If you were to take a piece of sandpaper and rub it across your skin once, it wouldn’t really do much. It wouldn’t hurt. It wouldn’t cut your skin open. It wouldn’t leave a permanent injury. If you were to rub it across your skin every once in a while, …still, no big deal. If you were to rub sandpaper across your skin in the same spot once every day, after a few days you’re going to start to feel the impact. Now imagine rubbing sandpaper on that same patch of skin multiple times a day, every day. Even with the finest grit of sandpaper, before long, there will be irritated, red, inflamed skin. Tiny imperceptible holes will emerge. Those holes will be made larger over time.
This is kind of how I picture inflammatory foods and products impacting our gut. A little irritation here and there won’t do much to most people. Regular and repeated exposures will eventually lead to an irritated and inflamed lining of the gut. Tight junctions will be damaged. Leaks will be formed. Problems will arise.
3 meals, snacks, treats, and beverages. That’s a lot of opportunity for inflammatory and abrasive items to run through the gut and cause damage. And food isn’t the only thing that impacts the health of our gut.
Other irritants and causes of inflamed and leaky gut to consider include:
Inflammatory foods
Medications
Candida overgrowth
Infections
Pathogens
SIBO
Stress
Poor sleep
Toxic products containing pesticides, formaldehyde, BPA, phthalates, and more
Leaky Gut contributes to inflammation; the root of virtually all ailments and disease.
Leaky gut can present as
Chronic inflammation
Food intolerance
Nutrient malabsorption
Brain fog
Fatigue
Autoimmunity
Skin conditions
Joint pain
Anxiety/depression/mood issues
Inflammatory bowel disease
And more
Most people don’t realize they have a leaky gut. The damage happened slowly and over time. The symptoms don’t seem to be directly connected. My belief is there are likely more people with leaky gut than without. There is no overall health without a healthy gut. Your gut runs through your body from your mouth to your end. It impacts all of you. Take care of your gut to take care of you.