4 “Healthy” Drinks to Reconsider When You’re on a Gut Health Journey
As we embark on a gut health journey the first things we do are change our lifestyle and diet, and that includes replacing the drinks that we know and love with healthier options. We also adopt new habits and rituals, and unfortunately, this is a time when we are very prone to fall for ingenious marketing and fads. It’s no secret that the wellness industry is ferocious and wants our money, and at the same, influencers want to be relevant and original, so many recommend specific products, habits, and lifestyle changes that fit within our desire to be healthier and that make us feel like we are part of something.
To give you an example, back in 2017 or so I recall the craze of the smoothie bowl (which I participated in), and all my Instagram feed was filled with aesthetic bowls of banana and almond butter smoothies that looked like a piece of art. Now in 2023, the trend, in my opinion, is going more towards “sciency” things such as probiotic drinks because there’s extensive research on the microbiome and its role in human health, electrolyte drinks, and in short, drinks that make us poop.
The issue with today’s health trends is that companies take advantage of the general public’s desire for a certain outcome and they exploit it. Today I wanted to shed light on the topic of drinks because many of my clients and students of The No Bloat Code come to me with excessive bloating, stomach discomfort, and many more gut health symptoms. Something that many of them have in common is that they consume one or more of the drinks I will share with you today daily, failing to realize they are a factor that is hindering their gut health progress.
So, let’s talk about the drinks you might think are healthy but in reality, not so much:
ELECTROLYTE DRINKS like Liquid IV
First, we had Gatorade, and now we have Liquid IV. Consuming Liquid IV and other similar electrolyte drinks is not a healthy way to hydrate. It is indisputable that we need electrolyte minerals in our water, but Liquid IV contains fishy ingredients and it isn’t transparent about everything that’s in it. I went through their website and it’s almost impossible to find the full nutrition label with the ingredient list of their products. Luckily, I found the ingredients list (not from their website), and what I found was sugar, some salts (electrolytes, of course), and synthetic vitamins that may do more harm than good in the long run.
To go a little further, let’s examine why the ingredients in LI aren’t my cup of tea as a functional nutritionist:
Mostly sugars: This is Nutrition Label 101: foods on the nutrition label are shown in order of most to least concentration, so in the case of liquid IV, cane sugar, and dextrose (another type of sugar) are the first two ingredients, which makes this product mostly made of refined sugar. This is not good for our hormones (insulin), waistline, and our guts because the bad bacteria will feed off that sugar.
Synthetic vitamins: these are vitamins made in a lab. The thing with synthetic vitamins is that they don’t absorb efficiently by the body, in addition, synthetic vitamins come from weird sources such as GMO corn and petroleum and contain trace amounts of the chemicals used for their extraction, such as hexane and acetone. I don’t know about you, but I would rather get my vitamin C from oranges and guavas.
To summarize Liquid IV and electrolyte powders alike can affect your overall health because of the synthetic vitamins and the trace chemicals used for their production. They can also affect your gut health because of the added sugar, which feeds the bad bacteria in our guts, and the increased insulin production that is associated with sugary drinks overall.
One electrolyte powder that I do use and vouch for is LMNT* because it does not contain sugars or artificial ingredients. You can also spend zero money and just add a pinch of sea salt and a tiny bit of fruit juice to your water for electrolyte minerals and flavor!
About the Author
Mariu Cabral is a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP) who specializes in the gut, particularly Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), acid reflux, and chronic gastrointestinal diseases. She is the creator of the online course 'The No Bloat Code' where she teaches how to naturally and holistically support IBS symptoms, acid reflux, and more.
2. KOMBUCHA
Kombucha was so hyped a couple of years ago but it is still going strong, and how could not? Its benefits are well-researched given that it is a fermented drink, and anything that is fermented has probiotics = bacteria. Probiotics are living organisms that reside in our digestive system and really all of our body: our mouth, skin, and eyes have a microbiome of their own, in case you didn’t know. Most of the bacteria in our bodies are concentrated in the gut, and these guys do amazing things for us such as creating vitamins and neurotransmitters, digesting undigestible fibers, and so much more. So people’s logic when it comes to probiotics is that more is always better, and that’s not the case.
Unfortunately, not all kombucha is created equal: now that this is a trendy product, it has become commodified and industrialized. many kombucha brands in the supermarket are filled with sugars and natural flavors but we just don’t know where they came from. But really, my main concern for the kombucha-drinking gals and pals, is that many people are currently using it as a substitute for juice or water, and this is not good for our gut. Remember, we are still drinking ✨bacteria✨. By drinking too much kombucha (think daily or even 4 times a week, full glass) we might be setting ourselves up for bacterial overgrowth, which will promote excess bloating and gas.
Kombucha is a healthy drink, but it is not something you should be drinking daily. Let it be a weekly treat so you can get all the benefits with none of the bloating.
3. WARM WATER WITH LEMON… and no breakfast
Drinking warm water with lemon first thing in the morning became a huge thing for many of us in the wellness world. I think by now the myth is busted but just in case: no, drinking will not make you burn belly fat. But there are many benefits associated with the warm water with lemon itself: increasing gastric juices, facilitating digestion; and the act of having a morning routine or ritual: it calms our nervous system, and gives us a sense of pleasure and well-being. However, when it comes to warm water with lemon, this can be a serious hazard to your gut health because it can literally cause gastritis. So HOW can lemon water be so good for some people and so bad for others? The answer is not genetics, the answer is BREAKFAST.
Remember, warm water with lemon facilitates digestion by stimulating the production of gastric juices, but what happens when there’s nothing for us to digest? Those gastric juices then start irritating the stomach’s mucosa. Warm water with lemon should only be drunk when we know we will have breakfast shortly after, 15-30 minutes at most.
4. SMOOTHIES AS A FULL MEAL
I know, I know, don’t shoot the messenger! Smoothies have become the epitome of a healthy meal but this, in my opinion, is just because it appeals to our social conditioning that fruits and vegetables are the healthiest foods we could possibly eat, and though fruits and veggies are incredibly healthy, the whole “one smoothie a day” trend is misleading, especially when it comes to gut health.
Smoothies, in short, when they’re full of ingredients such as 2-3 fruits, and 3-5 veggies plus the nut butter and the seeds, and sometimes the toppings… can get way too hard for our guts to digest. What happens with smoothies when we drink them as a meal replacement is that the smoothie is often drunk in a very short window of time. If you were to have every single ingredient separately, it will take a while before you could finish your plate, but once it’s blended, you can chug that smoothie in less than 5 minutes, and all that nutrition is going to your digestive system almost unannounced. We drink it too fast, failing to produce saliva and the gastric juices that are supposed to help with the breakdown of the ingredients. This is a recipe for bloating. Not to mention that all the fiber can be very hard to digest, which promotes bloating as well.
I love smoothies, though! So the way I drink them so they can support my gut health is by having them slowly and making chewing motions as I drink them so my mouth can make saliva, this may sound silly but it is oh-so-important. If you currently suffer from bloating, limit your smoothie consumption and focus on foods you can chew. I promise it will make a difference!
To Finalize
When it comes to your gut health journey, it is a blessing and a curse to know that the simpler, your program is, the better. You don’t need a ton of products, supplements, and crazy lifestyle habits to heal your gut. You just need whole foods, consistency, and a couple of nutrients from supplements or natural foods that can help facilitate the healing process. For those of us who get constantly bombarded on social media about new trends and products, this is a really hard fact to wrap our heads around, but it’s true!
If you’re looking for a simple, holistic approach to gut health, you can get 2 free lessons from my course The No Bloat Code here, or you can apply to work privately with me.
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