Top 5 Tips for a Healthy and Thriving Skin & Gut Microbiome

Before we get to tip #1, I want to paint a picture for you to help begin to ground in the importance of supporting healthy gut bacteria, an essential part of creating a healthy gut and skin microbiome and ultimately a clear and glowing complexion over time. This visualization is based on a few excerpts from one of my favorite books titled The Longevity Paradox by Steven R. Gundry, MD, pages 3-6.

To start, try to imagine what earth was like 3 billion years ago. Way back then, Earth was not yet ripe with oxygen and complex life. The only living things were bacteria and other single cell organisms that could grow and divide without oxygen. Visualize time marching on in this earthly reality. Millions more years pass and oxygen levels in the atmosphere begin to rise. The bacteria that populated the earth at that time, had evolved over billions of years in an anaerobic (oxygen-free) environment. To them, oxygen was lethal.

These bacteria and single cell organisms have a biological imperative to survive and pass on their DNA to the next generation so they evolve a really smart survival strategy. They team up with other single cell organisms to share resources and form what we know today as mitochondria – aka engulfed bacteria.

Over time, the other bacteria that did not team up and create mitochondria, escaped the deadly oxygen by moving into animals’ colons, because animals’ colons resembled the anaerobic environment they had thrived in for billions of years.

Fast forward to present day earth and present day you - 90 percent of your cells are the cells of bacteria, viruses, fungi and worms that live on you (your skin) and inside you (your gut), commonly referred to as the microbiome. (16)

If you feed these good bacteria, in your gut and on your skin, what they need to create a healthy home inside of you so they can stay and flourish and carry out all necessary functions, then your health (including your skin health) has the potential to thrive.

It was a little hard for me to accept at first that our gut bacteria and greater microbiome have so much control over our health, but this realization, awareness and understanding can also be a wonderful starting point for a healthy gut, skin microbiome and life!

It serves as an anchoring understanding that can help us stay on a health promoting trajectory when life throws all sorts of crap at us! Crappy food, crappy skincare, crappy conditioning and crappy stress!

The way back to a steady state of health is by treating our microbiomes with kindness, respect and ultimately the proper nourishment, on all fronts.

Now for Tip #1: Think of your skin as your gut turned inside out.

To help understand and prioritize the relationship between your gut health and skin health, you can think of your gut as your skin turned inside out. With that visual in mind (even if it’s a little gross at first), you can imagine how important it is to feed your gut the foods it craves for health and stability. When your gut is healthy and populated with gut-friendly bacteria, your best health, including your best skin health, is possible. But when your gut becomes leaky or permeable because of the foods you're eating, certain food compounds can pass through the gut lining and cause systemic inflammation in your body, including acne breakouts.

To begin to reshape, refine or reset your gut microbiome, it’s essential to begin to identify possible root causes of breakouts resulting from the foods you eat by first reducing the most frequent culprits:

Cow Dairy – especially casein A-1 *
Gluten - Pasta, breads, pretzels, crackers, etc.
Other potentially inflammatory grains like quinoa and brown rice (this is person dependent – meaning the effect of different grains on blood sugar and gut bacteria can vary)
Refined sugar and sugar in general
Alcohol
Highly processed, inflammatory snack and prepared foods like certain chips, crackers, breads, frozen foods, especially those containing corn and soy-based ingredients including industrial seed oils.
Unhealthy, inflammatory saturated fats like processed cheese, ice cream, baked goods and fast food
Soy lecithin
Soy milk
Diet soda
Artificial Sweeteners
Red meat
Fruits and vegetables with high levels of lectins (this is also person dependent)
Eggs can be a breakout triggering food for some people

*Thousands of years ago, a protein found in cow dairy called casein A-1 evolved out of a mutation in Northern European Cows as the prevalence of breeding cows for milk increased. This protein is predominant in the type of cow most American cow dairy comes from and it can be more difficult for our guts to digest. If you have a dairy intolerance, it may not just be a lactose intolerance, it could also be this protein causing inflammation in your gut and systemically as a result. Casein A-2, which is predominant in Southern European cow dairy, is known to be less inflammatory. It is available in certain parts of the country, but it can be hard to identify since it can be mixed in with Casein A-1 protein as well.

Tip #2: Whole Food Cycling

Work towards cycling 20 different nutrient rich whole plant foods through your nutrition every week. This will help support the re-populating of your gut microbiome with good gut bacteria from all the health-promoting polyphenols and diverse soil environments the different plants were grown in. Here is a list of vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, herbs and fruits to cycle through your meals and snacks every week – USDA Certified Organic or small farm grown wherever possible to reduce your pesticide load over time and to increase the percentage of antioxidants you consume:

Romaine, spinach, arugula, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, purple cabbage, mushrooms, orange sweet potato, avocado, celery, carrots, multi-colored carrots, beets, artichoke, radish, chickpeas, cucumber (without the seeds if necessary), hearts of palm, kale, radicchio, endive, turnip, red, orange and yellow sweet peppers, cantaloupe, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, almonds, walnuts, ground flax seed, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, olives, kalamata olives, EVOO, basil, cilantro, rosemary, oregano, thyme, mint.

Tip #3: Nutrient Benefits of Whole Foods

Most of any health and wellness transformation begins in the gut and is the result of prioritizing whole foods in (almost) every meal and snack or at least 80% to start. We already talked about the importance of cycling at least 20 different whole plant foods through your nutrition every week. Here is a further breakdown of those foods and their nutrient benefits.

Add in cruciferous veggies to promote detox pathways so toxins are less likely to be excreted through your skin as breakouts, help reduce the risk of certain cancers, especially hormonal cancers, and help heal your gut:

Broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, arugula, kale, turnips

Add in Vitamin A rich foods to help promote skin cell turnover from the inside out:

Orange sweet potatoes, carrots, spinach, salmon, cantaloupe

Add in dark leafy greens for all the most important vitamins including K, A, C, B, E and carotenoids. All nutrients that have been shown to aid in cellular repair and disease prevention. Dark leafy greens are foundational in helping to heal acne prone skin.

Spinach, green butter lettuce, arugula, red butter lettuce, romaine, kale, chard

Add in healthy fats because they play an important dietary role in good health by helping your body absorb key vitamins such as A, D, E and by helping to repair cells, increase good cholesterol while rounding up bad cholesterol. Healthy fats are the last nutrients to leave your digestive tract, keeping you satiated for longer which can help reduce cravings for the crappy foods that don’t serve your higher self and well-being.

Avocado, avocado oil, olives, extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), walnuts, almonds (without the skin if you’re sensitive), salmon, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flax seeds (ground so your body can absorb them), chia seeds, sesame seeds, sesame oil, eggs (if eggs are not a breakout triggering food for you)

Add in berries because the antioxidants in berries help the body scavenge for free radicals, possibly helping to reduce oxidative stress and damage. Their Vitamin C helps synthesize collagen, an essential part of helping to heal acne prone skin from the inside out. And they help keep you hydrated throughout the day.

Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries

Other food as medicine to add in:

Superfood teas including green tea, ginger, turmeric, dandelion root, mint, rooibos, licorice root, lemongrass, hibiscus, rose hips. P.S. I drink Yogi Tea because as far as I know their tea bags are not made of plastic so when you pour boiling water over the tea bag, microplastics will not end up in your tea and in your body.

Fresh herbs & spices to add in:

Basil, cilantro, oregano, rosemary, thyme, turmeric (along with black pepper to help your body absorb the curcumin, the anti-inflammatory compound found in turmeric), paprika

Tip #4: Add in prebiotics through your daily nutrition

Prebiotics are non-digestible plant fibers that feed good bacteria, aka probiotics. Prebiotics travel through the small intestine without being digested, and then are fermented in the large colon by gut bacteria. My favorite prebiotics are just ripe bananas, cabbage, artichokes, flax seed (ground so the probiotics can digest it), and onions (as long as onions don’t cause you too much gas and indigestion).

Tip #5: Add in probiotics through your daily nutrition

Probiotics on the other hand are live strains of bacteria and yeasts that add to the population of good gut bacteria. They are found in fermented foods like yogurt, sauerkraut and kimchi. Probiotics improve digestion, bowel regularity and overall gut health.

It’s okay to take prebiotic and probiotic supplements to help improve your gut health, but the most fundamental and sustainable solution for improved gut health is through your daily nutrition. Being consistent with foods that promote a healthy gut while crowding out foods that do not is what will help lead you toward both the short and long-term health outcomes you desire, including clear skin!

Sources:

1) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34764875/

2) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8575925/

3) https://www.verywellhealth.com/diindolylmethane-8705984

4) https://www.ars.usda.gov/plains-area/gfnd/gfhnrc/docs/news-articles/2013/dark-green-leafy-vegetables

5) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10487861/

6) https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/know-the-facts-about-fats

7) https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/eating-healthy-fats-has-many-benefits

8) https://foodinsight.org/oh-my-omega-the-difference-between-omega-3-6-and-9

9) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3679377/

10) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26739611/

11) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10220854/#molecules-28-04187-f002