Did you know that picky eating can sometimes be caused by the messages the bacteria in your gut are sending to your brain?
So the CHILD isn’t being a sugar monster…or making stubborn choices just to drive you crazy…their gut bugs are the sugar monsters and their brain has pruned too much!
I learned so much from Elissa Arnheim in this interview, both the philosophical to feed MY brain and the practical—some of which I implemented that very day!
Here are my favorite quotes:
- “Let’s start with this: Our bodies are designed perfectly.”
- “If a child cuts out an entire category of healthy foods, it’s a sign that something is wrong – and it’s all figure-out-able and fixable.”
- “Step 1 for sugar monster kids: serve sauerkraut!” 😮 (Don’t worry, Elissa shares multiple ways to make that a reality in your family…because I thought the same as you! My kids would never…!)
- “Resilience comes from diversity – both inside and outside our bodies.”
- “Risk to probiotic use = monoculture in our guts.”
And so, so much more! Pretty much if there are human beings in your family, you need this info too. 😉
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No time for the video? Here are the notes! (These align with the video and not the audio podcast, but should be close.)
Picky Eating and Gut Health
- 0:46: Elissa shares her story with us and what led her to helping parents with picky eaters.
- 4:13: Health is not graded on a bell curve. Just because we’re eating vegetables and doing better than the average standard American diet doesn’t mean we’re eating well.
- 5:08: Let’s look at the cause and effect relationship between gut health and picky eating. Our bodies are designed so that all our systems work well together.
If a child cuts out an entire category of healthy foods, it’s a sign that something is wrong – and it’s all figure-out-able and fixable. -Elissa Arnheim
- 8:30: When something is off in the gut, it can cause a child to develop picky eating habits. It can also go in the other direction. If we are eliminating foods and nutrients, we can cause a gut imbalance. Elissa shares some fascinating information about zinc deficiency.
- 10:32: As parents, we can be detectives to start finding answers for our kids. Start observing without judging, just gain information about how your child is eating and their symptoms. Join our FREE Picky Eating Challenge for more strategies and encouragement!
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- 11:20: Picky eating related to gut issues falls into a few categories. Kids aren’t trying to push our buttons and being willful here. If they have a gut imbalance their bodies could actually be telling them that vegetables are gross and craving sugar and carbs. They are listening to their bodies. Sugar/carb obsession and going alarmingly long periods between meals are two big clues picky eating is gut-related.
- 13:48: When we eat lots of sugar, it affects our neurotransmitters and trains our brain to desire more sugar. Elissa describes the cascade of how sugar affects our brains. The link between sugar and chronic inflammation.
- 15:55: How can we retrain our tongues, guts, and brains for healthy eating? Elissa has a secret weapon to defeat the sugar monster. For 2 weeks, everyone gets a bite of raw fermented sauerkraut with dinner. Don’t knock it til you try it! (If your kids don’t like sauerkraut you can try other fermented veggies. Your kids don’t even have to swallow it, they just need to hold it in their mouth for a few seconds.) Here’s a recipe for fermented kimchi, and other fermented veggies in small batches.
- 21:20: Sometimes you can work with your kids and choose together, sometimes you need to just make the decision and stick with it. If you think your kids really won’t go for the sauerkraut you can mix some of the juice into something else to sneak it in there every day.
- 23:28: The probiotic industry is pretty big these days. Taking a probiotic capsule takes out the sensory input of tasting, seeing, and feeling our food in our mouths. Does this affect the efficacy of the probiotics? Elissa shares some factors to be aware of. Here is my review of all the probiotics we’ve tried.
Trying to eliminate allergens or foods you are sensitive to? Here are some great helps!
- Try the Traditional Cooking School Allergy-Free Cooking Course
- For a treat, Leah loves Wildly Organic’s dairy-free hot cocoa mix
- Both the kids and teen cooking courses will get those young ones in the kitchen with guidance on how to make meals allergy-friendly, no matter the allergen.
- Thrive Market is where we find our best deals on dairy-free products, and it’s super easy to search by allergen so you only see the products you can eat!
Resilience comes from diversity – both inside and outside our bodies. -Elissa Arnheim
- 27:57: Let’s talk about tastebuds. Most people gravitate more towards liking sweet things. Elissa shares how eating food grown seasonally makes sense biologically, but we’ve changed all that since we can access most foods at any time of year. That isn’t even taking into account uber-sweet processed foods.
- 31:26: We don’t want to restrict our kids to the point that they seek out forbidden foods in secret or binge sugar when they leave our houses, but we do want to limit their access to sweet, processed “food.” It can be a real struggle for parents to find a balance.
- 33:46: When our kids are small, we have so much control over what they eat to give them a good foundation.
If you’ve ever said…
“I just want my kids to eat what I make!”
This free 5-day challenge was made for you.
Spend just 30 minutes a day learning practical strategies that reduce mealtime battles and help kids build confidence with food.
- 35:19: Elissa shares a conversation she has with her son about how what he eats affects his health. We don’t want our kids to become stressed about food. We can set what is normal, including being grateful, enjoying meals with those we love, and eating in a calm state, and that will stick with our kids.
- 38:22: My husband says he can’t have occasional soda, he needs to cut it all out all the time. This isn’t just a personality trait, it’s biological.
Doing one thing that makes me feel a little bit better always gives me the energy to take the next step. -Elissa Arnheim
- 41:16: Elissa has a free download to help your kids fall in love with eating fermented vegetables. (No longer available as of 2026.)
- 41:42: We leave you with a super practical step you can take today plus a bonus step for parents!
Resources We Mention for Picky Eating and Gut Health
- Join our FREE Picky Eating Challenge
- The link between sugar and chronic inflammation
- Fermented kimchi recipe
- Fermented veggies in small batches
- My review of all the probiotics we’ve tried
- Connect with Elissa on Substack
- Connect with Elissa on Instagram
Elissa Arnheim is the host of the annual Healthy Gut Happy Child Summit, founder of the Healthy Gut Happy Child 10 Week Transformation group coaching program, is a certified fermentationist, and a popular guest speaker. Elissa helps mothers reduce their children’s picky eating, behavior, and belly issues in 4 months or less.
Elissa’s first profession focused on a much bigger scale of ecology than microbe populations in children’s guts. She has an undergraduate degree in Conservation Biology and a Master of Science in Natural Resource Policy and Planning. When she left the woods to work in a busy Seattle hospital, she saw first-hand how even the most sophisticated and expensive life-saving procedures just couldn’t help patients make the food and lifestyle choices they needed to stay healthy and out of the hospital.
When her child experienced a massive health crisis, she was grateful she’d just become aware of the critical role our gut plays in our whole health – and dedicated herself to learning everything she could to support him.
Elissa resolved her son’s gut issues after ten months of chemotherapy, and also her own depression, anxiety, and a lifetime of allergies. She uses the same methods to empower mothers to help themselves and their children – so they can finally stop worrying so much, and watch their children shine.
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