Gutsy Bites with Mayra Garcia, RDN

Gutsy Bites Newsletter Gut Health and Nutrition Hola Reader How many times have you looked down at your belly by 5pm and thought, I look three months pregnant? It's not in your head. There's definitely something going on. Not all bloating is the same, and being bloated all the time is NOT normal. Let me explain what's really happening. Bloating is that feeling of pressure, fullness, or trapped gas. Sometimes your belly visibly swells with it; sometimes it doesn't. Both count. What matters is...

Gutsy Bites Newsletter GI Health and Nutrition On Ozempic and Can’t Poop? 🚽 You're taking Ozempic or Wegovy. You're eating less, feeling full sooner, and maybe seeing the weight loss you hoped for. But there's a problem. You're barely pooping, your belly feels bloated, and adding more fiber doesn't seem to help. Sound familiar? I see constipation often in patients taking GLP-1 medications. And there's something I wish more people understood: Constipation isn't always about eating too little...

Gutsy Bites Newsletter Gut Health and Nutrition ¡Wepaaaa! Hispanic Heritage Month kicked off yesterday. And I'm walking in with my chest out. Where I come from, a "wepa" means one thing. Party. Joy. Celebration. So consider this your wepa. This month is about honoring where we come from. Our history. Our people. Our food. Big congratulations to everyone celebrating independence this week: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, México, and Chile. Belize, we see you on the...

Why High-Fiber Foods Make You Bloated, and How to Fix It Buenos días, I have a confession to make to you. I have chronic constipation. Without fiber, I don't go. So eating less of it was never an option for me. But for a long time, eating more of it went badly. More gas, more pressure, and still nothing moving. The worst I have ever felt wasn't from too little fiber. It was from too much of the wrong kind, too fast. Here's what I wish someone had told me back then. You eat the fiber. You...

Gutsy Bites Newsletter GI Health and Nutrition Breakfast to be or not to be Welcome back, Do you actually need to eat breakfast? You’ve heard both sides. “If you’re not hungry, skip it.” “Fasting is healthier; it lowers inflammation.” And then the one a lot of us grew up on: breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Okay, I get it! Both can be reasonable. Intermittent fasting is a solid strategy for some people, depending on their goals and their season of life. I’m not here to talk...

Gutsy Bites Newsletter Gut Health and Nutrition Hola Bloating. Constipation. That heavy, uncomfortable feeling after you eat. When your gut acts up, we all blame the same thing first: food. Debe ser algo que comí. But most of the time, diet isn't where the problem starts. Your gut runs on a clock, and no probiotic, cleanse, or that famous "gut reset" from Instagram can fix a rhythm that's off. So before I ever look at someone's diet, I check the foundations: the five basics your digestion is...

Hungry again 30 minutes after a snack? Here's the fix. Ohhh noo! School is Back!!!! School's back. Which means your schedule is officially chaos, and someone in your house is hungry every two hours, including yourself. I see you. And now you're supposed to have different Instagram-worthy snacks ready at all times? No. Absolutely not. You don't need to be a servant for everyone in your house. A little bit of planning goes a long way. A few foods in the house and one simple rule. Let me hand it...

Cyclospora Outbreak Hola This week, one question has shown up in my inbox and my exam room more than any other: "Mayra — with everything going on with the lettuce, can I still eat fruits and vegetables?" Short answer: yes. Please don't stop. The longer answer (because you deserve the why, not just the what) is that pulling produce off your plate out of fear can quietly work against the very gut you're trying to take care of. So let me walk you through it: why your fruits and veggies matter,...

Hola, We were taught that the brain gives the orders and the body obeys. With your gut, it's mostly the other way around. Nearly 80% of the fibers in your vagus nerve (the direct line between your gut and your brain) carry information up, from body to brain. Not down. So your gut spends all day filing reports. It's not sitting around waiting for instructions. Here's why that matters if you live with IBS. In a lot of people with irritable bowel syndrome, the nervous system is stuck in the...