Gut Health 101: Why I’m Eating Sauerkraut for Breakfast

Did you know that 70% of your immune system is housed in your gut? Or that nearly 90% of the serotonin in your body—the “feel-good” neurotransmitter—is produced there? In this episode, Aaron Shaw dives into why gut health is so much more than a buzzword and how it influences your immune system, mood, and overall well-being.

Join Aaron as he introduces the Gut Health Pyramid, a simple framework for understanding where to start and what really matters in improving gut health. He breaks it down into five actionable steps, focusing on foundational nutrition and hydration strategies that you can start today. Whether it’s adding fermented foods like sauerkraut (yes, even for breakfast), prioritizing fiber, or cutting back on processed foods, there’s something here for everyone.

Discover:

•The surprising role of bacteria, fungi, and viruses in your gut.

•How your gut and brain are in constant communication via the gut-brain axis.

•Five simple ways to strengthen your gut health and boost your healthspan.

If you’re looking to improve your physical, emotional, and cognitive health without feeling overwhelmed, this episode is your starting point. Don’t miss the first installment of this gut health series!

🎙️ Listen now and pick one gut health booster to start today.

P.S. Have a sauerkraut story or gut health tip? Share it with Aaron on YouTube or via your favorite podcast platform. And don’t forget to subscribe for more healthspan insights!

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Transcript

I want to boost my immune system. So I just added sauerkraut to my breakfast plate. Now check this out. 70 % of the immune system is housed in our gut. And in this episode, I'm going to explain exactly why I chowed down on sauerkraut, which I completely understand if you think that's the weirdest thing to have with breakfast, which my wife definitely pointed out to me. But if you care about your physical health, your emotional health, your cognitive health, you're going to want to listen to this episode.

talking gut health. It's a term that's been, we've probably heard a lot of lately, but I really want to dig into what this actually means and how you can improve it without getting overwhelmed. So consider this episode, just an introduction into gut health. And my question to you is which of the five gut health boosters I present today, are you going to start? Today we're going to explore some really like a really simple framework or what I think is a simple framework.

and I'm going to call the gut health pyramid. And this is going to help us understand where to start and what really matters with gut health. Let's review some stats real quick. Again, 70 % of the immune system of our immune system is housed in the gut. So if you want to fight off diseases and infections, and certainly depending on the time of year when there's, you know, the colds flus are around, you're going to want to have a really strong immune system.

If you want a really strong immune system, you need to take care of our gut because 70 % of the function is housed in our gut. Also, if you want to be happy, if you want to have some feel good vibes, we need to know this. 90 % of the serotonin in our body is produced in the gut, almost 90%. And serotonin is this neurotransmitter that has a major impact on affecting our mood and mental well-being.

And again, they call it like the feel good neurotransmitter. So it contributes to the feelings of happiness and wellbeing and feeling content. Conversely, low serotonin levels have been associated with depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders. It's so much so There's a growing field called nutritional psychiatry.

nutritional psychiatry, which is really examining the relationship between diet and mental health. And we also know that poor gut health has been linked to chronic inflammation, which contributes to diseases like diabetes and heart disease. So to say the least, gut health, which it's hard for me to look online for health and nutrition information without seeing gut health come in here, we need to be aware of. We need to start making sure that we have

this gut health top of mind and we're making nutritional decisions and really as I'm going to explain some behavior decisions to maximize our feel-good chemicals, to maximize our immune system and all the benefits of having a healthy gut. So the purpose of this episode is to introduce the concept of a gut health pyramid and to give you five simple foundational steps to improving your gut health.

this is going to be the first in a series around this topic. But by the end of the episode, what I really want us to understand is the very basics of the gut brain connection. I want us to learn about the microbiome's key players. And we're talking bacteria, fungi, and viruses, which I think in any other context, those all sound bad, but they absolutely vital to our gut health. And we're going to have actionable steps. So we'll start.

improving our gut health today. And you may just start having a little bit more sauerkraut like I did. And if you're not into sauerkraut, I think that's kind of crazy. That's probably a whole other episode I should do. But if you get really good sauerkraut, especially one that's a little bit spicy, it is so good. I mean, just fork in the jar, eat it kind of good. But I digress. My name is Aaron Shaw. I am from Healthspan Physio Coaching. Healthspan is the length of time within our lifespan.

that we are healthy, active, vibrant, and ideally free from preventative conditions. The pillars of Healthspan, which I talk about all the time, are exercise, nutrition, sleep, emotional wellbeing, and preventative care. And gut health touches on many of these pillars. all the more reason to do this episode and to do what's gonna be a series of episodes on gut health, because it is...

such an impact and to be frank with you, far more impact than I ever imagined. I always just sort of thought it was a nutritional thing to be aware of and don't eat some bad food, need more good food, and then your gut's healthy. I was way off the mark. It is way more essential. It's way more integrated into our overall health, into our healthspan, into our lifespan. It has been quite humbling to do some research on this. But my clients, my typical coaching clients,

are busy professionals. have some decision fatigue. They're feeling the effects of middle age and aging in general have aches and pains dealing with some weight gain often. And most of my clients or all of my clients know a lot of what they should be doing from a healthspan perspective and longevity perspective, but they have trouble following through. And that's where I come in.

My mission is to use my nearly three decades of health coaching and rehab experience to to help people reach their true potential. And the reason why I'm doing this podcast is so I can reach more people than just the one-to-one clients that I have, that I do have. But I do have one-to-one clients. And if you are interested in learning a little bit more about what a coaching experience might be like with me, by all means reach out via this podcast. And as always, I am forever grateful if you would.

subscribe and follow. But let's start off here. What is gut health? What does that even mean? The gut, it's part of the digestive system, which is probably pretty obvious. And so we're talking the stomach, the intestines and the microbiome. So the microbiome sounds, sounds like such a scientific, outer space sort of word. When I think about it, the microbiome, it's a collection of

trillions, yes, trillions of microorganisms that include bacteria, fungi, and viruses. And here's an interesting stat for us. There are roughly 10 times more microbial cells in the human body than actual human cells. So think about this. are like, these little cells are just sort of along for the ride. They're living within us. And these cells,

collectively weigh two to five pounds. So we are carrying with us two to five pounds of these cells in our gut to help us function. And they are essential. They're little, you know, if you think that you're a, have a service dog or something that's essential to your function. Well, we've got trillions of little tiny service dogs, if you will, that are within us that are helping us function, get through day to day and are an impact.

Again, all of these amazing components of our healthspan. A healthy gut will function to impact digestion, immunity, overall physical health and mental health. So healthspan depends on a healthy gut. Let's dig in briefly to the role that these microbiome players are. So we talked about bacteria, fungi and viruses. Number one, bacteria. Bacteria actually

aids in digestion by breaking down fiber. And when we do that, it will help reduce inflammation and nourish the gut lining.

Bacteria help regulate immunity by producing an antimicrobial compound and really it turns out that this bacteria acts as like a training system for the immune system. So it the immune system to recognize bad guys, harmful invaders of the body. As I spoke about earlier, bacteria is what helps produce neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine. So remember serotonin is that feel good neurotransmitter that gives the good vibes.

So it has a absolutely direct relationship on our mood, on our focus, on our sleep. And so again, so in tune that there's actually, the nutritional psychiatry, which I think is a, it's just a fascinating concept. And I'm so glad that there's a focus on that to really kind of put more and more pieces together of how our body functions as this whole integrated system. And we can't, you know, piecemeal.

our physicality and our emotional side, which back when I first started practicing, that's exactly what we did. So that's bacteria. That's the overview of bacteria. Then we get fungi.

This supports digestion by breaking down complex carbohydrates and plant fibers and it really focuses on helping balance out the gut. It really maintains this microbial diversity and will strengthen our overall gut health. That's the value of fungi. And viruses, again, something that the last thing in the world I would think of is that my gut needs a virus. feel like everything is like antivirus, but we do need viruses.

They call these bacteriophages. they are literally viruses that infect bacteria. So what it does, it helps regulate these bacterial population, again, maintaining this balance. so there's, we need these, these three creatures, you will, living within us to create this balance so the gut can function optimally, which brings us to the gut.

brain axis. You can look this up if you really want to do a deep dive, look up gut brain axis it's a two-way communication system between the gut and the brain. And if you look it up and you'll read a little bit about it, it really talks about the vagus nerve. So this nerve is like the superconductor communication system between the brain and the gut. And the main functions of this is that the gut bacteria, will produce these neurotransmitters.

As I said, serotonin that will affect mood and mental health. So stress, need to remember stress will disrupt this balance of our gut.

We really need to think of this gut brain axis as making sure that we remember that as a two way communication. So stress can disrupt the gut balance while gut imbalances can increase stress and anxiety. So it goes both ways. One example of chronic stress. You may have heard the term leaky gut. So chronic stress can cause leaky gut.

And that increases inflammation and can impact brain function. So it works both ways. And I think we're all familiar with times if you get really nervous or stressed out about something in a stressful situation, you have a GI reaction to that. And that is clearly a demonstration of the brain is connected to the gut and vice versa. So why does this matter? Well, having a healthy gut.

which is what we're going to focus on here, that having a healthy gut supports emotional resilience. It supports focus. It supports mental clarity. again, conversely, a poor gut, having poor gut health can actually contribute to mood disorders like anxiety and depression. So if you, if you work in a stressful environment, if you, hopefully not, but if you live in a stressful environment, if you feel like you're

maybe have challenges managing stress and anxiety, you have to address your gut health. And we're going to review five very simple things that you can do starting immediately to improve your gut health. So we'll get to that in just a second. But I want to introduce, introduce this as a, concept that the way I approach many sort of broad topics, and this is the concept of a pyramid. You know, the pyramid has a, a base, a foundation that is

broad and then there's tiers, like maybe a middle tier or sometimes several middle tiers working the way up to the peak or the top tier of a pyramid. And we know that a pyramid needs to have foundational stability and the foundational stability of a healthy gut depends on nutrition and hydration. Probably makes perfect sense. Nutrition and hydration gives us the strength

and even the capacity to have healthy gut. if we don't have this foundation, if we don't have the foundation of nutrition, appropriate nutrition and appropriate hydration, nothing else really matters. So the second tier of this pyramid would be concepts of lifestyle and habits such as stress management, such as exercise and sleep. This is like a middle tier, which still has a great impact on gut health and gut

the gut brain relationship. But I think that it's to really think about that is is second tier. It is sort of a mid tier. It's very important. And I'm going to do a separate episode just on these topics, but it is supported by the foundation, right? So it is supported by nutrition and hydration. Then we've got the middle tier, which is lifestyle habits, stress management, exercise, sleep. And then lastly, we have the top tier.

And if you can think of these, the top of this pyramid as like kind of maybe some advanced strategies, such as supplements, gut testing and even something like intermittent fasting, maybe something that would be, you know, top tier focus. So not to be ignored, but the, you know, this concept of, of a pyramid. I can think that I speak to this a lot, when it comes to exercise and, physical

strength and capacity. And I think that so many people focus on not the fundamentals, but the top of the pyramid. So the top of the pyramid is often supplements, example. Supplements are certainly not bad, but you can't supplement your way out of a bad diet, bad decisions, bad unhealthy habits. You just can't go to that

pointy part of pyramid and say, I'm just going to cherry pick off this little stuff on top because while there may be improvements to be had those gains from playing with the top of the pyramid are going to those gains are going to be small, know, small 1 % gains when if you get the foundation of something done well, and especially if you've got the foundation and mid tier of a system done well of a

you know, gut health pyramid, if you get that part done well, you are 95 % of the way there, if not 100. And so if you get 95 % of the way there and you've got all the foundation just dialed, your systems are dialed, your lifestyle choices are dialed, then yeah, by all means, we can, you know, we can just talk about the top tier, more advanced strategies, but please don't get distracted by, supplementing your way to a healthy gut. takes a

broader, more holistic approach to reap these benefits to improve your healthspan and lifespan.

Starting with the foundation ensures sustainable long-term improvements. So the focus for today in this episode is that we're gonna build the foundation with simple, actionable nutrition and hydration strategies. There are gonna be five steps to building this foundation. Five steps that are based around nutrition and hydration that are specific

to your gut health.

First step, prioritize fiber rich foods. So why does this matter? Fiber feeds beneficial bacteria. So there's the good bacteria that's in our gut. Fiber is nutrition for this bacteria, which reduces inflammation and strengthens the gut lining with the, that basically the housing of our gut. Examples of fiber rich foods include vegetables. Yes. Eat your vegetables, broccoli, kale, carrots.

Fruits, think bananas, think berries. And when I say fruits, don't mean something that's been mixed up and has some added sugars or whatnot. I'm talking like literally eating a banana, a whole banana, peel the banana, eat it, that is gold. Think about whole grains, so oats and quinoa. Think about legumes, so we're talking lentils and chickpeas. These are all examples of

high fiber foods and what we're trying to shoot for any given day is around 30 grams of fiber a day, ballpark. Everybody's different. Yes, somebody's going to message me and say that's far too much. Some are just going to say that's not nearly enough. It's a ballpark, generally agreed upon ballpark. current diet does not have very much fiber in it, would thoughtfully gradually increase the

your fiber load over time, just because you may avoid bloating, let your body kind of get accommodated to that. number one, prioritizing fiber rich foods is going to be great for your gut health. Step two, add fermented foods. fermented foods introduce probiotics. we're looking for something on a container that says live bacteria or live beneficial bacteria.

And that will help restore the gut balance and improve digestion.

Examples of fermented food include yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha. These literally have live cultures. And so when you do look at labels, make sure it says live and active cultures on it. Fermented foods, should be easy to find. But again, just make sure double check that it does say live and active cultures, because that does make a difference. Step three, stay hydrated.

This should be absolutely fundamental if you're interested in healthspan and lifespan, you have to stay hydrated. Water is absolutely necessary to maintaining the mucosal lining in the gut in a support of digestion. again, another ballpark to shoot for here is eight to 10 glasses of water a day. I've met people who just can't drink water. They don't like the taste of water. Okay, so be it. Try herbal teas or something for variety.

but hydration is key. You should always have a water bottle nearby, sip on it throughout the day. If you're, if you work in a place or your life gets so busy that you just can't have one nearby, you may be forced to, I don't want to say chug a bottle of water, but you may be forced to sit there and have a full glass or two of water and one sitting before you run back out of the clinic or into your, your work environment. And you know, if you can't come back to it, so that's.

adapt as you need to. I will put in a little point here, even though this isn't exactly hydration, but I do want to speak about alcohol, which has a significant, significant negative impact on your microbiome. hopefully you don't think consuming alcohol as a form of hydration, but because you would drink alcohol and drinking water is drinking, so maybe this is a...

Step three is about drinking in general, but alcohol, if you really want to improve your gut microbiome, you're going to want to limit the alcohol that you consume because it is going to ultimately help wipe out your microbiome. So you don't want that. Step four, avoid processed foods and excess sugar. So processed foods and sugar feed harmful bacteria. So you're basically disrupting the balance in your gut.

When you have excess sugar and certainly all the processed foods that has whatever chemicals in it, you are literally feeding the bad guys. You're feeding the bad guys in your gut. And even though our palates may say it's so good, you are sabotaging your immune system. You're sabotaging that gut brain relationship, your attention, your cognitive status. So,

Please try to avoid processed foods or least minimize processed foods and excess sugar.

If you find yourself snacking on kind of sugary snacks, you can try to replace sugary snacks with a whole food alternative like nuts or fruits. Again, go back to bananas. Bananas are great. Or I mean, if you really want, for me like the super food or super snack would be a banana and some almond butter, but that's me. Step five, incorporating healthy fats. what we want to think about with this are omega-3 fatty acids.

omega-3 fatty acids can reduce gut inflammation and really help just support the microbiome diversity.

Examples of healthy fats could be found in salmon, olive oil, flax seeds, and walnuts.

So from the top, have five simple steps that you can take to help build the foundation of your gut health pyramid. So we're talking nutrition and hydration. Step one, prioritize fiber rich foods. Step two, add fermented foods. Step three, stay hydrated. Step four, avoid processed foods and excess sugar. And step five, incorporate some healthy fats, flax seeds, walnuts, olive oil, whatnot.

Those are five things that are, should be pretty approachable, pretty reasonable to improve your gut health. I promise in other episodes, because there's so much more to this, I'm to dig into the middle tier of our pyramid and that would be healthy lifestyle considerations. These are going to be stress management, exercise, sleep, which I've done a bunch of episodes on before, but I'm just going to keep on talking about it because it is so vitally important to our healthspan and our lifespan. We're going to talk about

whether it's meditation and yoga from a mental positivity impact on the gut brain axis, it's going to be physical exercise, it's going to be sleep tips, sleep hygiene have a massive impact on our gut health as well. But again, this is going to be a middle tier topic and then we'll work our way towards some more advanced strategies, kind of the tip of the pyramid. And so we'll...

explore probiotics and prebiotics and microbiome testing and some intermittent fasting, which again, I've been reading more and more about this and I do say I could not, I don't tend to proper fasting. Certainly not for full days, but I am exploring for myself some longer durations of fasting. Basically the time between dinner and the first meal of the day, know, overnight. So as always, I'm

exhibit A and everything I learned from things that I've learned through the years that I've studied. want to apply to myself before I speak about them. I have a leg to stand on, so to speak. So playing a little bit with intermittent fasting. And those are really powerful tools, but really they're only effective once you've got a strong, solid foundation in place. that is

By far what we just skimmed over in this really, in this introduction to gut health, those five things will take you so far in improving your gut health and your overall health. That's worth investing your time and effort into that first before thinking about perhaps microbiome testing. The one thing you can do today to extend your healthspan, extend your lifespan.

is pick one of those foundational changes to focus on this week. You've got five to choose from. Again, we've got more fiber. We've got adding more fermented foods. We've got improving your hydration, cutting out or at least diminishing, lowering the amount of processed foods that you have that you intake and sugary foods, and making sure that you're using healthy fats, omega-3 fatty acids. So you've got five.

very approachable things you can practice integrating into your life. Pick one of those and focus on that for the next week. Maybe you'll be like me when I'm starting today with scooping some sauerkraut into my face while I'm making my eggs and waffles. Perhaps weird, perhaps a little bit extreme. If you happen to love sauerkraut, it's not a big deal. If you think it's a little bit weird, no hard feelings. But pick one thing

and give it a go and stick with it. Stick with it for at least a week and see if you can kind of create a habit that will last through time. Don't do big wholesale. Maybe don't pick all five of these tomorrow and say, I'm going to have the best gut health possible by the end of the week. It's, it's, you wouldn't be setting yourself up for success. start small, small changes consistent that can be done consistently.

lead to long-term improvements.

So that my friends is a very brief introduction to understanding gut health and having five things you can do to improve your gut health starting today.

I would love to hear from you on what you do for your gut health. If you've had more extensive experience with navigating your gut health or what things have worked for you or what things haven't worked for you, please respond to this. If you're watching this on YouTube, leave a comment. If you are listening to this on one of the many podcast platforms, you can leave me a message directly from that. I would love it to mean the world to me if you would subscribe and follow this podcast. I'm just one guy who

is obsessed with all things healthspan related and I can't help myself but research it, apply it to myself and talk about it. So please subscribe. Next time we will explore how stress and exercise and sleep shape our gut health and make sure that we have really practical ways to optimize these as well. So this would be kind of the mid tier of our gut health pyramid.

As always, I'm grateful for you listening to this. If you have any questions, send me a message. If you know of anybody who's struggling with their gut health or any of the symptoms of having a gut health that's a little bit out of whack, please share this episode with them. That would be totally cool. And until next time, have some sauerkraut. If you don't like sauerkraut, have some yogurt with some live cultures in it or something, but do something to take care of your gut health. All right, till next time. Cheers."