The sluggish bile connection to slow metabolism

Bile acts like Pac-Man in the liver and intestines where it gobbles up fats, heavy metals, pesticides, unwanted bacteria, and numerous other chemicals that can cause problems in the digestive tract.

Bile is a digestive fluid created by your liver and stored in your gallbladder. Bile is important in digestion and absorption of fat in the small intestine.

If your body has sludgy bile your mood will suffer. You can even become constipated and anxious!

Bitter foods, like my current obsession, radicchio; help you digest your food. This is important because if you don't digest well you don't benefit from the good real food you just ate.

BITTER stimulates your liver to produce BILE.

Bile helps your body break down the healthy fats you eat so you can readily absorb them as well as your fat soluble vitamins.

I love to pair bitter foods with meals that I know have a fair amount of fat, like my chicken salad that has quite a bit of mayo AND some additional olive oil.

Bile secreted by your liver also enables this vital detox organ to excrete toxins in the bile. this takes a load off your gallbladder and helps prevent the build up of gallstones.

Most of my clients are women with slowed down systems. Slower metabolism includes impaired and sluggish digestion and detox pathways. The longer the body has had this slow metabolism and low energy the longer it's been accumulating toxicity too.

Since higher (healthier) fat diets are still trendy ( a pendulum swing from the low-fat BS we were lied to about for decades) this can backfire in many people (women especially) and slow them down if they don't support their fat digestion.

This is one simple hack that could help some people out though it may not be robust enough if fat consumption is too high in the diet. If fat consumption has been increase and one still feels slow/sluggish in their energy, digestion and bowels) it's time to reassess and tweak.  Women with slow metabolisms will want to cut the fat back and increase veggie consumption instead. 

One of the reasons people get moody or anxious is because their liver gets congested with all kinds of toxins, that's where #foodasmedicine comes in. You can literally improve your mood with food! 

There are many bitter foods we can incorporate daily to help our body make healthy bile. I tend to work with what is in season and intuitively feels good to me. 

Radicchio is one such bitter food. Radicchio helps stimulate the production and excretion of bile which helps maintain a healthy liver. This makes it an excellent food to be included in your diet for regular liver cleansing for an overall good health.

Radicchio helps encourage digestion and colon cleansing because of the high fiber content and various anti-microbial properties. It can also be used to ward off intestinal worms and parasites.

It's a very dense and hearty vegetable,  so it keeps well in the fridge for as long as 2-3 weeks. 

Check out some of the ways I've incorporated radicchio into meals in the photos below. 

From a Facebook post I shared about the above pic: " It’s just way too much fun to play with your food. 

Today my body told me I wanted runny egg yolks and these gorgeous shiitake mushrooms sautéed with a little bit of the wilted leftover radicchio. Not pictured is that I topped it with grated Spanish black radish (another bile boosting food). 

The beauty of this combination is that it’s magically supplying me with quite a nutrition profile (where do I even begin LOL). 

One is getting those fat soluble vitamins AND actually “vitamin D” is really so much more than a vitamin - how did the shiitake mushrooms get vitamin D? From the sun." 

Keeping it simple, keeping it real with this summer meal. I made a sort of 'slaw' with chopped radicchio, shredded radishes and fermented carrot ginger ‘kraut’ to go alongside my grass-fed beef hot dogs. Pairing a sweeter veggie with a bitter veggie is a good combo to offset the bitter. Most modern day palates have to be trained to appreciate the 'bitter' flavors. 



More radicchio-less-ness for you with this one... 

I just filled some radicchio 'cups' with leftover warmed up Jambalaya. Easy peasy and so creative right? I have made respect for folks who can tolerate bitter veggies straight up. This concept may not be for everyone. Find ways to enjoy this potent bitter veggie that you actually enjoy and get used to bitter flavors. One day, you may find you LOVE that bitter flavor and that your body actually craves it. 

Since I am all about FLOW, bitter foods are so key to helping with good bile flow. This in turn impacts numerous functions. 

Bile is important in a number of critical roles, including:

• Aid in fat digestion and absorption (and some digestion of proteins and starches)
• Emulsify fats (the detergent-like reaction done by bile salts)
• Assist in absorption of fat-soluble substances, such as vitamins A, D, E, and K
• Helps regulate your intestinal microflora
• Encourages fecal matter movement through your digestive tract
• It serves as a route of excretion of bilirubin
• Help your liver rid your body of waste products
• Aid in destroying unwanted organisms that invade the body through the digestive system

If your body isn’t making enough bile, numerous uncomfortable symptoms can occur (all are common in my client population with slow metabolisms), such as: 

• Fatigue
• Mood swings
• Constipation
• Acid reflux
• Acne
• Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)
• Gall bladder disease (stones and inflammation)
• Migraines
• Vitamin deficiencies 
• Jaundice
• Poor gut microflora
• Impaired liver function
• High cholesterol
• Greasy, foul smelling, and light colored stools

The good news is, once you are aware of the sluggish bile connection to slow metabolism, you can turn things around for your health. Start by including bitter foods in small amounts at every meal. In just a matter of weeks you could start to feel a noticeable difference in energy, focus and even a reduction in constipation.