Gut Health Shopping Can be Fun
Shopping for gut-healthy foods is often a tedious, sometimes exhilarating task—one that many people do regularly. Do you find grocery shopping overwhelming? Exhausting? Do you often, occasionally—or always forget something? Are you strategic or do you wander the aisles, searching for inspiration?
And, truth be known, do you buy treats that your taste buds love, but your stomach probably rejects?
In this blog, I provide tools for you to succeed in improving your gut health and overall wellbeing:
- Shopping lists for Blood Type – O, A, B & AB
- Gut Healthy Shopping lists for Diverticulitis Diet (digital download) designed for those with inflammatory gut: IBS, colitis, UC, Crohn’s’
- List of gut healthy foods purveyors, organic online food
Gut Healthy Shopping for Your Blood Type
For the last 25 years, I have utilized the blood type diet with phenomenal success in my clinical practice. If you do not know your blood type, you can test through the Elden Card Home test, available on Amazon. Choosing foods in this way can reduce and eliminate annoying and painful gut issues, such as:
- Chronic Inflammation
- Bloating
- Constipation
- IBS
- Fatigue
- Brainfog
- Weight gain
- Acid Reflux
- Stomach Pain
- Belly Fat
In my experience, clients who follow the blood type diet have resolved long-term, serious gut and health conditions. I challenge you to eat for your blood type for 14 days. Then, reach out and let me know what happens. You may be surprised at how much better you feel.
Remember to always take Enzyme Energy after your protein meals. This not only alleviates bloat, but protects your body from bugs, bacteria and parasites. No sushi without a digestive enzyme!
Vegetarian Processed Foods is Not Gut Healthy Shopping
To vegans and vegetarians — and all conscious shoppers – beware of the endless array of new processed foods. You will see endless arrays of protein bars, chips, yogurts and snacks. Notice on every one of these shopping lists there are NO vegan processed foods. When it comes to the rows of tofu hot dogs, tempeh pizzas and bean snack cheeses—keep moving!
Vegans are now a target that billion-dollar food companies seek to cash in on. Brands that were founded by families, launched in their kitchen, have been bought by conglomerates who do not have your health as their priority.
Awareness of Food Sources
Annie’s is now owned by General Mills for 820 million dollars.
Bolthouse Farms was bought by Campbell’s Soup for 1.55 billion dollars.
Earthbound Farms is now owned by WhiteWave Foods for 600 million dollars.
Udi’s and Glutton were bought by Pinnacle Foods for 975 million.
Justin’s Nut Butter was bought by Hormel.
Kashi Plant Based Food is now owned by Kellogg’s.
Naked Juice is now owned by Pepsico.
Santa Cruz Organics is now owned by J.M. Smucker
ZICO Coconut Water is now owned by Coca-Cola
I was quite surprised to learn that some of my favorite organic food companies are not longer what they used to be. Because of this be sure read labels–or just buy label-free whole, fresh foods as much as possible. Choose brands you trust. For bone broth, I buy Zoup or Butcher’s Broth. For Aloe Vera juice, I buy Lakewood, Lilly of the Desert or George’s.
Looking into Consuming More Protein as Part of Gut Healthy Shopping
On my weekend live calls on YouTube and TikTok, two of the most common questions are, “How do I boost protein? What protein powder is safe to consume?”
All protein powders are not created equal. I created All Day Energy and Protein Power for myself and my family—and am so excited to offer them to all of you. In the development stage, these were my main objectives:
Sugar, gluten, and dairy-free
No soy or whey
Great Taste
No Lumps
How I Brought Protein to My Family and Client Family
I must have taste-tested a thousand versions before landing on the two winning versions. These are gluten, sugar and diary free, and sweetened with erythritol-free monk fruit. ALL DAY ENERGY stirred (lump-free) into cold water tastes like melted vanilla ice cream. PROTEIN POWER has 26 grams of protein in one serving, and all the vitamins and minerals one needs daily.
As I was creating these products, I was concerned about heavy metals and mold in the ingredients. Those two toxins are unfortunately common in protein powders. Therefore, I initiated third-party testing to insure quality. To me, this costly endeavor is a no-brainer. I cannot imagine serving you a protein drink that I would not give to my own children. So many of my clients register high levels of heavy metals or mold on their blood tests and in stool samples.
Intentional Gut Healthy Shopping Lists for Blood Types & Diverticulitis Diet
Blood type O keys:
Gluten free
Sugar free
Dairy free
Focus on consuming 120-150 grams
of protein daily
Blood Type A keys are:
Gluten free
Avoid processed vegan foods & focus on clean, organic animal proteins; fish, chicken, turkey. If your are a cheese lover, choose goat cheese.
Lowest stomach acid of blood types, Type A requires digestive enzymes to digest protein & is susceptible to bugs, bacteria & parasites.
Blood Type A & AB keys:
No chicken; as chicken is inflammatory for A & AB blood types.
Choose turkey, fish, lamb and wild meats.
You can also consume potatoes with negative consequences. In fact, Type A & AB is the only blood type that does well on potatoes.
The Diverticulitis Diet:
This anti-inflammatory diet goes beyond FODMAP. The FODMAP diet is commonly
prescribed after a visit to the hospital for a flare. Yet, responses from my social media post entitled, “Confused About What to Eat With Diverticulitis?” indicate most of you received no diet info.
Gut Healthy Shopping for Loggins’ Diverticulitis Diet
I have received many letters of gratitude for my Diverticulitis Diet. This anti-inflammatory diet goes beyond FODMAP. The FODMAP diet is commonly prescribed after a visit to the hospital for a flare. However, the responses I received from my recent social media post entitled, Confused About What to Eat With Diverticulitis? indicate that most people were sent home without receiving any diet information.
How to Find the Best Food Online
Many people live in “food deserts.” That is an area where it is difficult to find fresh, organic food, sustainable ranched meat and wild caught fish. This can make it seem impossible to achieve gut health shopping. To that end, I have prepared a list of trustworthy online food purveyors. Even if you live in a town where it’s simple to find fresh food, sometimes it is faster to shop online:
northstarbison.com: Sustainable ranched bison; I buy the organ meat blends. They are so delicious, and bison is leaner, sweeter and has more protein than beef! Also, it is easier to digest.
fodyfoods.com: This company makes gut-friendly condiments without onion or garlic. If you have IBS or any inflammatory gut condition, check out their bottled sauces!
bubblegoods.com: Bubblegoods describes themselves as “Like Etsy for Healthy Foods.” They carry products from a variety of small companies that you might not find anywhere else.
thrive.com: Thrive is one of the largest online groceries. They give discounts for quantity orders.
costco.com: Costco is a national grocery chain that offers low-cost organic fresh and non-perishable food. Will ship.
alaskasalmoncompany.com: Will send you sustainably caught fresh-frozen fish; so delicious.
thetinyfishco.com: This little company will send you sustainable caught tinned fish—check out their recipes on Instagram and TikTok @thetinyfishco
wildplanetfoods.com: All types of sustainably caught tinned fish
aldi.us: Aldi is a large grocery store that ships healthy, clean, organic food
LocalHarvest.org: Community Supported Agriculture; your community likely has community supported agriculture programs that will deliver Seasonal, organic produce to you weekly. Find your neighborhood on this site!
RootsFarmfresh.com: Sends you farm fresh produce!
If you have any wonderful sources for online foods, please share!
In the video above, you will discover some delicious, gut-healthy solutions for coffee creamers and sugar alternatives. My absolute favorite monk fruit is PURISURE, and you can find it on Amazon. It has no erythritol and tastes exactly like sugar.
Personal Coaching
This month was a whirlwind of phone consultations that allowed me to meet and support the most amazing folks. Read the reviews on my Private Health Coaching product page. They bring tears to my eyes, to read the successes and the transformations in health and vitality. Just a half hour with me, can give you a fresh direction with gut health. If you would like to purchase a personal coaching call, click on the heart to the right.
I look forward to seeing you on my YouTube and TikTok Live calls at 4pm PST Saturdays and Sundays.
To Your Health and with Love,
Julia Loggins, Author,
Digestive Health Consultant,
Santa Barbara, California
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