Hi, I’m Shanti, owner of Happy Belly Health, a functional medicine health coach practice specializing in weight loss and digestion.
This week, Luke’s Local’s featured paleo meal is Smoked Tri Tip with Green Tomato Chutney and sunchokes. The folks at Luke’s Local asked me to share a bit on why I like this particular menu item and how it can benefit you.
The chefs found a delicious and nutritious way to incorporate a very important prebiotic, inulin, that’s often very low, into this yummy paleo meal. Inulin and prebiotics are the very necessary and essential starches that “feed” our microbiome (gut bacteria). Without enough prebiotics, our bacteria won’t colonize, which isn’t good. We need the right amount of stable and strong bacteria in our gut. In fact, 3/4 of our immune system is made from this bacteria!
I love the paleo diet for many reasons. First, it really helps regulate blood sugar, and the “rules” help people gravitate more towards more nutrient dense food choices that aren’t very processed. It’s also a wonderful diet for people who have an auto-immune dysfunction, as it seems to lessen the inflammation that comes when eating dairy, gluten, and cross-reactive grains.
However, over the years, as much as I love this diet, over and over again, I’ve seen real deficiencies (found in comprehensive stool anaylsis) in butyrate, a short chain fatty acid. We need plenty of butyrate to counter inflammation in the gut. People with very low butyrate have a much higher risk for colon cancer and Chron’s disease. Insufficient levels of this bacteria is one reasons why people might become constipated on the paleo diet.
This particular paleo meal solves the problem and is a great example for how to avoid running too low in butyrate when on the paleo diet. Make sure to get plenty of prebiotic starch, like inulin, found in sunchokes (aka jerusalem artichokes).
We need starch. We need carbohydrates. We just don’t need refined kinds. Look to keep a more balanced paleo diet – or any diet for that matter – and include starchy vegetables like sunchokes, plantains (especially green), veggies from the allium family (onions, leeks, etc. – the less cooked, the more prebiotics available), flax and chia seeds, and so much more.
And if you get the rumbling tummy or feel “not so great” when eating any of these prebiotic-rich foods, take it as a sign that you most likely have a bacterial overgrowth in the wrong part of the intestines and set up a time to talk to us or your preferred digestion specialist. The long-term solution isn’t to avoid these foods, but rather to address the issue (or root cause). And as we’ve learned, it doesn’t go away on its own.
