7 Ways to Ruin Your Digestion (And How to Have a Gut That Actually Works)

Aug 15, 2025

Having a healthy gut is one of the best things you can do for your overall health.

Most disease and discomfort has a connection to the digestive system, so if you can protect and support it, you give yourself a serious shot at living longer and feeling better!

The problem?

In modern life, there are countless little gut disruptors we do without even realizing — many of which I used to do every day.

Remember this:

It could be the greatest day in the world, but if your stomach hurts, everything sucks.

So let’s go through the top seven ways we ruin our gut health — and exactly how to turn it around⚡️

1. Skip Breakfast and Go Straight for Stimulants

Most mornings for most people look the same:

Roll out of bed. Grab your phone. Chug coffee on an empty stomach. Dive straight into work.

It’s the perfect recipe for a short-lived high followed by a mid-morning crash.

Here’s why.

First, you’re already waking up slightly dehydrated and mineral-depleted from sleep.

Coffee is a diuretic, which means it pushes water (and minerals) out of your body even faster. By the time you’ve left the house, you’ve already lost electrolytes essential for energy, mood, and focus.

Second, your body naturally spikes cortisol in the morning to help you wake up.

Add coffee immediately on top of that, and you’ve just doubled the cortisol surge — leading to a bigger crash later. That wired-but-tired feeling? This is where it comes from.

Third, coffee on an empty stomach can spike blood sugar, setting you up for all-day sugar cravings.

And unless you’re drinking a high-quality, mold-free roast, you may also be dosing yourself with pesticides, mycotoxins, and other compounds that chip away at gut health over time.

The Fix

Hydrate first: Start with mineral-rich water or warm lemon water to replenish electrolytes. (Bonus hack, add Organic Sea-Moss, Taurine and Magnesium with Kaizen Electrolyes.)
Wait 60–90 minutes before coffee: Give cortisol time to level off.
Upgrade your brew: Choose mold and pesticide-free coffee blended with adaptogens and minerals to balance hormones and avoid the crash. Here’s my favorite.
Time it with breakfast: Eat first, or at least wait 15 minutes between coffee and food to protect digestive enzyme activity. A good digestive enzyme supplement can also help greatly.

Start your day mineralized, hydrated, and hormonally balanced — and you will have amazing gut health.

2. Eat Ultra-Processed “Health” Foods

One of the biggest scams in the wellness world? The “healthy” snack aisle.

Walk into any grocery store, and the protein bar section shouts at you with labels like Keto, Paleo, Blood Sugar Friendly, or High Protein.

Sounds great — until you eat one and feel bloated, sluggish, and somehow hungrier than before.

Flip the wrapper over and you’ll usually find a chemistry set of seed oils, artificial sweeteners, gums, and fillers that wreck your gut lining, promote inflammation, and set you up for cravings.

Microwavable “healthy” meals aren’t much better.

Even if the box says “gluten-free” or “paleo,” the grains are often pesticide-laden, and the meat may come from CAFO operations where animals are grain-fed, stressed, and raised in unsanitary conditions.

Here’s how to avoid the nonsense and heal your tummy.

The Fix — Full Biohacker Mode

1. Start with a “No List”

No seed oils (canola, soybean, sunflower, safflower, grapeseed) — these oxidize easily and inflame the gut lining.
No artificial sweeteners like sucralose or aspartame — they disrupt the microbiome.
No gums and emulsifiers in high amounts (carrageenan, guar gum, xanthan gum) — they can irritate the gut lining.

2. Swap for Gut-Friendly Staples

Protein bars: Go for Lineage Provisions Beef Sticks, or Paleovalley Superfood Bars (clean proteins, superfoods, no junk).
On-the-go snacks: Organic beef jerky from grass-fed cattle, raw macadamia nuts, Brazil nuts, or dehydrated wild blueberries.
Healthy sweets: Organic Dates stuffed with almond butter and cacao nibs, raw honey with tahini, or dark chocolate (85%+ cacao, organic, fair-trade).

3. Build Meals from Real Ingredients

Proteins: Grass-fed beef, pasture-raised chicken, wild-caught salmon, sardines.
Carbs: Organic sweet potatoes, squash, seasonal fruits, quinoa, or millet (soaked/sprouted).
Fats: Avocado, cold-pressed olive oil, coconut butter, ghee from grass-fed cows.
Veggies: Local, organic, pesticide-free where possible; prioritize cruciferous and leafy greens for detox pathways.

4. Upgrade Your Kitchen Arsenal

Blender: Vitamix or Blendtec for superfood smoothies.
Cookware: Non-toxic ceramic or stainless steel (ditch Teflon).
Storage: Glass or stainless steel instead of plastic to avoid microplastics.

5. A Simple Gut-Friendly Smoothie Recipe

1 scoop heavy-metal-tested grass-fed whey (With Collagen & Colostrum)
1 cup organic wild blueberries (pesticide-free)
1 tbsp organic almond butter
1 tsp Ceylon cinnamon
5-10 grams creatine monohydrate (for mitochondrial support)
1 cup unsweetened almond milk or bone broth as a base
Blend with ice and enjoy

When you shop and eat like this, you’re not just avoiding what hurts your gut — you’re actively feeding the microbiome with nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory fuel.

3. Eat in 3 Minutes Flat

One of my biggest pet peeves?

Eating with someone who’s completely disconnected from their food — shoveling it down in three bites, barely chewing, jaw moving like it’s never had a workout, and all while their mind is somewhere else.

That’s the fastest way to ruin digestion and build the perfect storm for gut dysbiosis.

Here’s why

When you’re in a stressed, sympathetic state, your body thinks it’s in danger. It diverts resources away from digestion toward your muscles, brain, and heart so you can “escape.”

The last thing it’s prioritizing? Breaking down your food.

When you barely chew, you skip activating salivary enzymes like amylase and lipase — the chemical signals that tell your stomach, “Hey, we’ve got food incoming. Turn on the acid.”

Someone once told me to chew 20–40 times per bite. I thought they were insane — until I tried it.

Now? I can’t go back. My energy stays up, I eat less without feeling deprived, and my digestion is infinitely smoother.

The Fix — The Biohacker’s Slow-Eating Protocol

1. Get into “Rest & Digest” Mode Before the First Bite

Box breathing: 4 seconds in, 4 seconds hold, 4 seconds out, 4 seconds hold — 5–10 rounds.
Extended exhale breathing: Inhale for 4, exhale for 8 — instantly signals safety to your nervous system.
If possible, step away from work, put your phone down, and turn off anything stressful.

2. Activate Your Digestion Before You Eat

Take digestive enzymes + magnesium 10–15 minutes before meals.
Bitter tonics or herbal digestifs (dandelion root, gentian, Swedish bitters) to stimulate bile and enzyme flow.

3. Chew Like a Pro

Aim for 20–40 chews per bite — enough to turn solid food into a paste before swallowing.
This gives enzymes in saliva time to start breaking down carbs and fats, and it reduces the workload for your stomach and small intestine.

4. Practice “Gratitude-Enhanced Eating”

Look at your plate and thank the food before eating — sounds silly, but gratitude shifts your body into a relaxed, receptive state.
Eat without rushing. Put your fork down between bites.

5. Post-Meal Movement Flow (10–15 minutes)

2–3 minutes light walking or pacing — gravity helps food move down.
2–3 minutes of gentle spinal twists — aids peristalsis and keeps you from feeling heavy.
3–5 deep squats or sitting in a deep squat position to help food move along the digestive tract.

6. Bonus Biohacks

For big meals: take a 10-minute walk after eating — shown to reduce blood sugar spikes by up to 30%.
Avoid lying down for at least an hour after eating to prevent reflux and sluggish digestion.
If you’re eating late, consider a short cold shower or nasal breathing walk afterward to keep your circadian rhythm from tanking.

Eating slowly isn’t just “mindful eating” fluff — it’s a physiological hack that makes every other gut health habit work better.

4. Scrolling or Working While Eating

I mentioned it in the one before and I will gladly do it again :)

If your mealtime looks like a mash-up of Slack pings, doomscrolling, and half-arguing with your partner, congratulations — you’re not digesting your food.

Eating under stress keeps you in sympathetic mode (“fight or flight”), which slows stomach acid production, weakens enzyme release, and reduces blood flow to the digestive tract.

Translation: the food you just ate is going to sit like a brick, ferment, and potentially trigger bloating, gas, or reflux.

It’s not just what you eat — it’s how you eat that decides how much nutrition you actually absorb.

The Fix — The Biohacker’s Mealtime Reset

1. Change Your Environment Before You Change Your Food

Sit somewhere away from your workspace — even if it’s just a different chair or outside on a balcony.
Dim harsh lighting and reduce noise. If you’re eating at your desk, at least close work tabs and put your phone on airplane mode.

2. Nervous System Prep (60–90 Seconds)

Try physiological sigh breathing: two quick inhales through the nose + one slow exhale through the mouth — repeat 3–5 times to drop stress instantly.
Roll your shoulders, unclench your jaw, and take three slow breaths before the first bite.

3. Eliminate “Digestive Distractors”

No news headlines, no email replies, no conference calls — your brain can’t fully relax into digestion while processing work stress.
If you’re eating with someone, keep conversation light and positive; intense topics can trigger micro-stress responses.

4. Engage Your Senses

Look at your plate and notice colors, textures, and smells. This primes the cephalic phase of digestion — your brain tells your gut, “Food is coming, get ready.”
Take the first bite without speaking or multitasking.

5. Post-Meal Micro-Break

After eating, give yourself 5 minutes of stillness or a light stroll before diving back into tasks. This allows the parasympathetic system to stay dominant for digestion.

6. Bonus Biohacks

If stress is unavoidable (work lunch, busy family table), try L-theanine (200–400mg) with GABA or a calming herbal tea (lemon balm, chamomile) beforehand.

When you stop making meals a battlefield, your gut gets to do its job. And when your gut does its job, everything — energy, mood, focus — gets better.

5. Graze All Day (or Never Eat Until Starving)

Grazing every 30 minutes shuts down the Migrating Motor Complex — the gut’s “cleaning wave” between meals. Going too long without food spikes cortisol and leads to overeating.

The Fix — Meal Timing Blueprint

Set anchors: 2–4 set mealtimes; 3–4 hours between meals for MMC function.
Hydrate first: Mineral water before snacks to rule out thirst.
Balanced plates: 25–40g protein, fiber-rich veggies, healthy fats each meal.
Smart snacks: Boiled eggs, grass-fed jerky, raw nuts, coconut yogurt with berries.
80% rule: Stop before you’re stuffed — satiety lags behind fullness.
Between meals: Light walking, peppermint or ginger tea to support gut motility.

6. Overdo Charcuterie Boards, Alcohol and Sugar

One of my favorite scenes in life: sitting at an Italian restaurant with my girlfriend, sipping a polyphenol-rich glass of regenerative-farm wine while the sun sets, sharing a spoon of something decadent.

The problem? Most wine isn’t that romantic.

It’s industrially produced, laced with pesticides, nitrates, and histamines that irritate the gut lining, trigger inflammation, and leave you foggy the next day.

Charcuterie boards — the “healthy” social snack — are often just as sneaky.

Salami, roasted nuts, aged cheeses… these can harbor mold toxins, oxidized fats, and preservatives that chip away at your gut barrier.

Add sugar-heavy desserts or cocktails on top, and you’ve got a trifecta of microbiome stressors.

The Fix — The Gut-Protective Indulgence Plan

1. Choose Cleaner Alcohol

Go for organic, biodynamic, or regenerative wines (look for labels from Dry Farm Wines, or local organic vineyards). These are lower in pesticides, sulfites, and often have fewer histamine triggers.
If you drink spirits, choose clear liquors like tequila, mezcal, or vodka — and skip sugary mixers.
Hydrate between drinks with mineral water to prevent dehydration and keep bile moving.

2. Charcuterie Board Upgrades

Swap standard salami for pasture-raised, nitrate-free meats. (Aka the ones made in Italy)
Choose raw, unpasteurized cheeses from grass-fed animals — easier on digestion than mass-produced dairy.
Use activated or sprouted nuts (soaked to reduce anti-nutrients) instead of roasted, salted, oxidized varieties.
Add gut-friendly extras: olives, fermented pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi.

3. Dessert That Doesn’t Destroy You

Choose fruit-based desserts (baked apples with cinnamon, grilled peaches with raw honey).
Swap refined sugar for raw honey, maple syrup, or coconut sugar in homemade treats.
If you indulge in ice cream, pick grass-fed, organic brands with short ingredient lists (or make your own with coconut milk).

4. Support Your Gut Before and After

Take quercetin (500–1000mg) to stabilize mast cells and reduce histamine reaction.
Try LVLUP Hista Resist or similar blends for gut barrier protection.
For alcohol: DHM (dihydromyricetin) to help break down acetaldehyde, plus a liver support blend (Milk thistle, TUDCA, NAC) before bed.
Eat a small protein + healthy fat snack before drinking to reduce blood sugar swings.

5. Post-Indulgence Reset

The next day: hydrate, take electrolytes, eat light, and include probiotic foods to rebalance the microbiome.
Avoid stacking more gut stressors (skip processed snacks and extra coffee).

You can still enjoy the romance of wine and cheese — just choose sources that love your gut back, and stack the right habits around them so indulgence doesn’t turn into inflammation.

7. Ignore Gut Repair After Damage

I’ve been on Accutane. I’ve taken steroids. I’ve done antibiotics more than once.

My gut has taken hits — and I know I’m not alone.

Here’s the thing: antibiotics, birth control, Accutane, NSAIDs, steroids — they all have their place in medicine. They’ve saved lives (including mine). But their side effects are no joke.

The word “antibiotic” literally means anti-life.

These drugs wipe out harmful bacteria… but they also nuke the good guys in your gut microbiome.

And when those beneficial bacteria vanish without being replaced, you leave the door wide open for opportunistic pathogens to move in, multiply, and start breaking down the gut barrier.

Most people never rebuild. They just keep eating, drinking, and stressing the same way they always have — and wonder why they feel inflamed, bloated, fatigued, or suddenly sensitive to foods they used to tolerate.

The Fix — The Biohacker’s Gut Repair Blueprint

1. Rebuild the Microbiome (First 30–90 Days)

Probiotics: Rotate high-quality blends like Seed, Just Thrive, or spore-based probiotics to reseed the gut.
Prebiotics: Feed good bacteria with organic psyllium husk, green banana flour (resistant starch), cooked + cooled potatoes or rice.
Fermented foods: Sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, beet kvass, coconut yogurt — start small and build up tolerance.

2. Seal the Gut Lining

L-glutamine (5–10g daily) to fuel enterocytes (gut lining cells).
Zinc carnosine to promote mucosal repair.
Collagen peptides or bone broth daily for amino acids that rebuild connective tissue.
BPC-157 or KPV peptides (if working with a knowledgeable practitioner) for advanced gut healing.
(Here’s My favorite product which combines all of these gut healing compounds)

3. Reduce Inflammation & Kill Off Overgrowth

Short-term elimination of trigger foods (gluten, dairy, seed oils, alcohol, excess sugar).
Herbal antimicrobials (oregano oil, berberine, garlic extract) if bacterial or yeast overgrowth is confirmed — work with a practitioner here.
Anti-inflammatory herbs like turmeric, ginger, and quercetin to calm the gut environment.

4. Support Digestion During Healing

Digestive enzymes (BiOptimizers MassZymes) with meals.
Betaine HCl for low stomach acid (only if tested/indicated).
Bitter tonics before meals to stimulate bile and enzymes.

5. Lifestyle Reinforcements

Prioritize sleep — gut lining regenerates fastest at night. (Check out all my sleep resources here)
Reduce chronic stress — vagus nerve activation (breathwork, meditation, cold exposure) improves gut motility and immune function.
Gentle movement daily to keep digestion moving.

6. Long-Term Maintenance

Keep probiotic foods in rotation.
Continue avoiding chronic exposure to gut-disrupting toxins (excess alcohol, NSAIDs, processed foods).
Retest gut health (stool test or GI map) every 6–12 months if you’ve had major issues in the past.

When you treat gut repair as a process — not just “popping a probiotic” — you give your body the tools to recover fully and come back stronger.

Conclusion — Your Gut, Your Life

Your gut isn’t just where food goes — it’s where energy, mood, immunity, and long-term health are built (or broken).

Wreck it, and you’ll feel it everywhere. Protect it, and you open the door to a sharper brain, stronger body, and better life.

The seven gut disruptors we covered aren’t rare — they’re baked into modern living.

But that’s exactly why fixing them works so fast. You don’t need a perfect diet, a suitcase of supplements, or a monk’s lifestyle. You just need awareness and a willingness to swap the habits that drain you for ones that actually fuel you.

So take one or two fixes from this list and make them your new normal. Hydrate before coffee. Chew your food. Space your meals. Upgrade your snacks. Do the small things consistently and your gut will thank you with more energy, less bloat, and a body that feels like it’s working with you, not against you.

Because when your gut works, everything works.

Love you guys,

Jack

I’m grateful to my partners who make the biohacks I actually use daily—here’s what I love most:

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?