillions of bacteria. They all need to work in harmony and ideally we want a healthy ratio of good bugs outweighing the harmful bugs. And when our microbiome is healthy and those good bugs are thriving, we feel great. We have healthy digestion and elimination. We have good energy, we have good moods and focus, and our immune systems stay strong.

So you, you didn't know that your bowels and your digestive process all had this kind of effect on your body. Well, when those bad bugs take over, we feel the opposite way. Here's some things that you might experience, you might feel run down, lethargic, brain fog. You get sick easily and suffer from gastrointestinal issues like gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, and even vomiting.

Britni: Not fun symptoms. And then, you know, sometimes it affects other areas of the body. So it's not just digestive symptoms that poor gut health are going to impact. It could be joint pain, headaches, migraines, all sorts of other things.

Melanie: Yeah, joint pain. It's a surprising one, right?

How do we support a healthy gut & what can compromise it?

Britni: Yeah. Yeah. So this, the gut health is critical to our entire body. And so how do we support a healthy gut? In short, we want to be feeding our good bacteria by eating a diet of real whole foods rich in gut healing nutrients like amino acids and fiber, avoiding those ultra processed foods as much as possible, which…

Melanie: Tell, tell everyone what an ultra processed food would be.

Britni: You know, any pasta, bread, candy, baked goods, crackers, all of those things.  

Melanie: Pop-Tarts. They used to be my favorite drug of choice.

Britni: Oh yeah.

Melanie: Early days as a kid.

Britni: Yes. Yep. Absolutely. And I mean, all of those ultra processed foods are going to be low in fiber and nutrients in general. And so they're just not supporting good gut health, and in fact, they can make your gut health worse.

Mel: Yeah. They kind of kill off the good bacteria.

Britni: Yeah.

Melanie: And they feed, which, you know, we didn't really mention, but you have yeast in there. And the good bacteria and the yeast keep each other in check. And those ultra processed foods are feeding the yeast. I just went to dinner with some friends this weekend and she was telling me probably 20 years ago that she had yeast overgrowth. She had vomiting, migraines, and diarrhea all the time.

Britni: Oh, that's awful.

Melanie: And rashes. And it was yeast overgrowth. And I know her, she eats a lot of ultra processed foods and it was worse back in the day. So it can really affect you.

Britni: Absolutely. Unfortunately in today's world, there are so many other environmental factors outside of what we're actually putting in our mouth to eat that also compromise our gut. So it could be pollutants in our drinking water. We talked about sugar in our food, and stress has a very negative impact on our gut health as well.

Melanie: I think that's a big surprise for people.

Britni: Yeah. Of course antibiotics.

Melanie: Yeah, those are the direct bullet to your good probiotics in your gut,

Britni: And we're going to dive into how we're going to support that healthy gut with those probiotics in addition to, like we already talked about, those whole rich foods. We'll touch on that later in the show.

Melanie: Yeah, and I want to go back to the over the counter medications also that people take for pain and muscle aches or acid reflux. I think a lot of people think of them as being harmless since you can buy them at the store without a doctor's prescription; well, I am old enough to remember that the only pain medication you could buy over the counter in the eighties was aspirin.

Melanie: You couldn’t get Tylenol. You couldn't get ibuprofen. So then Tylenol became available to us, and then the next was ibuprofen. Well, I think it lulls you into a sense of safety that it's not prescription. But it used to be a prescription.

Britni: That's interesting to think about.

Melanie: Yeah. And many people take over the counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like Aleve, ibuprofen, aspirin, and acid reflux medications daily for years to manage the discomfort that they don't realize is from the impact of those medications on the microbiome and the gut. In fact, I have a friend and she had such bad headaches. She was taking a lot of Aleve. And she developed a gastric ulcer.

Britni: I know somebody that the same thing happened. He was in chronic pain, took too many and, and then if that happens, you have to be ultra cautious going forward, because it can happen again.

Melanie: Yes. And that's so painful. Yeah. It's such a painful process.

Britni: Well, we can't talk about gut health and these chronic digestive symptoms without bringing up gluten. Those who have autoimmune celiac disease, I mean they can't tolerate any amount of gluten.

Melanie: None: cross contamination. Nothing.

Britni: For them, gluten is going to trigger that immune response, which actually damages the villi, which are like microscopic finger-like projections in our small intestine. And those villi are what help us to absorb our nutrients. So if you're celiac and you get even cross-contaminated with gluten, those villi get damaged.

Melanie: Yeah. Sort of sliced and diced. And there, if you think of them as sort of a shag carpet, that's a, on a microscopic level, you have this little shag carpet and in every little shag piece is where you absorb nutrients.

Britni: Mm-hmm.

Melanie: And convert vitamins to their activated forms. So they become malnourished quickly.

Britni: Yep. So important that those villi are healthy.

Melanie: Yeah.

Britni: And then for some individuals, diarrhea could result from malabsorption, inflammation, increased intestinal motility. And with celiac the symptoms vary quite a bit as far as what their reaction to gluten is. But beyond celiac disease, it's common to have symptoms of gluten intolerance that you wouldn't necessarily intuitively know were linked to gluten. Because the reality is you're not always getting a response to a food right away. Like if you have diarrhea from a food, it might not necessarily be from the last thing you ate. And so that's what makes it really difficult to connect all the pieces to what's actually causing the issues.

Mel: And you don't have to have celiac disease to have a gluten intolerance. So you may have been tested for celiac and it was negative. However, I would say 80% of my clients that have gluten intolerance don't have celiac.

Britni: Yeah. Yep.

Melanie: It's a really top offender.

Britni: It absolutely is. And in the case of non-celiac gluten sensitivity, those villi are still going to be damaged. They're not going to be damaged to the extent of somebody who has celiac, but they're still going to be damaged. They're still going to affect your absorption. And then, of course, for…

Melanie: And inflame your body.

Britni: Yeah.

Melanie: Because we, you know, circling back to what you had said earlier is that some of the symptoms of poor intestinal health can be body aches.

Britni: Yes, absolutely.

Melanie: And you are like, my gut may feel fine, but my body hurts all over. We remove that gluten and the inflammation in the gut goes away that you may not have been aware of. And that only does it resolve your diarrhea, but it resolves the joint pain.

Britni: Yep.

Mel: So it's pretty complicated.

Britni: It is so complicated and not, you know, not always obvious. So no matter if you have celiac or not, gluten can still damage and irritate the lining of the small intestine. It is a major cause of that leaky gut that you were talking about earlier, Melanie. This can, like I said, lead to poor absorption of food, trigger the body to move food through too quickly, resulting in loose stools.

Melanie: I know we both have those clients that will say, well, I have constipation, but then about every three or four days I have flushing diarrhea. So that's, that's you, you fit in the diarrhea category. And I've seen a lot of clients who say, I've had chronic diarrhea for years and nothing has helped, but then they remove gluten a hundred percent.

They're amazed at the improvement. I had a young client in his twenties. And he thought it was normal to have 10 watery diarrhea stools a day because he always had.

Britni: Oh, that's awful.

Melanie: And it was getting to the place where he was spontaneously vomiting and couldn't get to the bathroom on time. And you can imagine in your twenties how devastating this can be. He had a whole host of other symptoms. When we removed gluten within a week he started having normal stools and he didn't think he was capable.

Britni: Wow. That's amazing.

Melanie: Yeah. To think that that's normal.

Britni: That’s life changing.

Melanie: Yeah, life changing.

Britni: Yeah.

Melanie: So it's important to note that many processed gluten containing foods, think bread, cereals, crackers, pasta, all of the additives are in there as well, like glyphosate that further irritate the digestive system. So it's not just the gluten, it's the whole inflammatory package that we're trying to remove to heal a client. But let's go to our first break. We'll talk some more about diarrhea when we come back.

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Britni: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. Melanie and I are discussing diarrhea, the causes, and then what you can do about it to help to get back to having normal formed bowel movements.

Melanie: We're going there.

Britni: We are going there. We're talking all about it, and before the break we were talking about gluten because that is a huge cause of digestive symptoms and then diarrhea and so the best way to go about it is to just think of it as an experiment. Decide you're going to eliminate gluten for a few weeks and eliminate it 100%.

Melanie: You can't play. When people say, well, I cut back quite a bit and it didn't seem to help.

Britni: Yeah.

Melanie: You have to, you have to eliminate a hundred percent.

Britni: You do.

Melanie: And really gluten, 99% of it in the US comes from wheat.

Britni: Mm-hmm.

Melanie: So if you're unsure, if it says wheat on a label, A, ask yourself why there is a label; this is a processed food. But B, read. And if you see the word wheat, that's gluten and that is the top offender.

Britni: Yep. Because legally they have to disclose that it contains wheat. So eliminate it a hundred percent for a few weeks, and then at that point, if you feel better, your diarrhea goes away. It's your choice.

Melanie: It's your choice.

Britni: Do you want to eat gluten and have diarrhea, or do you want to be gluten free and not have diarrhea?

Mel: Yeah.

Britni: And, but I think, just committing to three weeks, it feels more manageable and then after that you can decide. But I've had a lot of clients that struggle with the idea of doing it because it feels really difficult, but after talking through it and strategies, they commit to doing it for three weeks and then they feel so much better, it's not even worth it.

Melanie: Or they go on vacation.

Britni: Yes.

Melanie: And they indulge and then their vacation is spent in the bathroom and they're like, this is really a thing for me.

Britni: Yep.

Melanie: And I'm like, you know this, it's nothing wasted because now you know this is really the culprit for you.

Britni: Yep.

Melanie: So, you know, if you end up falling off the wagon, so to speak and you get diarrhea, it's just confirmation.

Britni: Yeah. Absolutely.

Melanie: That’s what you need to avoid.

Britni: Absolutely.

Melanie: And I do want to say that when you go out to eat and they have cornbread, it always comes with flour in there.

Britni: Oh yes.

Melanie: There's gluten in there. So don't trust that. Don't trust the menu.

What can I eat if I need to be gluten-free?

Britni: Yes. The great thing is there are tons of naturally gluten-free foods. If you frame it that way, then it feels like you have so many options to eat instead of going down the list of saying, if I'm gluten-free, I can't have this, I can't have that. That feels so much more negative.

Melanie: It does. I mean, when you think about it, I love that you said you have to frame it. All meat, all fish, all nuts, all seeds, all vegetables, all fruits are gluten-free. So there is plenty to eat.

Britni: Lots to eat. Both of us are gluten-free.

Melanie: Yes.

Britni: I eat delicious meals and I don't miss it.

Melanie: And every recipe on our website at weightandwellness.com, every recipe is gluten-free. There is not one recipe that has gluten in it, if that tells you anything about how we feel about gluten. But removing it from your diet a hundred percent can, it can be overwhelming. Make some of those recipes, that's, that's what we're here for.

If you're struggling and you need a meal plan, Britni or I or any of our nutritionists be happy to work out a meal plan for you.

Britni: Absolutely.

Melanie: With the recipes. So. We can do that for you. It's very sustainable, it's very satisfying. It's not really that restrictive or overwhelming. We do discourage our clients from running out and buying a bunch of processed gluten-free foods because they're processed.

Britni: Yep.

Melanie: And most of the staff here at Nutritional Weight & Wellness eat gluten-free. And none of us are suffering.

Britni: No, we are not.

Melanie: And we do eat out. We go on vacation. We go to weddings, we manage.

Britni: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, when I went gluten-free I, in my head, what helped me is I just decided to think of it as I live a gluten-free lifestyle.

Melanie: Mm. That's good.

Britni: And so it, felt less restrictive and it felt like this is just how I live and this is what is best for my body.

Melanie: Yes. And then it, here's the thing, is that when you start eating real food, which for me was 2007 because I was very, very ill and I was diagnosed allergic to wheat, dairy, gluten, corn, and a host of other things. And I was a dietitian at the time. But I remember thinking, what am I going to eat? Because you never heard of anything gluten free.

Britni: Yeah.

Melanie: It wasn't a buzz word out there. But once you figure it out, I figured out a little at a time, then it trickled down to my family. So my girls ate better. My family ate better. I was feeding them more nourishing real foods. So when you think, well, what am I going to feed your family? Well you’re going to feed them real food that's going to keep their health going?

Britni: Yes, absolutely. I love that point. And you know, everybody is different in how they want to approach it. Yeah. In my house, we don't even have anything gluten.

Melanie: We don't either.

Britni: And that just makes it easier. Mm-hmm. It's all real food. And if you're just starting off this gluten-free path, you know, to start with, it, maybe it is easier for some people to just focus on themselves. It really depends on your comfort level, or some people just decide their whole family is gluten-free.

Melanie: Yeah. I decided either way, if I can't eat it, I'm not making it for everybody. And we had delicious food. Everybody was fine. Nobody complained. So, but you know, I cooked in the kitchen.

The sugar connection to digestive symptoms

Britni: Yeah. It means cooking food. Well, let's talk about sugar. People do not always connect sugar to their digestive symptoms, especially diarrhea. And you know, a lot of people overlook the natural sugars that may also contribute to diarrhea.

Melanie: You’re talking honey, molasses, maple syrup.

Britni: Yep.

Melanie: Natural.

Britni: Yep. Still sugar.

Melanie: Still sugar.

Britni: And you know, you might not realize that consuming too much sugar will actually pull water into the intestines and cause diarrhea, and even eating too much fruit can do this.

Melanie: Because fructose is natural sugar.

Britni: Mm-hmm. So according to the Food Intolerance Institute, one in three people experience fructose malabsorption, meaning your intestines aren't able to break down fructose efficiently. So you may be able to have a small amount of fruit and feel fine, but when you consume concentrated amount of fructose like in fruit juices, dried fruits, sodas, sugary sauces, other processed foods containing high amount of added sugar, especially high fructose corn syrup, you might be running to the bathroom.

Melanie: So they’re, we're not saying these are bad things. We're just saying that might be a culprit in your diarrhea.

Britni: Yep. Yep. And it might be the amount of it can make a difference.

Melanie: Yes. And I am a huge, love cherries. Love cherries.

Britni: They're so delicious.

Melanie: And I would say at one point in the summer I will buy a bag of cherries, because I have no self-control. I will consume the entire bag of cherries in a 24 hour period shamelessly. And I always have digestive issues. So I know it's coming. But I do love me some cherries.

Britni: Yeah.

Melanie: And I don't have self-control with cherries, so I do it once a summer.

Britni: Once a summer feels a lot more manageable.

Melanie: I definitely override the enzymes that can break down the fructose and fiber in all of those cherries. So it just confirms what I do for a living.

Britni: Yeah.

Melanie: So when you look at how much sugar is in things like fruit juice or an entire bag of cherries, it makes sense because fruit juice is super concentrated and doesn't have that fiber that helps hold the fluid and buffer the reaction of all of that fruit. So you're going to draw so much water into the stool. And the reason is your body has to dilute it to absorb it, and that causes diarrhea.

So I had a client who thought they were being healthy, drinking a green juice every morning that she picked up in the store, and we looked at that green juice, but it had 30 grams of sugar from natural fruit. It was delicious. It was green, but it was mostly fruit juice. And once she switched to real food, she switched out, had green juice for scrambled eggs, and some spinach cooked in butter. Her bowel movements improved. She was also full longer, and she hadn't made the connection to the sugar in her green juice causing loose stools every morning. It was just too much.

Sugar alcohols can be connected to diarrhea

Britni: Yeah. You know, it's hard when you're eating something all the time, it's hard to make that connection to what the culprits actually are. Well, we also have to talk about sugar alcohols. These show up in sugar free gums, sodas, protein bars, lots of sugar free products you can find in the store. And they're commonly labeled as xylitol, sorbitol, or erythritol. Most of them high have that -ol ending, which is how you can spot it's a sugar alcohol on a, on an ingredient list. They're everywhere.

Melanie: Yes. Especially now that low sugar and keto is trending. They're putting them in a lot of things.

Britni: So you have to read the labels. So even though they're marketed as low sugar, they can be a major culprit for bloating and diarrhea because according to an article from Harvard Health, sugar alcohols are slowly digested so they have more time to feed bacteria in the gut, which can lead to fermentation and produce excess gas. Their slow digestion also can pull extra water into the colon and cause a laxative effect. So again, read those labels and look for these common triggers.

Melanie: If you’re someone struggling with diarrhea it's something to look at.

Britni: Yeah. And that could be an easy, easy change.

Another possible culprit to diarrhea: dairy

Melanie: Okay, so we also need to move on to another culprit. I would say it's the mean sister of gluten, not for all everybody, but definitely for you and I, I think, me especially, is dairy.

Britni: Yeah. Yeah.

Melanie: And not everyone is lactose intolerant, but for some, even a splash of milk in the coffee can lead to urgency in the bathroom and the protein, casein in dairy products or the lactose, which is the sugar, may be the problem. So many people feel they're not lactose intolerant, but I still might have them remove dairy initially, because the protein, casein in whey in dairy can be problematic for some.

And many people lack enough of the lactose enzyme to break down lactose in milk. So lactose ferments in the colon and, you know, a key symptom to know if it's a lactose intolerant, is that bloating, that gas, and then flushing diarrhea. So what we often see is that when someone removes dairy completely, usually butter is fine. Because there's just not a lot of casein, whey or a lactose in butter, their gut gets some relief. Some can later introduce a little cheese or heavy cream or butter in moderation.

But when I'm working with someone who's experienced ongoing diarrhea, I will always have them eliminate a hundred percent gluten and dairy, and then later we can test it. But these sensitivities kind of go together. You know, circling back to celiac disease is on the top of the villi that's burred down first is the piece of the villi that produces lactase.

And so many people who've struggled with celiac disease, they have lost both gluten and dairy. And then sometimes when the villi repair, they can reintroduce dairy, but they do work hand in hand. You know, they're, they're a married couple when it comes to diarrhea. So when, when we work together on healing the gut, I just have people remove those two.

And some people, again, are able to reintroduce some good quality low sugar dairy products and they're fine. And they're happy, because dairy and cheese are delicious.

Britni: Yeah. Who does not love it?

Melanie: I was not able to reintroduce those.

Britni: And lactose intolerance, I think it's something like over 70% of the world's population has lactose intolerance.

Melanie: It's amazing; the world.

Britni: It’s a huge amount. The world. And you can kind of think of it as a spectrum. So you know, you might know somebody who, even if they have a teeny amount, like you said, a splash in coffee, they're really sick. Whereas some people might be able to tolerate more, but you, you know, when you're reintroducing, you can kind of figure out where on the spectrum you might be, or if you're somebody that just can't tolerate it at all.

Melanie: Yeah, that's a really good point. And I think you have to a hundred percent eliminate both.

Britni: Mm-hmm.

Mel: You can't play around with, well, I had a little cheese or I had a little, because we want to heal you.

Britni: Exactly.

Melanie: And calm everything down so your body's not reacting to everything, before we introduce. So sometimes it takes longer than a week or two.

Britni: Yeah, for sure.

Melanie: Because we want to heal everything.

Britni: And you know, I always frame it, you're putting in this work to mostly eliminate gluten or dairy, but you're not getting an answer to this little experiment of how you truly react to it if you're just mostly doing it.

Melanie: That's a really good point.

What can help alleviate diarrhea? (#1: choose easy to digest real food)

Britni: So, let's get that true answer and then we can focus on the healing from there. So we've talked a lot about the causes of diarrhea. Let's take some time to talk about what helps. So we talked about removing gluten, dairy, added sugars, ultra processed foods as much as possible. So that leaves us with real food diet, a diet just rich in colorful fruits and vegetables, your proteins and healthy fat.

Melanie: You’re never going to be disappointed that you did this. There's no downside.

Britni: There's not, no downside at all. And you're probably going to realize that other areas of your body become healthier or you feel better, not just your gut. So first we want to focus on healing the gut. When you're having a lot of diarrhea, choosing easy to digest real food, meals like soft cooked animal proteins, soft cooked vegetables.

When somebody is battling diarrhea, we want to make food as easy on the digestive system as possible, so we focus on those soft cooked foods because if everything is irritated and inflamed and you're eating a whole big salad, that's just going to exacerbate all that irritation and inflammation and likely make your diarrhea worse.

Melanie: Yes.

Britni: So avoid those raw vegetables for this period of healing. So things like slow cooked meats and the crockpot with root vegetables could be a wonderful option.

Melanie: And even that meat should be a little bit lower in fat because if everything is compromised and you're not producing the enzymes that you need to digest food properly because your gut is so irritated, even fat, high fat foods can be a culprit. Not to say this is forever.

Britni: Yep.

Melanie: But this is the healing phase. And I love the, the root vegetables. That's usually what I start people on is just soft cooked root vegetables, maybe some lower fat bone broth. And some lower fat cuts of meat, you know, chicken and leaner beef.

Britni: And a sign of that fat malabsorption would be like a greasy stool or you may actually see like fat droplets in the toilet.

Mel: Yes. Or the stool could float.

Britni: Yep. Yep. So those would be things to look at. You mentioned the bone broth, I mean, cooking food in that, but also sipping on it can be very gut healing. You might eat more simply during this healing process. But it can still taste delicious. And then it's taking work off the digestive system. So it's helping to lead to more formed stools.

Keep spices at a minimum during healing period

Melanie: And you know, another point when you're cooking these type of foods is to keep your spices at a minimum. You know, a little salt is usually it. You want to stay away from garlic and chili powder and onion and foods that might also be exacerbating diarrhea.

Consider a few key supplements to target gut health

Britni: Yeah. You know, one thing that can be helpful in this process could be taking digestive enzymes. You know, especially if you're seeing food particles in your stool, you're seeing greasy stool fat droplets in the toilet. Those would be signs that you could utilize that extra support.

I did an “Ask a Nutritionist”, which is our shorter episodes, all about digestive enzymes. So if you're curious about them, want to learn more, I would search for that podcast on our website. And I kind of break down signs that, that you might benefit from it.

Mel: Yeah, that was a great, informative podcast because digestive enzymes can make a big difference.

Britni: They really can. Yeah.

Mel: Because it's going to help you break down food when your body's unable to because you don't want to be malnourished.

Britni: Mm-hmm.

Melanie: Because you think about it when you eat a healthy meal, but then you have diarrhea, that means the transit time is very fast. Yeah. So your body doesn't have the time to absorb nutrients. And I had a client who was malnourished in multitude of things: zinc, vitamin D, magnesium, potassium. Because from the time she would eat, she would just flush everything out. It seemed like she was eating healthy. But her body didn't have the time to absorb it.

Britni: Yep, yep. That's a very good point.

Melanie: Those digestive enzymes really make a difference for many people.

Britni: I agree. And you know, we also like to talk about having a good probiotic on board.

Melanie: Yeah, good point.

Britni: Especially one that contains bifido. Bifido is a strain of bacteria that lives in our intestinal tract and it's essential for restoring balance. So people with chronic diarrhea often have very low levels of bifidobacteria in their gut, especially if they've had several rounds of antibiotics. Even if you had several rounds of antibiotics years ago, but you've never focused on gut healing, your gut is still damaged from all of those antibiotics.

Melanie: Anti means against; biotic means life. It's literally wiping out the life in your gut. Sometimes we need the meds.

Britni: Yes, we do.

Melanie: But you want to restore and repair.

Britni: Yep.

Melanie: So if you're a longtime listener, you know, our favorite gut healing combo is bifido bacteria with L-Glutamine, which is our go-to amino acid to help heal the intestinal lining because L-Glutamine acts as a fuel source for intestinal cells. It promotes repair.

It sort of tightens up that leaky gut. And if you have chronic diarrhea, that means there is inflammation in your gut. L-glutamine is simply an amino acid that patches up and repairs a damaged intestinal track. Or like I said, it's that leaky gut that looks sort of microscopically like a Grand Canyon, allowing food and particles and bacteria to slip into your bloodstream. So if you have questions about that, you can make an appointment with one of the nutritionists. They'll set you up on a protocol that will help heal you get you get your life back.

Britni: Yeah. You know, one thing I will add, when you have diarrhea and you're adding in a probiotic, I would start very slow.

Mel: Yes, good point.

Britni: Start with a small amount because the probiotic can kill off the bad bacteria. When those die off, they can release toxins. So it can cause what's called die off symptoms or Herxheimer reaction. And that could lead to worse diarrhea. And ultimately it's a good thing. It means it's doing its job. We just don't want you to feel worse. So start small.

Melanie: It's a really good point. I really like to start with the elimination diet. The soft cooked foods before we even introduce probiotics. I also love acidophilus. But again, we want to start very, very small so that we don't have that Herxheimer reaction and bloating and gas.

Britni: Yeah.

Melanie: And you want to work with a professional who's going to say, oh, are you having some discomfort? Well, we've got solutions for that too.

Britni: Yeah, for sure. So if diarrhea is something you are dealing with often, it's not just an inconvenience. We know it can take control of your entire life. It affects your social life, it may affect your work. And we believe that food is the best place to start looking for both the cause and the solution. And we hope we gave you some ideas to try today. And of course, you don't have to do it all at once. You can tackle it in bits and pieces. And everybody's different too.

Melanie: Everybody’s different. And I want to say that there are a lot more causes than there's antibiotics that can cause diarrhea. And you almost have to be a detective. If you've gone through some of the protocols of Britni and I have talked about, and you are still struggling, there are many other causes.

Britni: Oh, yes.

Melanie: That we'd be happy to look into for you. I had a client, she ate very, very healthy. She did all the things.

Britni: Mm-hmm.

Melanie: Nothing that we did as the standard was working and we did find the culprit.

Britni: I've had clients like that as well.

Melanie: So it's important to not give up and say, well, this didn't work. So I'll just take a medication. There's a root cause to everything, and making big changes to your diet can really be overwhelming at first, especially if you're already suffering with something as life-threatening as chronic diarrhea or bowel incontinence, because it's not just discomfort and embarrassment; it can lead to some dangerous problems: electrolyte imbalance. You know, we could go on and on.

So if you're not sure where to begin, we invite you to come and meet with Britni or myself, or one of the other very capable dietitians at Nutritional Weight & Wellness.

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We've helped hundreds of clients find relief just by adjusting what's on their plate, maybe adding in a couple of key supplements at appropriate times. And if today's topic hit home for you or someone you love, please share this episode and help spread the real food message so that you can help your loved ones and friends. Our goal at Nutritional Weight & Wellness is to help each and every person experience better health through eating real food. It's a simple yet powerful message. Eating real food is life changing.

Britni: Thanks for listening today.