Stubborn Weight Loss? Your Gut Bacteria Might Hold the Answer with Alyssa Simpson

Introduction

Struggling with weight loss despite doing 'everything right'?

In this enlightening episode, registered dietitian Alyssa Simpson reveals why your gut health might be the missing piece of the puzzle.

Discover how the surprising connection between your microbiome and metabolism could be affecting your weight loss efforts, and learn why diversity in your diet – not just calories – matters more than you think.

Simpson shares groundbreaking insights about metabolic endotoxemia, introduces an achievable goal of consuming 30 different plant foods weekly, and explains how the gut-brain connection influences everything from weight to wellness.

Whether you're dealing with stubborn weight or simply want to optimize your health, this episode offers practical, science-backed strategies that go beyond traditional diet advice.

Transform your approach to weight loss by understanding the powerful role your microbiome plays in your health journey.

Connect with Alyssa:
Website: nutritionresolution.com
Veggie Mash: https://alyssa-simpson.mykajabi.com/veggie-mash-guide

 

Transcription of Podcast

Dr Orlena (00:01.174)
Hello, hello, welcome to Fit and Fabulous with me, Dr. Orlena I am super excited today because we have a lovely guest and we're gonna be talking about really interesting things. We're gonna be talking about stubborn weight loss, which I know a lot of you will be interested in. We're also going to be talking about the connection between our bowel and our brain and our biome and all of those really exciting things. So Alyssa Simpson, welcome, welcome.

Alyssa F Simpson (00:27.242)
Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here.

Dr Orlena (00:30.024)
Perfect. Would you like to start just by introducing yourself and telling people a little bit about yourself and what you do?

Alyssa F Simpson (00:36.03)
Yes, I'm Alyssa Simpson. I'm a registered dietician in Arizona, Phoenix, Arizona, and I have a private practice specializing in digestive health. So I help people who have pretty significant digestive issues, not necessarily a significant like diagnosis per se. So these might be people that don't have a diagnosis, but yet their digestive issues could be taking over their lives, debilitating symptoms like diarrhea, abdominal

pain, know, gas, really, really significant bloating where it's just kind of lumped under the umbrella of IBS. And so it comes down to functional imbalances and the best solutions we have really for these sorts of issues are natural like diet changes, lifestyle changes addressing especially the gut-brain connection and sleep and activity, things like that, and maybe some targeted supplement protocols for a little while.

So that's what I do. I help people with, you know, digestive symptoms feel better.

Dr Orlena (01:42.154)
Perfect, and I love the fact that your focus is really on what I say, going back to basics, leading a healthy life, particularly when I presume that a lot of your clients have been to doctors and sort of come up with no answers, and that feels really frustrating, and then it can be very easy to medicate people and not really see good results because there aren't really the medicines there that are gonna help them, and so lifestyle is 100 times better.

Alyssa F Simpson (01:48.041)
Yeah.

Alyssa F Simpson (02:07.858)
Yeah, I mean, our medical system is very focused on kind of, unfortunately, managing symptoms and not really looking, it's not really set up to look at some of these more complex functional issues, at least not standard medicine here. that's really, we're coming at it from a different perspective, more holistic, more integrative. So I still work with the standard medicine that they're on and all of that, that's all great.

It's just that we're looking at, yeah, what's at the root of the problem as best we can.

Dr Orlena (02:44.32)
Perfect, perfect. So today we are going to talk about stubborn weight and how this can be something that you see and how it can be connected with the biome. But I know that we need to start not with stubborn weight. So take us on a journey. us, like, take us back to the beginning.

Alyssa F Simpson (03:03.134)
Yeah, so.

Weight is a huge issue, right? have 40, at least in the United States, 42 % of adults are now classified as obese, which when I recently checked that statistic, I was shocked because I remember when it was 30%. So we're up to 42%, 70 % fall in the overweight category. That used to be 60%, like two thirds. So it's an epidemic. yet we tend to, even in the medical system,

by and large in society, blame the individuals. You know, if people just need to eat less, exercise more, have more willpower, and certainly all of that has some validity. what I want to talk about today is stubborn weight because I'm talking about people that come to me and I mean, seriously, I don't have, I focus in digestive health, but a lot of my clients still want to lose weight or gain, or some of want to gain weight. But we're talking about weight loss today.

You know, lot of people also want to lose weight and but I rarely have somebody coming to me. You know, they've already tried the obvious things. Usually by the time they find me there, they're not out there eating Big Macs and drinking Big Gulp's. know, there a lot of them have been eating healthy for a while, a year or more, exercising, working with a personal trainer. I mean, I hear these things and I'll have people say, you know, but I'm still not losing the weight. So

That's what I want to talk about today. What is going on? What could be going on underlying these issues, especially as it relates to the gut?

Dr Orlena (04:47.242)
Perfect, and yes, I was gonna say there can be so many reasons why there's stubborn weight and without talking about an individual case and understanding somebody's case, it can be difficult to know sort of which route to go down. But so yes, definitely talking about gut. But I know that really we want to start by thinking about like, how is gut health important? And like, what are the basics of, you know, the biome and gut health and how does that pertain to like us being healthy basically?

Alyssa F Simpson (04:51.455)
Yeah.

Alyssa F Simpson (04:59.602)
Right. Right.

Alyssa F Simpson (05:16.936)
Yeah, so we have the microbiome and what we mean by that is that is our the body of good bacteria or I should just say the body of bacteria in our gut. Most of them are good bacteria but we have some bacteria or I should say organisms because it can be bacteria, archaea, yeast, know fungus. We have all of that naturally in our gut but some there's a fine

balance. Some organisms we want more of, others maybe are less favorable, but they're okay. If they're there, they just should stay at lower amounts. We call those commensals. And then sometimes we find organisms that really shouldn't be there at all. call those pathogens. But let's just talk about the ones that are supposed to be there, assuming you don't have a pathogen, you don't have a parasite, something like that. We need a fine balance, and that's what we call the microbiota or the microbiome.

And so that, a diverse microbiome, meaning there's many different types of beneficial organism, is associated with better health. And what can happen is, for whatever reason, we can talk about what those reasons are, if you don't have enough good bacteria, the less favorable can overgrow and even a pathogen could kind of take hold and have an opportunity to overgrow. And this causes inflammation.

which can cause the barrier, the lining of the digestive tract to become porous. then toxic, well, inflammatory molecules get into the bloodstream and can wreak havoc on lots of different areas of our health, but especially with relation to our conversation today, our hunger and fullness cues and affect our weight.

Dr Orlena (07:10.88)
So people aren't necessarily gonna be super unwell, but they are gonna have symptoms that just sort of niggle and make them think, like something's going on, but I don't really know what it is. Is that what you're saying?

Alyssa F Simpson (07:24.006)
Yeah, so I kind of stumbled across this because I've seen this in my practice with people who do have obviously significant digestive symptoms, which is why they're seeing me. But it doesn't have to be the case. You could have no digestive symptoms, not even think about digestion as a factor, and you could still have this dysbiosis, which is driving the intestinal permeability.

the porousness of the intestines, which is driving this inflammation systemically that's affecting your weight. So it doesn't have to be something that's obviously a digestive issue.

Dr Orlena (08:06.23)
And so you talked about causes. What are the main causes that are going to cause this problem?

Alyssa F Simpson (08:12.052)
Well...

We have poor diets, diets that are low in plant, in, you know, fibrous plant foods, whole plant foods, and high in refined starches and sugars tend to favor a less beneficial microbiome. So it tends to feed more of the bad stuff and not feed enough of the good stuff. So if you think of your microbiome as a garden and let's say the nice, beautiful plants and flowers and vegetables

or sparse, then you have room for weeds to overgrow and they can kind of take over. So that's what can happen and it's related to diet. It can also be related to medication. Certain medications can either kill off bacteria or so let's well, antibiotics for example, are pretty widespread and can be overused in some cases. so, or sometimes we have to use them, but it can take a wear and tear on our.

our microbiome. Things like acid reducing medications can have an effect because

stomach acid serves to kill a lot of the bacteria that we swallow that lives in our mouth or that is on kind of the food that we eat and whatever we're drinking. And if we don't produce enough stomach acid, so like these, the PPIs that are prescribed a lot, you know, for example, they decrease our stomach gas production and that can be a, that can decrease our defenses against bacteria that we swallow so we can get bacteria kind of having an opportunity to take hold in our

Alyssa F Simpson (09:48.764)
our intestines that maybe we don't want. And certain other medications that affect our immune system's ability to fight off bacteria or keep the bacteria in balance, that could be things like steroid medications, know, certain other medications. So medications, diet, those are a couple of the things that come to mind. Other lifestyle factors also have an effect on microbiome. know, poor sleep can affect our microbiome.

not enough exercise can affect our microbiome so those are a few things.

Dr Orlena (10:24.864)
Perfect, perfect. Those are several of my healthy living pillars. So we are thinking now really about how can we change this? What things can we do to improve? Actually, before we talk about that, one thing I'd like to ask you is that the microbiome has like having a good healthy biome has been, there's lots of benefits to it just beyond.

weight loss and things like that, then actually there's a plethora of total different things. Would you like to talk about that for a little bit?

Alyssa F Simpson (10:59.204)
Yeah, so having a healthy microbiome is helpful for our mental health, for example. We actually produce a lot of our...

We produce most of our serotonin, for example, in the gut and they found that there's a connection between our microbiome and even hormone production like the types of hormones that affect our mood. So a healthy microbiome.

affects mood, a healthy microbiome affects our metabolism. it's a health, diverse microbiome is associated with better blood sugar control, better, you know, lipid control. it actually, it actually is associated with many, many different health benefits.

Dr Orlena (11:51.414)
Perfect, so definitely something that we want to be looking after and nurturing. So how exactly do we look after and nurture our microbiome?

Alyssa F Simpson (11:59.774)
Well, specific to the topic I was just talking about, I'll talk about specific research with it for this. So what I just explained, we call it metabolic endotoxemia. And that's that whole mechanism I just explained about how our imbalance of bacteria affects intestinal permeability and then inflammatory molecules get into the bloodstream and affect our appetite and fullness and metabolism. So that's what that's called. So first I'll talk about research specifically

focusing on that and what we can do about that. And then I'll talk about a little just kind of backing up more general gut healthy things we can do that maybe we don't have specific research on this particular issue, but we know will help our overall diversity, which makes sense that that would help this issue as well. So first of all, what they've looked at is probiotics. They've looked at especially...

The lactobacillus rhamnosus GG strain can improve gut health and reduce the levels of those pro-inflammatory molecules, which are called LPS or lipo-polysaccharide. But basically that's the inflammatory molecules that get into the bloodstream and drive inflammation. So taking lactobacillus rhamnosus, which is a specific type of probiotic that you can get in a pill, can be helpful with that. They've also studied resistant

Dextrin, which is a type of prebiotic. I know of one brand off the top of my head, which is Benafibre, but there are other brands of this. The ingredient is resistant dextrin. It's a type of fiber. It's a type of prebiotic. And that has been helpful in supporting beneficial bacteria and improving the integrity of the gut lining, which means improving that gut lining health and making it not so porous. And then...

Other things they've studied that have been helpful for reducing this LPS, inflammation are flax seeds and low-fat yogurt was found to be helpful. Also...

Dr Orlena (14:04.318)
interesting, did they look at low fat and high fat or did they just look at low fat? Because I find it interesting when people talk about low fat, like normally I would not recommend something low fat, normally I would say go and have full fat yogurt but if they've specifically looked at low fat perhaps they've just done the research on that and not on the other.

Alyssa F Simpson (14:10.601)
Yeah.

Alyssa F Simpson (14:21.954)
Yeah, I would agree with you. Yeah, I don't know if they're, they haven't like compared low fat to high fat and said high fat is not helpful. It's just that the research happened to use low fat yogurt. So my guess would be they would have a similar effect.

Dr Orlena (14:38.452)
here.

Alyssa F Simpson (14:39.466)
But yeah, so so yogurt will just say say yogurt has been studied and also Sleep and exercise so at regular exercise supports Yes there, okay

Dr Orlena (14:49.482)
Yay! Okay, so now we have covered all four of my pillars. So my pillars are healthy eating, exercise, sleep, and emotional wellness. So basically stress levels.

Alyssa F Simpson (14:58.62)
Uh-huh, yeah, yeah, exactly. poor sleep increases gut inflammation and impacts metabolic hormones. I'm sure you know that, but that's relevant here. And regular exercise supports a healthy microbiome, which I'm not sure a lot of people realize. We know that there are many benefits to exercise, but it actually does also help the microbiome as well.

Dr Orlena (15:23.51)
It doesn't really surprise me. I just think everything is connected and I picked those four pillars because they are all so related to each other and it's kind of difficult to have three doing really well and one of them be off kilter. They're almost like a stool and you need all of them to get optimal health and wellness basically.

Alyssa F Simpson (15:27.164)
Mm-hmm.

Alyssa F Simpson (15:40.199)
Mm-hmm.

Right, I agree, because it's like if you exercise but you're not sleeping enough, you're almost undoing the benefit and vice versa, yeah.

Dr Orlena (15:50.708)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so those are the things that are specific to stubborn weight loss. What about in general? What things can we do in general to look after our biome? Perhaps we're not worried about stubborn weight loss, but we do want to look after our biomes. What should we be looking at then?

Alyssa F Simpson (16:09.128)
Yeah, so I think this might be a little surprising to people because I think the first thing you might think when you think of having a healthy microbiome would be taking probiotics. And I'm not saying that's not a good idea, but probiotics have benefits as far as they do, especially certain strains have specific health benefits and they can tend to create an environment that's beneficial, that allows beneficial things to happen. it's not that like,

It's not like if we're taking probiotics, we're like populating this great microbiome because again, diversity is what we're looking for and we honestly just don't have enough research strains that we can like, we can't put everything that we need in our microbiome into one pill. So they can be helpful, the way to really get a diverse microbiome is to feed those organisms. So we need a diversity of different plant fibers.

and that means not just vegetables, we are also including fruits in that, whole grains, seeds, nuts, and legumes. So that gives us lots of different options and our goal is 30 unique plant fibers per week. So that might sound a little challenging, but if we think about it, but you don't need very much. So we're not talking about large servings of any of these things. So, you know, think about like, let's say

let's say you make a smoothie every day and it has bananas and strawberries and maybe almond milk. Well, that's an opportunity to get more diversity. So maybe you would want to look for a blend of fruit, maybe frozen fruit that has maybe five or six fruits in it. And maybe you would want to take a teaspoon of a mixture of chia seeds and ground flax seeds and maybe, like I know like Garden of Life has this seed fiber.

supplement that has like a dozen different seeds in it. So maybe you take a tablespoon of that and maybe you put in a handful of spinach and kale mix. Well now you have

Alyssa F Simpson (18:20.874)
I mean, I think we counted up to like 18 or 19 different plant foods. you want to think about that. Now that's a really, a really packed example, but you could think about these opportunities all throughout the day. If you're having a cereal, what little bits of things can you put in the cereal? you, if you're having a salad instead of just like a bag of

Romaine lettuce, can you get a mix of things and can you get another mix of things and put those together? And remember you have more to draw from than just vegetables. You have fruits, you have seeds, you have lots to work with. So our goal is 30 different plant foods per week. I do love one strategy which is called making a veggie mash and that's when you take, you go to the store or the farmer's market, you grab just one handful of 10 to 15 different types of vegetables.

them home, you blend them up in a food processor and then you can just either like spread it out on a cookie sheet or mash it into different ice cube trays and pop out a one or two tablespoons serving every day. And right there you're getting your 10, you're getting 10 to 15. You can mix it into smoothies, you can you can just eat it with salt and pepper, you can blend it into a soup or a marinara sauce or whatever. You can even hide it in things so your family will eat it unbeknownst to them. So there's

My fiance has had veggie mash and he doesn't even know that. yes. anyway, that's one strategy that I love to help you get that diversity.

Dr Orlena (19:46.75)
Lucky him, lucky him.

Dr Orlena (19:55.094)
Perfect. And after we talked, so for the recording, we spoke a few days ago and you told me this. And so I went and counted and I was like, I'm going to see how many I had. This was on Monday. And I counted, I wrote out a list of everything that I ate on Monday and it came to 30. And then I realized that I'd put peanuts twice. And so I had to chop one of them off. And so I was like, 29, but that's not bad for one day.

Alyssa F Simpson (20:02.857)
Yes.

Alyssa F Simpson (20:12.136)
Okay.

For one day.

Dr Orlena (20:16.316)
Yeah, so the way I do it, breakfast, I have oats for breakfast and then fruits, but then I put in nuts and seeds. And as you totally say, like it's not heaps, so I have linseed in there, but it's only a teaspoon of linseed. It's not loads and loads of linseed. Then we have a big lunch for lunch, so it's our main meal of the day. And I had a vegetable stir fry, which had loads of different vegetables and different lentils and legumes in it. And then I had a bit of a snack in the evening, which was basically...

some salad bits and some different fruits. And so it just actually adds up. And I think a lot of it is just about habit. And a lot of it is also about mindset. That I see a lot of people thinking, I need that white starchy food. And actually, if you replace that white starchy food with, well, for example, lentils and legumes, but other vegetables, there's no need to be hungry.

you're filling up, but what are you getting from those lentils and legumes? You're getting some carbohydrates, but you're also getting proteins and plant fibers, which are far more beneficial than just eating white flour or bread or pasta or whatever it is that you're eating. So I love the...

Alyssa F Simpson (21:23.604)
Right, yeah, what you mentioned, the lentils, the legumes, even squash, like butternut squash, sweet potatoes, we have a lot of starches that are pretty filling, right? You don't need the white flour, the refined white flours. And yeah. Yeah. Right.

Dr Orlena (21:32.778)
Yeah.

Dr Orlena (21:36.746)
Yeah, you'll start with antioxidants, other, with fibrin antioxidants as opposed to by itself.

Alyssa F Simpson (21:44.808)
Yeah, absolutely. And you're right, it's just a mindset shift because I think a lot of people think they need more vegetables, like volume, and certainly we want a good amount, but it's more than just amount. Even amount of fiber, we're talking about diversity for a diverse microbiome. So when you start thinking in those terms, you realize, okay, before maybe I didn't think it'd be worth it to put a tablespoon of black beans on my salad, but now I realize it is worth it to do that.

Dr Orlena (22:13.333)
Yeah.

Alyssa F Simpson (22:14.694)
So do it, and it's just a matter of understanding that and doing it. this is an especially helpful tip for people with sensitive systems because, for example, a lot of my clients, they're like, I mean, these are the exact foods that we're talking about that they avoid because beans and legumes and cruciferous veggies and things can cause them gas and bloating and discomfort.

If we're talking about a tablespoon here, a small handful there, those amounts they can tolerate for certain foods. So it makes it really accessible. You can really individualize it.

Dr Orlena (22:50.486)
And so going back to lentils and legumes, and I see this quite a lot, that people are a little bit scared of them. And I think, in my mind, I think they're basically not used to it. And actually, a lot of them get digested by our bio. And so you get caught in this catch-22 situation, which is, don't eat them, therefore I can't digest them. As opposed to, if you just eat them all the time, you've got that bacteria to digest them.

So do most, can everybody digest them or are there some people who really can't? I know that of course there are some illnesses, like if you've got something like Crohn's disease and you've had half your bowel taken out, then that's a difficult situation to be in, but that's a very drastic situation. So, I mean, are there lots of reasons why people can't eat lentils and legumes or can the majority of people eat them?

Alyssa F Simpson (23:37.49)
say even with Crohn's disease, mean the general recommendation is

go on low fiber when you're having a flare, but then once that's calmed down, transition to high fiber. So yeah, I mean, maybe if someone's in a perpetual flare and they haven't been able to calm it down yet, but yeah, I agree with you. I think everyone's, I think most people, we'll just say most, because they're not going to say always and never, but can train their microbiome to accept fiber. It's just that we try something, we try a full serving of it or a normal serving, we don't tolerate it and we think we just can't.

but it would be like going into the gym for the first time and trying to pick up the barbell of heavy weight and going, I can't lift this. I guess I just can't. You have to train it for starting with the tiniest amount, get used to that, and then build up gradually. And our microbiome works exactly the same way.

Dr Orlena (24:31.2)
Perfect. And I also love the 30 different varieties a week, particularly coming up to Christmas, because I think when we're looking at the holidays, it's very easy to think, my goodness, I have to either totally indulge or totally deprive myself. And those are my only two options. But actually, I think there is a middle line, which is, OK, I'm going to indulge a little bit. But actually, if I'm really focused on all of these 30 different vegetables, it gives my brain something to focus on. I'm thinking more about my health and my wellness than whether I'm

depriving myself or not. And you can go and have some of those treats, but you're also doing something really beneficial for your body. So I think coming up to the holidays, 30 different plant sources a week, and they have to be different. You can't five, six days in a row, the same five, six in a day in a row, because that's cheating. I think it's a... I like variety.

Alyssa F Simpson (25:16.372)
Yeah.

Alyssa F Simpson (25:21.108)
Right, right. Well, maybe you could, because you're getting 30 in one day. yeah, most people, you don't recount it. Yeah, yeah, Yeah, so you probably, yeah, you probably have a very healthy microbiome, but yeah, you don't recount them. So it's 30 unique ones in the week. And you'll find that, yeah, as you're counting through the days, you get less and less new ones each day as you're counting up your week. Yeah.

Dr Orlena (25:46.644)
Yeah, sure, of course, of course. And particularly at this time of year, like in the summer, I find it so much easier to, we have so many fruits and vegetables at this time of year. I'm very lucky because in Spain we obviously have great produce, but even so, it's less and less, you know, apples and pears, perhaps a few other fruits when we're lucky. Okay, so that is nutrition. What else can we do to help our biomes?

Alyssa F Simpson (26:05.278)
Yeah.

Alyssa F Simpson (26:12.808)
Right, that's nutrition. The other things would be lifestyle based. So I would say, we've talked about sleep and exercise just generally. would say stress is the other big ones. and stress.

Dr Orlena (26:31.19)
So how does stress affect it?

Alyssa F Simpson (26:35.932)
Stress affects it because our gut and our brain are intimately connected by a very powerful nerve called the vagus nerve. And that nerve allows our brain to send signals to our gut and our gut to send signals to our brain. So an example of the brain sending a signal to the gut is when you smell a food, you salivate, your whole digestive system salivates, which means as your mouth is producing saliva, your stomach is releasing acid.

your pancreas is releasing enzymes, your gallbladder is releasing bile. So that's an example of you haven't touched food, there's no food in your mouth yet, but because of smell, which affects your brain, your body is responding, your digestive system is responding. And then an example of the reverse would be when you are...

Let's see, the reverse would be your gut sending signals to your brain about mood. So your microbiome, if it's out of balance, affects maybe your serotonin production and you feel depressed. So we have that strong connection. And so when we're stressed, what stress does is it actually interferes with that connection, with that signal. So it kind of blocks it because stress is supposed to do that. Because when...

historically if we're stressed it's because there's an immediate threat and so to save our lives our body says okay digestion is not important right now reproduction is not important right now we need to put like you know all of our internal organs are less important and we need to drive all of the nervous system signaling and blood flow to the extremities so we can run away and get to safety and save our lives

So we're not sending signaling or anything to the internal organs. And so that's what happens is when we're stressed chronically, which is not a natural state, but that's how a lot of us are. And we've talked about you and I, know, how do you define stress? Well, we might not think we're stressed, but if we're rushing, we have a million things to do, we're we're on all the time that our body can perceive, our body does perceive that as stress and we're in that stress state. And our brain is not able, is not telling our...

Alyssa F Simpson (28:52.492)
gut to do what it's supposed to do as far as what it produces and how quickly it moves food and waste through our system.

Dr Orlena (28:59.242)
Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, we recorded this before and what we were talking about before was that stress, we have this idea that stress is not important stress. Do know what I mean? If it's not my mortgage or life and death, if it's not a really big thing, we just don't consider it to be stress. But even mundane things like what should I have for dinner or my kids are, you know.

being stressful or I'm stuck in traffic. If you perceive that as stress, it's still the same mechanism that's going on in your body, whether it's super, super big or low grade, it's still stress. So what are your biggest tips for combating stress?

Alyssa F Simpson (29:33.342)
Yeah, absolutely.

Alyssa F Simpson (29:39.208)
The biggest tip I have is breathing and that's because you can do it, well it's effective, you can do it from anywhere and it's free. You can do it anytime. So we're talking about...

Dr Orlena (29:50.932)
Always, I hope.

Alyssa F Simpson (29:53.118)
Hopefully. So that's, we're talking about diaphragmatic breathing, means into the belly. So not shallow, quick breaths, but deep, slow breaths. So you count into four, hold for four, count out for four. And the key is to slow down because when you slow down your breathing, that's a way to slow down your nervous system. And it actually switches off the sympathetic fighter.

flight mode and switches on the parasympathetic rest and digest mode. So you can do this for a couple minutes before each meal. This is what I tell my clients to do for their gut health. And it's also a good idea to have a daily practice that you do to relax. It could be more breathing, it could be... and that's a very personal thing. It could be whatever relaxes you. Prayer, reading, know, walking, listening to music.

Dr Orlena (30:50.602)
Yeah, I would say I think exercise is a really like having a stable exercise. And I think this is another way that exercise ties into everything that exercise is one of the best habits that you can have to really combat stress in the longterm. But yeah.

Alyssa F Simpson (31:05.64)
Yeah, because not only does it decrease cortisol, which is our stress hormone, but it increases endorphins. So you get that double benefit of feeling good and also reducing your cortisol. So, mm-hmm, totally agree. Breathing. Yeah, yeah.

Dr Orlena (31:13.813)
Yeah.

Dr Orlena (31:19.442)
So big tip is breathing, not just regular breathing, but deep breathing before you eat and then presumably if you're feeling stressed, use that as what I call your emergency tool.

Alyssa F Simpson (31:31.794)
Yes, absolutely,

Dr Orlena (31:34.496)
Perfect, perfect. Anything else that you think is important that we should understand with this big picture of the biome, which is amazing and how it affects our brain and how it affects weight loss? there any bits that we've missed?

Alyssa F Simpson (31:47.838)
Well, I think that covers it. would just encourage everyone that, you know, I think we're learning a lot more these days about gut health. I know when I was in college 20 years ago, we didn't learn anything. I mean, I didn't learn anything. And I went to dietetic school, but...

about gut health. think I knew what celiac disease was. There was like one chapter on that. But now we're learning so much more about it and I think it applies to everyone, not just people that have digestive symptoms because the gut is really the, it's one of the foundations of, it affects our whole body basically. So it's not, know, gut health is not just a nice to have, it's a foundation of reducing

systemic inflammation, restoring your body's hunger and fullness cues, and for many people, important for achieving sustainable weight loss.

Dr Orlena (32:47.462)
And also, looking after your biome is really the same as leading a healthy lifestyle. It's not really any different from eating healthily, exercising, sleeping, and managing your stress levels. So as always, whenever we talk about a specific illness, it all comes back to the same. Like it's not a different thing for heart disease and a different thing for neurological disease and a different thing for gut disease. All of the things are exactly the same, which makes it much easier for us.

Alyssa F Simpson (32:55.944)
Yeah.

Alyssa F Simpson (33:16.746)
Yeah, that's an excellent point. We could have had this whole talk about something, a completely different health issue and we would have come down to the same steps. Yeah. Okay.

Dr Orlena (33:22.774)
Exactly, Perfect. So listen, where can people find you? And I know that you've got a gift for people. So do you want to tell people a little bit about that?

Alyssa F Simpson (33:33.898)
Yeah, so my website is nutritionresolution.com. Certainly I have a private practice locally here in Arizona, but I have lots of free meal plans and things for various issues. But my gift for everybody is the Veggie Mash recipe and fiber counting guide. It's all one guide. And that is at nutritionresolution.com slash Veggie Mash.

Dr Orlena (33:57.814)
Thank you so much and thank you for coming and spending some time with us.

Alyssa F Simpson (34:01.212)
You're very welcome.