Did you know that 75% of your immune system is in your gut? Or that 95% of your serotonin is produced in your intestines? Little wonder that it’s sometimes called your “second brain!” According to Dr. Axe, there are four R’s to healing the gut: • Remove • Replace • Repair • Rebalance Remove—foods and triggers that upset your gut • Stress • Unnecessary medication • Environmental toxins – remove non-organic foods, fast foods, unhealthy foods, GMO foods • Trigger foods – caffeine, gluten, dairy, refined sugar Replace—trigger foods with healing foods • Fermented veggies – sauerkraut and kimchi • Green juice • Organic nutrient rich fruits and veggies Repair—with supplements • Digestive enzymes • L-Glutamine acid • Liquorice root • Quercetin Rebalance • Probiotics (the good bacteria in your gut) • Prebiotics (what feeds the good bacteria in your gut) It was Hippocrates that first said “All disease begins in the gut.” And he was right. Therefore, healing needs to begin in the gut. As you get started on your journey to health, this is the first place you need to focus some loving attention. We reached out to two of our favorite health and wellness experts, JJ Flizanes and Evita Ramparte, to talk all things digestion! Digestion is everything. It’s your fuel source. Everything you put in your mouth gets broken down in your body and either gets used up as energy, gets turned into cells, or gets eliminated. The quality and variety of what you choose to eat determines how well your body functions. But modern diets are packed with allergens (GMOs, glyphosate-sprayed wheat, chemical additives, gluten, dairy, pesticides, etc.) that the gut cannot process. The result? Inflammation, depression, chronic disease. One of the most common digestive problems is leaky gut. Your gut wall is lined with villi—these are tiny finger-like structures that filter out food particles, absorbing the good stuff and keeping other stuff out. But when you eat foods that your body struggles to break down, it becomes wedged in your gut lining. Over time this creates micro tears in your intestine, which means undigested food particles, that are supposed to be contained within the gut wall, escape into your bloodstream. This triggers an immune response: your body attempts to protect itself from what it considers a foreign invader by sending white blood cells to attack. The result? Inflammation. And the more you keep eating foods you can’t digest, the more tears appear, the more inflammation you experience, and the more your health deteriorates. The first thing to do if you want to heal your gut is a 2 to 4 week elimination diet. JJ teaches the best way to do this in her 5-month Invisible Fitness transformational program. Symptoms of poor digestion: • Skin irritation – eczema, rashes, etc. • Constipation • Irritable bowel syndrome • Bloating • Gas • Diarrhea • Cramps • Excess mucus (throat and nose) • Are you pooping right? Check out the Bristol Stool Chart! But more than just diet, your emotions are heavily involved in gut health. In fact, how you digest food is linked to how you digest life. When your emotions are blocked, they’re usually blocked in the gut. If you have a digestive issue that no supplementation is fixing, it could be an emotional issue. If you’re sad or stressed or holding on to anger, your gut responds to that. Goddess of Wellness and Tigress of Business, Evita Ramparte shares her secrets to healing your gut through juice cleansing. Evita healed her ovarian cancer and lost 50 pounds in just a few months thanks to detoxing, a raw vegan diet, and transforming her emotions. You can listen to her incredible healing story in Episode 57. Being hailed as “Sex and the City for Food,” The Food Heals Podcast brings together experts in the field of nutrition, health and healing to teach you the best-kept natural secrets to being a hotter, healthier, happier YOU! The Food Heals Podcast is hosted by Allison Melody and Suzy Hardy – two self-proclaimed natural chic