🦠 The Sinus Infection That Wouldn’t Quit — Until Vitamin D Stepped In

I don’t get sick often, but when I do, it used to almost always be sinus-related. And it’s almost always winter. This time wasn’t especially painful—just relentless. I tried everything: antifungals, antibacterials, herbal remedies… nothing worked. A full month went by, and I still wasn’t better.

Then I came across an article by one of my favorite bloggers at the time discussing the role of vitamin D in viral immunity. My kids had just had short-lived flu-like symptoms when my sinus problems started—suspicious timing. I began to wonder: what if this wasn’t bacterial or fungal, but viral?

That’s when I discovered the 💥 Vitamin D Hammer protocol. I tried it—and within 24 hours, I felt significantly better. Within a few days, I was completely well. After weeks of frustration, it felt almost magical.

🔨 What Is the “Vitamin D Hammer”?

The Vitamin D Hammer is a high-dose, short-term protocol used to support the immune system during viral infections—especially in adults who haven’t been supplementing regularly. It typically involves:

• 50,000 IU in a single day, or

• 10,000 IU three times daily for 2–3 days

This far exceeds the FDA’s outdated recommendation of 400 IU/day. Research shows it takes ~9,000 IU/day for 97.5% of adults to achieve just 50 nmol/L serum levels—considered the bare minimum for sufficiency. Many experts now recommend 75–100 nmol/L, especially during illness.

🧬 Why It Works: Vitamin D as an Immune Modulator

Vitamin D is actually a hormone made in the skin in response to UVB light. It’s a powerful immune regulator that:

• Enhances macrophage function (white blood cells that engulf pathogens)

• Increases the oxidative burst needed to kill viruses

• Reduces pro-inflammatory cytokines that can worsen symptoms

• Protects against respiratory infections, especially in the winter

One landmark study found that vitamin D supplementation virtually eliminated seasonal influenza in children, with just one case reported in the group receiving 1,200 IU daily during winter months—compared to 31 cases in the control group.⁽¹⁾

Researchers who coined the “Vitamin D Hammer” reported:

“The results are dramatic, with complete resolution of symptoms in 48 to 72 hours. One-time doses of vitamin D at this level have been used safely and have never been shown to be toxic. The cost is less than a dollar.”

🌥️ Why You Get Sicker in Winter

Flu season isn’t a coincidence. It’s a sunlight problem. In colder months, UVB exposure drops—and so does vitamin D production. That’s when respiratory viruses thrive.

• Influenza symptoms were worse in lab subjects exposed in winter

• Children with vitamin D deficiency had more frequent colds

• Activated vitamin D is critical for turning on antiviral defenses

🛡️ Beyond Viruses: Vitamin D & Chronic Disease

Once I started digging into the research, I was shocked at how many conditions are linked to low vitamin D:

• Autoimmune disease (MS, RA): up to 40% lower risk

• Diabetes (type 1 & 2): improved insulin sensitivity

• Muscle weakness & falls in the elderly: 20–72% reduction

• Back pain, fibromyalgia, low energy: all linked to deficiency

• Cardiovascular health: lowers blood pressure and heart rate

• Cancer: shown to trigger apoptosis in some tumor cells

🍳 Can You Get Enough from Food?

Not really. While vitamin D is found in:

• Egg yolks

• Salmon and cod liver oil

• Beef liver and cheese

…the amounts are too small to make a real dent. Food alone won’t get you to the 9,000 IU/day threshold needed for sufficiency—especially in winter. I now supplement with 5,000-10,000 IU gel caps daily, and go higher if I’m fighting something off.

If possible, test your levels and aim for 60–100 nmol/L (30–40 ng/mL) for optimal immune support.

🧠 Summary

I kicked a month-long sinus infection in days using the Vitamin D Hammer. Turns out, most of us are deficient—especially in winter—and vitamin D is essential for fighting viruses, regulating immunity, and preventing chronic disease. Food isn’t enough. Test your levels, and don’t be afraid of higher doses when you need them.

📚 Read the Research

• (1) Urashima M, et al. Randomized trial of vitamin D supplementation to prevent seasonal influenza A in schoolchildren. Am J Clin Nutr. 2010;91(5):1255-60. PMC2861286

• Vitamin D and Influenza – PMC2870528

• Vitamin D for COVID & Flu – PMC4463890

• Vitamin D & Immunity – PMC3317188

• Deficiency in the U.S. – PMC2426990

🌾 Grass-Fed Cows Restore Soil and Rebuild the Land

🌿 Rebuilding Soil Health with Nature’s Original Regenerators

We’ve all heard about methane from cow burps—but what we don’t hear enough about is how properly raised cattle can regenerate soil, restore ecosystems, and bring dead land back to life.

The real crisis isn’t “carbon in the air”—it’s carbon missing from the soil. Topsoil loss is decimating our ability to grow food, hold water, and sustain life underground. When we lose living topsoil, we lose the microbes, fungi, and organisms that make the land fertile. Water can no longer absorb into hardened, dead ground—and the result is erosion, dust, and drought.

🐄 Nature’s Original Land Stewards

Most of today’s meat comes from factory farms—but this is a far cry from how cows and other ruminants once roamed the land. For millennia, wild herds of bison, elk, and deer covered the grasslands of the Americas. They moved in tight herds, kept together by predators, and grazed only the tops of the grasses before moving on.

As they moved, they trampled seeds into the soil with their hooves and fertilized the land with their waste. This is the original model of rotational grazing—and it works with nature. Not too long, not too short. Just like mowing a lawn, it promotes strong regrowth.

If grass isn’t grazed, it gets too tall, blocks sunlight, and dries out. If it’s grazed to the ground, it dies. Both situations lead to desertification—the death of topsoil.

🌱 Soil is Alive—But We're Killing It

Soil is made of carbon because it’s built from decayed plant and animal matter. That carbon should stay in the ground—where it feeds fungi, bacteria, worms, and the plant roots themselves.

Grasses and fungi have a symbiotic relationship: the fungi supply nutrients, and in return, the grass gives them sugar—made through photosynthesis from sunlight and carbon dioxide. But here’s the magic: when grass is grazed (but not killed), it pumps more sugar into the soil to “buy” more nutrients and regrow faster. This process rebuilds topsoil from the inside out.

🔬 What Modern Farming Gets Wrong

Industrial agriculture destroys this natural system. Tilling the soil—common in growing corn, soy, and wheat—breaks up fungal networks and sends soil carbon into the air. The symbiotic fungi die, the plants can no longer access nutrients, and farmers are forced to dump in synthetic fertilizers. Then come pesticides and herbicides, killing everything left in the soil.

This creates dead dirt. No worms, no bacteria, no water retention. Just dry, compacted ground that floods, erodes, and blows away in the wind.

And yes—this dead land feeds the factory-farmed animals and humans alike. Grains and beans are mass-produced to fuel a broken system. But neither humans nor cows are designed to eat those foods long-term.

🧬 Topsoil: Our Missing Organ

Topsoil isn’t just “dirt”—it’s a living, breathing organ of the earth. A single teaspoon of healthy soil contains billions of microbes. It absorbs and stores water like a sponge, supports nutrient-dense plant life, and builds resilience into entire ecosystems.

When Europeans arrived in 1492, the Americas averaged 10 feet of rich topsoil. Today? Less than 6 inches. Some experts warn we have fewer than 60 harvests left before soil collapse makes large-scale food production impossible.

🐮 Cows Can Bring It Back

Allan Savory—ecologist and founder of the Savory Institute—has shown that regenerative grazing can restore dead land into fertile pasture. With the right grazing patterns, cattle can create up to a foot of new topsoil per year, deep underground.

Savory believes that if we returned ruminants to the grasslands without clearing new land, we could rebuild soil health globally. Not by fighting nature—but by imitating it.

This isn’t about “fighting climate change.” It’s about healing the earth from decades of chemical farming and mono-cropping.

This is how we get back to real food. This is how we restore the ancestral cycles of life. And this is how we nourish the soil that nourishes us.

🌍 Learn More

📺 Allan Savory’s TED Talk (Top 100 of all time)
🥩 Meat is Magnificent – Sustainable Dish
🌱 Regenerative ranching and carbon – GreenBiz
🐂 Meet Allan Savory – Pioneer of Regenerative Agriculture
🧪 Soil health and free-range farming – Inside Climate News

Cayenne Gargle: A Natural Cure for Strep Throat

Scientific studies have shown that there are many natural medicines that are just as effective as antibiotics against strep throat (Group A Streptococci). The most effective natural medicine against strep throat that I’ve found is cayenne pepper (active component: capsaicin). Two others that have shown promise in studies are oil of thyme or oregano (active compound is carvacrol), and cinnamon oil (Cinnamomum verum EO) - which was found in a study of essential oils to be the most effective essential oil, similar to a common antibiotic (Amoxicillin) in its antimicrobial activity against strep.

My favorite home cure for strep throat, that has worked over 20 times in a row in my family for over a decade, is to make a salt water-cayenne gargle and use it many times throughout the day as soon as one’s throat becomes sore. I use 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt and 1-2 teaspoons of cayenne powder (as much as I can stand) in one cup of warm water, using one medium sip for each gargle. Spit the gargle out after. It’s important to start right away, and to keep the spicy residue on the throat and not drink water right after. Basically every time I eat or drink, I do another gargle of the salt-water cayenne, and I can feel the cayenne killing the bacteria on my throat. I do rinse my mouth out with plain water after the gargle, if the cayenne makes my mouth too spicy, but I leave the spicy salt/cayenne rinse on my throat.

Usually the pain is reducing by the end of the first or second day, if I am strict about keeping the spicy on my throat. The salt is helpful by creating an osmosis effect on the cells of the throat, drawing the bacteria to the surface so they can be killed by the cayenne, and rinsed out of the mouth. We also make sure to not eat any grains or sugars, so that we don’t feed the throat bacteria simple carbohydrates, eating mostly healthy animal fats and proteins, as well as fruits and honey for carbohydrates if needed.

People have also had success with the cayenne technique with young children by using Cholula mild hot sauce, which contains capsaicin, the active compound in cayenne pepper, and isn’t quite as spicy. It can be added to their food, like scrambled eggs, with a little sea salt, and eaten periodically throughout the day. Be sure to visit a doctor if a child’s sore throat doesn’t improve within a day or two.

References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4643145/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22807321

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25784902/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3638616/

Letter To My Daughter's Teacher

Just ate a huge steak covered in butter while I wrote this letter to my daughter's teacher.
Hey *,

I just wanted to drop a note to you about the earth day lesson that you gave the kids yesterday. My daughter was concerned and I would love to pass on some scientific information to you that you might not be aware of and might be interested in.

So, she let me know that you told the class that meat eating is bad for the planet and that a plant-based diet is best for the environment and our bodies. I am a nutrition researcher by trade (masters in biochem from the U and I'm also a licensed nutritionist) and I'm actually writing a book on the topic. Although in the past, science agreed with you, the emerging science is painting a very different picture.

It turns out that our ancestors were largely carnivorous and every primitive culture that we've studied ate an animal-based diet. Not only is meat NOT the cause of chronic disease (this is commonly called the diet-heart hypothesis and was started at the U where I went to school - the science has been disproven and it is now widely accepted science that all chronic disease is actually caused by sugar and grains) but the environmental science has been off, too. I discovered during my graduate work that all nutrition science in the US is industry funded, and the U of M nutrition department is funded largely by the grain industry, as well as Coca-Cola. The system is very broken and the science disproved the links between animal fat and chronic disease long ago, but the systems in place (including Big Pharma and the USDA - corporate grain and bean farmers) hugely profit off of this misinformation.

Although animal flatulance does contain methane, this addition to climate change is miniscule compared to the carbon that is removed from the atmosphere by grazing animals. When cows eat grass (just like in the wild), they cause the grass to dump carbon into the soil (because the grass has a symbiotic relationship with the soil fungus, providing it with sugar - a 6-carbon molecule - in exchange for micronutrients) sequestering carbon from the atmosphere and creating up to a foot of topsoil/year. If the earth's grasslands were covered in cattle, it would completely reverse climate change in our lifetimes. I am including some scientific articles for you to peruse if you are interested in learning more.

Although I completely respect your right to decide to not eat meat because of spiritual or animal-welfare reasons, I want you to know that it is scientifically a much less healthy diet and ironically, mass agriculture of grains and beans is actually the cause of desertification (removal of topsoil), which has contributed more carbon to the atmosphere and climate change than ALL fossil fuel use combined. Plant based diets are actually causing climate change, and grazing cows is one of the only things that can reverse it. And red meat is actually the healthiest food for the human body. Humans aren't grainivores, we don't have a gizzard (the organ that grinds grains into flour in the animal's body) and grains are one of the newest foods to be added to the human diet.

Her dad and I wanted you to have access to this scientific information and hold no hard feelings about your teachings because we know your motives were pure and you want our kids to be healthy and the environment to be saved. We would really appreciate it if you would look over this additional research I'm sending, and please not spread misinformation in the classroom. My daughter was so upset after your meat-is-bad speech that she went in the bathroom and cried. Since our family eats a meat-heavy diet (all grass-fed and organic, of course) this was hugely upsetting to her, and us. Since I began eating a meat-based diet, I have reversed my type 2 diabetes, all of my digestive diseases (SIBO, IBS, and celiac) have gone into complete remission, and I've lost 70 pounds and kept it off for over 5 years.

Thanks so much for listening. I highly recommend watching this TED talk from the leading permaculture scientist Allan Savory, it's one of the top 100 TED talks of all time, and explains how to reverse climate change and save the earth.

https://www.ted.com/…/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s…

And here is an excellent article by one of the leading scientific nutrition researchers in the US about red meat and how it's actually the heathiest food for the human body and was the primary source of nutrition for our ancestors throughout a million years of human evolution: https://chriskresser.com/red-meat-it-does-a-body-good/ He also has an entire ebook (free) online if you want to learn more about the science behind animal-based diets.

Thanks *, we really appreciate you, but we would like you to be aware of the way our daughter was affected by your lesson and have access to the alternative scientific information.

Love, Marissa

Gluten

It’s just the newest fad diet these days to go gluten-free, right? What is this stuff, “gluten,” anyway?

Turns out this newest “fad” actually makes a lot of sense when we look into it. Gluten is the protein found in wheat and most other grains. Although grains (the seeds of grass plants) are mostly carbohydrate, there is a little fat and protein thrown in there too.

So let’s talk about grains like wheat. Grains are the newest food to be added to the human diet, from an evolutionary perspective. We’ve only been eating grains for about 10,000 years, at most. And that’s only in certain areas of the world. When you look at the fact that homo sapiens have been on the planet for over 400,000 years, and our older ancestors dating back to homo habilis have been on the planet for 2.3 million years, this is only the blink of an eye. Actually, this means we’ve been eating grains for only the last 0.04% of the time our species has been on this planet.

Grains are not human food. We do not have a gizzard, which is the organ that grainivores have that grinds the grains into flour inside their bodies. This is why we have to grind grains and cook them in order to eat them. Grainivores also eat little sticks and rocks to help their gizzards grind up the grains. Have you ever seen a wheat berry? It’s like a small rock. We would never eat that in the wild, that’s why our ancestors did not consider it food for the first 99.96% of human history.

Grain-eating started with the agricultural revolution. Humans realized that they could stop following the herd they relied on for survival, and stay in one place, if they planted wheat fields and kept domesticated animals. Thus was born agriculture. We needed foods that could be stored when animal foods were scarce, and increasingly came to rely on grains and beans, in addition to root vegetables, squash, and other foods that could be stored. These were used to supplement the animal foods that were available at the time.

Humans began experiencing a great increase in sickness and disease with the adoption of this foreign food group. Although many of us think of ancient humans as living short difficult lives, this is the experience of more recent people, after the agricultural revolution (like the middle ages). Pre-agricultural humans, or hunter-gatherers, often lived long and healthy lives. There are mummies that date back to pre-agricultural times that have all of their teeth and are believed to be close to 100 years old.

Our human body evolved over millennia to be an amazing machine, when fed the right foods. Grains cause disease in multiple ways. First of all, there are a plethora of “anti-nutrients” in grains that strip vitamins and minerals out of the human body. The primary anti-nutrients are phytates, which bind to minerals and results in rickets, slowed skeletal growth, iron-deficiency anemia, and leaky gut syndrome. Leaky gut is a very common issue in our society today.

The main diseases that result from grain eating, besides vitamin and mineral deficiencies, are autoimmune disorders. When we eat grains, especially whole grains - which are actually worse for our bodies, the bran part of the grain that makes it a “whole grain” rips tiny microscopic holes in our intestinal lining. (By the way, the reason they tell us whole grains are better for us is because they cause a slightly slower raise in blood glucose. This is similar to saying that low-tar cigarettes are slightly better for you than high-tar cigarettes so you should smoke a lot of them.)

When we have these holes in our intestinal walls, intact proteins from our diet can leak into our blood stream instead of being broken down into individual amino acids. When the body sees certain intact proteins from our diet (like gluten and casein  - milk protein) in our blood, it thinks this protein is a pathogen because many germs and pathogens are long protein strings. The body reacts with an immune response against the imagined invader. When this goes on for years, the immune system eventually turns on its host and causes auto-immune problems. These include: Type I Diabetes Mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis and joint problems, Crohn’s disease, colitis, celiac, lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome, psoriasis and eczema, hypo- and hyperthyroidism, depression, anxiety, Sjogren’s syndrome, and irritable bowel syndrome, among many others.

So why are grains the base of the food pyramid and why are we told to eat a diet high in “healthy” whole grains? Well, the most obvious explanation is because the grain industry likes it that way. They make a lot of money off of our grain-eating ways, and the health care industry makes a lot of money off of treating these diseases. The reason this misinformation has been perpetuated for so many years, especially in our country, is because nutrition research in America is almost exclusively industry-funded. There is almost no federally-funded nutrition research in the U.S., like there is in many other Westernized countries. This means that most of the nutrition research here is funded by groups like the grain and sugar industries. This obviously sways the results of the research, and which studies not only get funded, but which studies get published.

Many people are forced to eat a diet higher in grains and other cheap carbohydrates because animal foods are more expensive. There is also an incorrect belief that grains and plant foods are easier on the planet that growing animals. Ironically, these days we not only eat grains ourselves but feed it to our domesticated animals – like chickens, who are omnivores and eat worms, and cows who are supposed to be eating grass. But is it really cheaper when we look at the costs of health care, and living shorter lives? There is a quote I like that says something like, Pay for food now or doctor’s bills later. When the destruction of the soil and our bodies is taken into account, we find that grain eating is not actually cheaper or better for the planet.

But how can we possibly give up bread? The staff of life… Give us this day… Crusty baguettes and cake and donuts and cookies. Well, gluten-free has been a “fad” long enough that wonderful alternative have been put on the market. I have been off of gluten grains for almost a decade, and don’t miss them at all. One can still eat sandwiches, cake, cookies, and pizza – mostly made out of almond flour and coconut flour, mostly made at home. But I choose to eat healthy animal foods. And in addition to watching the pounds melt away, I got to watch numerous health problems melt away as well.

💩 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