Improve Your Gut Health

So much of our health starts in our gut! We can attribute the health of our digestive system, immune system, mental health, hormonal health and more, to our gut. What Happens When the Gut Lining Is Damaged? Damage to the gut lining can occur as a result of inflammation, indigestion, and dysbiosis. Prolonged periods of any of these symptoms reduces the production of digestive enzymes, increases the potential of other digestive disturbances, and overtime causes physical damage to the intestinal walls. When the intestinal barrier weakens, food particles, hormones, and toxins leak through into the body. If these particles pass through, they are identified as invaders and can trigger further systemic disruption. How Bone Broth Repairs the Gut Bone broth is an amazing example of gut supportive nutrition! It is made by slowly simmering animal bones in water to extract nutrients into easily digestible and absorbable nutrition. This amino acid-rich broth assists the regeneration and repair of the tissues lining the digestive tract due to a high collagen and gelatin content. Collagen is a protein that is rich in 19 easily absorbable amino acids, most prominently; proline, arginine, and glycine. These amino acids are vital for maintaining the integrity of the digestive tract. Bone broth also contains the amino acid, l-glutamine. L-glutamine is especially good at rebuilding proteins and repairing the intestinal barrier, and is often supplemented on its own for this exact reason. Bone broth is known for it’s high l-glutamine content. The nutritional profile doesn’t stop there! Bone broth is rich in gut supportive nutrients like calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, selenium and zinc, as well as vitamins A, C and E. And it contains natural compounds, glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate and hyaluronic acid, which contribute to gut health by supporting the health of your microbiome. Bone broth is a great way to take in these nutrients due to its concentrated liquid form. And it is a clean source of protein, the essential macronutrient for cell regeneration! Choosing the Right Bone Broth Organika provides 3 delicious ways to support gut health. Our bone broths are clean, nutrient-dense and deliciously flavoured. Beef Bone Broth Organika beef bone broth comes in Original and Ginger flavours. It is a high protein, collagen-rich, low sodium alternative to regular beef broth. Always free of antibiotics and hormones, our beef broth comes from grass-fed cows in Sweden. We simmer the animal bones and connective tissues to extract the important gut supportive health benefits so that you don’t have to! 2. Chicken Bone Broth Our chicken bone broth comes in Original, Ginger and Turmeric flavours. It is a clean, single-ingredient broth powder sourced from cage-free USA chickens that are exclusively fed organic grain and are tested regularly for hormones, antibiotics, heavy metals or pesticides. It is a higher protein and collagen-rich alternative to regular chicken broth! As with our beef broth, it is rich in glucosamine, hyaluronic acid and chondroitin, compounds that reduce inflammation and joint pain, as well as support the repair of the digestive lining. 3. Veggie Broth For vegetarians and vegans, we have our veggie broth that is packed full of real organic vegetables, adaptogenic tremella mushrooms and nutritional yeast! Nutritional yeast is a source of complete protein. Protein is an essential macronutrient vital for enzyme and hormone production, as well as the repair and regeneration of every cell in the body. If you follow a vegetarian or vegan diet, you may be low in B vitamins. These water-soluble vitamins aren’t stored in the body and must be consumed on a regular basis. Our veggie broth is rich in B vitamins, vital for energy production, antioxidant action, and the building and repairing of DNA. Just like our other formulas, veggie broth also contains the gut supportive amino acid, l-glutamine, to maintain and support a healthy gut barrier! Heal Your Gut with Bone Broth Consuming this nutrient-dense, amino-acid rich product in a variety of dishes, on a daily basis, can help reduce inflammation, digestive disruptions and allergies, and thoroughly nourish your body in one quick scoop! Shop Broths About our Guest Author Alison Dowling HBA, NNCP Certified Alison is a Toronto actor and nutritionist. Through movement training and a love of food, she found holistic nutrition. When she's not writing or working with clients at the Clara Clinic in east Toronto, you'll find her catching up on auditions or brushing up her Shakespeare!

The short answer, yes. Collagen plays a role in gut health. As you age all body functions start to decrease or slow down. This includes digestion for some. The muscles of the digestive tract may become weaker. The production of key digestive enzymes may decrease, but also the lining of the gut may become more permeable (easier to attack or get through). When your gut is unhealthy it can lead to various symptoms: mood disorders, decreased immunity, weight gain, just to name a few. Here's why you should take collagen supplements to help heal your gut or increase its strength. How does collagen help improve gut health? Collagen has a rich amino acid profile, many of which have been studied to support gut health by reducing inflammation and healing the gut. Collagen is high in Glutamine, which helps build connective tissues and heal the gut’s lining. This has been shown to be helpful in those with compromised intestinal permeability (leaky gut). Glutamine has been linked to improving the gut’s microbiota which helps to keep the digestive tract running smoothly and makes it stronger to avoid injury, wounds, or damage under stress. Glycine and proline, also found in collagen, work to help seal and heal the gut lining whenever there is damage. This improves digestion. Arginine is another amino acid involved in wound healing in the gut. Because collagen contains all these essential amino acids, a hydrolyzed collagen peptide supplement daily can help build a stronger and healthier digestive tract. Is collagen more important than gelatin – or is it the same? Gelatin is essentially the cooked version of collagen. They both provide the same amino acids and provide the same benefits. However, collagen, like our Enhanced Collagen Original, is hydrolyzed (broken down into smaller peptides), whereas gelatin is not. It's better to take collagen to ensure you are obtaining all benefits. Your body can skip the step of having to break it down, making collagen much easier to absorb. Collagen also easily dissolves in water and is a lot more convenient to use. Should I take collagen powder or bone broth for gut health? Either or both. Collagen powder can help support gut health (described above due to its amino acid profile). With that being said, bone broth contains collagen and gelatin. So, you can heal your gut with Organika’s Bone Broth Powder as well. The bonus of bone broth is that it contains additional essential minerals that also work to heal the gut’s intestinal lining and reduce inflammation. Bone broth is a highly beneficial source of nutrition. Both collagen and bone broth are great options, so the choice really depends on your preference. Organika does have an option to maximize this: Full Spectrum Collagen 1,2,3. This product combines chicken bone broth, bovine collagen, and marine collagen – making it a mix of all types of collagens.

Gut health is an absolutely essential component of total body health. We cannot have regulated moods, well-functioning brains, resilient immune systems, balanced hormones or optimal fertility without a healthy gut. So how do we ensure gut health? STEP 1: REMOVE The first step to a healthy gut is to remove anything that is irritating the gut, impairing digestive function, or causing inflammation. Those factors all make it harder for the body to break down the food we eat and absorb nutrients. If this impairment is severe, and/or ongoing, it can result in malabsorption, nutrient deficiencies, dysbiosis and all sorts of digestive symptoms like gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain, indigestion, etc. Some things are universally irritating to human digestive tracts, such as: Alcohol; caffeine (especially coffee); NSAIDs (ibuprofen, naproxen); additives and preservatives found in processed foods. Most people should ideally be consuming these things only occasionally and in moderation. However, if you are experiencing significant issues with your gut, you may benefit from cutting these things out entirely for a period of time. Individuals may also be irritated, inflamed or impaired by other things. This is largely dependent on an individual’s particular sensitivities and digestive capacity. People with weakened or damaged digestive systems commonly react to, or have trouble digesting gluten-containing foods, dairy, refined sugars, legumes and even some gluten-free grains. As with the universally irritating things, most people would benefit from consuming these foods only in moderation. Some people may benefit from avoiding them entirely, while they are healing their gut. Any type of gut infection (bacterial, parasitic, fungal) can also cause significant damage to the digestive tract and digestive function. Infections must be addressed and treated first, prior to healing the gut. STEP 2: REPLACE Once the substances causing irritating and inflammation have been eliminated, the next step is to provide the digestive system with anything it is missing that is necessary for digestion and general health. Difficulty digesting animal protein and legumes may be an indication of low stomach acid. Bitter foods, bitter herbs and/or a betaine HCl supplement can support the body’s production of stomach acid. A generally weakened or inflamed digestive system may have trouble digesting most foods, especially those that are high in fibre like vegetables and legumes or grains, and so may benefit from some digestive assistance via a digestive enzyme supplement. Both of these support methods can be really helpful, but are insufficient to correct the problem on their own, and shouldn’t be taken long term. It’s important to make sure they are just one component of a gut healing treatment plan! Individuals who have been experiencing chronic digestive issues may also have specific nutrient deficiencies; some of the most common ones are vitamin D, iron, vitamin B12, and magnesium. It’s always important to get these things checked, and corrected if necessary. STEP 3: REINOCULATE If you’ve been on the internet in the past decade, you’ve probably at least heard of the gut flora. The gut flora are the trillions of bacteria that live in our large intestines and help us to digest food, absorb nutrients, metabolize toxins and hormones, maintain a strong immune system, and build many of our neurotransmitters. Without a healthy gut flora, we aren’t healthy, period. Antibiotics, stress and improper digestive function can damage that community of good bacteria. So the next step in ensuring a healthy gut is to make sure the right bacteria are making the large intestine their home. There are three main things to consider when it comes to the gut flora. Probiotic foods These are foods that naturally contain healthy, good bacteria and can be used to repopulate or rebalance the gut flora. Probiotic foods include: kombucha, sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt, anything else fermented. They are great to consume regularly in your diet, to keep your gut flora happy and healthy. Probiotic supplements While probiotic foods are a great source of good bacteria, probiotic supplements provide much higher doses of good bacteria. This is often necessary to help folks whose gut flora have been damaged. Choose a good quality probiotic supplement that has multiple different strains, and be sure to take it daily with food, for the duration of your gut-healing plan, as directed by your clinician. Prebiotic foods and supplements And lastly, it’s vital to ensure that you are providing all those good bacteria with the nutrients they need to stay alive in your gut. Prebiotics are a category of fibre that human digestive systems can’t break down, but that our gut flora can use as fuel. Ensuring you have a good amount of prebiotic foods in your diet is necessary to maintain your gut health, and supplementing with a prebiotic fibre can be useful when trying to correct dysbiosis and repair the gut. STEP 4: REPAIR We’ve now removed all the irritants, replaced all the missing nutrients, and repopulated the community of good bacteria. The next step in gut healing is to repair any damage that may be present in the gut tissue itself. In some individuals who have been experiencing inflammation, indigestion and dysbiosis for long periods of time, physical damage to the intestinal walls may have occurred. This can weaken the integrity of the intestinal barrier and allow for food particles (and hormones, toxins and other molecules) that shouldn’t be able to leave the intestines and enter into the body to do so. (This is often what’s happening in individuals who are experiencing “leaky gut”.) In addition to allowing inappropriate molecules into the body, the damaged intestinal membranes can also further exacerbate digestion issues. That is because those membranes produce a large number of our digestive enzymes. Collagen and L-glutamine are two of the key molecules used by the body in repair of a damaged intestinal lining. Soothing herbs like marshmallow root and aloe vera can help to alleviate some of the irritation. Vitamins A, C, E, Selenium and Zinc are also often used to support the repair of a damaged intestinal lining, as these are some of the most vital nutrients necessary for tissue healing. STEP 5: REBALANCE The last, but arguably most important component of a healthy gut is a healthy brain. The gut and the brain are intimately connected. When your brain is chronically overworked, stressed, anxious or fatigued, your digestive capacity diminishes. When an individual lives in any of those states ongoing, it essentially dials the activity of the digestive system way down. As a result, people often end up putting food into a digestive system that’s not ready to receive food. This causes indigestion, gas, bloating, dysbiosis and intestinal damage. Fatigue is another major factor to gut health. Sleep is when your body does the majority of healing and repair. Getting inadequate sleep is going to seriously reduce your body’s capacity to heal and maintain a healthy gut. Living in a perpetually fatigued state also drastically increases your stress levels. There is no tissue, organ or system in our body that can operate independently from the rest of the body, the digestive system included. So optimizing brain function and enabling your brain to keep your body in balance is a key component of gut health. The three most important factors to a healthy brain are: minimizing stress and optimizing stress coping mechanisms, exercising regularly, and getting adequate, good quality sleep. If you can get those three things solid and use them as the foundation to your gut-healing plan, your gut will be functioning optimally in no time.