Fiber and Your Child’s Gut: Immunity, Mental Health, and Allergies

The gut and its connection to the rest of our body is such exciting and life-altering information. As some of you know, I have my coaching certificate in Plant-Based Eating partly because I LOVE to learn about how what we put in our bodies can have radical outcomes. I can seriously geek out on this information! ✨

I am not here to talk to you about plant-based eating...I’ll do that some other time. I am here to talk to you about how the gut and a balance or imbalance affects our kids (and us). It’s really quite amazing.

There are studies showing direct correlations between severe allergies and a dysregulated gut microbiome (seasonal, food allergies, and anaphylaxis included). There are studies showing direct correlations between the gut and mental health, including anxiety and depression. There are soooo many studies connecting gut imbalance with lowered immunity and even autoimmune disorders. (I’ll dig further into these in a future blog.)

It’s honestly mind-blowing but so exciting that these studies and connections are coming to light and are finally hitting the mainstream. I’ve got some GREAT continued reading that I’ll refer to at the end. 🤯

How do we - at home - make a difference in our kids’ microbiome? How do we start to make these changes? It’s such a very complicated question with a fairly simple answer: FIBER. Fiber is the answer - not the supplement of fiber in a pill, tincture, or liquid - but fiber from plants and vegetables. 🥦

Fiber is such an easy addition to your meals. 🍌 Fiber is what the healthy microbes in your gut survive and thrive on. Fiber helps you feel fuller for longer because it slowly passes through your system, feeding and cleaning as it goes. Children aged 4-8 should be getting 25 grams of fiber. Children aged 9-13 born female should be taking in 26 grams of fiber per day, and children born male aged 9-13 should be taking in up to 31 grams of fiber a day. Just for reference, a cup of shredded cheese has 0 grams of fiber, and 1 cup of blueberries has almost 4 grams of fiber. 🫐

You can make the same exact meals you’ve been making but simply add in a few more vegetables. 🙌 When we were making the transition, pasta was our first big change that was so easy and manageable. To my jarred pasta sauce, I added cooked zucchini, mushrooms, diced spinach, and Kalamata olives. (If my kids had been young, I would have popped this into the blender to make a smooth sauce.)

Tacos were another easy change. I just started cooking up cauliflower with the same spices I had been using on the meat. It was almost a seamless switch. (You can even keep the meat if you’d like, but add some diced cauliflower to your pan.) So our tacos had cauliflower (I began adding mushrooms later as well), beans, thinly sliced red cabbage, lettuce, and all the other fixings. Yummy - and everyone liked it.

The crazy thing to me is that your microbiome can change in 7 days! Seven days - one week of adding in more fiber can begin to repair a healthy balance. Have your kids count the number and variety of fruits and vegetables eaten during a week. If you can get up to 20-30, you are doing better than most Americans. 🥕

We can’t discuss the microbiome without addressing the foods that cause major disruptions in the balance of the gut. Most standard Western diet foods can be pointed to, 🍩 but the major culprits are fried foods, sugary snacks and drinks, 🥤 as well as highly processed foods. These are hard to avoid, but it is doable to cut back.

If you are ready to join in and start to repair your family's gut microbiome for their current and future health, take it slow. If you are depleted of some of our amazing microbiota and you throw down a bowl of raw broccoli, you are going to feel some major discomfort. Some ways to ease into a higher fiber diet are to cook the vegetables, cut them into very small pieces, and slowly add in more and more. 🙌

I love this stuff - so you’ll see more of it. ❤️

You got this!!!! 🫶🥑🍌🫐🥦🥕

Need a few EASY recipes to start with ⬇️

I have been adding in some of my family’s go to recipes on my instagram page - this will be an 8 part series.

For further reading check these books out ⬇️

Healthy Kids, Happy Kids: An Integrative Pediatrician's Guide to Whole Child Resilience

By Dr. Elisa Song

Do you want to know the key to raising resilient kids, from the inside out? In this groundbreaking, evidence-based guide to raising healthy kids in our modern world, Dr. Elisa Song bridges the gap between conventional and holistic pediatrics and delivers a clear roadmap to help kids thrive.

The Fiber Fueled Cookbook: Inspiring Plant-Based Recipes to Turbocharge Your Health

by Dr. Will Bulsiewicz

New York Times bestselling author Dr. Will Bulsiewicz offers a groundbreaking cookbook packed with delicious plant-based recipes, as well as a targeted plan for overcoming food sensitivities.

Nourish: The Definitive Plant-Based Nutrition Guide for Families--With Tips & Recipes for Bringing Health, Joy, & Connection to Your Dinner Table

by Reshma Shah MD and Brenda Davis RD

An evidence-based, practical resource that explores the many benefits of a plant-based diet and provides parents with the tools they need to feed their families for health and with joy.