Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - The 3 Best Supplements for Gut Health

Episode Date: November 13, 2019

As a general rule of thumb there are two reasons people take gut health supplements: 1. They have been told that to be optimally healthy you need to maintain a healthy gut. 2. Something just hurts and doesn’t work properly and they’d rather it was normal. A theoretical and more long-term reason that you put your faith into, and a super simple “as long as it makes me feel better and makes the washroom trips go easier” reason. Both are valid reasons, mind you, and it wasn’t until the rise of probiotics that people even cared about gut “health.” “Gut health” can also mean many different things, and so gut health supplements can work in many different ways. And we’re going to go over the main ones that work in this podcast. Let’s get to it. ----- Mentioned on the show:  Book by Mike Matthews ----- Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: https://www.legionathletics.com/signup/

Hey, Mike here. And if you like what I'm doing on the podcast and elsewhere, and if you want to help me help more people get into the best shape of their lives, please do consider picking up one of my bestselling health and fitness books, including Bigger, Leaner, Stronger for Men, Thinner, Leaner, Stronger for Women, my flexible dieting cookbook, The Shredded Chef, and my 100% practical and hands-on blueprint for personal transformation inside and outside of the gym, The Little Black Book of Workout Motivation. Now, these books have sold well over 1 million copies and have helped thousands of people build their best bodies ever. And you can find them on all major online retailers like Audible, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play, as well as in select Barnes & Noble stores. Again, that's Bigger Leaner Stronger for Men, Thinner Leaner Stronger for Women, The Shredded Chef, and The Little Black Book of Workout Motivation. Oh, and I should also mention that you can get any of the audiobooks 100% free when you sign up for an Audible account, which is the perfect way to make those pockets of downtime,

like commuting, meal prepping, and cleaning, more interesting, entertaining, and productive. meal prepping, and cleaning more interesting, entertaining, and productive. So if you want to take Audible up on that offer, and if you want to get one of my audio books for free, go to www.legionathletics.com slash Audible. That's L-E-G-I-O-N athletics slash A-U-D-I-B-L-E, A-U-D-I-B-L-E and sign up for your account. Gut health has been a long overlooked aspect of our overall health and well-being, but that is something that has changed in recent years. More and more people are talking more and more about gut health, and that has also led to more and more products,

and particularly supplements being sold to purportedly improve gut health. And many of these products and many of these supplements have gotten very popular because we now know that the health of our gut, and when I say that really what I'm referring to is the microbiome or the entire ecosystem of bacteria that lives in our guts does indeed affect our physical and our psychological health and performance in a number of different ways. For example, we rely on these bacteria for eliminating toxic compounds from the body, for breaking these compounds down so they can be eliminated. We rely on them for our immune system to boost and regulate our immune system. We rely on them for the production of health-promoting short-chain fatty acids and so forth. Now, most people don't need to do anything

particularly special to maintain an optimally functioning gut, to maintain a healthy gut. All they have to do is eat right. And by that, I mean, get the majority of your calories from relatively unprocessed, nutritious foods, eat plenty of fruit, plenty of vegetables and so forth and exercise and maintain a healthy body composition. For most people, that's enough. In some people, though, those things are not enough. Some people do all of those things and still run into problems. For example, many people can't absorb nutrients all that well. And so what happens is they eat a lot of nutritious foods, but because their body can't properly process these foods, can't digest them and ultimately assimilate them all that well, they not only are going to be

starved of nutrition or they're going to be at least deprived of nutrition, they're also going to experience various GI issues like pain and diarrhea and gassiness and so forth. And those people are often told to take supplements because if proper nutrition and exercise and a healthy body composition and so forth is not fixing the problem, then what else can you do? Supplementation. Now, most gut supplements are not only promoted to people with problems though. Most gut supplements are promoted to everyone with the idea that to have a truly optimally functioning, optimally healthy gut, you need to be adding supplements on top of the good eating and the exercising and the good body composition. How true is that? Well, the bottom line is everyone can probably benefit to some degree by supplementing with the right

gut-related supplements. If people are having problems, there are often supplements that can address those problems. And if people are not having problems, there are supplements that can help support a healthy gut and therefore a healthy body and in some ways a healthy mind. I should add though that unless you're having problems, you don't need to take gut supplements. They are not necessary, just like no supplements are necessary unless you're trying to address a very specific problem with a very specific supplement. That said, there are supplements that are smart to take that can further enhance your health and well-being. For example, vitamin D, smart to take because you are

probably not getting enough vitamin D through your diet and sun exposure alone. Omega-3 fatty acids, a good idea to take because you are probably not getting enough through your diet alone unless you eat a fair amount of fatty fish or you eat foods or a fair amount of foods that are rich in alpha-linolenic acid. And the main plant-based sources, at least the best sources, are walnuts and flax. And many people don't eat very much walnuts or flax. Often what you'll see for plant based fats is a lot of avocado and a lot of oils like olive oil. And it's not that those foods are bad, not at all, but they are not good sources of omega-3 fatty acids. And so as far as gut supplements go, if you're not having any gut issues that you're aware of, and if you were

having issues, you would be aware of them. You don't need to take them, but that doesn't mean that you can't benefit from them. Well, what am I talking about specifically? What supplements specifically? Well, as your gut is a lot more than just your stomach, oftentimes people think of their gut as just their stomach when in fact it includes i mean it starts with with your mouth it starts with your teeth and it starts with the saliva that starts to break down food and then your esophagus your stomach and your small and large intestines all that is your gut and so you have different types of gut supplements many of them address digestion many of them are meant to help your body process and absorb the food that you

eat. And you can get various benefits from that. For example, it can improve the size and the texture of your body's chime is the word C-H-Y-M-E, which is basically poop before it comes out. And these supplements can help your body absorb nutrients better. They can prevent diarrhea and constipation, and they can also make sure that you don't experience any pain or discomfort during the process of digestion. Other gut supplements that are not meant to impact digestion at all. Some are meant to favorably alter your body's microbiome, all the bacteria that are living in your gut, and others are meant to support intestinal cells, the health of the cells in your intestines. I'd say those are really the two actually other main categories of gut supplements.

Hey, before we continue, if you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, and if you want to help me help more people get into the best shape of their lives, please do consider picking up one of my best-selling health and fitness books. My most popular ones are Bigger, Leaner, Stronger for Men, Thinner, Leaner, Stronger for Women, my flexible dieting cookbook, The Shredded Chef, and my 100% practical hands-on blueprint for personal transformation, The Little Black Book of Workout Motivation. Now, these books have sold well over 1 million copies and have helped thousands of people build their best body ever.

And you can find them anywhere online where you can buy books like Amazon, Audible, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play, as well as in select Barnes & Noble stores. So again, that is Bigger, Leaner, Stronger for Men, Thinner, Leaner, Stronger for Women, The Shredded Chef, and The Little Black Book of Workout Motivation. Oh, and one other thing is you can get any one of those audiobooks 100% free when you sign up for an Audible account. And that's a great way to make those pockets of downtime, like commuting, meal prepping, and cleaning more interesting, entertaining, and productive. Now, if you want to take Audible up on that offer and get one of my audio books for free, just go to legionathletics.com slash Audible and sign up for your account. So with that, let's now talk about three of the best, most evidence-based gut supplements you can

take. Stuff that is actually likely to help you. And let's start with psyllium husk. Now, this is really just your standard fiber supplement, you know, your Metamucil. It can increase stool size, it can soften stool, make it easier to pass and make you more regular regardless of your health, which of course is healthy. So you can think of psyllium husk as something that just helps you poop better, basically. And you probably don't need this if you are eating plenty of fruits and vegetables and you find that you don't have any issues with stool size or softness or pooping in general, you know, regularity. But if you do, adding it to your regimen can certainly help. Next, let's talk about probiotics, a very popular supplement these days and also a

controversial one because probiotics are often oversold in terms of what they can actually do for you. And so what are probiotics? Well, these are live bacteria that are meant to replace good bacteria in your gut that you may have lost for various reasons. For example, if somebody takes antibiotics, it is common for them to then supplement with a probiotic afterward because the antibiotic drug will kill a lot of the good bacteria in their guts. And you can give your body a leg up by supplementing with probiotics. You can help it recolonize the gut with good bacteria. And if you're wondering why these bacteria are good, what do they do that is good? Well, what happens is they feed on fiber and then they excrete metabolites. They excrete compounds that

have beneficial effects in the body. Some of these compounds reduce cholesterol levels. Some of them improve cardiovascular health. Some of them produce a pretty powerful anti-inflammatory effect in the large intestine and so on. And there are undoubtedly other beneficial effects that we just don't know about yet. There's a lot of ongoing research into the gut and how it works and exactly what these bacteria do and what the ripple effects are. But every month or two, there's another headline of some discovery about the gut that basically shows how its effects are much more far-reaching than we once thought. And so it's smart to give a

shit about your gut health. And again, that mostly comes down to the basics, eating right, exercising regularly, maintaining a healthy body composition, sleeping well, and so forth. But if you want to go further than that, you can also take a probiotic supplement. It's certainly not going to hurt. It might not help as much as the probiotic marketer would have you believe, but it's not going to hurt and it likely will help somewhat. Now, as far as what type of probiotic to take, which strain to take, because you have a number of different strains to choose from, unfortunately, there's still a lot of work to be done as to which of these strains are truly beneficial for people with healthy guts and which aren't. But the most

commonly supplemented and the most currently researched strains that I think are reasonable to recommend for just general gut health are lactobacillus acidophilus and bifidobacterium. Now, as I said, those are the most common strains, which means that they've been around the longest and they have the least marketing sizzle. They're not as sexy as some of the more esoteric strains or the more obscure strains that are often promoted as wonder supplements, the next cure-all, the next must-have. But unfortunately, the evidence isn't there yet. The weight of the evidence is that it's possible that people with healthy guts can benefit from the two strains that I just shared with you from the common strains. And it's also possible that some of these other strains might be beneficial as well, but we just don't know yet. Okay. So let's move on to the third and final gut supplement

that you should consider taking. And that is berberine. Now berberine is a compound that is found in a plant called Berberis aristata. I may be mispronouncing that, but that's how I'm going to say it. And this is a plant that's been used in traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic medicine, Indian medicine for some time now. And berberine is a neat compound because not only is it good at helping your body absorb glucose, it also has anti-inflammatory and anti-diuretic effects, and it helps normalize the gut. And that's why research has shown that berberine can reduce symptoms related to irritable bowel syndrome and specifically diarrhea.

And it also can improve mood and lessen abdominal pain in people who are having GI issues. And if you're not having GI issues, it can help ensure that you don't have GI issues and just support the overall function of your gut. All right, well, that's it for my list of healthy gut supplements. I wish there were more I could recommend. I'd be taking them myself, but I'm trying to stick with the weight of the evidence here and make reasonable recommendations that are in line with our current understanding. And I'm trying not to get ahead of the research or go out on a limb to recommend things that won't pan out. Again, if you want a healthy gut, most important is eat well, exercise regularly, maintain a healthy body composition,

good sleep hygiene, live healthily, and you will have a healthy gut. You can further optimize it with supplementation, but you don't have to. And on the flip side, if you are not doing the basics, if you are not eating well, if your fiber intake is low, if you are not eating enough fruits and vegetables and you're eating too many highly processed foods, et cetera, et cetera, and you are not exercising regularly and you are overweight, you have too much body fat and you don't sleep well, so on and so on, no amount of supplementation is going to save your gut. And so if that's you, on a supplementation is going to save your gut. And so if that's you, don't buy gut supplements, buy healthy food, buy a gym membership, maybe cancel your Netflix membership so you can get to bed on time and get enough sleep. Or if you don't know what's going on with your sleep,

maybe buy a book on how to sleep better and so forth. a book on how to sleep better and so forth. Hey, Mike here. And if you like what I'm doing on the podcast and elsewhere, and if you want to help me help more people get into the best shape of their lives, please do consider picking up one of my bestselling health and fitness books, including Bigger, Leaner, Stronger for Men, Thinner, Leaner, Stronger for Women, leaner, stronger for men, thinner, leaner, stronger for women, my flexible dieting cookbook, The Shredded Chef, and my 100% practical and hands-on blueprint for personal transformation inside and outside of the gym, The Little Black Book of Workout Motivation. Now, these books have sold well over 1 million copies and have helped thousands of people build their best bodies ever. And you can find them on all major online retailers like Audible, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play, as well as in select Barnes & Noble stores.

Again, that's Bigger, Leaner, Stronger for Men, Thinner Leaner Stronger for Women, The Shredded Chef, and The Little Black Book of Workout Motivation. Oh, and I should also mention that you can get any of the audiobooks 100% free when you sign up for an Audible account, which is the perfect way to make those pockets of downtime, like commuting, meal prepping, of downtime, like commuting, meal prepping, and cleaning, more interesting, entertaining, and productive. So if you want to take Audible up on that offer, and if you want to get one of my audiobooks for free, go to www.legionathletics.com slash audible. That's L-E-G-I-O-N athletics slash A-U-D-I-B-L-E and sign up for your account. All right. Well, that's it for today's episode. I hope you found it interesting and helpful.

And if you did, and you don't mind doing me a favor, could you please leave a quick review for the podcast on iTunes or wherever you are listening from, because those reviews not only convince people that they should check out the show, they also increase the search visibility and help more people find their way to me and to the podcast and learn how to build their best body ever as well. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then simply subscribe to the podcast and whatever app you're using to listen, and you will not miss out on any of the new stuff that I have coming. And last, if you didn't like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email

at mike at muscleforlife.com and share your thoughts. Let me know how you think I could do this better. I read every email myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback. All right. Thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon.