Baby’s Gut Instinct: Why Having A Healthy Gut Is Critical To Infant Health with Dr. Tracy Shafizadeh

Sep 1, 2021

Dr. Tracy Shafizadeh, a nutritional scientist specializing in the infant gut microbiome, discusses the vital link between gut health and infant well-being. She emphasizes the importance of a balanced gut for lifelong immunity and metabolism. Tracy explores how delivery methods and breastfeeding impact gut bacteria like Bifidobacterium infantis, pointing out modern practices that affect gut health. She also addresses concerns over gut deficiencies in newborns and the promising role of probiotics for preventing diseases later in life.

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INSIGHT

Gut Microbiome’s Importance

The gut microbiome plays a crucial role in overall health, impacting everything from digestion to brain chemistry.
A balanced microbiome is essential for well-being, while an imbalance (dysbiosis) can lead to various health issues.

INSIGHT

Factors Affecting Infant Microbiome

Babies are born with a sterile gut, offering a chance to establish a healthy microbiome.
Factors like C-sections, antibiotics, and lack of breastfeeding can disrupt this process.

INSIGHT

Microbiome Genocide

Modern society's practices have led to a "genocide" of the microbiome.
This includes poor diet, environmental toxins, and overuse of medications.

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Baby’s Gut Instinct: Why Having A Healthy Gut Is Critical To Infant Health | This episode is brought to you by BiOptimizers, Primal Kitchen, and Beekeeper’s Naturals

Today we’re talking about one of my favorite topics: poop. And we’re finding out that the most important time to pay attention to our poop and what it can tell us about the microbiome is in the earliest months of life. I recently did a really interesting webinar on this topic. It's such a critical aspect of creating lifelong health that I wanted to share it on the podcast, to make sure anyone who missed it had a chance to listen. With the huge rise in inflammatory diseases from obesity and diabetes to autoimmunity and so many more, it’s imperative we look at the gut to optimize whole body health—this is a fundamental piece of Functional Medicine that I’ve been using with my patients for decades.

To dig into the specifics of how we can start kids off with the best health possible, I sat down with Dr. Tracy Shafizadeh. She is leading the work in understanding the infant microbiome, as a nutritional scientist who helps new and expectant moms learn about creating healthy gut bugs in their babies. Dr. Tracy translates her extensive scientific knowledge of breastmilk and the gut microbiome into practical terms to help parents understand how a balanced gut from infancy leads to a healthy immune system and metabolism for life. Dr. Shafizadeh received her PhD in nutritional biology from the University of California, Davis, and spends her free time "loving the guts" out of her two boys.

This episode is brought to you by BiOptimizers, Primal Kitchen, and Beekeeper’s Naturals.

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Here are more of the details from our interview:

Our epidemic of chronic inflammatory diseases (4:32)

The vital importance of having a balanced microbiome (8:17)

How a baby receives gut microbes from its mother and how this process regularly gets disrupted (11:23)

Why 15% of human breast milk is indigestible by the baby (18:11)

Differences between human breast milk and baby formula (23:50)

What is Newborn Gut Deficiency and does it affect your baby? (30:23)

The long term consequences of having lack of B. infantis and how it can be restored (38:15)

How does Evivo work? (45:40)

Are probiotics good for you? (53:44)

Vaginal seeding and the gut microbiome (1:03:30)

Learn more about Evivo at evivo.com/ and on Facebook @EvivoHealth, on Instagram @evivohealth, and on Twitter @evivohealth.