The Real Reason You’re Tired All The Time | Dr. Aarti Javeri Mehta | The Masoom Minawala Show

0:00 hot water and lemon in the morning. My rating 4 out of 10. Really? Oh my god. What are the three things someone needs to stop doing today to fix their gut? Your gut is extremely forgiving. Making changes to your diet and your lifestyle plays a massive role in changing the gut health over even just 24 hours. So the gut is often thought of as our second brain because we have nearly 500 million nerves in the gut. 70 to 80% of your immune cells. 90% of our feel-good hormone receptors, serotonin, are in the gut. It's a bit disgusting, but I feel like we can't talk about gut health without talking about your poop. I feel like solving my gut issues led to like weight loss. That nausea that you get before a presentation, there's feelings of butterflies. That's basically your

0:46 rest and digest system. I'm going to cut out carbs. This is how I'm going to lose weight. I take a probiotic supplement. I'm going to improve my health. Rubbish. This is probably one of the worst things you can do. If I eat gassy food, would my baby get gassy? This woman is like fat crazy. So, the game changer for me has been. So, this one's a personal one. Recently had my baby, first baby when he moved to Dubai and I saw this huge change in my body. Um, I was feeling major fatigue, lots of bloating, lots of discomfort, indigestion, and I honestly just did not feel like my optimum self. I blamed it on postpartum, and I moved on. Um, a

1:33 year later, I got pregnant again, and all through my pregnancy, again, I felt immense amounts of discomfort with with my digestion. Um, my energy levels were super low. I blamed it on my pregnancy and I moved on. But when I had my second baby, 10 days later, I called Dr. Arti and I told her, "I cannot go through this again. I know what I've been through." And it had been a while by then where I was dealing with so much intense bloating, uh, fatigue, uh, energy crashes. And you know, these things can seem like really minor issues, but it was impacting my entire life, my mood, my productivity at work, my relationships, my creativity. And it

2:19 was crazy like I couldn't, you know, I kept thinking it was happening for other reasons. But when that happened, I realized that all of these negative things, they don't need to be a part of my life and it's not necessarily my mental health. And sometimes it's in my case, it's gut health. And that is what really needed to be solved and worked on. And this is what we're going to be diving into today. So, everyone that's watching, um, if you're someone who's been dealing with bloating, who's been dealing with gut issues, who's been dealing with any health issues, because most of health issues actually relate to gut, please watch this. So, I have with me Dr. Arti Javi Ma today. She is a boardcertified lifestyle medicine physician and

3:06 longevity expert, but most importantly, a powerhouse of knowledge on all things female health and gut health. welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. And I think the world of gut health is super fascinating. All these symptoms that you mentioned, there are 40% of people in the world who have digestive issues, who have gut health issues, who probably see multiple doctors before actually understanding that the root cause of all of this is the gut. Like you said, for that first entire year of that first pregnancy, you normalized all these symptoms. You lived with it, right? It's very similar for like women living with menstrual issues or conditions and they've normalized that because that's what they're used to. But you don't need to do that because there

3:51 are ways to kind of address this and get to that root cause. I came to I think 10 days after I delivered my second baby and you helped me with a plan, a meal plan. I would I wouldn't call it a diet because it never felt like that. I felt like it was not restrictive at all, but you kind of guided me as to what I should eat and why I should have it. Yeah. Um, so before I dive into what gut health is and the science of it and actually understanding really all of that, I want to do like a quick rapid fire of questions that are most commonly asked and you know dealt with. Yeah. If someone is dealing with gut issues today, what are the three things that they should know? Number one, recognize your symptoms and understand what's normal and not normal. Number two, there

4:38 is a role for lifestyle in changing your gut. Your gut is extremely forgiving. Making changes to your diet and your lifestyle, and we'll talk a little bit about those in detail later, plays a massive role in changing the gut health over even just 24 hours. Wow. Yeah. So, a huge role. And number three is don't ignore the smaller kind of things, which is the stress and the sleep and all of that, which plays a huge role as well. What are the three things someone needs to stop doing today to fix their gut? Number one, don't overuse medications that are not prescribed by your physician. Okay, antibiotic usage. Antibiotics have been the best thing that has happened to us with penicellin. It's saved us, saved lives, but we are seeing far too much overuse. Number two,

5:23 watch your alcohol intake. Okay. Um, alcohol is probably the number one thing that can destroy your gut as well. Okay. And number three is pay attention to your stress because your stress nerve uh the vagus nerve which is basically activates your rest and digest system is directly connected to your gut. So the more stressed you are the more you will find that you have gut health issues and we don't have the studies to kind of show the direct correlation but we know that there are definitely associations. So that's the stress belly right as they call it. Yes. Exactly. So like you know that nausea that you get before a presentation or those feelings of butterflies that's basically your rest and digest system is kind of switched off and your flight and fright is switched on that is a sign that you are

6:10 in that high stress mode. That is exactly that connection between the gut and the brain. Yeah. So what is that gut brain connection? Can we talk about that a little bit more? because um I've read about it so much online, but I'd love to know from an expert why the gut and the brain are so closely connected. So, the gut is often thought of as our second brain because we have hundreds and millions like nearly 500 million nerves in the gut. That's more than we have in our spinal cord, which basically connects our limbs and helps us move. Now that gut uh the nerves that are in the gut actually help control regulation, motility, function, all of that of the gut and they function independently from the brain. Your gut

6:55 and your brain are connected in multiple ways. The first is through the longest nerve in the body which is called the vagus nerve. And the vagus nerve actually has a birectional communication. What does that mean? There's a two-way pathway between the gut and the brain directly through the vagus nerve. There is also chemicals and neurotransmitters and hormones that are made in your gut. So 90% of our feel-good hormone receptors serotonin are in the gut. 50% of our dopamine receptors is made in the gut. So you know that feeling that you get when you're like, "Oh, I felt low in mood and I thought it was postpartum." A lot of that could be related to the gut as well. A lot of that probably is that the gut microbiome was not ideal. Now serotonin

7:41 uh some people may catch me out here and say serotonin does not cross the gut but what does cross the gut is its precursor and that's actually what goes to the brain and alters mood and things like that. We have studies to show that it also makes hormones it makes uh your hungerfulness hormones all of that that help with satiety as well. So that's how the gut and the brain are strongly interlin. What is that one food that everyone thinks is healthy but is actually making everyone bloated every single day? So I think what is the one thing that people do is they think probiotic supplements are the end all and the be all for gut health. Right? I take a probiotic supplement. I'm going to improve my health. Rubbish. That's not the way it works. Yes, it does have a role in certain conditions in certain scenarios. But they are very much

8:28 overhyped compared to the science that we see and compared to the role that we see their effect on a patient. Wow. So probiotics are I mean would you say it's it's almost a farce? I don't think it's a farce. So we definitely have studies to show that there are certain conditions where probiotics immensely help but there's a lot more other things that you can do within your lifestyle that can improve your gut health and your gut microbiome compared to the probiotics. So can you talk about what the gut is and actually take us back to the basics? Yeah. And you know what does gut health stand for? Yeah. So gut health is basically optimal digestion. You're absorbing your nutrients, vitamins and minerals and you're eliminating waste products. When we talk about the gut microbiome,

9:15 we actually are talking about the trillions of microorganisms that are present within the gut tract or the digestive tract. And I believe the gut begins here. Starts at your mouth, ends at your anus. Okay. Okay. There are trillions of organisms. We have bacteria, viruses, fungus, something called par parasites, archa. And we sometimes think of these as bad things, right? Oh my god, I have a bacteria. It's bad. No. The type of bacteria that we have that is bad is that pathogenic bacteria. Those are the types that we need antibiotics for. But within our gut, we mostly have good bacteria. Some people like to classify it as bad bacteria. I do not because I think it's an oversimplification. We have something called commensal bacteria which is basically present in normal amounts. If

10:01 it overgrows it can cause an issue. Okay. So when we're thinking back at this gut tract and the amount of abundant kind of gut bacteria that we have, the majority of it is gut bacteria and that is in your colon. Now, if I take your colon and if I take your entire digestive tract or your intestines out of your body and I stretch it out, I've got 25 ft right there. Oh my god. And if I uncrumple it and I actually spread it out, I have nearly half a badminton court. That is how massive our gut, our intestines are. And that is the massive role that they are playing in digestion. Right. Wow. Between the outside world

10:47 and the inside is only one cell thick. Your gut lining is actually quite paper thin. Okay. Okay. Now, what role do these bacteria have to play? The majority of them are in your large intestine in your colon. Okay. What they do is they take and they kind of feed on the fiber that you consume from your meals. Our body in itself is not able to make enzymes to digest fiber. Initially, we thought, okay, fiber is just for roughage so that I can have a poo. But it's so much more than that. These bacteria actually nibble on the fiber. They act as fertilizers and they make something called short- chain fatty acids. Okay, I'm not going to go into detail with what they are, but thank you. They basically go inside of the body and they have a massive role to

11:33 play in appetite regulation, metabolism, lipid control, blood sugar regulation, and hormones. Okay. Okay. So that's a massive role. The second thing is your gut lining. 70 to 80% of your immune cells are in the gut. So when you are thinking you're falling sick because of another issue, the majority of symptoms actually start or the majority of your immune system is in the gut. Right. So we know that when you don't have optimal gut health, there's a lot more infection. There's a lot more inflammation that's happening that your body could potentially not fight off. While you're saying this, I can't help but kind of go back to, you know, whenever I would get like a pimple when I was in my teens, my grandfather would

12:20 always ask me if I'm was constipated. Um, even now if I get a fever, my dad will always ask me if I've used the restroom. And even my mother-in-law, she's a huge she's she's a naturopath, you know, doesn't believe so much on alopathy. And every time we're falling sick and it could be from a throat ache to like fever or that body ache but she makes us have sudashan. Yeah. Right. And sudashan is actually like it helps with your digestion. Yeah. So it never made sense to me for so many years and because she's like just have it just have it. Just have the two tablets. You're popping the sudashan in. And now like 3 months ago because you know like adult life and now you have kids irresponsible. I actually read the box because I'm like, what am I inhaling?

13:06 You know, what is this that I'm having all the time and I read that it says it basically gives you digestive relief. Yeah. And why was she making me have it every time I had like a fever or throat ache or body ache and it works? Yeah. You know, the gut is fascinating. I feel like, you know, 20 years ago, our ancestors um even from our studies, right, pre-200s, we kind of knew the bacteria were there. They were co-l livingiving with us. We actually have more bacteria cells in our body than human cells. Your skin has separate bacteria. They have something called an entire skin microbiome. There's a vagina microbiome. There's a bladder microbiome. There's so many different types or groups of bacteria or microbiomes or you know the bacteria, the parasites, all of that within our body. And they all play a massive role in the functions of it. Now up until

13:53 2005 2006 where technology really started kicking off we've now started to understand that the bacteria or the microbiome in itself has a massive role to play in not just coexisting with us but in actually changing all of these processes in the body. And that's where we started to realize, okay, there's a link between the microbiome and so many medical conditions, whether that's diabetes, whether that's infections, whether that's autoimmune conditions. And that has become a massive gateway for us to kind of understand that we need to actually start getting to the root cause, which is the gut, which is why gut health is so important. Yeah. Fundamentally. Yes. Because that was my next question, but I feel like you've pretty much answered that. What are some symptoms someone should look out for?

14:38 that they know their gut health needs to be fixed. So really interesting, but the majority of symptoms that you mentioned at the beginning, that's exactly what we look out for. Okay. Now, there could also be big symptoms, other symptoms to look out for. Number one is a change in your bowel habits. Now, it is normal for some people to go to the bathroom three times a day. It is normal for some people to go to the bathroom three times a week. So you have to start understanding what's normal for you and understanding when is the change happening. Think about the consistency of the stool. So we have something in medical schools. It's used in hospitals and clinics called the Bristol stool chart, which essentially is a chart from 1 to 7 that tells you the shape and the consistency of your stool. A bit disgusting, but I feel like we can't talk about gut health without talking

15:25 about your poo. Um, number three and four normal. Number one is basically constipation like hard like pellets and number seven is kind of diarrhea. Okay. Understanding where you stand on that on a normal basis for you and understanding how that changes. That's the things that you need to look out for. Then we think about all of the other cognitive issues as well, right? Brain fog, am I losing focus? Do I have an issue with my menstrual cycles? Do I have an issue with bloating, abdominal pain, all of these things? that's probably indicating that there is a gut health issue going on right now. Eczema, frequent infections, allergies, all of these are related to gut health. Okay. Is it a cause effect? We don't know yet. But there's definitely an association and worth looking into the gut health.

16:11 change in bowel habit, change in frequency of stool, consistency, fatigue, constipation, bloating, abdominal pain, uh skin issues, and we we're kind of going into this entire realm of things and we're like, okay, there's a lot cognitive issues, brain fog, allergies, energy crashes, energy crashes, eczema, frequent infections. These are certain things that you can look out for. What about the relation of gut health and anxiety? Because we spoke about how that's when you stress, it will probably impact your gut health, but gut health also has a connection to actually driving anxiety, right? Or is that is that a confusion? So, it's kind of like a chicken and egg situation. We don't know what come what came first. A

16:57 lot of people are thinking, okay, that person has either depression or anxiety and that's causing the gut health issue. But we have certain studies that were done years ago that actually think oh maybe the majority of the condition started within the gut and what is the gut weight connection? That's an interesting one. So because I think this is you know what I'm coming to but I think and I know every time we would be in a conversation I would be like you know I feel so skinny and you would be like but that's that's not the that's not the goal. But for so many and me included it really is right. I'm just going to be quite honest and upfront about this. Yeah. And for me, I feel like solving my gut issues led to like weight loss. Yeah. So again, do we want to kind of create this cause effect? I'm

17:43 going to solve my gut. I'm going to lose weight. No. But we have clear clear studies to show there was one interesting study done. There were twins, twin girls. One was kind of in a lean body, one was in a larger body. They took out fecal samples from each of those girls and transplanted them into sterile mice. Okay. Okay, the one with the lean composite and then they fed them the exact same number of calories. They had the exact same number of activity that mice actually replicated what their counterpart had had given them. So the mice who got the lean body kind of fecal transplant became lean and the body the mice who got the um the the larger body fecal transplant became

18:28 obese. Okay, despite having the same number of calories. So that just goes to show to us that your gut microbiome does have a huge role to play in appetite regulation, hunger, satiety, and so much more. What about what time you eat and how does that affect your gut health? So we are as a body, we work with the outside world, something called the circadian rhythm. So the more we function with the sun, all you moms know what that is, which is probably completely out of whack and out of balance and but so the more we function with the sun outside, the better it is. Okay? Because your body naturally has this cycle where inside metabolism shuts down, your body slows down, intestines slow down, all of that motility reduces.

19:15 If you are eating at midnight when your body is telling you, look, I want to actually be at low stress levels right now. my cortisol level is supposed to be at the lowest at midnight. My digestion is supposed to slow down. If you're eating a meal, then it's going to be very difficult for your body to kind of deal with that, right? So, you are going to have issues with motility. You will have digestive issues. And the biggest telltale sign that I can see from that where we're relating kind of gut to the circadian rhythm. Patients come to me the next morning and they're like, I'm never hungry in the morning. I just don't need anything. And I'm like, what time did you go to bed? I went to bed at 12:00 and I eat at 11:00. And I'm like, there you go. We need to start changing things hour by hour. And I think it's always important to meet a patient halfway, right? We're not going to change habits immediately. But if you start changing your meals, ideally 2 to

20:01 3 hours before bedtime, you will start finding that you digest much better. Honestly, there's so many things that even you've asked me to do that don't align with my life at all. But but you and you have to make the changes. Like if you want to see a change in your life, like you have to change your life. It's just like as simple as that. Okay. So, so of course there's there's exceptions right to the rule like yes what I do on the weekend I don't even tell you about that like literally so even if I'm like binge drinking or whatever like bing yeah I know I know I know I love that I love that there's no judgment but but I feel like there is like that and I think this applies to anything in life right that there is that 80/20 rule which is like 100% 80% of the time you do everything 20% of the time you give yourself that

20:47 leeway to just mess up, right? Make the mistakes. Do your own thing. Don't live by the way. And you know, I don't even think it's mistakes. I think it's just normal life kicking in, which is fine. You know, I like I always tell my patients, even if you're 1% better tomorrow than you were today, that's a huge win for me. What is the ideal time to have your breakfast after waking up? Like for example, and the reason I asked this is because for me when I wake up, I I want to get to work. This is also because my team has always been in India. Yeah, they started 3 and 1 half to 4 hours before I started my work. Now I'm in Dubai. So they start rushing to get to work. And for me, I've had this mental thing that before I get

21:32 to work, I want to have my breakfast cuz I'll be energized and I'll be more productive when my stomach is full. And I feel like this is this is something that has changed, right? Like I've been able to question it. What is the ideal time to eat after waking up? I would say in the next few hours there's no ideal time per se, okay? But fuel yourself in the morning. This whole concept of if you're waking up hungry and you understand you're hungry and you need that fuel and you have a busy day, by all means, please eat. Don't feel like you need to down coffee and suppress your hunger and your appetite and keep going till midday because you've told yourself you need to fast. No, once you have your breakfast, wait for the hunger fullness signals to kind of kick in. have your meals as they are and then as

22:17 you see the sun setting that's when you kind of start thinking about I need to have my last meal of the day and that's the ideal kind of window for you to have with the sun with sun with sunrise with sunset so diving more into this whole gut wealth conversation you know I' I've been having this water concoction that I think has been miraculous but I'm kind of feeling like why is everyone not having it because it's played such a positive impact on my life and I tell all my family and friends about it but I almost feel like it's like this secret formula or something like that why like why is everyone not having it if there is something that is so beneficial that exists so honestly in terms of studies we probably don't know how beneficial it is but it has components where that have been studied

23:03 okay and can you also talk about what this so basically they contain anti-inflammatory properties there are certain herbs and spices we know that contain anti-inflammatory properties the first is cinnamon We know that ginger helps with digestion and motility and the water is probably just acting as a hydration and kind of a motility starter to help that bowel movement going. That's basically what it is and that has been shown the cinnamon in particular has been shown even in specific health conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome to actually help reduce and improve the inflammation. So I was actually talking about the awine water. Oh the awine. Yeah. that has no no um scientific. So that is mainly that is mainly um like postpartum like back in

23:50 the day that's what was used. We do know that like the awine, the fennel, the dandelion, all of these things are basically prebiotics that help to improve the gut microbiome to some extent. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And what about there's so much spoken about having hot water and lemon in the morning. Yeah. What's your take on that? My rating four out of 10. Really? Oh my god. This is going to leave a lot of people in shock. So, is this like a trend that just blew up on the internet? It's a trend that blew up on the internet. There was a massive like surge of weight loss movement and everyone's like, if I drink hot water and lemon, I'm going to lose all this weight. And we don't have enough evidence to show it does. But does it make any sense? It does. If you want to hydrate, if you want to hydrate yourself

24:36 and if you want to get your gut motility kind of going, having that warm water and that lemon is just acting as a soothing kind of But there's way better alternatives. 100%. Like% better. Yeah. And everything you do within your day, right, the biggest thing you can do for your gut health is to improve the amount of whole food plant-based fiber rich foods that you're having. Okay, we forget that and we think, "Oh, it's such an easy thing, right? I'm going to increase my vegetable intake, but everyone says increase your vegetable intake, but how easy is it to actually do that?" And I'm sure you're testament of this, right? I have some patients who come to me in clinic and they're like, "Uh, I don't really eat vegetables." I'm like, "Please give me people don't really eat vegetables. This is like not

25:21 shocking at all." And I didn't really realize this until I started interacting with women. And I'm like, give me the and I've been doing this for about a decade now where I really start talking to patients and being like, "No, tell me how many vegetables you eat because if you don't do because if you just ask them at the surface, they're like, "Yeah, I eat I eat vegetables." And I'm like, "No, tell me how many tell me how many. Tell me how many." That was literally a slice of cucumber and a slice of carrot and I'm done. But I'm like, "No, we need to get down into understanding how much are you eating in the day." So many people aren't eating enough. And it sounds so simple. So I have patients tell me, "You know what? I just can't. I feel like a rabbit. I feel like this is putting me down this path of like I can't eat so many vegetables. I said please give me two weeks. Eat the vegetables. Start increasing. You also need to increase vegetables very

26:06 gradually, right? You need to increase your fiber like your legumes and your lentils and all this very gradually because otherwise it can cause a bit of digestive issues. Okay. So I give them two weeks. 2 weeks later they come back to me saying I am craving my vegetables now. And that is basically by the way this totally happened with me. You have no idea like it is crazy. And this is this is not even like 6 to 8 months ago. Um so Ashni, right, which is the common friend, she would tell me my favorite meal is to have a bowl of stir-fried vegetables. And every time she said that I was like, "Are you crazy? Like what is wrong with you?" And she would she eats this twice a week. Yeah. So every time I would meet her, I'd be like, "What do you have for dinner?" I had my

26:52 stir-fried veggies. I love it. It's so delicious. And I was like, "This woman is like batshit crazy." And then I started working with you and no connection whatsoever. You became crazy, too. Yeah. I love my vegetables now. And it's almost it's almost addictive. Yeah. And we don't have we we kind of have that connection, right? It just shows you that the more you're changing that composition of your bacteria, the more it changes. Your food choices, your cravings change, your satiety changes, your hunger changes. It has a whole host of effects that kind of snowball into each other. And mind, mind you me, when you go back to eating like, you know, kind of the other foods or foods that are less nutritious or whatever, which is completely fine. That's normal life. We need that balance. You will probably find that the bacteria changes back very

27:38 quickly as well. But it's very forgiving. It's very dynamic. So, one or two days of doing that again and adding in that fiber will really really fix. But I think what gets really confusing and overwhelming, and I'm going to be really honest here, is that kind of like every time once you start eating the vegetables, right? Once you start eating that healthier alternative to bread or like your wraps become kind of like oat based or I hate what happens in my mind every time I'm looking at like you know uh meta or gluten like I don't like what happens. I don't like that and I'm very aware of how I feel. I'm very very aware of my thoughts. Yeah. Which is why I don't like that um I've become

28:23 less open. So is it that sense of restriction that you're talking about? It's not a sense of restriction. It's a sense of too much awareness. Right. I'm like, "Oh, I don't mind." Yeah. Look, you I think you have to take it from a very practical angle. Okay. Um when we're talking about like this meta or you're talking about oats or you're talking about any of these things, what we're basically looking at and as a society, what's happened is that we've demonized carbs. Carbs don't need to be demonized. Okay, carbs are present in pretty much everything we eat, okay? Besides for the kind of fat, pure fat foods, but they are there in our legumes. They're there in our lentils. They're there in our dal. They're there in all our whole grains. What we've kind of thought is that I'm going to cut out carbs. This is how I'm going to lose weight. But this

29:09 is probably one of the worst things you can do because what you're not realizing is that you've cut out a whole bunch of whole grains that are fantastic for your health, right? And we know from our studies that for example in an individual who is normal healthy. There's this massive fat about cutting out gluten. You don't need to do that. It's not healthy. It's not helpful. We know that when you're cutting out gluten, what you're actually doing is cutting out a whole bunch of diversity that you're able to feed your gut microbes with. So, we need to keep that in. If you have no other medical conditions, there are medical conditions like celiac disease where you need to be gluten-free or if you're gluten insensitive, that's a completely different story. But for the general population, like even when you look at, you know, um these wraps that you're talking about or anything else, you're

29:55 probably being sold these wraps because you've been told that they're gluten-free. Are they the healthier option? No. Really, not necessarily. You could easily be eating gluten and be a healthy person. What we think about is how they're processed. The problem nowadays is that gluten is processed so much that when we are consuming them in larger amounts, you probably find that little bit of discomfort, that bloating, all of that that's been happening. So for you, um, when you're having this mea and you want to have the MEA, have it. Please don't make yourself feel guilty about it. Yeah. And I tell all my women this, like, please eat everything. I don't believe in calorie counting. I don't believe in restriction. I don't believe in meal plans. I don't believe in making yourself suffer

30:43 in the kind of hope to lose weight. That's not what that's not what weight loss is about. That's not what fat loss is about. And I feel like that's not what life is about. Yeah. Exactly. But that's so I mean that's so much easier said this is what someone's mental health is. Right. Like today I can say it because I'm a very self assured person. I'm very secure in my body mentally, physically. But for so many it is so attached to their self worth you know and Masu I love this about you and I think I've messaged you about this a few years ago where I'm like please keep talking about body image please keep talking about these things because there are so many women out there who are suffering with body image issues. Yeah. And like you said this feeling of feeling fat right this feeling of feeling fat is independent of the

31:29 weighing scale. And I feel very strongly about this. I actually went through and I'm not very open about this. I went through a period of anorexia when I was 16 years old. Okay? I lost weight. I became 38 kilos, lost my period, and then went the completely other way. Put on 10 kilos in a period of a month, 2 months, and kept going back and forth. And that struggle is real for women. Like you're saying, it's easier said than done. But that's where you need professional help. That's where you need to start getting people to actually be like, you know what, the feeling of feeling fat is not on the wing scale. It's in here. Work with a healthare professional who understands that because changing your diet, right? Even whether it's about, oh, I'm trying to

32:15 improve your gut health. I want you to add more vegetables. I want you to add more fermented foods. For them, that could feel like a diet. So, you have to be so careful about that, right? And you have to make them understand that actually you know what this is kind of normal way of eating. You still have every other food that you thought was restricted or forbidded forbade. The problem is is that we've placed all these other foods that mea and that pizza and that whatever it is on a platform or on a pedestal and because they're up there think and we're thinking I can't eat them because I want to improve my gut health and I've heard that you know Masum has lost 12 kilos improving her gut health. That means that she can't eat anything else. That's not true. Yeah. Bring them down to normal playing ground. I do eat everything. I do eat everything. Bring them down to normal playing ground. Have them as part of your diet. That's what's

33:02 important because when we're looking at gut health, we're not looking about restriction. If you are a normal healthy person, we are talking about abundance. Can we talk a little bit about bloating and what kind of causes it? Yeah. I also think this is Indians face a lot of bloating. 40% of women face bloating. Wow. 40%. It's a huge amount. And for many women, they've just again normalized it. Okay. How many causes of bloating do we have? 25 plus causes of bloating. So why you're bloating is extremely important. There's a very big difference. We have Indian women or people who have kind of the bloating that's not normal. Okay. And then we have bloating where someone

33:47 is, you know, worried about the next Instagram kind of re or Tik Tok and they're like, "Oh, I feel bloated." And like because you've just eaten a meal. Those are very different types of bloating. A little bit of bloating every day is normal after a meal, right? Okay. Comes up a bit. It's just a sign that your body is basically digesting the foods and you have food in your stomach. Goes away after a few hours. Doesn't cause any abdominal pain. No change in your bowel habits. The bloating we get worried about and where we need to start thinking about other causes is it's causing me pain. It's causing a change in my bowel habit. I potentially have other symptoms along with it as well. With these causes of bloating, it's important that you see a healthare professional to understand why you are bloating. It can range from simple causes like you're eating too quickly,

34:35 the type of foods that you're having unsuiting you, or you may have another medical condition that is related to the gut. One of the common ones we see right now is a condition called SIBO where in your small intestine you have bacteria or you have microbes there which are not normally there. So in those cases we may need a little bit of a restriction initially a course of antibiotics all of these things to help that but then you have other bloating which is related to female health conditions certain cancers as well. So it's a massive spectrum you know bloating in itself is a massive spectrum we need to identify why it's caused and what is typically bloating is just expansion right of the stomach area and is it is it like more upper stomach or is it so people find kind of find it more kind of here in in the middle and

35:20 it is kind of that distension of the abdominal wall right or the it's basically your stomach distending less so less not so much upper but more kind of lower to mid that's the bloating I think one of the biggest misconceptions about bloating and I think we find this and with marketing right now there are so many anti-bloat pills and you know herbalities and herbal detoxes and all of that that is a quick fix that's just kind of plastering over the symptoms you're not getting to the root cause of the bloating in that way. Okay, I'm going to take you back to the gluten conversation and ask you why is everyone's solution to gut health going gluten-free or actually solution to anything right now is going gluten-free because uh my

36:06 husband actually suffers from psoriasis and um literally we've met so many doctors like from naturopaths to like you know alopathy like so many of them have just recommended being gluten-free. Yeah. And it just seems like such a difficult shift for him because glutenfree is quite a it does create a bit of pressure. Yeah, of course. Right. It does create a bit of and frankly I know it's it is something that's spoken about commonly. It is a trend to be gluten-free right now. But at the same time, it can also get a bit overwhelming overwhelming. It can get a bit um also awkward to kind of constantly talk about the fact that you're glutenree and why are you glutenree and all of those questions. So being gluten and the relation between gluten and autoimmune

36:51 conditions, which is basically conditions where your own body is kind of attacking its own cells, there's been a few studies to have shown that if you've gone gluten-free, and a lot of people do this for things like psoriasis, potentially for uh Hashimoto's thyroid conditions as well, that you actually improve outcomes, but the studies are sparse. They're inconclusive, and they have mixed results. What I would honestly say about gluten, if you don't have a true gluten insensitivity and if you don't have celiac disease, in which case you have to be gluten-free all your life because that's a medical condition, start keeping a diary and a notepad of what's happening when you're consuming the gluten. Okay? Think about the quality of gluten that you're consuming. Right now, sometimes it's not so much about the

37:37 gluten itself, but how it's processed. So going on that withdrawal actually does help some people improve symptoms because you're kind of reducing that inflammation. But my eventual goal would be start adding it back in certain points in time of your life, you know, and you probably will find that I can now handle this much gluten, but if I go anywhere above this threshold, that's when I have issues again. So understand what your kind of happy ground is. That's what's important. I think being gluten-free in a normal healthy individual is a complete fast. How do you know whether the gluten you're having is super processed or it's good enough? I mean, you kind of you're never going to know. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. But like we had this conversation, we go

38:23 back to Belgium over the summer and everything's made fresh. And you go to Italy over the summer, everything's made fresh. You can eat pasta every single day without an issue. You go to Italy and you eat pizza pasta all day and you're completely fine. your gut is good. You're Yeah. Yeah. It's just completely completely fine. And then that's kind of when you realize, okay, quality plays a role. That's when you realize. But then sometimes when you're the problem is that when you're going to restaurants and you're constantly out or you're eating from packets, the way in which they've been processed, the way in which they've been preserved is not necessarily ideal and that's causing an issue. So my biggest thing is keep that food sensitivity diary. A lot of people use food intolerance tests. Actually, by guidelines, these are not sensitive. They're not specific.

39:10 I've had patients come to me back with a food intolerance test. Everything they're basically intolerant to everything they eat. Yeah. What is the point of doing that test? Are you going to cut out all of the stuff in your life? No, you're not. Yeah. Right. And there are some people who are like, "Oh, you know what? I'm green on this, but every time I eat this, I feel really, really sick." That's exactly where you know we don't need to be banking on these food intolerance tests. Yeah. So, I've done one when I was about 11 or 12 years old. It said I was allergic to many think. It said I was allergic to milk. Yeah. I was so happy cuz I hated milk. You know, 80 70 to 80% of Asians have some mild degree of lactose intolerance. Oh, really? Yeah. Wow. I just took that as a personal win and I'm like, you know what? I can't f around with this. This is my excuse. like amongst other things

39:57 there were two things specifically there was um I don't know what it's called in English but uh arad urad dal like a type of dal and uh basan um and I was allergic to these two specifically and I eat them four times a week like I eat urad dal twice a week it's one of my favorites I eat basan literally twice a week in some form or the other and I've been doing it for the last like did you cut it out last years no I didn't cut it out oh you didn't I did not cut it out And I'm saying I still eat it and I'm okay. I'm good. I still eat it. Like I I still have it every literally four times a week. Yeah. This is where we need to kind of take these tests. These tests are a great tool, but they're not a diagnostic marker of of things, right? So, is bread really as bad for you as society kind of portrays it to be? I eat bread every

40:43 day. It is not. Okay. Why are we demonizing foods? You know, it's like we've demonized, you know, oat milk. Why are we demonizing these foods? We have no studies. We don't have conclusive studies to suggest that these foods are causing harm or they're causing that massive amounts of inflammation in the body. We have zero evidence to show that. Okay. Interesting. And you eat like gluten bread. I eat sourdough bread. I love my sourdough because of the taste. Okay. I love that bread. I will have sourdough bread. Um it also has also because I'm Belgian. It also has um sour is actually fermented, right? So, one of the most important things that you can do for your gut is to include fermented foods. We actually have a study that

41:30 came out last year that showed if you are including fermented foods, yogurt, kefir, tempe, sauerkraut into your life, and I'm not just talking about once a week. I'm talking about three servings a day. Does dosa count? Kind of. Yeah, it does. Um, you are actually doing a lot for your gut health. and gut health can really improve within a span of about eight weeks. But why is it that like in postpartum everyone says don't have fermented food like stay away from anything that is fermented. You know this is a very big myth. So wow I think when when uh Indian mom new moms are going through the postpartum period and they meet me they're like flabbergasted. They're like oh my gosh am I allowed to eat all of this? Yeah.

42:16 Um, back in the day the fermented foods are essentially probiotics. So what they are is they're populating your gut with the bacteria itself. That's what they have in them. They have the bacteria. So what we thought initially back in the day or our ancestors thought is that if you are giving yourself bacteria, you are actually leading yourself to have increased chances of an infection. Okay? Unless you're going through chemotherapy, your immune system is shot, like all of these things we may tell you like, you know, don't have so many of the fermented foods. But if you're a healthy individual, having those fermented foods can do a huge amount to improve gut health and the gut microbiome even in the postpartum period. Can we go a little bit into the postpartum period and about the baby process and things like that? Yeah. I want to actually ask you what are the most like what is what are food items

43:04 that Indians, right? And I'm going to talk about specifically Indians because of the whole Japa 40-day period. What are some myths that Indian moms are told not to eat after delivering a baby, but it's actually a myth? I think the first is raw foods. Okay, I think we're told don't eat raw foods. Uh they can affect you. It all stemmed back from that misconception or that kind of way of let's prevent infections from happening. things may have not been necessarily washed as well. All of that, correct? We now are far beyond that. Okay. Okay. Uh the second one is staying away from foods that can cause a cold. And I don't know, this is a bit out of my realm, but um I know that I've had

43:50 patients who've come to me who've said that they've been advised to stop XY Z because it can cause cold in the body. As a medical doctor, we don't have studies to show that, right? And it's similarly for like when you're not pregnant, those heaty foods, we don't believe in that. Okay. And we know from our studies that doesn't impact the gut microbiome. Okay. So, can we eat hummus in postpartum? Yes, please eat hummus. Okay. Like talk about specific foods that you think like you know that could actually because when you told me that I could eat hummus, I could eat my dosa. I could eat my so many pulses and dals. I could eat broccoli. Yeah. Cauliflower. I was shocked. Yeah, you could have honestly if you're healthy, eat everything. I'd say one big thing that I

44:36 find Indian women the mistake that they make is that they increase the amount of ghee intake too much post pregnancy, right? Or in that postpartum period, you need the extra calories. Okay, when you are feeding, you need 300 extra calories a day. But when I'm talking about 300 extra calories, what does that look like in its actual sense? Um, it's a bowl of hummus with, you know, a slice of bread. That's what 300 calories is. We're not talking. Yeah. Not the laddus. We're not talking about all of that. Um, so I think you can add, you know, please add in all your vegetables. Add in your cruciferous vegetables. Obviously, you may find a little bit of difficulty digesting them. That's a completely separate case because cruciferous vegetables can sometimes be a little bit difficult to digest. If you're able to digest them, please have them. you know, have the pulses, have the hummus, have

45:22 all your different types of dahs. You may want to introduce them slowly to kind of help you build up to that increased amount of fiber. But the more you are able to do with your gut microbiome at that point in time, the better it is. But if I eat gassy food, yeah, will my baby get gassy? No. Another big misconception. We have very little evidence to show that all of that passes through breast milk to get a baby. What I do want to tell you though is that we initially thought that when you are pregnant, your womb is a sterile environment. It is not a sterile environment. Your baby's gut health starts from when they are in your womb. Okay? So, what choices you're making during pregnancy, those impact your

46:09 baby. Okay? Think about your baby's w baby's gut at that point in time as a completely open slate. Everything it encounters from the moment it gets born till the first few years of life are basically the foundation of your gut. And you may think, "Oh my god, I've screwed it all up. I've given my kids life." Oh my god. I I'm I'm thinking about, you know, right now in my mind, it's like all all the pizza, all the pizza, the pasta that I ate in my pregnancy. And you binge when you're pregnant, you bing. That's fine. But more importantly, it's your baby's process, right? Building up your baby's gut microbiome. So, and what have I done for that? how your child is born, whether they're born through a cesarian, whether they're born through a natural delivery, whether you've breastfed, skin-to-skin contact, all of these things impact your baby's gut

46:55 microbiome. In those first few years of life, we know that kids who have been kept in a very sterile environment. So, don't touch the dust, don't be next to the soil, don't play in the garden. They actually have more allergic tendencies. But you are building up your baby's gut. first two to three years of life is absolutely crucial to build the foundation for your baby. Does that mean you've screwed it all up? If you have, if you're listening to this and you have like a six-year-old, have you screwed it up if your child you've not done any of that for your child? No. Your gut is very forgiving. Okay? You can keep building up. But what I often find in my consults, like if I'm talking to my patients about gutas and I'm really going deep, I will ask them, "What was your childhood like? How many courses of antibiotics did you have when you were a kid? Did you commonly use painkillers? Did you commonly find that your gut

47:41 microbiome changed during different stages of your life? For women, we know that there's a massive connection between estrogen and progesterone and the gut microbiome. During pubertal years, we often find that women's gut bacteria change. During permenopausal years, like 40, we find women's gut bacteria change and that can lead to changes in your constipation rates, like your your bowel habits, all of that. But yeah, building up your guts baby in those first few years is absolutely vital. I think there's a very big misconception that if you have caffeine, it increases your cortisol levels. We actually know from our studies that it doesn't. So coffee is not bad for your gut. No. So there have been studies that have been done that have actually showed, you know, we we

48:28 hear this like, oh, don't have coffee. It's going to increase your cortisol and it's going to wreck your hormones. So, we have studies that have been done that people have actually had a cup of coffee in the mornings or they've had it when they've abstained from coffee and then they're having it again. For the first 24 to 48 hours, your cortisol levels may increase, but over a period of 2 to 3 days, your cortisol levels actually get back down to normal. Okay. What I would say when it comes to your gut microbiome, we know that a few cups of coffee a day actually improve your lipid profile. They improve your sugar sensitivity. They improve your metabolic health. So I'd say don't cut it out completely. With regards to coffee and gut health in particular, so the gut microbiome in particular, we don't have enough evidence to show the the kind of effect of both on each. But I feel

49:14 terrible after having coffee. I feel that gut anxiety like my gut literally clenches and I feel so nauseous. Yeah. And that's probably a relation to number one, your caffeine insensitivity or your sensitivity for caffeine, right? 30% of the population are very caffeine sensitive. Meaning when they do have caffeine, they kind of feel that stress, flight and fright kick in, right? Palpitations, everything feels odd. They're sweating. Like that's what's happening to them. In that case, honestly, coffee may not be your best friend. We need to think about other things if you do require it. Okay. So, what can give me an energy boost in times like that? Because with my lifestyle, you know how much I travel. There are times when I'm pushing myself physically and I need that. I need that

50:01 external energy. So there have been a few studies to show that matcha is a really good alternative because it gives you the caffeine. It also have very good um compounds in them that are antioxidants, polyphenols, all of that. And it doesn't give you that crash that you sometimes get with the caffeine. So that's kind of been shown the benefits of matcha. Okay. Okay. Interesting. I'll try that. How much water should you actually be drinking for optimal gut health? Two to three liters. Okay. There's a number of ml per kilogram. Yeah, 30 ml per kilogram. But I'd say 2 to 3 lit. And is there should you stick to regular water? Like you know for me I prefer to have like my awine water through the day and I feel like that kind of helps me consume more water. That's fine as long as you're hydrated. So some people find putting basil or

50:47 lemon or cucumber or you know all of these things in water helps them to stay a little bit more hydrated. That's completely fine. That still counts as water. So, as we've been working together, I know that you've put in a lot of importance and, you know, stressed on movement being very important. So, it's not really about just correcting your food habits, but it's also movement that adds in. Can you take me through why that's important and how that helps? So, firstly, exercise is not for weight loss. Okay. Anyone who's exercising to counteract the calories that they've eaten is on a cycle where you're basically like a dog chasing its tail. Okay. Okay. We know that food has a much greater role to play in that. Exercise I would say is use it because

51:32 we know studies show that the more you are exercising especially aerobic training which basically helps to make your heart and your lungs stronger. There's resistance training to improve muscle and then there's flexibility. those type of exercises have been shown to positively improve the gut microbiome. Okay, so we know that within that even 10 minutes of exercise per day and I think I've told you this before, right? And I tell a lot of my patients who are like, I just don't have time. I'm like 10 minutes a day improve blood pressure, improve cognition, improve focus, improve all of these other things. That's the power of 10 minutes. And what about cardio? Will cardio lead to help with weight loss? So, I mean, when you're looking at it from a pure point of calories in, calories out, it may if you're in a deficit, okay? But more than that, aerobic exercise, which

52:18 is the cardio that you're talking about, this can be things like walking, running, jogging, swimming. And I want us to get through this myth or get past this myth that walking is not exercise. I have seen some ridiculous stuff out there to show that walking is not exercise. Walking is exercise. Walking is anything or exercise. That's the only like workout I do is walking. Exercise is anything that's repetitive, purposeful, and you're moving your muscles. Okay. Walking counts as that. So that cardio that you're talking about, that aerobic exercise that you're talking about can even be as simple as I'm jumping on a trampoline. You know, I am going biking, I have a dance party, I'm like going for a walk, all of these things, playing sports. On my weekends, I'm working hard. Yeah. Yeah. Um that has been shown to help improve our heart and our lung strength. Okay. Does it

53:05 help with body composition? Yes, it will help to improve visceral fat. It will help to improve that kind of fat burning that we're going through if you're in a deficit at that point in time. Is that the primary purpose? No. Yeah. Okay. I think the the big one is the muscle building. And I think that's something we're we're missing out on a lot. Um we have to build muscle to improve body composition and that's strength. I feel strength and forget about now, but in 10 years time when we're kind of all in the stages of permenopause, which is very sad, we need to improve our bone strength. And the best way to do that is to make sure that we're consuming adequate protein, we're improving our resistance training, we're improving our muscle strength, and we have enough vitamin D.

53:51 So, right before we wrap up, one last question that I think should sum up the entire conversation is, what are five things I should add on my plate right now to improve my gut health? The first is a variety of vegetables. Okay, don't be boring. Don't have the same thing every day. Try and get in as much as possible, as many different colors because that's where we know that impacts the gut health has. The second is consuming lentils, legumes, seeds, nuts, whether it's flax seeds, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, all of these things really have a great amount of fiber. Yes, you should be trying to get these every single day. They have a great amount of fiber in them that can actually improve gut health. The third is fermented foods. So when I'm talking about fermented foods, things like your yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, tempeh, all of these things. The fourth is your

54:39 whole grains. Don't miss out on these. Okay? So having your brown bread, your wild rice, all of these things will really help. And the fifth is ensuring that you're hydrated enough. What is the one thing that has completely changed your gut health? What would you say? So the game changer for me has been chia seeds and moon sprouts. Chia seeds fantastic in terms of fiber, protein, healthy fats. The moon sprouts again that fermented kind of food that really helps to transform gut health. Both of those have been absolutely fantastic in helping me feel satiated. I feel great after and I feel like I've transformed my gut health. And is this something you consume daily? Yes. Okay, super. That was fantastic. Thank you so much for having me. a lot of amazing information

55:26 and I love that it's coming from uh you know such a credible source like you and uh yeah genuinely thank you for being here so much helping me with my health. No I think you're doing a great job on your journey and I always like like I always tell you like if you're 1% better than you were today that's a win so keep at it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for watching or listening all the way through. I genuinely hope this episode gave you something to think about, something to feel, or maybe even something to shift the way you show up in your own life. If it did, I'd love for you to hit that subscribe button. It helps this show reach way more incredible people like you, and it tells us that you're here for more. We've got some really special guests lined up, and I don't want you to miss them. Also,

56:11 tell me what really touched you in the comments below. I read every single comment and your reflections honestly help us shape where this show goes next, who we bring on and what we dive into. And if someone popped into your head while listening, send this episode their way. You never know whose day, mindset or journey it could impact.