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• Step 1: Fixing My Mouth First
  • Ditch the toxic stuff ASAP. 🚫

Rule of thumb: If you can’t eat it, don’t put it near your mouth. Those poison control stickers on toothpaste tubes aren’t lying.

• Try oil pulling. 🛢️

Every morning, I scrape my tongue, rinse with salt water, brush my teeth, floss, and then swish a coconut oil + essential oil blend (peppermint, thyme, oregano, etc.) in my mouth for 10 minutes.

It’s magical. This ancient practice restores good bacteria, eliminates fungi, whitens teeth, balances mouth pH, and even heals gums. The results? My teeth were noticeably whiter, and my mouth felt cleaner than ever!

• Scrape the tongue. 👅

Tongue scraping is a game-changer for reducing toxins, preventing bad breath, and keeping your gut happy. It also stimulates digestion and reinvigorates taste buds.

• Floss like your gut depends on it (it does).

After every meal, floss helps keep detox pathways open and discourages bad bacteria from thriving. If too much bad bacteria reside near your gums, they will eventually release harmful byproducts (endotoxins) which get absorbed by your gums and enter into the blood stream.

• Invest in quality products.

Swapping my CVS “bargains” for actual products that could heal the root cause of my oral and digestive issues was life-changing

• The Gut-Wrecking Foods: What to Avoid
  • How Do Seed Oils Wreck Your Gut Health?

Inflammation Overload: Rich in omega-6 fatty acids, seed oils fuel chronic gut inflammation, damaging your gut lining and increasing the risk of leaky gut syndrome.

Oxidative Stress: When these oils are heated (think fried food!), they become oxidized, introducing free radicals that harm gut cells and inflame your microbiome.

Microbiome Imbalance: Studies show seed oils disrupt the balance of your gut bacteria—allowing harmful microbes to thrive, while suppressing the beneficial ones.

Endotoxin Production: Processing seed oils releases endotoxins, which are linked to inflammation, food sensitivities, and chronic disease.

• Pesticide-Laden Foods: The Microbiome Assassins
  • How Do Pesticides Wreck Gut Health?

Kills Good Bacteria: Pesticides act like antibiotics and kill beneficial bacteria, upsetting the balance of your microbiome.

Increases Endotoxins: With bad bacteria thriving, you get increased endotoxins in your gut, which trigger gut inflammation, fatigue, digestion issues, and more.

Alters Microbial Diversity: Studies show pesticides reduce gut diversity, which is crucial for strong immunity and digestion.

• How to Protect Your Gut from Pesticides

You don’t have to go 100% organic, but here’s what you can do to minimize exposure:

Prioritize the "Dirty Dozen": Buy organic for these heavily sprayed foods (apples, spinach, strawberries, etc.).

Wash Your Produce Properly: Use a baking soda wash or vinegar soak to remove pesticide residues.

Choose Organic/Regenerative Farming: Whenever possible, go for products labeled organic or regenerative—these practices prioritize soil health and reduce chemical toxins.

💡 Biohack with Jack Tip: If budget is tight, skip the fancy stuff and just clean conventionally grown produce with water, vinegar, or baking soda to slash pesticide exposure!

• Mold and Mycotoxins: The Sneaky Gut Saboteurs
  • How Do Mycotoxins Damage Your Gut?

Disrupt Gut Barriers: Mycotoxins can weaken your gut lining, making it easier for toxins to enter your bloodstream.

Imbalance Gut Microbiota: These sneaky toxins alter your microbial balance, reducing beneficial bacteria.

Trigger Inflammation: Your immune system treats them as invaders, cueing inflammation that impacts digestion and even mood.

• Common Sources of Mold and Mycotoxins to Watch Out For

Coffee: Low-quality coffee beans are notorious for harboring mycotoxins like ochratoxin A.

Grains: Corn, wheat, and rice are especially prone to mold growth during storage (hint: avoid industrially processed versions).

Soft Cheeses: Brie, blue cheese, and similar varieties often contain gut-triggering molds.

How to Dodge the Mycotoxin Trap Choose high-quality coffee that’s tested for mycotoxins (I love brands like Kion).

Opt for freshly stored, organic grains—or avoid grains entirely.

Limit your intake of soft cheeses or choose clean, reputable sources.

• Artificial and Processed Sugars: The Gut Microbiome Disruptors

Not all sugars are created equal. Natural sugars (fruits, honey) generally don’t mess with your body unless you have poor gut health—but processed and artificial sweeteners will destroy anyones gut. They feed bad bacteria, disrupt your microbiome, and inflame your gut lining.

• How Do Artificial Sugars Hurt Your Gut?

Feeds Harmful Bacteria: Artificial sugars like sucralose and aspartame encourage bad bacteria and yeast overgrowth—leaving you with bloating, gas, and inflammation.

Leaky Gut Risk: High sugar levels weaken your gut barrier, allowing toxins to escape into your bloodstream.

Triggers Systemic Inflammation: Processed sugar intake drives gut inflammation that can spread to the rest of your body.

Reduced Microbial Diversity: A sugar-dominant diet starves the gut’s good bacteria, reducing microbial diversity (a key to strong gut health!).

• hat to Avoid and What to Swap In

Avoid these:

• Artificial sweeteners (sucralose, aspartame, saccharin).
• Processed sugars hiding in soda, snacks, and sauces.
• “Fake health foods” like granola bars and diet soda.

Use these instead:

• Organic raw honey (buy local to help with allergies)
• Organic maple syrup
• Organic monk fruit or stevia.

Whole fruits, which pack fiber and polyphenols to stabilize sugar spikes.

• Rebuild Phase: How to Nourish and Strengthen Your Gut
  • Stop Eating 4 Hours Before Bed

The digestive system needs rest, especially at night. When we eat too close to bedtime, our body diverts energy away from repair and recovery to process that meal instead leaving food improperly digested.

Why it works: Fasting for a few hours before bed allows your gut to enter repair mode, reducing inflammation and giving your digestive system a break. Nighttime is also when your gut microbiome rebalances itself and cellular repair happens.

Pro Tip: If you struggle to stop late-night snacking, sip on herbal teas like chamomile or peppermint to relax cravings—and your stomach.

• Eat in a Parasympathetic State (AKA Rest and Digest Mode)

Stress is a digestive disaster. When your body is locked in "fight-or-flight" mode, digestion slows way down because survival takes priority over your body making enzymes and stomach acid. Your brain says, “Run from the lion now. Digest later!”

• Don’t Drink Fluids Around Meals

Before Meals: Avoid drinking 15–30 minutes before eating.

After Meals: Hold off for at least 15–30 minutes after finishing.

• Reseed the Microbiome

Your gut bacteria are like tiny soldiers—they support digestion, boost immunity, and even produce feel-good neurotransmitters. After years of abuse (think antibiotics, processed foods, and stress), your microbiome needs to be reseeded with good bacteria.

• How to Reseed Your Microbiome

Probiotics: Look for strains like Lactobacillus for digestion, Akkermansia for gut barrier health, and Bifidobacterium for brain-gut support. Rotate your probiotic supplements every few months for variety.

Fermented Foods: Add fermented veggies (sauerkraut, kimchi), kefir, and unsweetened yogurt to your daily meals.

Prebiotic Fiber: Fuel your good bacteria with garlic, onions, leeks, and asparagus. They LOVE this stuff.

Butyrate Supplements: Butyrate nourishes the cells of your gut lining (colonocytes), helping heal leaky gut and lowering inflammation.

• Add Colostrum for Gut Repair & Immunity

Colostrum, the first milk produced by mammals after giving birth, is one of the most powerful gut-healing superfoods on the planet. It’s packed with immunoglobulins, growth factors, and nutrients that help repair the gut lining, restore microbiome balance, and boost immunity. This is especially helpful if your gut has taken a beating from antibiotics or chronic inflammation.

• Gut Benefits of Colostrum:

Heals Gut Lining: Its growth factors (like IGF-1) repair and strengthen the intestinal barrier, reducing leaky gut.

Fights Bad Bacteria: Colostrum contains lactoferrin, which has antimicrobial properties that protect your gut from pathogens.

Boosts Immunity: Full of immunoglobulins, colostrum helps your immune system function efficiently—because 70% of your immune cells live in the gut!

💡 How to Use It: Look for high-quality, grass-fed colostrum powder. Add a scoop to a smoothie, or mix it into water for a gentle, gut-healing boost in the morning or between meals. Kion once again made a killer colostrum product.

• Load Up on Nutrient-Dense, Gut-Healing Foods

Give your gut the nutrients it craves! Focus on whole, unprocessed foods that heal your gut lining, support digestion, and keep your microbiome happy.

Bone Broth: Rich in collagen and amino acids to repair gut tissue.

Wild-Caught Fatty Fish: Packed with omega-3s to reduce inflammation.

Dark Leafy Greens: Arugula, sorrel, mixed greens are loaded with nitrates, prebiotics and nutrients to keep things flowing. Avoid kale and spinach as they contain high amounts of oxalates which can damage the gut lining.

Raw Grass-Fed Dairy: Includes probiotics and enzymes for digestion.

Berries and Dark Chocolate (85%+ Cocoa): Full of polyphenols that feed good bacteria.

💡 Pro Tip: Start every day with a gut-friendly breakfast like eggs cooked in grass-fed butter with a side of fermented veggies and avocado plus some berries.

• Heal Digestive Enzyme Deficiencies

Your body produces digestive enzymes in your saliva, pancreas, and stomach to help you break down carbs, protein, and fats. Our soil use to be filled with enzymes to help break down our food but over time our soil became depleted. Also the older we are the less digestive enzymes we produce.

• Symptoms of enzyme deficiency include:

Gas and bloating after meals.

Feeling like food is “just sitting” in your stomach.

Undigested food in your stool.

Fatigue or sugar cravings after eating.

• How to Support Enzyme Activity

Fixing enzyme deficiencies is simple:

Relax at Meals: Eating in a calm state boosts stomach acid and enzyme production.

Take Digestive Enzymes: Use a full-spectrum formula with protease (for protein), lipase (for fats), and amylase (for carbs). Bioptimizers is the best one I found in the market.

Fix Gut Inflammation: Chronic inflammation decreases bile production and enzyme efficiency, so address the root causes like stress and poor diet.