Feeling nauseated, bloated or just plain off? It might be time for a gut check.
When you’ve got tummy troubles, it’s totally natural to blame what you just ate. While cutting certain foods from your diet may be helpful, it won’t necessarily solve the problem — especially as you get older.
“Eliminating highly acidic and ultra-processed inflammatory foods like sugar, gluten-containing grains, artificial sweeteners, dairy and seed oils is absolutely a good idea — these are weapons of mass destruction for your gut microbiome,” gut health expert and celebrity nutritionist Dr. Daryl Gioffre told The Post.
“However, even when people remove these foods, they may feel better, but they won’t fully heal if the root cause isn’t addressed.”
That’s because the true culprit might not be the food so much as the way your body responds to it.
“Gut dysfunction — whether it’s food sensitivities, dysbiosis, inflammation or leaky gut — isn’t just about what you eat, but how well your body digests, absorbs and assimilates nutrients in the foods you eat,” Gioffre explained.
And the older you get, the more you have one thing working against you — stomach acid.
Gioffre, the best-selling author of “Get Off Your Acid,” said one of the biggest drivers of poor digestion as we age is low stomach acid, a condition known as hypochlorhydria.
“As we get older, our bodies don’t produce more stomach acid — we produce less, making it harder to break down and absorb the nutrients in food properly,” he noted.
“Low stomach acid also weakens our defense against pathogens from the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe.”
Symptoms of hypochlorhydria include heartburn, cramps, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, bloating, indigestion, a burning sensation in the mouth and unusual fullness after a normal meal.
Hypochlorhydria can lead to autoimmune disorders, skin inflammation, gastritis and achlorhydria — the scientific term for when your stomach is literally running on empty.
Outside of age, other factors that could increase your risk of hypochlorhydria are chronic stress, excessive alcohol consumption, tobacco use, long-term use of heartburn medication and vitamin deficiencies.
“The key to better digestion and gut health isn’t just about eliminating foods — it’s about restoring optimal stomach acid levels to strengthen our digestion,” Gioffre said.
As such, he recommends going on a little acid trip — the healthy kind — with a simple, two-ingredient gut health hack.
Drink 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar diluted in ⅓ cup of warm water 20 to 30 minutes before your biggest meal of the day.
One thing to note: if you’ve got acid reflux, you’ll want to skip this tip.
Otherwise, “this simple step improves digestion, reduces inflammation and helps your microbiome tolerate a wider range of nutrient-dense foods again — so you’re not stuck eliminating foods forever,” he said.
