2: The Best Foods for Crohn's and Colitis

Food can cause IBD, but it's rarely the root cause. However, it does directly affect your ability to recover from IBD.

Most GI doctors say "food has nothing to do with this disease - eat whatever you want" but that's so horrifically wrong that it should be criminal. What you eat DIRECTLY affects your gut, your gut bacteria, immune system, and so much more.


TOPICS DISCUSSED:

• The best foods to support IBD
• Why some foods are harder or easier for you to digest, break down and absorb
• The worst advice doctors give about diets in Crohn's and Colitis
• Important nutrients to assist your IBD recovery 
• Q+A with the audience

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Transcript

Josh Dech:
Contrary to what your doctors told you, Crohn’s and colitis are reversible. Now, I’ve helped hundreds of people reverse their bowel disease and I’m here to help you do it too. Because inflammation always has a root cause—we just have to find it. This is the Reversing Crohn’s and Colitis Naturally podcast.

Now I do these live trainings in my Facebook group every single week and put the audios here for you to listen to. If you want to watch the video versions of these episodes, just click the link in the show notes to get access to our Facebook group and YouTube channel. And for weekly updates, information, tips and tricks, you can sign up for our email list by clicking the link in the show notes below.

It’s Tuesday night—we’re here every week waiting for you to show up—and tonight we’re talking about the best and worst foods for IBD. Now, this one can be a little controversial because everyone’s body is different, everyone has a different situation in their gut, everyone has different levels of inflammation, everyone’s got different things, but ultimately there’s gonna be a generic list that works for 90-plus per… of people, 80-plus perc, um, in order to get them through these things.

We’re gonna talk about the best foods, we’re gonna talk about the worst foods, we’re gonna talk about why good nutrition matters as well as important nutrients for IBD that you can use to support yourself in this situation.

Now again, if you’re serious about reversing IBD, you’ll need to know that food is an important piece of this puzzle—not only to prevent further damage but also to start improving these things, to get your IBD to begin reversing, right? In most cases, it is literally a make or break issue that unfortunately a lot of the Western world kind of ignores. Medical doctors even tell you, "Eat whatever you want," and it’s crazy.

So, as the title says when you guys jumped into this live, we’re going through the best foods, the worst food, important nutrients, and um, things that are good of course—why nutrition matters for IBD. Plus, we have a very special announcement at the end of today. It’s a really big deal. We’ve been working years on something—we’re finally bringing it to you guys so we’re very excited about that one.

So let’s get right into it today. Let’s talk about the best things. Let’s go. Best food.

Now, best foods is a pretty easy one. I get asked this all the time: “Josh, what are the best foods for me? Best foods for IBD? What are the best foods that I should be eating?” And the truth is, um, I can’t tell you that. But I will give you some information to consider. Here’s why. Some food for thought, if you will. Everyone’s gonna be different, everyone’s gonna respond differently.

Sometimes I’ll recommend on generic plans, get people down my throat going “Yeah, but you said this is good for IBD—I can’t eat it!” You’re an adult. Use your discretion. Okay? So I’m gonna give you some generalized things that are best.

First and foremost, we wanna go with proteins.

Now a lot of people have trouble with certain proteins. But it does mean meat and eggs, if you can tolerate them well.

Why? These are full of very essential nutrients. We need amino acids, we need proteins to be rebuilding these tissues, and they’re very nutrient-rich sources. They’re incredibly dense. They’re like superfoods. Eggs are nature’s multivitamin. If you can eat, break down, and digest these—eggs, especially those yolks—are gonna be incredibly powerful for very dense amounts of nutrients, including certain sulfurs that your body needs for your liver to detoxify, certain proteins to heal you, vitamins and minerals and nutrients to clean junk out of your body—they come in these foods. We need these things.

So it’s very important to be getting in all of your proteins.

Now, other things you wanna look at—people ask me all the time “What about carbs? What about fats?” We’ll get there.

I’m a big fan of having fats. Now fats are kind of a straightforward one. This might come in the form of things like ghee—I don’t do a whole lot of butter myself, I have trouble with dairy—and it might also be oils. But here’s the thing: there’s good meats and bad meats, there’s good oils and bad oils, all of the above.

So the question you might be asking is “What meat should I be eating? Which animal egg should I be eating?” So, what kind of meat should we be eating?

Number one—well, obviously animal meat. Okay? Don’t—don’t eat human meat. That’s frowned upon in most countries. We’ll avoid that one.

But fatty meat is gonna be really good for you. This is—this is a topic of conversation that especially people over 40, 50 really have trouble getting around because they were raised in the era where fat is bad. Saturated fat is bad. That’s been debunked a trillion times over. And there’s actually a ton of research trying to say red meat is bad for you, but it’s all—like there’s—it’s such shoddy science when you look at it.

A recent study had posted saying too many eggs is bad, and because they—they said too much protein is bad for you. Well, the protein they used in the study was actually a Nestlé Boost energy drink where the first ingredients are corn syrups and canola oils—but they’re blaming the protein. And so the research is really garbage around these things.

But the truth is fatty meats are gonna be fantastic. Fatty fish, fatty red meats are gonna be awesome for you—if you can break down, digest, and absorb them.

Now for those who have trouble eating things like steaks and heavier meats, maybe go with fish. Go with ground meats—things that are softer. You might give to a toddler ‘cause your—your gut is inflamed. You have to treat it like a baby. Treat it very gently. Give it things that are very easy to break down—things that are soft.

As well as eggs—maybe they’re scrambled or soft-boiled or poached even might be a little bit nicer than a really hard-boiled or overcooked egg. Can be a great way.

Now oils—let’s talk about some of these.

I—I’m not saying canola. I’m not saying safflower or grapeseed oil or any of these things that are really highly inflammatory. The refining process for these oils is atrocious.

Even looking at olive oil—I don’t know if you guys knew this—but the olive oil scandal—it’s like a freakin’ Mafia. There’s just not enough oil or olive trees and olive plants in the world to supply the world’s use of olive oil. So they’re often blends—which can be inflammatory.

So if you’re having issues when you go to eat because of the oils—they say olive oil on the salad, ask them “Is it pure olive oil or a blend?” Because if you’re getting inflammation from eating oils—it may not be the oils. If it is, your liver’s got a problem. But if it’s not your liver and you’re not getting floaty, greasy, oily stools, then the oils you’re consuming might be inflammatory.

They might be mixed with canola or vegetable oil or safflower oil or something—sunflower oil—that’s cheaper and actually dilutes the oils. And they’re very inflammatory. Very high what we call Omega-6.

Now this is all information we’ve actually just recently released for you guys in something called School. That’s part of what we want to announce for you guys today. We’re gonna give you some information on that, but it’s a pretty rad community. It’s like a Facebook community plus courses and content in the works—I’ll get you into some of that here in a minute.

But I wanna get—make sure you’re getting your fats. And we need fats for tissues. We need cholesterol for tissues. Cholesterol isn’t bad. Every cell in your body is made of cholesterol. Your cell membranes are made of cholesterol. So we have to be getting some of these ones in.

Now this one is debatable—people ask me “Do I need carbs?”

Now carbs—if you’re gonna eat them—the form of like sweet potatoes, maybe squash—things that are very soft and gentle. Maybe your fats are coming in avocado—something soft and squishy. Maybe you’re getting them in soaked nuts or seeds. These can be really great ways to break down, digest, and absorb.

Things you would give a toddler, right? Picture this—you trying to digest a steak might be like you going for a run up some stairs—but if your ankle is broken you can’t get up the stairs without severe pain. If you’re gonna try to run, the same thing happens with your gut when you’re inflamed and things are really severe and you’re having trouble breaking down, digesting, and absorbing—and you’re trying to eat like a steak, for example—or really hard like beef jerky, something very tough—well if your gut is inflamed it’s like your ankle is broken and you’re trying to run. It’s going to cause or contribute to inflammation which is a really big problem.

So you really want to avoid that by eating softer meats. Again, if you have a baby—the things you’d feed them—those are the things that we can often be eating because it’s less mechanical work—like running up a flight of stairs—for your digestive system.

Okay? So carbs are gonna be a big one. People ask me “Do I need carbs?” If you’re gonna have them—like I said—let’s go with the form of squash, yams, sweet potatoes, maybe some soft fruits like berries.

The thing about carbohydrates—I have two points of contention on this one.

One—we often associate them with breads, pastas, starches, or things that contain, of course, gluten.

People want to fight me on this one all the time. Guys, I’ve been doing this for a long time. I’ve reversed hundreds of cases of IBD—hundreds of cases to the point, like, we spoke on international TV, we’ve been on podcasts all over the country, we’re talking about this stuff—and people still want to fight me on freakin’ gluten.

Gluten—maybe eventually one day—but because of its high prevalence to affect 99.9% of people negatively—especially those with IBD—even if you don’t feel it right now or feel it a couple days later—I promise you, in some way, it’s contributing.

Wait ‘til your gut is reversed and your IBD is reversed before introducing it again.

And so we often associate carbs with gluten-based things. That’s not what I want to do for you guys. I don’t want you consuming gluten.

Consume things that are grown in the ground with no refinement—that’s a great place to start. But carbs, again, might be plant-based carbs—that’s okay. Especially for women. Especially, right?

You’ll notice—why women—why do you think you crave carbohydrates, sweets, or sugar, or particularly chocolate around your cycle? Right?

It’s not because chocolate is wonder—I mean, chocolate is wonderful—I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t. And guys—no, I don’t menstruate. I’m not mansplaining—I’m giving you some science here. But here’s how this works, okay? With all my menstruation experience…

When we’re dealing with chocolate around your menstrual cycle—it contains sugar—glucose-like carbohydrate that the female body needs to produce progesterone for a healthy hormonal cycle. It’s got magnesium, and it’s got iron in its best forms. So you’re getting three very important things that you need—three very important nutrients that your body is craving.

And so if you’re craving things, sometimes these carbohydrates can be a great source.

Now I tell my wife—I’m like “Well, just have some sweet potato and have some, uh, uh, shot of fish oil. It gets all—kinda all your basic—” and she’s like, “When you have your period, you can tell me what to eat.”

Very fair point. And I went and bought her chocolate.

But the idea is—if your body is craving things, you’re craving nutrients. There may be a reason. It might be something you’re lacking.

If you’re finding yourself craving carbs and sugars and other things—it could be—and I’ll show you why—Another point of contention around, um, carbs and carbohydrates—a very common route, very like 80-plus perc of the time when dealing with IBD, we see a lot of fungus in the form of candidas or candida strains.

Well what loves carbs and gluten? Candida.

It loves inflammation—gluten contributes to inflammation—it loves carbs, starches, fibers. So you are literally pouring gasoline on a fire and wondering why you’re inflamed.

You go “I feel really good after I eat it.” Sometimes you do.

Sometimes it’s the gluteomorphins—sits in the morphine receptors—or casomorphin from casein, like cheese—physically addictive. Sometimes you’re giving your body a bit of a rest, and sometimes it just craves them.

You bloat days later. Hours later. Or you’re really gassy and smelly. Or your bloat sits up tall—sometimes that can be the candida.

80-plus percent of people I see after hundreds of reversed case—or reverse cases—candida and fungal issues are in there somewhere. 80-plus percent.

And so by eating heavier amounts of carbs, you might be contributing.

I’m not saying go no carbs. I’m just saying throttle it back, right? And watch what you’re consuming.

So these are some really good places to start for foods.

I wanna give you some more examples here—a sample meal plan I might make for somebody dealing with IBD might look like some kind of, uh, let’s say wild-caught fish, right?

Maybe it’s gonna be a ground meat—and use your brains, be creative with this one.

I say wild fish—I’m a big fan of like wild-caught salmon. Absolutely not farmed salmon. It’s really nasty stuff. It’s actually been, like, labeled recently one of the 15, like, toxic foods because of the mercury, antibiotics, and colorings and junk inside the salmon.

Um, but like fatty wild fish would be really nice.

Other things I might recommend on a meal plan—even if you have candida—I might still put, um, some yams, some sweet potato, maybe some avocados, right? Even like some, uh, some fruit in the form of like dark berries. Dark berries are nice—or even raspberries—because they’re low sugar compared to like mangoes or bananas.

One banana is like 25 grams—a cup and a half of raspberries is like 7 grams of sugar. So you’re getting a lot of the good stuff without feeding what’s likely gonna be candida or fungus in some way, because of the prevalence of it.

And so what I’ll do is I’ll go in a very simple outline for a meal plan—I’ll go, okay, what are the soft and gentle meats I can eat? Right?

What are gonna be my fruits, what are gonna be my fats, and what are gonna be my carbs?

And then I’ll just pick one from each—and that’s gonna be your meal. It’s that simple.

We often overcomplicate it. Like, you don’t need to be eating big fancy meals all the time—unless you want to—then you’re gonna crank up the difficulty level here.

But the idea is—things need to be simple. Simple is gonna be key.

So the best foods—you’re gonna get your meats, your eggs, your berries, your dark berries, some simple fruits, soft fruits, soft vegetables—soft, soft, soft—because you’ve got a broken ankle, and you’re trying to run upstairs by eating a whole—like—a whole beef jerky and crunchy things and raw vegetables. You’re trying to run.

Don’t do it to yourself. It’s compromised. That inflamed tissue won’t work properly.

Okay? 
So, let’s talk now—we talked about some of the best foods, kind of a quick overview.

Now, really quick, I want to go over the obvious worst foods.

The obvious worst. These ones—when I say obvious—I mean you guys should know better because you have IBD. But your doctor hasn’t told you these things yet. They said food doesn’t matter.

So let’s talk about this.

Very first one—I get compromises on all the time—is alcohol.

We wanna avoid alcohol.

I’m gonna pull out gluten and dairy every single time when I’m working with someone with IBD.

We’re also gonna pull out sugars, or anything refined and processed.

Now what is refined and processed?

Anything in a package. Anything in a box. Anything that’s been modified in some way that you couldn’t grow yourself or catch yourself—these are things I cut out right away. For the first little while, okay?

Because alcohol—highly damaging to the gut. Your liver is dealing with enough with your inflammation, with the disease process, with the toxins dumping out of your gut and going through your liver.

Alcohol—your body has a pecking order. It’ll clear this first, allowing toxins to build up in your gut. You’ll feel like trash for days after.

Gluten and dairy—also so commonly, highly inflammatory. I pull them out right away as a precaution for the 99%.

Yes, once in a blue moon there’ll be the 0.1% of people go “I can eat it”—but they try to advocate that everyone can now.

So as a precaution—I pull it out for everyone first.

Sugar—what does sugar feed?

Sugar contributes to inflammation. Suppresses—it can really cause inflammation in the immune system. Manages to really mang—mangle up—wow, getting my M’s and D’s mixed up—it mangles and bungs up your immune responses.

It contributes to bacterial dysbiosis, fungal overgrowth—all kinds of problems in the body that contribute to your IBD.

Remember—your IBD has factors.

You’re not inflamed because of no reason. It’s not just autoimmune.

We’ve established in many lives before that your IBD is a byproduct of inflammation—or a byproduct of things creating inflammation. Right?

So toxins, mold, chemicals, metals, fungi is a big one, parasites are common, excessive antibiotic usage—it’s always something that’s causing inflammation.

Your body’s healing you from something.

But sugars, and alcohols, and gluten, and dairy, refined and processed foods contribute to that mountain of inflammation.

Then we wonder why we feel so sick all the time—because these are huge contributors.

So for everybody—these are the main things I pull out. Just about right away. Like, immediately.

Um, to say, here’s what we have to drop.

That’s gonna be your hot dogs. That’s gonna be your deli meats even—because they’re completely processed.

If you can’t catch a ham out in the wild, you shouldn’t eat it. Unless it’s like a—literally like a ham hock, right? Some—not these sliced thin deli meats that are all mixed in a barrel and baked. They’re very, very different. 

Now—I want to go over some of the most important nutrients for IBD—things that you guys can actually consume in foods or in supplement form.

Now let’s talk about nutrients, okay? Talking about nutrients here for you.

Best nutrients that we can take in for IBD—one of the most common ones that we’re lacking—most common on—especially us here in North America—vitamin D3. And let’s pair that with K2. K2 helps kind of guide it and direct it—it’s a semi-necessary part. Helps put it to bones and stuff. But vitamin D3 acts very much like a hormone. It’s an incredible product.

Very cheap to get. Not tablets—liquid. Always liquid. Oil suspension. Man, tablets are really nasty, cheap, and very hard to use.

And so vitamin D3 in a liquid drop—I start most people, give or take, around 5,000 IU.

Here’s the thing—if you’re a white person in North America, you’re not absorbing nearly enough. Our skin is pale because it’s often not as sunny as it should be. We don’t spend enough time outside.

If you’re a Black person from a very hot country—your skin is darker so that less penetrates so you don’t absorb or create too much. Our bodies are designed to balance these things out naturally.

Now, a white person can go out on a sunny day and in about half an hour probably create 30,000 IUs of vitamin D. A Black person might go out in the same time for 30 minutes and produce maybe 5 or 8,000 IUs.

And so depending on where you’re living—sometimes we need to supplement. Created inside the body is very different than supplemented. We need far, far less orally—or can tolerate less orally—than we can actually going out to the sunshine.

But keep that in mind when we’re doing dosing, okay?

So vitamin D3 is huge—for immunity, for inflammation modulation, for gut lining, for your gut microbiome—it does so much to help benefit us.

Another one that gets overlooked a lot of the time—and there’s many different forms—but it’s generally magnesium.

Magnesium can be fantastic. It’s used for over 300 different functions or enzyme reactions and functions in the body. Over 300.

And so we need it for cellular health, for mitochondrial health, we need it for tissue health, and your immune system, and energy, and regeneration, and hormones, and liver, and so many things that are vital process of IBD.

So which form?

Well, a really absorbable form I quite like is bisglycinate, or glycinate. You can find also what’s called a threonate. Sometimes a citrate—if you’re sensitive, it might make you poop though—draws water into the colon.

But I dose myself with 200 milligrams, two to three times a day, of magnesium bisglycinate—because most of us, we don’t get enough of it in our food. We’re just deficient in this.

Magnesium—it’s a really crucial nutrient.

By the way—a lot of this content is actually with workouts, with handouts and modules and guides and supplement guides and everything’s linked and recommended—like, done-for-you stuff—inside our School community. So you can comment DIY to get access to that.

Um—and I have a special little announcement about that for you guys here after as well about School. Make sure I write it down just so I don’t forget to tell you guys about this super cool thing.

So the next one we’re gonna talk about—a very important nutrient—is B9, or folate. And not folate as in folic acid.

Folic acid is pretty much trash.

Approximately 44% of the population has a gene SNP called MTHFR.

That SNP—S-N-P—stands for single nucleotide polymorphism. It’s just like a chain change inside the genetic coding—like a little flip.

And so 44% of the population cannot use this folic acid. They cannot actually use it and convert it into folate.

So 44% of people who take folic acid—the cheaper, artificial form of folate—can’t actually use it.

So if you’re pregnant or nursing and your doctor says take folic acid—it means dick all. There’s almost a 50/50 chance you can’t use it anyway.

So you want a really nice, bioavailable form of this vitamin B9. And that might look like—you might find it like on the back of a bottle—it might be listed as L-5-methyl-something-something-something-folate, right?

You might look like an L-5, or a methylated, or methylfolate—these mean it’s a bioavailable form. That’s very, very high quality, easily used.

Again—you can get access to this inside the new community.

And so this methylfolate is a really good one. It’s great for liver detoxification. It’s great for this process called methylation, which is part of extracting raw materials and keeping your body healthy and detoxing your body.

So is protein, by the way. Really important for your Phase 1 and Phase 2 liver detoxing pathways—we have three phases—so it’s very important to get these nutrients.

Another really good nutrient—if you’re dealing with it—folate—I dose approximately 1,400% of the daily value, give or take. Or the daily recommended is typically what I dose for most people.

The other one that’s a great one is zinc carnosine.

Zinc carnosine, specifically—there’s many different types and forms, like picolinate and others—but zinc carnosine tends to be really good for the immune system, helps produce stomach acid, but primarily it seems to be really good for managing inflammation and even helping repair and restore gut lining tissue.

And this is often one of the many missing layers—or missing forms of zinc—that a lot of us can take in. Tends to be a bit more expensive than like picolinate or other forms—but it’s phenomenal.

Really good for modulating inflammation and repairing these tissues.

So—so, uh—zinc carnosine can be a big one.

Another one that’s really important—one of the supplements—like if you had to take only one thing forever—Omega-3 might make my list.

Omega-3 is awesome—for inflammation, for modulating the immune system, tissue repair, hormones, detoxing—it does so much for us. It’s good for your brain—it’s good for everything.

Now specifically, omega-3s—I’ll dose these for people—anywhere from 4 to 8 grams per day I often dose some of my clients—which is quite a hefty amount—4 to 8 grams.

But there’s actually a form of omega-3s which is like a super-concentrated form. Okay?

We call these ones—they’re hella expensive—if you got the money, kudos to you, spend on these.

They’re called PRMs, or Pro-resolving mediators. They also come in—you might find like SPM as the name.

But these contain these pro-resolving mediators which are sort of the hyper anti-inflammatory aspect of omega-3s, in a lot of senses. So kind of like a concentrated, more powerful version.

But you do spend two to three times the amount—like one bottle—to high dose it like this for a month, you might spend $150. They’re quite expensive.

But omega-3—get cod liver oils or liquid versions—they can be a lot cheaper and go a lot further for the dollar than capsules or things like that.

You do have to be careful because a lot of omega-3s can be kind of rancid as well—so you just want to make sure you’re buying quality. Guys—quality matters so, so much.

Last one I’ll recommend that actually attaches to this B9 we talked about—the L-5—this is called methylation support.

That’s gonna be your magnesium, and lithium, and manganese, and all these combinations of things. But this is a vital part of detoxification. A lot of us sort of lack this or have issues in it.

44% of us have issues methylating, which means we’re gonna be vitamin deficient, hypertoxic—the works. And we want to make sure that we can take in certain vitamins and nutrients and mandatory things that your body needs to do its job.

These are—these are crucial to making sure we’re healthy. Okay?

 So I want to do a quick recap for you guys.

We went over the best foods, we went over the worst foods—oops, warts—that said warts 😆—and we went over nutrients.

So, quick wrap-up:

Best foods: soft proteins. Natural.

Worst foods: of course—alcohol, sugar, dairy, gluten, fast food, processed foods, refined foods—anything that’s junk or artificial.

And the nutrients we just talked about—your vitamin D3, magnesiums, your zinc carnosine, B9, omega-3s, and any kind of methylation support are really, really good.

 If you guys think—“Man, like I really need someone to hold my hand—even like a DIY style program might be too confusing, you think your situation is really complex, you want some more answers…”

Guys—we do have seats open right now. We have a few more spots for this month coming up.

Just comment solution and what we can do for you guys is talk about our program—The Gut Health Solution.

And what this does—we have you in small groups. It’s a phenomenal way to educate yourselves. Small groups of no more—we do about four to six people. We meet with you every single week. Not done with you—but done for you.

We create all these meal plans and supplement guides. We coach you every single week—micromanage and work with you and really drill down over several hours of working in interviews and questionnaires—hundreds of questions.

We dive into the deepest parts of where, when, and why, and how your disease process came about. We help you find the root, pull that root out—and then we help you reverse this disease.

Because remember—your body is inflamed for a reason.

What’s your body inflamed for?

A healthy body can’t randomly inflame. Right?

Classic analogy I use in the group—roll your eyes, my regulars—you got a thorn stuck in your hand. And you go to the doctor, and it’s swollen and bleeding, and they give you numbing cream for the pain—you’d be really pissed off.

Like… pull the thorn out!

We recognize these external inflammatory things—but no one looks for the thorn in your gut when you’re inflamed inside. We go, “Oh, it must be autoimmune,” and call it a day. Wash your hands of it.

It’s not. It’s simply just not.

I’ve got all the stuff you guys need to prove to you that it’s not. If you want more information about that, let me know. Just send me a DM and ask me for, like, proof as to why this is not autoimmune.

But it’s very, very reversible.

And so our job is to get in there—find your root, pull it out—pull that thorn out of your gut, so your body doesn’t have to be inflamed anymore.

All you gotta do is comment solution, and I’m gonna send you guys some information about The Gut Health Solution so you can get access to that. We will walk you through and hold your hand for 16 straight weeks through this process.

It’s very important to reverse—because time is of the essence for you guys.

Okay—great question! Question from, uh, Mean Marie? Megan Marie? Megan Marie had asked:

“Plant-based butter?”

Here’s my answer:

Hell no.

Absolutely not.

Here’s why—plant-based butter is not butter. It’s full of a lot of artificial things. You’ll often see safflower oil. If it’s like a coconut oil base, maybe. But there’s natural flavors—which aren’t natural.

“Natural flavors” by definition have to have the original starting ingredient be from a natural source—no matter how much additive or bastardization there is to it. By the time it’s done, it’s not even natural anymore.

It’s like tongue perfume. And that’s basically what it is.

Plant butters are gonna have things in there—fillers and all kinds of thickeners and junk. It’s not a real food. So it goes back to our refined foods, remember?

We talked about refined, processed, anything artificial. Basically—if your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize it, it’s not food.

That goes for plant milks as well.

But something that works great—Megan, I have a super dairy sensitivity—like I will have a teaspoon of ice cream and I’m in the bathroom in like 5 minutes.

Something that works really well is ghee.

Now ghee is to butter as dark chocolate is to chocolate.

It’s a bit rich—but they just completely extract all the dairy. It’s just the oil. Just the fat.

And I’m a really big fan of ghee. I use that quite a lot for myself.

So let me see…
“How do you take all these? I struggle taking tablets because of heartburn.”

Well—Amry asked what about heartburn?

Heartburn is often a—that’s a sign of what we call acid reflux, right? Another word for this one is actually GERD or gastroesophageal reflux disease.

GERD is very common in IBD. GERD is sometimes at the root of your IBD.

If you’re refluxing—typically you have—so picture your stomach, right? You got an entry door and you got an exit door into the small intestines. These are pH and pressure-sensitive.

And so if you’re finding that you’re actually getting acid reflux—it’s probably because your stomach acid isn’t too high—it’s probably too low.

So there’s no pressure and no pH to stimulate these doors to keep them closed—they kind of just flap open. So you’re taking these pills and things are coming up because you probably lack stomach acid—it’s probably not a matter of that.

And that’s how we take them—it’s adequate stomach acid.

“Taking regular magnesium?”

Michelle asked, “250 milligrams?” It may or may not be.

Some people are very sensitive to magnesium.

I would ramp—like for me, I recommend ramping up my clients’ magnesium until they—they kind of feel either too groggy or too tired or too weak, and they’re having problems with it that way.

250—a lot of the recommended daily doses of vitamins are kind of enough to get some in your system, but not enough to do anything.

I often find myself going anywhere from two to five times the listed amounts on vitamin bottles.

“Take one a day”—I’ll take two to five a day, because we need enough to supplement our lack.

 Amry asked,

“What of the supplements you recommend is there a point in starting them unless you know what the root is?”

Yes and no, right?

So here’s the thing—Amry, is there a point—the question is, is there a point in starting something unless you know the root?

It’s a yes and no situation.

So, in one area I’ll say yes.
 Picture—you got a house. But the problem is—right—your house is on fire.

Now, is putting water on the fire while it’s still burning useful?

Yes.

But the question is—in order—do you have to find the root of the fire? If there’s a gas leak in here and it’s pumping gas into your fire, you’re gonna be putting water on that all day long. You might prevent it from getting worse and spreading to the rest of the house, but you’re not stopping the fire.

But getting to the root and learning how to shut that gas off—that will, in combination with those supplements, be enough water to put out the fire—if that makes sense.

So the idea is—it’s part and parcel of a bigger thing.

And sometimes you’re working an uphill battle until you can find the root. And we’re working on putting some DIY “Find Your Root” stuff as well inside the School program—we’re really refining that as time goes on.

“Can stress be a factor in IBD?”

Absolutely.

Stress can be really gnarly.
Stress contributes to inflammation.
Bummers out your immune system—which can contribute to more inflammation.
Messes up your gut motility.
Decreases stomach acid, digestion—the works.

Can be a huge, huge factor.

And grass-fed butter is another question—grass-fed butter over regular butter?

For sure.

But watch “grass-fed.”
“Grass-fed” used to be a term that meant something. But with big food and lobbying—what’s happened is, now the loophole was that if a cow has been fed grass at any point in its life—sprinkle a handful like you’re dusting pepper: “grass-fed.”

So you gotta be really careful with that.

Grass-fed, grass-finished is a much better way to look at that.

“Do I recommend a multivitamin or beef liver?”

I love beef liver.

I use beef liver supplements all the time.

I use them for myself every day.

It’s about an ounce or two of freeze-dried—like liver, like—or it’s liver, kidney, and heart—they’re very nutrient-dense. Organs are phenomenal meats to consume.

And so getting them in capsules can be great.

That’s all I got for you for now!

If you guys need help—send me a DM, we’ll make sure we get you the information you need.

Until then—I will see you all next week.

Thanks for listening!

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