💩 You Are Only As Healthy As Your Gut

The Real Root of Autoimmunity, Anxiety, Bloating & Burnout

Welcome to the metabolic underground: the gut.

Once a fringe topic, the microbiome is now a full-blown scientific obsession—and for good reason. The trillions of organisms lining our digestive tract don’t just help us digest food. They regulate our immune system, mood, metabolism, hormones, and even how our cells make energy.

We are, quite literally, more bacterial than human.
(Our DNA? ~5% human. ~95% microbial.)

But here’s the part no one talks about in the biohacking, keto, or pharma-sponsored gut health circles:

🚨 The real root cause of gut dysfunction is low energy availability.
Not just the wrong bugs.
Not just gluten.
But a metabolism running on empty.

🔬 Your Gut Is a Tube. But What’s In the Tube Isn’t Technically You

Think of your body like a donut. From mouth to colon is one long tube, and what’s inside that tube—food, microbes, toxins—is not actually “in” you until it crosses the gut lining.

Enterocytes (your intestinal lining cells) are the gatekeepers. When healthy, they decide what gets absorbed and what stays out. When stressed, inflamed, or underfed, these gatekeepers break down.

The result?
👉 Leaky gut.
👉 Immune chaos.
👉 Chronic inflammation.
👉 And the perfect breeding ground for pathogenic bacteria and yeast.

🚫 What Damages the Gut Lining?

You already know the classics: antibiotics, NSAIDs, alcohol, processed food, and gut infections.

But let’s zoom out:

The biggest and most ignored culprit?
Chronic under-eating and low-carb dieting.

Your gut lining is made of cells that need a constant stream of glucose to regenerate every 3–5 days. Starve them of carbs and calories? You get…

• Leaky gut (tight junction breakdown)

• Low secretory IgA (impaired immune defense)

• Sluggish motility (hello, SIBO)

• Poor enzyme production (hello, bloating)

• Weakened mucus layer (pathogen party)

Add in high-fat, low-fiber diets (🙃 carnivore or keto, anyone?) and you’re not just starving the good bugs—you’re overfeeding the bad ones.

🔄 Gut Dysfunction Is a Metabolic Feedback Loop

Let’s break it down:

1. You under-eat (or cut carbs/fat too low)

2. Gut motility slows, enzymes drop, and bacteria overgrow

3. Leaky gut develops → food proteins leak into bloodstream

4. Immune system attacks the “invaders” → chronic inflammation

5. You develop sensitivities, hormonal issues, anxiety, autoimmune symptoms

6. You restrict even more

7. And around and around we go...

🧠 The Gut-Brain Axis Is Real. But You Can’t Fix It Without Fuel.

Pathogenic bacteria and yeasts (like Candida or Klebsiella) produce neurotoxins—literally brain-altering chemicals that mess with serotonin, dopamine, and GABA.

This is why so many clients with bloating, gas, and reflux also deal with:

• Panic attacks

• Morning depression

• Insomnia

• ADHD-like symptoms

• Autism spectrum behaviors in kids

• PMS and mood swings

The gut doesn’t just digest food—it dictates your reality.

And while pharma would love to sell you Zoloft or acid reducers for the rest of your life, the fix isn’t in your medicine cabinet.

It’s in your kitchen.

🍊 So What Does Heal the Gut?

Not pills. Not powders. Not another low-carb protocol.

Gut healing starts with energy—bioavailable, carb-based, low-fat energy.

✔️ Start with Food:

• Fruit and fruit juice – fast fuel, polyphenols, potassium, antioxidants

• Well-cooked roots & tubers – gentle fiber for butyrate, microbiome diversity

• Raw carrot salad – daily antimicrobial, estrogen-detox superstar

• Bone broth & gelatin – nourish the gut lining and feed enterocytes

• Low-fat dairy – casein for immune health, calcium for tight junctions

• Sourdough & white rice (if tolerated) – bring back starches after healing

• Herbs like ginger, oregano, fennel, thyme – natural motility boosters

✔️ Key Supplements (When Needed):

• 🧬 Grapefruit Seed Extract – kills pathogens, safe for daily use

• 🧬 Allicin or berberine – effective against SIBO/IMO

• 🔓 Biofilm disruptors – like InterFase or proteolytics

• ⚡ Prokinetics – ginger, magnesium, motility blends to keep things moving

• 🌿 Saccharomyces boulardii – crowd control yeast that kills Candida

• 🧪 Enzymes + Bile support – if you’re missing a gallbladder or have reflux

💩 What About SIBO and IMO?

SIBO (bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine) and IMO (methane-dominant overgrowth) are both signs of slowed motility and weakened immunity.

You don’t get overgrowth if the gut is moving and the enterocytes are well-fed.

That’s why so many clients fail low-FODMAP, GAPS, or carnivore diets—they remove triggers but starve the root systems that keep pathogens in check.

The solution?

✅ Restore carb intake
✅ Normalize meal timing (no fasting!)
✅ Kill the overgrowth + support motility
✅ Rebuild the gut lining + reintroduce fiber slowly

🧠 But First: You Can’t Heal the Gut in a Starved Body

Read that again.

When I first wrote this article, I didn’t fully understand the connection between energy availability and gut health. I do now—and it changes everything.

🔥 The gut doesn’t just get sick out of nowhere. It breaks down when the body doesn’t have enough fuel.

If you’re under-eating (especially fat and carb-restricted), your body will immediately down-regulate digestion to preserve energy for more essential systems. That means:

• Slowed motility

• Weak stomach acid

• Impaired enzyme and bile production

• Thinning of the gut lining

• And eventually… opportunistic bacterial overgrowth

We used to call these bugs “invaders” or “bad guys”—but they’re just doing what any organism would do when digestion slows and food sits undigested in the gut. They're opportunistic, not demonic.

🤯 Most “gut overgrowth” is really just carbohydrate deficiency + metabolic stress.

Once I started optimizing my clients’ macros—especially tripling their carbs, slashing dietary fat, and increasing total calories to meet or exceed 45 kcal/kg EA (energy availability)—something wild started happening:

✅ Their digestion kicked back on
✅ Their gut lining began to heal
✅ One round of antimicrobials actually worked
✅ They didn’t need to re-do protocols or go on 10-week gut-killing journeys anymore

💡 Now, I never run a gut health protocol until we’ve optimized energy availability first.

If you don’t fix the fuel problem, you’ll always be chasing bugs.

💩 What About Poop Transplants?

Yep, they’re real. And they work—especially for extreme infections like C. diff.

Fecal microbiota transplants (FMTs) work by reseeding the gut with a full spectrum of healthy bacteria from a donor. But for most people, you don’t need poop in a pill. You need to stop starving your microbiome.

And for the record, you don’t need $99 microbiome kits either. Most of the results don’t change what actually works.

⚠️ The Bottom Line:

You don’t need more elimination diets.
You don’t need more pills.
You need to feed your gut the way nature intended:

🧠 Fuel the body →
🌿 Heal the gut →
🧬 Balance the bugs →
😌 Calm the nervous system →
🔥 Fire up the metabolism →
👑 Reclaim your health.

Want Help?

I’m a Licensed Nutritionist with a Master's in Biochemistry, and I specialize in gut health through metabolic healing. If you're sick of bloating, constipation, reflux, or autoimmune flares—and want real healing through food—I’ve got you.

📩 Book a session or join the waitlist:
hello@theprometabolicnutritionist.com

✨ Recommended Reading:

• Ray Peat on gut motility and serotonin

• Denise Minger: In Defense of Low Fat

• Jay Feldman: Energy Balance Podcast