How I Manage Gut Health & Jet Lag: How Probiotics Help You Reset Faster

Gday mate!

Over the weekend, I traveled to Whistler to celebrate a mate's bucks party (Aussie slang for a bachelor party!). The journey—Toronto to Vancouver, plus three flights on the return—left my circadian rhythm wrecked. But for a couple of days of snowboarding, totally worth it.

Travel crushes your circadian rhythm, your body’s internal clock regulating sleep, digestion, and energy. As we've discussed, it takes about a day per time zone for your body to adjust. But the gut—and the microbes within it—play a massive role in this adjustment. Today I wanted to highlight your controllable choices to support your gut and in turn get you back into rhythm as quickly and efficiently as possible when you return home… If you missed my newsletter on what to actually eat at the airport you can check that out HERE

In this weeks Newsletter (5 min read)

🥗 How your gut supports circadian rhythm

📝 List of foods high probiotics you can get at an airport

💚 How I look after my gut when traveling 

How Your Gut Supports Your Circadian Rhythm:

Ever wondered why your sleep gets messed up when you travel? A lot of it comes down to your gut. Your gut and brain are constantly chatting through something called the gut-brain axis, and probiotics help keep that conversation smooth. Here’s how:

Probiotics = More Sleep Hormones Your gut produces a whopping 90% of your body's serotonin, which lifts your mood and sets you up for restful sleep. Serotonin also converts into melatonin, the hormone that tells your body when to sleep. Probiotics support your gut to make sure you're producing enough of both, which means better sleep and fewer restless nights.

Reset Your Body Clock Faster: Traveling across time zones? Probiotics help your body adjust by supporting melatonin production, which keeps your body clock on point. The result? Less jet lag and quicker recovery.

Beat Travel Stress with a Healthy Gut: Cortisol, your body's primary stress hormone, follows a daily cycle. Jet lag throws it off, causing fatigue during the day and restlessness at night. A healthy gut microbiome, supported by probiotics, helps regulate cortisol production and stabilize your body’s stress response. I am always going to be a bad flyer so I need this

What foods are high in probiotics?

Like a lot of things not all probiotics are created equal. Here are options and notes to look out for. Look for CFU’s (colony forming units on the label). With travel you want to hit around 10-20 billion CFU’s per day. Daily maintenance is around 5-10 billion

1. Greek Yogurt or Kefir (100g / ~3.5 oz)

• Probiotics: 1–10 billion CFUs (depending on live cultures)

• avoid flavors and get plane (no sneaky added sugars)

• Best Pick: Look for labels that say “live and active cultures.”

2. Kombucha (240ml / 8 oz)

• Probiotics: 1–5 billion CFUs (varies by brand and fermentation time)

• Honestly not a massive fan of kombucha as they are very high in sugar, but the do contain a lot of CFUs

3. Fermented Veggies (Kimchi or Sauerkraut) (50g / ~2 oz)

• Probiotics: 2–10 billion CFUs (if raw and unpasteurized)

• Best Pick: Choose refrigerated brands with “live cultures” on the label. You can also just ensure you are adding them to a bowl or sandwich (like a i did when I was in Toronto 🙂 )

4. Miso Soup (1 cup / 240ml)

• Probiotics: 1–5 billion CFUs (if made with live miso paste and not boiled)

• Best Pick: Freshly made or cold-pressed miso paste.

How I look after my gut when I travel

Personally whilst I get the occasional yoghurt, my travel hack is to bring my AG1 Travel packs with me. I have been doing this for over 7 years. I don’t have time to be struggling with jet lag and we recently did a study and found that taking AG1 every day for 30 days can double the good bacteria in your gut. If have some upcoming travel or are looking to support your gut do what I do and subscribe to AG1 HERE. If you use that link I will throw in a 5 free travel packs and a years supply of Vitamin D3 + K2 for free

Quick Notes:

🥩 Valentines Day was last Friday (if you did not know), but it can be this day every week when you make your special someone THIS STEAK!!!

💚 Last week I spoke at Columbia Business School about building my personal brand in the health space. Just want to say thank you, as I don’t get to do these cool meaningful events without you

🐶 Congrats to Noah Bider (thanks for your comment legend) on winning our We Feed Raw competition last week! Stay tuned for next weeks quiz and prize!

Cheers,

DC

#EatGoodFeelGood