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Kevin: Hey my fellow noobs, it's Kevin here. We've got a little bonus episode in the feed this week. This is actually an extension from last week's episode. As a little bit of context, Michelle had been talking about leaky gut as a result of microplastics, which got me a little bit curious. And so we went down a little bit of a rabbit hole, as we're wont to do. And so we decided to throw this as a bonus episode rather than adding it in to last week's episode just because we were already getting off topic quite a bit last week. So here's a little bit extra for you. Enjoy. So I had one question for you. Okay. Something you said a while back. So, you know, I'm thinking, you know, when you're talking about leaky gut syndrome, I'm thinking of like getting a run in your stocking. Like that's the image I've got.

Michelle: Kinda. I think of it as that screen door, but that's...

Kevin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And let the little mosquitoes in and all that. But my question is, once you have some leaky gut syndrome, can we fix the stocking or can we fix the screen door? Okay, okay.

Michelle: You can. And it takes some time. Pretty much any disease reversal protocol, like if you were to, let's take Dr. Goldner's example for revising protocol for reversing autoimmune disease, or you were to take Kabbalah's standard, Dean Ornish's protocols for reversing diabetes and cardiovascular disease conditions, et cetera. It all comes down to making the diet as clean as possible, reducing sources of inflammation, whether it's from food, whether it's from an environment or lifestyle behaviors and habits, and making it a hospitable environment for the body's natural healing processes to do their job. So it's kind of like, there's a famous doctor, Dr. Michael Clapper. One of the hilarious things that Dr. Clapper always says, and I'm sure he didn't make up this expression, but I hear him quote it often, is if you stop hitting your head with a hammer, pretty soon the headaches go away. So it's the same thing with our gut, right? If you stop doing the things that injure the gut- It will naturally heal itself.

Kevin: And it wants, just like anything else, I guess, I guess your body will naturally heal itself if you remove the conditions that are causing it to be unhealthy.

Michelle: And that healing process can be slow or it can be fast.

Kevin: Depends on the amount of damage, I assume.

Michelle: Yeah. I shouldn't say fast. It can be slow or it can be faster, maybe. Because it's very individualized. It depends on the person. It depends on so many different factors. But generally speaking, if you remove some or most of those things from your diet, like let's say you're not willing to give up animal protein for a time, you're not willing to give up all dairy for a time, you're not willing to quit smoking, you're not willing to start exercising. All of the things that you're not willing to do are going to inhibit that healing potential. But if you were willing to do it in its purest form, and for a period of time, and I don't know what that is. For some persons, it might be six to eight weeks. For some people, it might be more realistically, it might be more like three months, six months. For some people, it can be a year. It can be two years before you truly heal. However, it is possible. And what I would say, it's easier than people think. The hardest part is getting started. You can't rely on willpower. Willpower fades very quickly within about 72 hours. You have to really want to do it. You have to want to do it. And this is where a nutrition coach can be really helpful in the process. Because I find this is human behavior. As soon as you become accountable to another person, or as soon as you're paying somebody, like your personal trainer or your gym membership, all of a sudden, there's a different level of accountability than just saying, I will or I won't today. There's a little more skin in the game. That can help you through it. But often, when it comes to nutrition coaching, it's just having that cheerleader. It's just having that person to say, yes, you can. And I know what you're going through because I've done it too. Or here's what the research says. You're not alone. This community is much bigger than you think. But even if you were to make small incremental changes like we often talk about in this podcast, it's going to help. There is no downside. There is no downside to removing bad things from your diet and your environment and introducing more good things. So it just might take longer in that case. But it doesn't mean you're never going to get well again, which is what I think some people actually believe. I think they believe this is my life now. Now I have to avoid those things.

Kevin: I like the image of the nutrition cheerleader. I have an image of you now in my head with you with palms and going like, give me a B, give me an R, give me broccoli.

Michelle: Absolutely. I think that that's a really big part of the process, Kevin, because even though I say it's not as hard as you think it is, every single person, including me, having gone through this because everyone needs to remember, I lived this. I had the epitome of the unhealthy lifestyle and the unhealthy diet. I started from rock bottom. I was just fortunate in my case that I didn't already have a chronic disease condition as a result of it. But I think I was only a few years away from developing one, if I'm really honest with you. But it's that you feel like you go through those moments, right? Like, oh my gosh, this is so hard. And it's not really hard. What's hard is changing your mind. It's like saying, you know what? I'm not going to die if I don't eat ice cream.

Kevin: Exactly.

Michelle: I'm not going to die if I don't have cheese.

Kevin: Well, it's the same as anything. It's the same as quitting smoking or starting exercising or anything like that. You just need to get over that initial road bump of saying, I need to change some habits that I'm doing. And human beings are very much creatures of habit.

Michelle: And drinking enough water, all of it. I can't drink that much water. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. It's not really the adding the water into the diet that is the barrier. It's the changing the behavior that allows you to add the water into your diet.

Kevin: It's behavioral change.

Michelle: Yes. And we all struggle with it. But it's kind of like learning to run, right? I'm in that place where I used to run and then I didn't for a long time. And you just have to build it up again like any muscle. So I did a 10K road race a couple weeks ago. And the first few times that I went out to run again in order to try to prepare for that, I was like, oh my gosh, I can't do this. I am getting too old. My body won't do it. And those are just stories I tell myself. Because yes, I can. And I did.

Kevin: Of course you can.

Michelle: You just have to push through it. You have to allow your body to re-acclimate to this behavior. Allow your muscles to adapt to it. And pretty soon, you feel so much better. Exactly. And it's worth it. The payoff is huge. The struggle is short. The payoff is huge.

Kevin: And then it will become the new norm. And then it'll just become second nature. And it'll become your new habit.

Michelle: Yeah. And on that, it's worth mentioning and worth reminding people that increasing your physical activity actually helps with the proliferation of those good guys in your gut. Helps with the production of short chain fatty acids. And like those other butyrate, those other good byproducts. So exercise is part of it. You know, Jack LaLanne, if anybody remembers the great Jack LaLanne, he's famous for saying that I can't remember which order it was, but it doesn't matter. It was like exercise is king and diet is queen. And you put them together and you have a kingdom. But you can't exercise alone and be healthy. You can exercise like a maniac and have a crappy, crappy diet and get very sick and unwell. You can eat the greatest textbook diet ever. But if you don't move, you will have deficits. It will contribute to being unwell significantly. You have to do both. That's how our organisms were intended. That's how we're built. That's how we survived on this planet was by moving and by eating off the land, high nutrient dense food that we saw as colorful, right? That we could get the most nutrient density for the least amount of effort because we're very lazy people.

Kevin: We are. We are lazy. This has been Nutrition for Noobs. We hope you're a bit more enlightened about how your fantastic and complicated body works with the food you put into it. If you have a question or a topic you'd like Michelle to discuss, drop us a line at n4noobs at gmail.com. That's the letter N, the number 4, N-O-O-B-S at gmail.com. If you haven't already, you can subscribe to the podcast on whatever your favorite platform might be. Also, please consider leaving a review or telling your friends. That's the best way to spread the word. We'll see you next time with another interesting topic. The views and opinions expressed on Nutrition for Noobs are those of the hosts. It is not intended to be a substitute for medical, nutritional, or health advice. Listeners should seek a personal consultation with a qualified practitioner if they have any concerns or before commencing any actions mentioned in the podcast.