I like to talk a lot about gut health. All my recipes are centered around being very friendly to the gut, because like Hippocrates said thousands of years ago, "All disease begins in the gut." This protein gummy recipe is for a healthy gummy that will help to heal your gut and create a better environment for your health to flourish.
Why does the gut matter?
Gut health is at an all-time low.
It’s due to aspects of our modern lifestyle that compromise the health of our gut. These will damage the thin lining of the gut, causing small holes there.
When there are holes in your gut, food particles, bacteria, and viruses can escape into the bloodstream, flooding the body.
What does that cause?
Inflammation.
And inflammation is what all medical professionals know is the root of disease!
That’s why gut health should matter to EVERYONE -- not just people who are having serious signs of a damaged gut. Because someone can have it and not even know it!
So that's really the driver behind this gut-healing gummy recipe.
Ready for the ingredient list?
Here's what you'll need. The list is short and sweet!
As you can see, the gummy will be sweetened from a few different sources: the orange juice. The coconut cream. And don't forget the maple syrup! You could certainly switch from orange juice to another juice, if that's your preference.
As to the vanilla extract, I'd warn you to be careful when purchasing. There are way too many vanilla extracts out there that contain alcohol. And alcohol is harmful to the gut, so that's the opposite of what we want to be doing! I'll go into more details in some common questions below.
For now, let's go through the process of making these protein gummies.
Gather your ingredients according to the list above. I know a lot of people like to add and subtract as they go -- if that's you, feel free! Do know, however, that certain things may affect the ability of your protein gummies to set properly. You may want to stick strictly to the recipe the first time around, then adapt and make it your own in subsequent tries.
First, if you're using freshly-squeezed orange juice (and it's always going to be better to get your juice straight from the source than from a carton -- I always feel that man will never replicate what God has already made for us!), then it's time to juice those oranges first.
Then, get out a medium pot. Put the burner on low heat and add your orange juice and coconut cream to the pot, stirring it up.
With the burner still on low, sprinkle the gelatin over the juice and coconut cream mixture. You're going to want to let the gelatin bloom, which takes about five minutes.
After the gelatin has bloomed, remove the pot from the heat. Stir in your maple syrup, along with the alcohol-free vanilla extract.
We're already at the last step!
You'll want to get out a mold, like a Pyrex container, and pour your protein gummy mixture into it. Refrigerate for about two hours. Please do not use plastic. That is just another everyday happening that is harming us. The overuse of plastic is an entire topic I'll devote a blog to at some point.
After the two hours are up, your protein gummies will be ready to be cut into pieces and enjoyed. If you're making this recipe with grandkids, it might be fun to cut them out using cookie cutters, to get different shapes.
I've gone simplistic and just made them into squares:
Let's get into some questions that you might have about this protein gummy recipe.
Absolutely! I think every recipe I've done so far was AIP, and you can view them all on the main page of my blog. These gummies are totally AIP compliant, so you don't have to worry about anything in the ingredient list causing further inflammation in the body and aggravating your health issues.
When most people think of gelatin, they think of that wiggly, jiggly stuff that comes in a box that we ate when we were kids. That stuff is full of sugar, but it is not actually gelatin in there. It's gelatin plus sugar and other additives! Gelatin, when taken all by itself, is a pretty healthy ingredient. It is made from collagen, which means it's full of protein -- an essential ingredient to healing the gut.
I get it -- if you're going to eat a gummy candy, you want it to be sweet. This recipe will fit the bill, thanks to the combination of juice, coconut cream, and maple syrup. You'll get the taste you're after without having to worry about ingredients that harm your health, like processed sugar.
This is a great question, and one I help my students a lot with that enroll in the Cellular Health Accelerator program. I think it's best answered by giving you a brief overview of how our society ended up with such damaged guts:
Consider each in the list and how you might be able to combat them in your everyday life. Add in gut-healing foods like these protein gummies, and fermented foods and beverages like fresh sauerkraut and kombucha, and you'll be well on your way to resetting your gut health.
Is there any weather that isn't soup weather?
Okay, maybe when the thermometer starts to climb above 75-80. In my opinion, though, this AIP chicken soup is a great choice any time of year.
Chicken soup is the ultimate comfort food.
It's tasty whether you're sick or feeling fine. This AIP recipe puts a spin on healthier chicken soup by being totally free from inflammatory ingredients.
For this AIP chicken soup, you'll need some of the usual ingredients, as well as a few that might surprise you. There are plenty of fresh herbs in it, too. Using dried will suffice, if that's all you have on hand, though I'd really recommend if you're going to splurge on one herb, make it the parsley. Dried parsley just doesn't substitute for fresh!
Here are your ingredients:
Let me break down each step of this AIP chicken soup recipe to make it easy for you to follow. First, gather up your ingredients so you have everything right at hand.
Get out a large stockpot and set the stove burner to medium heat.
Then, add in the avocado oil, celery, carrots, sea salt, and garlic, if you're using that. I love a garlicky taste, but I know some people just don't care for it.
Let that combination saute for about 5-7 minutes so that the veggies start to soften up.
Next, you'll add in the the sage, oregano, rosemary, and chicken.
Now the soup is really starting to come together. Your kitchen should be nice and fragrant, thanks to those herbs (and the garlic, if you've added that!).
At this point, you'll want to carefully pour in your bone broth. Toss in the noodles and parsley after that, stirring it all to combine.
The final step is allowing the noodles you've added to cook through. In total, you'll want to let it boil for as long as the package directions on the noodles say, so that they get cooked through.
The noodles I chose took about 15 minutes to fully cook through, since bringing the whole contents of the stockpot to boil can take some time.
Be sure to let it cool for a bit before serving, or ladle into bowls and let it cool that way. Your finished product should look something like this:
Not bad, right?
I think it's one of those recipes that the entire family, including kids or grandkids, would go nuts for!
I'll get to some common questions you might have about this recipe.
The more traditional forms of chicken noodle soup involve some ingredients I try to stay away from, and I recommend people who are having symptoms of ill health stay away from, too.
The biggest issue I have with soup is that most people tend to buy theirs in a can. This soup has sat in a metal container for months, or even years. That cannot be good for our bodies.
Even freshly-made chicken noodle soups contain, at the very least, noodles that are made with conventional flour. I do not recommend eating conventional flour, which is why my recipe contains cassava flour.
Cassava is a member of the tuber family, just like a potato or sweet potato. It's nice and starchy and has a nutty taste, which makes it the perfect ingredient to make pasta. Cassava pasta is AIP compliant, so you won't have to worry about this pasta setting you back on your health journey.
If you've looked at any of my recipes before, you know that I am a big fan of bone broth. You can't compare your typical soup broth to bone broth. Bone broth is full of collagen and minerals. It's extremely gut healing and can even be a replacement for your morning coffee (yes, tons of my clients love to have a mug of bone broth in the morning!). I think everyone should drink at least a cup of bone broth a day. Regular broth is much thinner and less flavorful, in addition to having a less robust nutrient profile.
Could you use it anyway? If that's what you have on hand, absolutely.
This chicken soup recipe is totally AIP compliant, which refers to the autoimmune protocol style of eating. AIP cuts out ingredients that are known to be inflammatory, such as processed sugar, nightshades, and grains, amongst others. You can definitely think of this soup as anti-inflammatory, because the ingredients it contains will not fan the fires of inflammation that are occurring in most Americans.
Interested in most anti-inflammatory soup recipes?
I've published a few. Just click on any below to be taken to those recipes!
Here's the full recipe:
There are a lot of foods a person can miss when they turn toward a healthier style of eating. I personally get cravings for pizza every now and again. I can't tell you how many people have told me that what they miss the most is donuts. I want to help you satisfy your cravings with this healthier version: AIP paleo donuts!
What sweet treat could be better than homemade gluten-free donuts? I'm on a mission to show people that they don't need to resort to buying sugar-laden, carb-heavy donuts when they want to treat themselves. You can make healthier versions of just about anything!
And donuts are no exception. This recipe is for gluten-free, dairy-free donuts that won't put your blood sugar on a crazy roller coaster all day. Now, I'm not saying you should make them and eat the whole batch. But you can certainly eat them without beating yourself up about it.
Let's get to it!
These AIP paleo donuts contain some pantry staples, but there might be some new things in this list, too. For example, tiger nut flour isn't typically anything people have in their cupboards. But if you typically eat paleo or AIP, then you might already know all about tiger nuts. I'll talk a bit about that in the questions below and hopefully answer anything you might be wondering about these ingredients.
Here is your ingredient list for these baked applesauce donuts:
Then, there are two optional toppings. Well, in reality, there are a ton of toppings you could use depending on what you like. But I recommend you also have coconut sugar and coconut butter, because both are super tasty on these paleo donuts!
Let me show you each step involved in these AIP paleo donuts.
First off, you're going to get all the ingredients out and put them on your counter, so they're easily accessible. That list is found just above. Then, preheat your oven to 350℉ so that it's warmed up to the right temperature when you're done assembling your healthy donuts.
In a large bowl, you're going to add your cassava flour, tigernut flour, arrowroot flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and gelatin. Mix all that together to combine.
With all those dry ingredients mixed for your paleo donuts, it's time to move onto the wet ingredients. In a second bowl, you'll add the applesauce, coconut oil, bananas, maple syrup, and coconut cream. Mix that to combine. Alternatively, if you've got an accessible blender, you can skip the bowl and toss the wet ingredients in there. It's up to you!
Then, it's time to combine the ingredients. Put the wet into the dry, since the bowl with your dry ingredients is a larger one. Mix this until it's well-combined.
The next step is to add the blueberries. I'd recommend folding them in, which means you gently combine using your spatula or spoon.
I used a donut pan for this recipe. You can easily find one online if you don't already have one.
Grease that donut pan up. I typically use coconut oil, because it works well and tolerates a high level of heat. Keep in mind that your batter is thicker than it would be if you were making a cake, or even another type of donut. So when you put the batter in the donut pan, use your hand to mold the shape of them.
You're going to let these AIP paleo donuts bake for 30 minutes in your oven that was preheated and is up to the proper temperature by now.
I'd try to allow these gluten-free donuts to cool before trying, but I know it's going to be hard to resist this:
If you're using coconut butter as an optional topping, keep in mind that it's going to melt and run off the donuts if they aren't completely cooled.
After you top them, they'll look something like this:
Irresistible, right?
Let's get to some common questions about my AIP Paleo donuts recipe!
You might think tiger nuts are a nut -- but they're not! Tiger nuts are a member of the tuber family, which includes potatoes and sweet potatoes. Though not as common today, tiger nuts are thought to have been the primary food that cavemen ate thousands of years ago. Since tiger nuts are not actually a nut, they're totally AIP compliant. Many people who eat AIP find them to be a great substitute for their favorite nut. You can even make a tiger nut butter that is quite similar to peanut butter.
Tiger nut flour is made from the ground-up tiger nuts. It's a fairly common ingredient in AIP baking, and I wouldn't advise you to substitute something else for it. If you can't find it at your local store, Amazon is always an option.
You might think that gluten-free donuts are too good to be true. But this recipe proves otherwise! Yes, these donuts are gluten-free and dairy-free. You don't need traditional, gluten-filled flours to make incredibly delicious baked goods. Though that's what has been typically used for years and years, there are so many great websites out there that will show you how to make healthier versions of your favorite treats. I hope that my website blog is one of your favorites!
A paleo diet mimics what our ancestors ate thousands of years ago. The idea behind it? That our bodies aren't matched to a modern diet. Getting back to the style of eating that we were meant to have will give us better overall health. And there are ways to make just about anything you eat now paleo. The foods cut out of a paleo diet include processed foods, dairy, legumes, grains, and refined sugar.
The paleo diet is heavy on fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, fish, meats, and healthy oils. Learn more about it here.
Your typical donut contains ingredients such as flour, sugar, yeast, milk, and oil for frying. Because of that, the donuts you buy in stores are a pretty unhealthy combination. This applesauce baked donut recipe will satisfy any craving you have for donut without any of the ingredients that will sabotage the healthier lifestyle choices you're trying to make.
A lot of people think of gelatin and their mind goes right to that wiggly, jiggly gelatin treat many of us ate as kids. Gelatin is an ingredient commonly used in baking. It's a protein, and it works to help things set or thicken. That's exactly what it's designed to do in this recipe -- give structure to the donuts .
Ready for the full recipe? Check it out below!
Can we talk about stress for a minute?
My team and I dig deep with our students on just about every aspect of their lifestyle for good reason: we want to get to the root cause.
We're not interested in just naming a problem. We want to find out why a problem exists. We're a little like health detectives. In an effort to do this deep dive, any idea what we often find is contributing to our students' health problems?
That's right -- stress.
When people are asked, "Why do you think you're not well? Why haven't you been able to get your health back?" Often, what comes out of their mouth is, "Well, I feel stressed all the time."
Way back in the day, that wasn't something we hard as often. Today, though, almost everyone is suffering from severe amounts of stress. Personal lives, relationships, jobs, finances...Americans, and Western society in general, are pretty stressed.
And the effects of stress are deleterious! 
I'm not even talking about extreme stress, like a divorce or a death in the family. Oftentimes, a student can pinpoint when this type of stress began, though, like "Ever since I had this accident..." or "Ever since I had this sickness..." and they've never been the same since.
But what people just don't realize is super serious is the everyday stress. The kind that just builds up, and is maintained throughout a person's everyday existence.
This form of daily stress takes a huge toll on the adrenal glands, which is our major stress organ. In turn, our cortisol levels are raised, and then we ultimately experience the physical effects of stress.
So, what are the signs that stress is taking a toll on your health? Here are a few symptoms you might notice:
❌ Getting sick more often than usual
❌ Digestive upset
❌ A leaky gut
❌ Inflammation
❌ Brain fog
❌ Anxiety
❌ Depression
❌ Weight gain or weight loss
Want to know what the #1 most pressing concern is for our students?
The absolute, number one symptom they complain of is absolutely low energy. They're just tired and drained, and never feel properly rested. Most have to fight to make it through their day, constantly pushing themselves beyond the limits. They can't do the things they love in life, because they just don't have the energy. Stress and energy levels are absolutely tied in together!
And often, this lack of energy is accompanied by an inability to burn fat. The body becomes a fat storer instead of a fat burner. It's related to chronic stress levels in the body because that stress changes our hormones.
So, the stress we're seeing today is absolutely a root cause of why there are so many health conditions in our country today.
Here's the good news! There are things that can be done naturally that will make a big, big difference in terms of your ability to deal with stress because that's the key. We're all going to encounter stress.
But how resilient can we be in dealing with stress? That will be the key in determining how stress impacts your body and health.
The absolute number one thing that I recommend to dissipate stress is exercise. We are a nation of couch potatoes! Too much computer, too much television, too much smartphone, too much sitting at a desk all day long.
We are deficient in movement, and that's what you need to do. If you want to relieve some stress, go out for a 60-minute walk. Even if it's not that long, just go out for a 15-minute walk. Go up and down some hills. Get a little bit out of breath. I promise you, over time, that simple bit of exercise will start to make a difference for you.
Another great stress management technique? I love weightlifting.
Weightlifting is a great way to help dissipate stress and rebuild the body and help in strength. So, exercise and something as simple as walking is good. I have done videos on YouTube, on what we call high intensity interval training (HIIT), or burst training. I love burst training and do it several times a week. Just look at those videos, and you'll see what I'm talking about. Burst training is a great way to alleviate stress in the brain, change your hormones, and just get rid of the buildup of stress in our bodies.
The second thing that I want to talk about, though, is just getting outside. What do you think the number one thing that we see deficiency-wise in the body is? Low Vitamin D levels. We've been told that the sun gives us cancer, the sun makes us sick. Our ancestors lived outside in the sun. They worked in the sun. They didn't get skin cancer. We've been lied to. It's not about that. It's all the other things that we're doing in our lives that are creating these issues!
Our body needs sunlight. We need sunshine. Get outside! Absorb that sunshine and fresh air. That helps to build Vitamin D levels in your body, and it's going to help to relieve stress in your life; I promise you that.
Another foundational aspect of stress is the food that we eat. If you're the type of person that is eating a lot of carbohydrates (foods that readily turn to sugar in your body like breads, biscuits, bagels, pasta, rice and cereals), you need to get away from those foods for a period of time. Focus on more what I would call cleaner carbs. Things like sweet potatoes, and then limited amounts of fruit like berries and apples. Try to go organic if you can, because we want to get rid of the toxins, which are also playing a major role in this stress epidemic that we see today.
You want to get rid of bad fats such as vegetable oil, corn oil, canola oil, and margarines. You want to go with good fats. Good fats are going to help the brain. Our brain is made of 60% fat! If you're feeling the effects of stress, you want to build your brain by eating healthy fats. That's going to be fats such as extra virgin olive oil, virgin coconut oil, avocados, grass-fed beef, free-range chicken, and free-range eggs. Those healthy fats will help heal your brain, heal your body's cells, and heal your hormones.
I've said it before, but we always have to go back to the cell level of the body. Those cells are our foundation. That's where our health comes from. If you're sick, your cells are sick. Cell health is everything. If you want to be well, you have to fix the cell. Stop putting the sugar in, get rid of the bad fats, and then eat the healthy fats, which will help to heal the membrane of the cell that is typically damaged after years of unhealthy living.
Then the other thing is really, really simple. So many people that I see don't drink enough clean water. Some people don't drink any water in the day! They're counting on other types of liquids to hydrate them. But it's not the same thing. Your body needs clean water. You need to be hydrated. So, what we tell people is, try to get half of your body weight in ounces per day of water. Some of you don't need to go that high, but at a minimum, I would say 60-70 ounces of water. Good, clean spring water or filtered water is the best -- not chlorinated, fluoridated water, but a form of purified water.
I hope this helps you. If you want more information on what my team and I do, head to ColeClass.com to watch my FREE Masterclass.
Intermittent fasting is all the rage. It's in magazines. Tons of people are talking about it. You read about it in online articles or on social media. When you search on Google, it's a highly-researched topic.
Why is intermittent fasting such a big deal?
I can tell you from my experience with thousands of people I've put on intermittent fasting regimens: it's the real deal.
It works.
There are profound benefits to intermittent fasting.
So let me define it for anyone who isn't sure what intermittent fasting involves.
Intermittent fasting is about eating your food in a certain window of time each day. For the maximum benefits I've seen, you want to try to stretch your fasting window to about 16 hours a day. You're not eating within those 16 hours.
The eating you do, then, takes place in an eight-hour window.
If you can eventually squeeze your eating window down to six or even four hours, you'll get even greater benefits.
People who are struggling with their health, though, should really consider something even bigger. One to two days a week, try to go 24 hours without a meal. All you'll have is water during an entire day (or two, if you can make it!)
It might sound daunting to you. If you've got blood sugar issues, you may not be able to start at those windows. You might only be only able to do 12 hours of fasting. Do not push yourself to the point of discomfort.
If you start to feel shaky or nauseous, that's a problem and it needs to be dealt with, because it's probably at the heart of what you're dealing with, health-wise. You have to try to start small in such a case, slowly making your fasting window bigger over time.
Being able to handle that means you have a healthy metabolism. If you can't do any fasting, it's an indication of how sick you actually are, so you have to start working on it.
The typical American is consuming three, four, five, or even six meals a day. Their body never gets a break; it's constantly digesting. 
So much of our energy reserves (30-40% is an estimate) is used for the digestion and assimilation of food. If you can give your gut a break, what happens is that cleansing can begin to take place.
You will begin to enter into what's called autophagy, where your body will preferentially start burning up damaged tissues, getting rid of them.
There's just a ton of health benefits that can start with this process of intermittent fasting. You always want to make sure when you're intermittent fasting, though, too, that when you are eating, you're eating a healthy diet. You can't be intermittent fasting, then run to a fast food restaurant, and start wolfing down all kinds of bad food. That won't help you any!
When you're in your eating window, here are some quick tips to remember:
Note, however, that people with sugar sensitivity may not be able to handle any fruits at all. Fruit is high in sugar, so go easy on it if you're trying to get over cravings. As long as you get plenty of veggies, you can skip the fruit entirely.
When it comes to intermittent fasting, people are full of questions. I've compiled some of the most common ones about intermittent fasting here. If you have more questions, feel free to post a comment!
There aren't really any hard and fast rules about who can do IF vs. who cannot. I think the most important thing is that you experiment for yourself and see if you can do it. With some time, and by easing into it, intermittent fasting will work for nearly anyone. If you have any questions, doubts, or medical conditions, be sure to talk to your doctor first.
Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body, making up more than one-third of your total protein.
It acts as a building block for
✅ Healthy bones
✅ Teeth
✅ Muscles
✅ Skin
✅ Joints
✅ Connective tissues
Getting enough protein is so vital if you’re trying to regain your health. And you'll want to get plenty of protein during your eating windows when you're intermittent fasting.
But here's the thing: consuming collagen peptides during the time when you're fasting will reduce the level of autophagy you get -- which makes sense, because it means your body is busy processing what you're putting in, instead of concentrating on healing.
And the average person gets less than HALF the fiber that they should -- no wonder that conditions like leaky gut affect nearly everyone in our society, right?
So it's no wonder people are drinking Metamucil, right?
But having Metamucil while you're intermittent fasting brings about the same issue as the others: it will absolutely reduce the level of autophagy you can reach, and may even knock you completely out of it. Proceed at your own risk!
If you want more details about what a good, healthy diet is, I've posted about it before. You can go back through my old blog posts and take a look.
When you abstain from food, though, it will start to make a difference in your life and health.
The state of health in the Western world isn't looking too good right now. In more than 35 years in practice, I've seen that our health is sliding consistently downhill. The average person is really suffering -- and unnecessarily so.
In America, we are arguably the sickest nation there is. We spend more on health care than the next 10 countries combined.
Yet we have more disease than any other nation.
And some of these diseases were not even in existence until more recently. Things are getting worse, not better.
America makes up about 5% of the world's population, but we consume 50-60% of the world's pharmaceuticals.
Clearly, this is not a recipe for good health.
I recently read the other day that the current generation being born in the U.S. is expected to be the first generation that will not outlive their parents.
It's because of the choices we're making and what we're being exposed to.
The amount of health issues we have is daunting. And I think it's just the tip of the iceberg. If we don't start to address the root cause of WHY we are sick, we are in for a tsunami of health crises.
You've heard me mention it before: the cells of the body. They're our foundation. Everything that happens in the body, has to occur at the cell level. That means when something is wrong, it's because the cells aren't working as they should.
No disease or symptom occurs independent of the cells. None!
The membrane is like the brain of the cell. It lets in good stuff like nutrients, hormones, and oxygen. And it also lets the bad stuff, like waste and toxins, get out. The dynamic of "good stuff in, bad stuff out" is what keeps you health.
The reason that so many people are unhealthy is because the cells are damaged, and aren't working like they should.
People come to me all the time and says, "What are some simple switches I can make?"
I have four principles that I inform these people about.
Get rid of the bad, inflammatory fats like vegetable oil, corn oil, canola oil, trans fats, and margarines. They are rancid and cause dysfunction and disease. But then at the same time, you need to add in good fats. Why? The cell membrane is made of two layers of fat. it should be semi-permeable, but it loses permeability from being chronically inflamed. But you can heal the membrane! Consume good, healthy fats like
You can also switch out unhealthy proteins for better choices. The beef or chicken we eat shouldn't be what's kept in a cage where the animal develops disease because of the unsanitary conditions they live in. Or when farmed fish are raised in a pen and fed an unnatural diet, turning their meat gray and then being dyed orange to make it look more appealing. The way these animals are being raised actually changes the makeup of the meat, and it becomes an inflammatory food.
Look for grass-fed beef. Free-range chicken and eggs. Wild-caught fish. Avoid farmed fish and conventionally farmed animals.
This is a big one. Today, we consume far too many carbohydrates. It's not just sugar, either. Foods that turn into sugar include rice, pasta, breads, biscuits, cereal -- all the things I was raised on! I came from the time of the food pyramid, where we were told to have 6-11 servings of those foods each day. It's no wonder we're sick and overweight.
We've got to cut out the foods that contain sugar, or readily turn to sugar. It's what is driving so much inflammation at the cell level.
Sugar damages the gut as well as drives inflammation in the body. It really upsets the gut ecology. Have you heard of the gut-brain connection? If you have a damaged gut, you will wind up with brain-related symptoms, too. A damaged gut disturbs your digestion, so you won't digest and assimilate your food like you should. Your gut is likely chronically inflamed, and you may even have a "leaky gut," which feeds more inflammation throughout the body.
If you're going to have sugar, you need to have the natural versions. Honey, in moderate amounts. Fruit like berries and apples (buy organic whenever possible!).
Most people don't drink enough water. And then, the water they DO drink is chlorinated and fluoridated. Chemicals like chlorine are designed to kill things. So what effect do you think that has on the body?
The natural microbiome the body has plays a huge role in the gut-brain connection and on our brain function. When we disturb the balance of bacteria in the body, the bad bacteria begins to proliferate.
You have to make sure the water you're drinking is clean.
I have a well at my house, and I've had it tested to make sure the water quality is good. But I still bought a Berkey countertop filter. You pour a gallon in, and then you know that's about what you'll drink in a day. We have one in the office, too, and it does a great job of purifying water.
If you are willing to make these four switches, I promise you: it will make a difference. You need to be diligent and stay strict about it. 
Most people try to justify eating bad goods because they also ate a good one that day. But that's throwing gasoline on the fire. You have to put out that fire if you're truly going to improve your health.
Try these changes for 90 days. Set your mind to it. Clean up what you're putting in the body. Get rid of the bad stuff and only take in the good stuff. Start healing your gut and brain, and you're going to see a tremendous transformation in your health, like I do with nearly all of my clients.
Today, I want to discuss one of my all-time favorite subjects. It probably affects you, or someone you love.
It's low energy.
So many of my clients want to know, "Why am I suffering from low energy?" "Is there a way to get my energy back?" "Why don't I have any energy?"
It's rare that I have a client who DOESN'T complain of low energy. When we ask, "Where is your energy, on a scale of 1-10?" The answer is usually somewhere between two and five.
People are feeling just...diminished. Their quality of life takes a hit from that lack of energy.
So what I want to do is make you understand what low energy really is. In doing so, you know how you can help yourself start to get out of that rut. 
The cells of our body allow good things (like nutrients) to get in, and the bad stuff (like waste products) to get out. But when we we get...
...then we end up damaging the membrane of the cells of the body. this membrane is supposed to be permeable, allowing the good things to get in and the bad things to get out. But chronic inflammation causes the cell membrane to become impermeable.
So now, let's turn to how energy is made.
The way energy is made in our body is through mitochondria. They're our little energy factories. The mitochondria produce something we call ATP, which acts as gasoline for our cells.
If you aren't producing enough ATP, you're running low on gasoline.
People with chronic inflammation, even if they currently eat a good diet, the nutrients they take in can't get into the cell. Then, they don't have the raw materials to make the energy they need.
The result is a deficiency of ATP. You're low in energy thanks to cells that are chronically inflamed.
And at that point, you'll start to crave carbs and sugar.
Why?
Because it's the fastest form of energy! If you don't have enough energy, you'll start to crave that fast energy.
But here's the beautiful thing: when you start dealing with this energy problem and fix the cell membrane, you can actually address the root cause of low energy.
When you fix the cell, you can start making more ATP. Your energy level will shoot up, and bonus: you won't crave sugar anymore!
You CAN break the habit. You CAN set yourself free. A constant craving for sugar is not natural. But when the cells start receiving the good stuff, those cravings will decrease, and you'll be free. With this freedom, you can take your health to wherever you'd like it to be.
If you want more details, please visit ColeClass.com to learn about my root cause perspective that has helped thousands of clients.
There is a big problem in our society today that I want to talk about: weight loss resistance.
In today's society, it is an epidemic problem. Mostly, weight loss resistance affects women. But more and more men that I'm seeing, no matter how little calories they consume, no matter how much they exercise, they simply have lost the ability to burn fat.
Just like everything, I have to ask, "What's the cause?"
It's all due to an underlying hormone problem, but it's different than what you might initially think. If you went to the average person and asked them about hormone problems, they'd probably say that it's due to "not having enough hormones." They'd assume a man has low testosterone, or a woman is deficient in estrogen.
I'm not saying that doesn't exist, but it typically is not what the root issue is. Most people are actually dealing with the inability of those hormones to get into the cells of the body and do their job!
It all goes down to the cell level, which is exactly what we do in my practice. Our cells are our foundation. Everything happens at the cell level -- including any dysfunction you have. Whether it's feeling tired all the time or the inability to lose weight, you can trace it back to the cells. 
So let's talk a little bit about that. The typical person that we see is a female who is experiencing health problems, most often tied to thyroid health. They have become hormone resistant.
The hormones in the body that help burn fat, such as T3, the active thyroid hormone, and leptin, which is the master control hormone, can't get into the cell. The membrane of the cell has been damaged by factors such as
Because of these factors, the hormones can't get into the cell. You've created a barrier. There are only two ways you get energy: from carbohydrates, or from fat.
Most of the people that we see are stuck in sugar-burning mode/carb-burning mode, and that's why they crave carbs. They're going from meal to meal to meal, utilizing carbohydrates as their fuel source, and as a result, their bodies have become pretty bad at tapping into their fat reserves.
So, you have to change this dynamic. You've got to fix the cell. You've got to eliminate toxins. You've got to start eliminating bad fats. Eliminate the sugars. You need to replace the bad fats with good fats because the cell membrane is made of fat, so you want plenty of good fats in the body.
I know: you've been told time and time again that fat makes you fat. It causes heart disease and other health problems. But I'm telling you, nothing could be further from the truth!
You have to make a distinction between good and bad fats. 
When you put all these factors into play, you can fix your cells and become less hormone resistant.
There are other benefits, too. For example, if you skip a meal, would you normally get shaky or weak? That's a typical symptom of a sugar-burner. But when you're a fat burner, your body will naturally turn to using your fat stores for energy.
Each day, I get to hear about success stories from my practice of people who get incredible results from fixing the cell. They might have had hormone issues for decades. But when they address their health on a cellular level, these people can reclaim the normal physiology of the body. It's an exciting thing!
Here's the bottom line: to beat weight loss resistance, you've got to turn yourself over into a fat burner instead of a sugar burner. You do that by getting rid of sugar, by getting rid of bad fats, by eliminating or finding out where these toxins are in your life, and in reducing them as much as possible. And then you add good fat into a nice, clean diet, and you're going to start to see changes like everybody that we see in our practice.
If you want to hear more about cellular health, please consider watching my FREE Masterclass!
Today, I want to talk with you about our microbiome. It's a real buzz word today, right? I want to get a little bit down and dirty with you, and explain what that is all about and how it relates to your health. Before I do that, though, I want to always remind you if you're looking for more information about your health, go to ColeClass.com, and we're going to have all kinds of information for you there.
Let's start by defining a few things. In our gut, we have this internal environment that is made up of what we would call "good bacteria," and "bad bacteria." A balance between the two is integral to our health. 
We're finding out so much more about how the health of our gut is related to everything in our body, from brain function to energy levels, to the ability to lose weight and digest your food. The list is just endless because it has to do with all parts of us.
These are things we didn't know that long ago, but we're finding out more and more that the balance in this internal environment is playing such a role in our health.
The father of modern medicine, Hippocrates said over 2,000 years ago that he believed all disease begins in the gut. I don't know if that's entirely true, but I know so much of what we see disease-wise today has some relationship to a bad gut. So, we want to make sure our gut is healthy.
So, let's talk about these microorganisms that so many of the patients that I see are deficient in. They're deficient in these things because of the foods that we're eating in large part, antibiotics we've been taking, antibacterial soaps, the chlorine we drink in our water, and the pesticides that we may have in our foods. These things that are designed to kill living things or wiping out our internal environment, really decimating our good bacteria, and they're allowing the bad bacteria to take over.
We need to change that dynamic. If you're having anxiety, if you're having brain fog, energy issues, you have to understand that any solution starts with a healthy gut. You need the ability to digest your food. Even if you're eating a good diet, but you're not able to take advantage of that because your gut is so bad that you're not able to digest and assimilate the good food you're eating, you're not going to get that benefit from those foods.
We want to talk about a couple of things here. But there's two things I want you to understand: prebiotic and probiotic. Most of us have heard about probiotics. These are the actual microorganisms. The good stuff that's in our gut and helps us do all of these good things. A lot of people today are taking probiotics, but I want you to understand something. Man is never going to put into a pill what God provided for us in our food.
The best probiotics might already been in your kitchen. My four favorite probiotics are raw sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, and kombucha.
When you eat sauerkraut, you have to make sure that it's raw sauerkraut. If it's been cooked, the probiotics, the good bacteria have been destroyed.
Kimchi is a Korean dish. It's kind of similar to sauerkraut in the sense that its base is cabbage, but it tastes different. They have spicy versions of it, but you usually will find this in a health food store. 
Kefir is something I absolutely love. If you're not sensitive to dairy, making your own kefir is what I really recommend for people who have this abnormal relationship between good and bad bacteria. It's loaded with the good probiotics. I like to start with raw goat's milk. There are all kinds of recipes online. It's so much better than anything you're going to buy in the store if its source is that raw milk to begin with. Organic, grass-fed milk is going to be your absolute best choice. Kefir is super easy to make, and it's super loaded with probiotics.
Kombucha is something a lot of people don't know about. It's a fermented tea. A lot of stores are carrying it now. It comes in different flavors.
Working these four things into your diet are going to provide you with the probiotics that you need to repair a gut when it's been damaged after a lifetime of abuse.
Prebiotics are not that well understood. We hear so much about probiotics, but we don't hear all that much about prebiotics. That doesn't mean you should underestimate the importance of prebiotic foods, however! Let me give you an analogy. 
You remember the Pac-Man game back in the day where the yellow Pac-Man was eating the dots? Imagine that the Pac-Man is the probiotics, a living organism. The prebiotics would be the dots that the yellow Pac-Man eats. It's the food for the probiotics. 
These are the foods here that are most readily-accessible for most people, but just understand that concept that the probiotics eat the prebiotics. So, it's nourishing the probiotics and supporting this healthy environment in our gut.
Some of the prebiotics you can enjoy include raw garlic, raw leeks, asparagus, and onions. You can cook the onions or have them raw.
In essence, what you really need to understand is that high-fiber foods are going to be good for you from a prebiotic perspective. I hope that helps you guys understand that if you want to fix your gut, you've got to make sure you got the healthy bacteria. But you have to make sure that you have the food that allow the healthy bacteria to thrive.
Interested in supportive products for your gut? We have a whole store you can browse through. Head to https://keycellularnutrition.com/shop/ and take a look around!
I've always done case histories with my patients when they first come to the office. Back in the day, we would ask them about their anxiety. Do they have any anxiety symptoms? It was really a lot rarer back then. Today, it's pretty common, to the point that a full 40 million Americans have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. That's 20% of our adult population, and it's getting worse. That's scary!
When we're talking about anxiety, it can be anything from generalized anxiety disorder to full blown PTSD and everything in between. Ultimately, it’s even affecting us physically. We can wind up with chronic fatigue-type syndromes, constant muscle tension, and pain in our body. Even insomnia may occur, where people can't fall asleep, or if they do fall asleep they have trouble getting back to sleep upon waking in the middle of the night. That's something I see all the time.
The real issue is what we're doing for it treatment-wise. The pharmaceuticals that are being used today are really hit and miss, at best. But the problem is that they all have side effects! You see, there's no such thing as a drug without side effects. Every drug is a toxin. I'm not saying there's not a time and a place to take these pharmaceuticals. I'm just telling you that every drug is a toxin. Nobody would argue that. That's why they have side effects, and unfortunately these side effects with these types of medications for anxiety and depression can be onerous.
And now, we know they increase the likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease. Can you imagine that? Here, we have a medication that you're taking for your brain that increases your likelihood of developing Alzheimer's, the fastest-growing disease in our society today.
Well, here’s the good news. In my years of experience, I've seen natural things that not only work just as well, but don't have any side effects. The good thing is they often times will get to the root cause of why the person has anxiety to begin with. There's never been a medication that's going to address the root cause of your problem because you don't lack medications. That's not why we develop anxiety or things like depression.
But, when you do these two things that I'm going to tell you right now, and incorporate them into your life, if you're like most of our patients, you're going to see some really positive results.
#1. Exercise
This first one is probably something you've already heard about. We are a nation of couch potatoes, right? Whether it's the jobs we have, whether they're sedentary or whether it's being on a computer all day long or our smartphones, or we're watching television. A lot of us are just not getting the exercise or activity or movement in our lives that we need, that our body needs to be healthy.
The great thing about exercise is that there's so many different kinds. What I've found to be the most effective for the brain and for the hormones is something called high-intensity interval training (HIIT). There are all kinds of ways to do it. 
If you're on a treadmill, instead of being like a gerbil on a treadmill where you're going for 60 minutes at the same pace, you're going to alter the pace of your workout, and it might only be 10 or 12 minutes long in total. Maybe even less in the beginning! How nice is that? You have an extra 50 minutes in your day to do other things that are going to be productive for you.
So here's how it works if you're on a treadmill: you warm up, get yourself loose, and then you increase the speed. You could increase the incline instead, or do a combination of both. You want to get to the point for 30 to 60 seconds that the exercise makes you breathless. Makes it difficult to talk. Your heart is beating rapidly, right? That type of intensity is going to do wonderful things for blood flow, for your hormones, and for your mind and body in general.
After that 30 to 60 seconds, you back it down again. Go back to that walking speed, and then you catch your breath. That will take about two minutes, and then you do it again. Another 30 to 60 second burst at higher speed or incline, then another rest.
To start with, you might only repeat this cycle 2-3 times. Over time, as you become more conditioned, you want to build that up to where you're doing six of these bursts each session. What's great is that you don't need to do this type of exercise every day. The hormone benefits that come from this will last for a good 36 hours after you're done. So, just do this type of exercise every other day!
#2. Diet
Besides the exercise, you want to change what you're doing diet-wise. If we're going to talk about root cause, you can't get away from what I teach my clients all the time, which is that every symptom and every disease can be traced back to the cell level of our body. You see, our cells are our foundation. They're the building blocks. They're the smallest living unit of all of us. This is where all function takes place, and if you're suffering from dysfunction, it is a guarantee that your cells have been impacted negatively. They're damaged and inflamed, which is when you'll start to notice symptoms occurring.
So let's take it down to that cell level. The membrane of each cell is composed of two layers of fat. It's called a bilipid layer. That bilipid layer is where the good stuff gets in and the bad stuff gets out. It allows that cell to stay healthy.
Unfortunately, things like too much sugar, too many bad fats, and too many toxins in our life will damage this membrane. And if this is your brain cells, and your brain cells are inflamed, that is potentially going to cause things like brain fog, anxiety, and depression.
So, if we want to get down to that root cause level, we've got to affect the function of our cells, the health of our cells, and you're going to do that by stopping this consumption of too many bad fats and too much sugar, and we want to try and eliminate toxins as much as we can, too. There are definitely better choices you can make when it comes to your diet and anxiety.
Speaking of diet, you should know that the average American consumes 120 to 150 pounds of sugar per person, per year. Do you know there was a time when it was 5-10 pounds per family per year? You can see just how off the charts that we are, and that doesn't include the artificial sugar! A lot of these artificial sugars are neurotoxins, meaning they damage our brain whenever these brain cells come in contact with these neuro-type of toxins.
So, we want to get rid of the bad fats. We want to get rid of the sugar. The bad fats are going to be corn oil, vegetable oil, canola oil, margarine, and things like trans fats. We need to switch to the good oils. The healthy oils are needed because the cell membrane is made of two layers of fat. Your brain is made of 60% fat. Just from that, you can understand how essential fat is for the function in our body.
We just have to start make a distinction between bad fats and good fats.
Good fats would be extra virgin olive oil, virgin coconut oil, avocados, grass-fed beef, wild-caught fish, free range eggs, right? These are going to be the healthy fats. And grass-fed butter! Don't forget that. Our ancestors ate a lot of butter. This will help to heal that fatty membrane and your brain, which again, is 60% fat.
When it comes to sugar, it's not just about cutting out candy. Think of foods that readily turn to sugar. For those of you that are already inflamed and have symptoms, even some relatively healthy foods like whole grains can be bad. This is because four seconds after they touch your lips, these grains begin breaking down into sugar in your body, and your body is too sensitive to sugar right now because we've over-consumed sugar. We're carb-a-holics in this country, and even in western society in general.
So, we want to cut back on the breads, the biscuits, the bagels, the rice, the pastas, and the cereals. All the things that we have way over-consumed for way too long.
When you do these two things, exercise the way I described, and get rid of the sugar and bad fats, then start working on healing yourself by adding in the good, healthy fats to your diet, you're going to start to see changes, just like my clients do.
For those of you who prefer a more visual learning experience, I have a great YouTube video on this subject that I really encourage you to check out. There are even more on my YouTube channel for you to check out if you would like to learn more. I hope this helps!
