If you’ve spent even five minutes on social media lately, you’ve probably been told that your gut is the root of every health problem.

• Brain fog? Gut.
• Anxiety? Gut.
• Weight gain? Gut.
• Skin issues? Gut.
• Fatigue? Gut.

And honestly, I believe that gut health influences almost every aspect of our health! But still, I worry that we’ve swung too far in the other direction (enter parasite cleanses for everyone and 18 gut supplements without testing). Somewhere along the way, gut health became so complicated that many people are actually getting sicker while trying to heal their gut.

We see this every week in our practice. People come to us eating an incredibly “clean” diet, but they’re anxious around food, avoiding twenty different ingredients, taking twelve supplements that they found via social media, and still bloated after every meal. Not optimal!

So let’s simplify things. Here are the five important things I want to share about gut health.

1. Why “Clean Eating” Sometimes Makes You Feel Worse

One of the most puzzling things for people who start a health journey is that eating healthier doesn’t always make them feel better immediately. There are several reasons why.

First, dramatically increasing fiber overnight can overwhelm a digestive system that isn’t ready for it. Someone who jumps from eating 10 grams of fiber per day to 40 grams per day, all within a week, may actually experience more bloating, gas, and discomfort (even though fiber is incredibly beneficial in the long run. See more here!

Second, many healthy foods are naturally fermentable. Garlic, onions, beans, asparagus, apples, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and many other incredibly nutritious foods also happen to be high in FODMAPs. If someone has IBS, SIBO, visceral hypersensitivity, or altered gut motility, these foods may temporarily increase symptoms. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re “bad,” and we do not promote low-FODMAP diets for the long term. But it does give us clues that the gut isn’t functioning optimally.

Finally, many people have become so focused on perfection that eating itself has become stressful, and that matters far more than most people realize. The gut-brain connection is huge and real (see more here and here).

2. Food Sensitivities, Food Intolerances, and Stress Responses Are Not the Same Thing

This is probably the biggest area of confusion I see. People use these terms interchangeably, but they’re completely different.

Food allergies: These are true immune reactions (IgE-mediated) and can be life-threatening, like peanuts causing anaphylaxis. These require strict avoidance.

Food intolerances: These occur because the body struggles to digest something and may result from low digestive enzymes, low stomach acid, or poor bile production. These are digestive issues—not immune issues.

Food sensitivities: These are more delayed immune reactions and can be much harder to identify. Symptoms might include headaches, fatigue, joint pain, eczema, or digestive symptoms that don’t appear until hours or even days later. These also change over time, making them hard to pinpoint.

In Functional Medicine, we don’t just make a list of foods to eliminate, but we try to uncover why the person is reacting in the first place. Often, improving the health of the gut itself reduces food sensitivities over time.

Stress responses: Here’s a tricky one. I’ve had clients who can eat a salad on vacation with zero symptoms, but eat the exact same salad at work after a stressful meeting and experience bloating within 30 minutes. Did the lettuce suddenly become inflammatory? Of course not. The nervous system changed. Your digestive system functions very differently in “fight-or-flight” than it does in “rest-and-digest.”

 

3. The Hidden Problem with Overly Restrictive Diets

Temporary elimination diets absolutely have their place, and we absolutely use them as needed with clients. The problem is when temporary becomes permanent. We’ve worked with people eating only 4-5 foods because they became convinced everything else was inflammatory.

Unfortunately, long-term restrictive diets can actually create new problems, like reducing microbial diversity, increasing nutrient deficiencies, making social situations stressful, creating fear around food, and definitely leading to a lower overall quality of life. In fact, one of the best ways to support a healthy microbiome is through dietary diversity. Research consistently shows that people who eat a wide variety of plant foods tend to have healthier, more diverse gut bacteria. This is why we sometimes give clients the 30 plants / week challenge!

Unless there is a specific medical reason to avoid a food, our long-term goal is almost always expansion, not restriction. We want the largest, most nourishing diet your body can comfortably tolerate.

4. When Stool Testing Is Helpful—and When It Isn’t

As a functional nutrition practice, we run a lot of comprehensive stool testing. But here’s something that may surprise you: Not everyone needs a stool test! In fact, if someone is missing the foundations, we’ll often suggest they wait on stool testing until we go through a few months of work together so they actually get the most bang for their buck.

Sometimes a person’s symptoms improve dramatically simply by:

• eating enough protein
• increasing plant diversity
• improving hydration
• slowing down at meals (actually chewing, and engaging the parasympathetic nervous system)
• managing stress
• sleeping better

On the other hand, stool testing can be incredibly valuable when someone has persistent symptoms that aren’t improving despite making these foundational changes. A comprehensive stool analysis provides insight into:

• microbial diversity
• digestive enzyme production
• inflammation (in several forms)
• intestinal permeability markers
• pathogens or parasites
• yeast overgrowth
• short-chain fatty acid production
• immune function within the gut

Rather than guessing which supplement to take, we can make decisions based on data.

This is exactly why my team of functional nutritionists often incorporates advanced stool testing into our personalized functional nutrition programs. Instead of chasing symptoms or trying random supplements from the internet, we look for the underlying drivers of digestive dysfunction and create an individualized plan to address them.

5. Your Brain and Your Gut Are Having a Conversation All Day Long

One of the biggest shifts in digestive health over the past decade has been our understanding of the gut-brain axis. This is the topic I recently presented on at the Institute for Functional Medicine’s Annual International Conference. I could talk about it all day!

Here’s the short version: Your brain constantly communicates with your digestive tract through the vagus nerve, hormones, neurotransmitters, and immune signals. When you’re chronically stressed, your body naturally shifts resources away from digestion. This may look like producing less stomach acid, having a decrease in digestive enzymes, slowing (or speeding up) gut motility, creating shifts in the microbiome, or even changing the way you experience pain or sensitivity in your gut.

In other words, two people can eat the exact same meal and have completely different digestive experiences based on the state of their nervous systems. This doesn’t mean your symptoms are “all in your head,” but it does mean that your brain and your gut are deeply connected.

For many people, healing the gut requires supporting both the gut and the nervous system. That’s why nutrition, movement, sleep, breathwork, stress management, and mindset are all part of functional medicine and all part of what we practice at The Lyons’ Share. We aren’t just looking for one specific bacterial strain or pathogen because it almost never comes down to that. It’s about healing the entire body (and mind and soul).

So What Actually Matters?

If you’ve been overwhelmed by gut health advice, here’s what I’d encourage you to remember:

• Eat mostly whole foods.
• Aim for dietary diversity rather than unnecessary restriction.
• Don’t assume every symptom means a food sensitivity, but if you do notice that a certain food gives you symptoms, try to uncover why.
• Remember that stress directly affects digestion.
• Slow down and chew your food well.
• Use testing strategically.
• Look for the root cause instead of chasing symptoms.

Need Help Figuring Out Your Gut?

If you’ve been struggling with bloating, IBS, constipation, diarrhea, food sensitivities, reflux, or digestive symptoms that just won’t go away, you don’t have to figure it out alone.

At The Lyons’ Share Wellness, our functional nutrition team works with clients every day to uncover the root causes of digestive issues. Depending on your history and symptoms, that may include advanced stool testing, food sensitivity testing, nutrition counseling, targeted supplementation, nervous system support, or sometimes simply returning to the fundamentals.

Our whole team, especially Kass and Ashley, are exceptional functional nutrition practitioners and have helped countless people finally understand what their gut has been trying to tell them.

If you’re ready for personalized guidance instead of conflicting advice from social media, schedule a free consultation with our team. We’d love to help you build a gut that supports your health and your entire life!

Now it’s your turn … Which of these was most surprising to you?