by Christa Cummings | Sep 6, 2024 | Friday Favorites, Health, Nutrition
This week’s Friday Favorites is all about Gut Health.
What do I use and love for my gut health?
I get asked for recommendations all the time. Without assessments and testing, I honestly can’t tell you what will work best for you. However, I can tell you what I use, and what products I think just about everyone can benefit from! So here is the gut health edition of my favorite things!
Fiber: Every day I add a little Sunfiber to my collagen coffee. I also take a psyllium fiber supplement because to be honest, I have a hard time hitting my 25g of fiber a day when I’m focusing on protein intake.
L-Glutamine: Is helpful for building up the gut lining. I also find it helps with sugar cravings.
Healthy Gut brand supplements are my go-to for gut healing. I recommend this brand in my protocols for just about everyone.
Holozymes digestive enzymes not only help you absorb more nutrients, they can help mitigate responses to food sensitivities.
TributerinX Butyrate – it would take a book to list all the benefits of this short chain fatty acid! It is a key player in the microbiome.
Holoimmune They even have supplements than can help with seasonal allergy symptoms.
My Lifepro Red Light Therapy Belt helps my digestion when it needs an extra kick. I also wrap it around my arm or shoulder or whatever other area is causing me problems.
Do you have a gut-health product that you use and love? Let me know!
*While I may earn money from purchases made through these links, I never recommend anything that I haven’t used myself and/or have evidence-based research to back up their effectiveness.*
by Christa Cummings | Mar 15, 2023 | Nutrition
What is HTMA?
Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis uses a hair sample to provide information about the body’s use of minerals, stress load, and presence of toxins such as heavy metals. Unlike blood work which tells us what is happening at the moment of the draw within the blood, HTMA gives us a broader picture. HTMA allows us to see how the tissues have been using minerals and releasing toxins for the past 2-3 months giving us patterns that allow us to analyze oxidation rates, stress load, and give us insight into the support that the body needs to function better.
To be honest, I was blown away at what the HTMA results revealed for me. It confirmed some patterns I had suspected, but hadn’t been able to verify, and it even confirmed that the pattern of eating that I lean towards intuitively is optimal for my oxidation type. I am absolutely certain that this test will provide valuable insights into your health too. HTMA can give us a good foundation for next steps in your health journey, or the starting point in transforming your health.
For the rest of March I am offering a discount on HTMA Testing and Analysis. Use coupon code HTMAbeta to get 25% off HTMA testing for yourself and find out what your body is trying to tell you!
by Christa Cummings | Mar 8, 2023 | Nutrition
What is Functional Nutrition Counseling?
In a nutshell, functional nutrition counseling is a process of educating the counselee about how nutrition impacts the body in general and their body specifically. This knowledge allows them to move forward in reducing dysfunction, identifying symptoms, and creating an environment which allows the body to heal itself.
Functional nutrition is a bio-individual holistic approach to wellness focusing on food as medicine for you as a whole being. The practice of functional nutrition is similar to functional medicine – it is a person-centered rather than symptom-focused. Your body is a whole ecosystem, fearfully and wonderfully made, both complex and unique, and my goal is always to address the root causes of dysfunction and enable your body to improve its own functions.
Together we will consider activity levels, environment, current food practices, and the presence of disease or dysfunction in order to develop a plan to achieve your health goals. We will examine past treatments, lab work, and specialized testing. We will create an individualized plan to enable you to take control of your health at your own pace. Through education, food choices, supplements, and lifestyle changes you will learn about how your specific body works and take a serie
s of small steps that result in big changes.
How does it work?
First, there is an intake process involving some paperwork documenting your health (current and past) and your goals. Depending on your needs, we can have a simple conversation about your current health, goals, and my recommendations for you to follow on your own, or we can have a detailed discussion involving detailed history and past treatments, lab work, etc., followed by a second session where we create an action plan and set up ongoing support. Your plan will focus on incorporating whole, real foods and gut health, and always taking into consideration your lifestyle outside of the kitchen.
What can Functional Nutrition Counseling do for me?
Functional nutrition counseling can teach you how to make small changes and get big results for symptoms such as gastrointestinal distress, skin issues, brain fog, energy levels, and pain. Learning how your body and food interact and becoming more aware of the signals your body is sending you allows you to become your own healthcare advocate and take control of your wellness journey.
Have more questions? Let’s chat. Click here to schedule a free discovery call.
