Quick Guide to The Energy Paradox
The Energy Paradox might seem self-explanatory, but learning the details around how to get more energy might mean the difference between existing or living!
If you’ve ever felt tired, wish you had more energy, or wondered why some people can go all day, you will love reading more about the energy paradox. This energy paradox summary review is the first of several to go through all the details about why we find ourselves tired, what we can do about it, and how we can start looking and feeling younger FAST.
This post is all about The Energy Paradox!
A Review of Dr. Steven Gundry’s | The Energy Paradox
The Energy Paradox is the most recent in a long line of books from Dr. Gundry. He is the director of the International Heart and Lung Institute in Palm Springs, California and an expert in the close relationship between our gut health and overall well being. From chronic disease, mental health, and most recently energy levels, Dr. Gundry has a significant body of work on how what we eat relates to our holistic health.
If you’re anything like me and constantly juggling more than a few things on your calendar, finding the time to read an entire book on The Energy Paradox might seem impossible. It might be that the paradox starts with those who lack energy are not even able to find the time or vigor to read a book in its entirety on the one thing that plagues them most! Lack of energy.
So, this blog post is all about The Energy Paradox. I’m breaking it down and creating Kait’s Cupboard Notes, giving you the main take away points without the 277 pages to sift through.
Lack of Energy is Real
Dr. Gundry starts with the basic principle, lack of energy is a real feeling and a real state of being. No, it’s not in your head. Moreover, lack of energy (fatigue) relates directly to your overall health (Gundry, 2021)
Did you know that in one recent survey more than half of adults in the U.S. did not feel well rested during the week?
Gundry, 2021
If you’re feeling fatigued, you’re not alone! Less than half of adults feel well rested on any given day in the week. And, according to Dr. Gundry, even if you’re sleeping well, your body may not be building enough energy to fuel you through your day. Why? Let’s start with what you eat.
After Reading The Energy Paradox Food List, You May Realize Your Food May Not Be Helping
If someone asked what you like to eat, think about what you might say. Some of these things might be real food and some might be food that is masquerading as real. The food you are eating might have a lot of additives and have gone through a significant amount of processing to taste real, when in actuality, it is most definitely not. Think Doritos. Is there anything actually real about the taste of Doritos? No, but they sure do taste good!
What’s missing from Doritos? Vitamins, nutrients, basically things that give you energy (Gundry, 2021).
In fact, according to a US Senate document our foods may be starving us.
The alarming fact is that foods—fruits, vegetables, and grains—now being raised on millions of acres of land that no longer contains enough of certain needed nutrients, are starving us—no matter how much we eat of them
U.S. Senate Document 74-264, 1936, as cited in Gundry, 2021, p. 29
The Energy Paradigm Shift, Energy Is Not Just a State Of Mind, It’s a State of Body
Yep, that’s right, energy is not just a state of mind, it weaves around each coil of DNA in our body. Every minute of every day, our body is building and expending energy. In fact, according to the Energy Paradox, blood markers correlate with our energy levels (Gundry, 2021).
Hippocrates, called it veriditas, loosely translated as the “green life force energy” that drives all living things.
Gundry, 2021, p. 6
For example, inflammation is your body telling you it is in distress. Gundry writes,
While you are sometimes aware of acute inflammation- the swelling of a sprained ankle, for example- much of the inflammation that is most harmful to our health takes place outside of our awareness…The evidence is clear on this: inflammation makes us sick. It also makes us tired.
Gundry, 2021, p. 18
Keeping away inflammation keeps our bodies feeling more healthy, more energetic, and looking more youthful.
The Answer Might Require Reaching Deep
It turns our that the answer to a lack of energy, might be within you the whole time! You know that part of Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy realizes she always had the power to go home. Yep, you have the power inside of you too! Within each of us, there is an amazing ecosystem of microbes, think 100 TRILLION bacteria! These micro superheroes are living around your roots, directly fueling your energy and whole health (Gundry, 2021).
In the Energy Paradox, Dr. Gundry refers to this large and diverse ecosystem within our microbiome as the holobiome. Calling it the “second genome” he suggests it can radically amplify the work of your human genome, that is your DNA (Gundry, 2021).
Dr. Gundry is not the only one buying into the idea that your microbiome can support your holistic health in exciting and real ways. Just take a look at holobiome, founded by Northeastern University. Holobiome believes your gut microbes “may hold the key to overcoming some of modern medicine’s most urgent challenges” (https://holobiome.org/). Scientists there hope to tap this unknown potential to improve public health, worldwide.
Want to Build Up Your Immune System? Focus on Your Gut Health
Your immune system and your gut health have A LOT in common. In fact, your microbiome and gut health have actually helped develop your immune cells (Gundry, 2021).
Even before you are born, your microbiome is beginning to support the development of your immune system. You might wonder how we have a microbiome before we are born? Your microbiome is unique to you and dependent on your DNA and what your mom’s diet! For example, your mother’s breast milk is filled with micro superhero bacteria that has plenty of health benefits for your microbiome (Gundry, 2021).
If you are pregnant or considering becoming pregnant, check out my post on 7 Insane Ways Bifidobacterium bifidum Can Improve Your Health for more information on how this micro superhero can support your health and the health of your newborn infant!
Building a strong and diverse microbiome is so important in your early years or development (Gundry, 2021). According to Dr. Gundry, “the more inputs from nature, the better” (Gundry, 2021, 45). This means, less processed food, more real food and whole ingredients. If you want to know more about how your diet can impact your health, keep reading below and check out my other gut health posts.
The Energy Paradox | How Does It All Work?
The relationship between our holistic health and our gut health is built on a mutual relationship that Dr. Gundry refers to as symbiosis (2021). Think of it as a get and give scenario.
You give your gut something and you get something in return. This can be positive, like, you feed your gut a large Brussel Sprout salad, and you get plenty of long lasting energy, healthy skin, and more in return. Or, it can be negative, like, you treat yourself to a large bowl of ice cream after lunch and find yourself falling asleep in the middle of your afternoon meeting. Ever happen to you? It’s definitely happen to me, ice cream in the afternoon is guaranteed to put me to bed!
Isn’t My Gut Kind of Gross?
If you’ve seen the Magic School Bus you might remember that your gut is the stop along the way before things you eat eventually make their way out. Let’s leave it at that. Does that make your gut gross? Well, not really because of something called your gut wall.
Your gut wall keeps the good in, and the bad out, and balances your gut health in what I like to imagine as a yin yang symbiosis. Similar to the one I wrote about in my post about L. reuteri benefits.
A strong gut wall allows authorized material—food molecules, microbial signals, and water—across its border and into your circulatory system, but keeps out unwanted material that could launch your immune system into attach mode. In other words, it lets in nutrients that your cells will use as fuel (as well as for growing, repairing, and building tissues), while keeping out anything that triggers inflammation and fatigue.
Gundry, 2021, 39
A strong gut wall is really important to maintaining a healthy you. It keeps inflammation at bay and keeps you feeling energetic and like the best version of yourself.
How to Get More Energy
The micro superheroes in your gut produce a metabolite called succinate (Gundry, 2021). Succinate is imperative to producing energy (Gundry, 2021). When your gut is not healthy, succinate can become destructive (Gundry, 2021). How? It is generated in excess and starts telling your body and immune system to create more inflammation (Gundry, 2021). At the same time, it makes your body store more fat (Gundry, 2021). In this, and many other ways, a healthier gut means a healthier, more energetic you!
So, Why is My Gut Health Slipping Into My Immune System DM’s?
Your gut health has a direct line of communication to your immune system. This is because 70 to 80 percent of your immune system is in the tissue around your gut wall. Basic rules of proximity apply, your gut and your immune system talk ALL THE TIME.
Maybe you’ve heard of “leaky gut.” This term is frequently thrown around.
What is leaky gut? A leaky gut is when things within your gut wall seep through your gut wall and irritate all the healthy tissue and environment outside your gut wall.
Gundry, 2021
What is leaky gut? A leaky gut is when things within your gut wall seep through your gut wall and irritate all the healthy tissue and environment outside your gut wall (Gundry, 2021). Dr. Gundry notes that what you might think of as a very small shift in your gut ecosystem could actually throw your entire health out of balance (2021). For example, “[Doctors have found] that changes in the ratio of two prevalent strains of bacteria (firmicutes to bacteriodes) can negatively impact metabolism and lead to symptoms of type 1 and type 2 diabetes, colitis, and obesity.” (Gundry, 2021, 34).
Where there is leaky gut, there is inflammation (Gundry, 2021). And, when you have inflammation, you have less energy. By maintaining a healthy gut with healthy foods, regularly moving your body, and giving yourself a bit of rest you will feel more energetic, stronger, and literally 10 years younger!
Ditch The Energy Paradox.
Create a Healthier You
This is the first in a series of posts covering The Energy Paradox. If eating healthy is feeling overwhelming, we are here to help at Kait’s Cupboard! When you are not sure how to meal plan for the week, just type in a day of the week, and you’ll find a series of meal recipes that are easy, quick, and delicious.
If you are looking for a particular type of food, like um, tacos (who doesn’t love tacos), just search tacos and you’ll find gut healthy options at your fingertips. Again, easy, quick, and totally family friendly.
Better yet, each recipe comes with a list of superhero micro bacteria and plant points embedded within the ingredients, so you can feel good about what you are feeding your gut and your family!
