What is Leaky Gut and Why does it Matter so Much?

Have you ever heard the term leaky gut and wondered what it actually means—or if it has anything to do with being gluten-free or having celiac disease?

In today’s episode, we’re diving into the science behind leaky gut, why it's such a hot topic in the gluten-free world, and how it could be impacting your health more than you realize. Whether you’re newly diagnosed with celiac, suspect a gluten sensitivity, or you’ve been gluten-free for a while but still don’t feel 100%, this episode is for you.

We’ll talk about what a leaky gut really is, what causes it, how gluten plays a major role in damaging the gut lining, and—most importantly—what you can do to support your gut healing journey.


Mentioned Resources

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Leaky Gut
• 2:54 What is Leaky Gut?
• 3:56 Leaky Gut and Gluten Connection
• 5:36 Signs of Leaky Gut
• 6:46 Healing Strategies
• 9:34 Personal Reflections and Advice
• 13:09 Episode Closing

Transcript

Carrie Saunders: 0:41

Quick reminder before we get started on this episode. This podcast is based on my personal experiences and isn't medical advice. Have you ever heard the term leaky gut and wondered what it actually means or if it has anything to do with being gluten-free or having celiac disease? In today's episode, we're diving into the science behind leaky gut, why it's such a hot topic in the gluten-free world and how it could be impacting your health more than you realize. Whether you're newly diagnosed with celiac, suspect of gluten sensitivity, or you've been gluten-free for a while but still don't feel 100%, then this episode is for you. So let's get started. Welcome to the Gluten-Free Engineer Podcast. I'm your host, Carrie Saunders. In 2011, I was diagnosed with celiac disease, a moment that changed everything, but I was determined not to let it hold me back. With my two engineering degrees, I set out to reverse engineer the gluten-free lifestyle, breaking down recipes, safety tips, travel hacks and everything in between to rebuild a life I love. Whether you have celiac disease, gluten intolerance or simply choose to live gluten-free, this podcast is for you. Join me each week as we simplify the gluten-free lifestyle, make it fun and prove that you don't have to miss out on anything. Welcome back to the show Today.

Carrie Saunders: 1:58

We're talking about what a leaky gut is, why it matters and what can we actually do about it. So first let's talk about what is a leaky gut really. The gut lining is like a protective mesh or coffee filter. It keeps the good stuff in and the bad stuff out, and when we damage the lining, this has a lot harder job of doing it. It becomes more porous and that's what people refer to as leaky gut. It lets more things through, so it ends up letting some of the bad things through. It can let undigested food particles through, toxins, bacteria. It can make you process medicines differently, it can trigger inflammation or immune responses to things you're not actually allergic to, and it can really affect your health and make you feel really badly. This is one of the reasons that some people have basically a gluten version of arthritis. Whenever they eat gluten and are gluten intolerant or celiac, these irritants and these inflammation items make it through their gut into their system and their body kind of freaks out. So healing a leaky gut is a really important step when you're going gluten free.

Carrie Saunders: 3:15

So but let's talk about the link between leaky gut and gluten first. So how can gluten damage the gut lining? So in people with celiac disease, this is a little bit more straightforward and a little bit more obvious. Gluten triggers an autoimmune response that specifically damages the intestinal lining. You're basically damaging yourself when you have celiac disease. There's a meme out there that I think is completely funny and it's these little ninja dudes and it's like nobody know, nobody can destroy me but myself, you know, because our immune system is basically attacking ourselves. So in celiac disease, our immune system is literally attacking our intestinal lining. But now, with people with gluten intolerance, gluten may still trigger inflammation. That contributes to leaky gut symptoms. And in our modern day food if you've ever read any of the famous books like Wheat Belly, it talks a lot about how there's so much more gluten in our wheat, barley and rye especially wheat in modern wheat than there used to be. So our bodies aren't quite able to process that much gluten and then over time it starts damaging it.

Carrie Saunders: 4:27

So there are some symptoms and signs that you might have a leaky gut, even if you're gluten free. You might need to do some extra healing to get that fixed. Many times that includes digestive issues like bloating, gas, constipation or diarrhea, brain fog, fatigue, skin issues like eczema, acne, joint pains or headaches, nutrient deficiencies, because your body isn't absorbing the nutrients properly. Many times this comes out in a vitamin D deficiency or one of the B. Vitamin deficiencies is one of the things that commonly comes out and when I've been doing my research, even in my own body I've had that as well. And many times these symptoms overlap with gluten sensitivity or celiac disease and may even persist after going gluten-free. If you haven't healed yet, I know whenever I went gluten-free, when I realized I had to be, I could tell about month after month after month I felt better and then I also realized that the tiniest bits of gluten, even more tiny each time, was, like you know, setting off my immune system and making me feel bad. So that's part of the healing process. So if you have celiac disease and feel like, oh, gluten is worse now for me, now that I've been off of gluten for, let's say, three, six, nine months or more, and it affects me more now than it did before, well, that's because your body has healed and you're more sensitive to it. You notice it more because you're not continually feeding yourself that gluten. So it's getting more obvious now that your gut and body has been healing.

Carrie Saunders: 6:05

Now there are some ways to start healing a leaky gut. Obviously, I'm going to give you some common suggestions, but you should check with your doctor to make sure what is correct for you. Number one, obviously, is if you are celiac, you must 100% remove gluten, including any cross-contamination. You have to be really, really strict about this. Just like somebody with a food allergy wouldn't have a little bite or a few crumbs, you know you with celiac. You need to be very diligent as well, even though it's a different response in our body.

Carrie Saunders: 6:36

We also want to focus on nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory foods. Bone broth is a really good one for healing, especially if you can make your own bone broth. This is actually pretty easy to do and I'll put a link. I'll put a recipe and a link in the show notes for our bone broth. For the bone broth we use, um our recipe. It's really easy to do. It is super um, great and tasty for you and you know what's in it if you don't get it out of a box. Now there are some really good, reputable bone broth brands too, so do some digging, see what's current and great, but this is a great way to heal your gut. This is in one of the books that I absolutely love, called the Holistic RX. That has helped me heal my actually arthritis and go into remission.

Carrie Saunders: 7:21

And any time I start feeling off, I go on that protocol of that diet. It's a temporary thing and then I start feeling better. As long as I stick to, like you know, not trying to over do some of the treats I eat, I stay pretty good. Also, we want to have some leafy greens. Those are great for our bacteria in our gut. Cooked vegetables are also great. Berries and wild caught fish are also really great. Those are anti-inflammatory foods and good on our gut. And then, if you tolerate it, you can include some gut healing foods, something like fermented foods, like sauerkraut, kombucha, yogurt, if you tolerate that. I know I don't tolerate dairy yogurt, but I do tolerate soy or soy milk, coconut milk, yogurt, definitely not soy milk. I can't take soy collagen. That's something that I will regularly take. I love the Primal Kitchen brand for that Super clean from what I've um read on it and I it feels really good on my gut. It doesn't bother me at all.

Carrie Saunders: 8:23

And then we're going to want to avoid gut irritants. Now this is what I was talking about when I might fall off the wagon. Excess sugar. I mean, I love sugar, I love treats, I love baking, I love making all the things, so sometimes I'll go a little overboard on the excess sugar. Um, we need to also avoid too much alcohol and sades like Advil. We need to also avoid highly processed foods. All of those contribute to irritating our gut and potentially making the leaky gut even worse. And then you might want to talk to your doctor about supplements that you might want to add, like in some probiotics, digestive enzymes, zinc, l-glutamine. Talk to your doctor and see what makes sense for you.

Carrie Saunders: 9:08

Also, sleep and stress matter. They both affect the gut lining repair. We want to make sure that we are getting the sleep that we need, and most people need seven or eight hours of sleep. I know a few people who actually feel just fine on six, but you know your body. So make sure you're getting the sleep you need and the quality of sleep you need. So you might need to cut out some screen time about an hour or two before bed to help your brain actually really settle down so you can actually sleep correctly.

Carrie Saunders: 9:35

So I have found that sometimes, you know, in my journey of being celiac and gluten free, or at least knowing I've been celiac for 12 years now. This is a process, you know. You need to listen to your body. There are other foods for me that cause me gut problems, like, for example, I cannot have tomatoes. Those absolutely destroy my body. I also cannot have soy, as I mentioned already previously on this podcast a few times. Both of those give me major digestive issues. So I'm trying to work on listening to my body even more, and there's a few other smaller triggers for me that I'm finding lately. Most of it's in the nightshade family. So listen to your body. There's potentially some other foods that you're not tolerant to that may be continually to contribute to that leaky gut problem.

Carrie Saunders: 10:27

So work with a nutritionist if you need to. You know. Do some of your own research. Talk to your doctor and think about what you might need to be removing too. My doctor actually recommended the FODMAP diet for me. It did so much wonders for me because it helped me figure out some of the other foods I don't tolerate, like, I don't tolerate legumes very well, I don't tolerate too much raw apples very much. So, you know, work with your doctor.

Carrie Saunders: 10:57

There are some great food elimination diets out there that can help you figure out if there's something else you're missing and they're temporary. They're food elimination diets out there that can help you figure out. If there's something else you're missing and they're temporary, they're food elimination diet. You add back in, slowly, foods that you have removed to see which ones are triggering you. So I encourage you to you know, think about your gut. It is like your second brain. There's so much research now that says your gut is your second brain, one of the reasons why we get brain fog and migraines and things like that from not eating properly.

Carrie Saunders: 11:26

So listen to your body, listen to how you feel. If you still don't feel great and you're celiac and you're off gluten, if you're gluten intolerant and you're off gluten and you don't feel well, still talk to your doctor about it. Maybe one of these food elimination diets can help you figure out what is triggering you as well as the gluten, because sometimes it's a multitude of things, especially if we really damaged our gut, like I have. You know, not knowing. I had celiac disease for over 30 years. You know my gut's pretty darn damaged. I can see it in my kids because we caught them so much earlier. They can tolerate all kinds of foods that I can't and I attribute a lot of it to not, you know, not treating my celiac disease, because I had no clue I had it. So listen to yourself, listen to your body, work with your doctors and your doctor type of people you know nutritionists and dieticians and see what you can do to help you feel better, because you deserve to feel great even when you're gluten-free.

Carrie Saunders: 12:28

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Gluten-Free Engineer. If you found value in this story, please share it with someone who might need encouragement on their own gluten-free journey. For more tips, recipes, resources and even links to my YouTube channel, head on over to theglutenfreeengineercom. It's your one-stop hub to make gluten-free living simple, fun and full of flavor. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss out on an episode and we will see you next week. The Gluten-Free Engineer podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. I share my personal experiences and stories about living with celiac disease and navigating a gluten-free lifestyle. This podcast does not provide medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional for medical questions, concerns or advice specific to your health.