Leaky Gut Syndrome and Diet
When I was first embroiled in my newly-found health problems, I struggled for internet enlightenment on the right way to eat. I tried the Special Foods Diet, the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, the Elimination Diet, the Raw Foods Diet and many more. I always felt best eating everything I wanted, even sugar, but eating that way made my symptoms worse. And whenever I ate a candida type diet, my symptoms would get worse then too. I was so confused, so frustrated!! I could post many of my old journal entries here but I don't want to depress you! It wasn't long until I quickly learned all about leaky gut syndrome, which is when incompletely digested food leaks through larger opening in the small intestinal lining and into the blood, causing the immune system to attack what it thinks is a foreign invader. So with all that chronic belly bloat I had, I must have had leaky gut. And all I read about it told me that I'd need many months, if I was lucky, to heal my intestinal lining so that I didn't react to foods. Jeez!
Around that miserable time, I read something that Dr. Walt Stoll wrote. I identify with it very much, now that I have hindsight. He wrote: If one just identifies what they are reacting to & avoids THEM, they will just eat other stuff more often to make up the difference. So long as the LGS (leaky gut) is present, one will just become sensitive to the new stuff. Finally, you would be in a glass house being fed baked platypus through a stainless steel straw. THEN, you would become sensitive to THAT.
If you have a chronic health problem, chances are that changing your diet is going to be essential. Just ask Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. It will be vital, but it was only part of my treatment. In addition to the nutritious, whole foods diet, I needed to get out of the constant fight or flight. Meditation, belly breathing, qigong, or any other relaxation-producing method is what will return blood to the digestive organs so that, over time, your intestinal lining will heal and your food sensitivities will subside. A leaky gut can become unleaky.
Experts disagree on how strict you'll need to be with a diet. One diet's author writes that clients who stick to his (extremely strict) diet but continue to have small amounts of coffee will sabotage the whole treatment. This sort of advice makes me want to throw up my hands and surrender! So I'm not that strict. I drink black tea with a spot of honey every morning and it's a highlight of the day.
Here's an entry from years ago. I include it so you know that that's where I was. And if you're there now, maybe you don't have to be! See Breathing and Qigong to learn how to come at it from an additional perspective.
FOOD DIARY
WEDNESDAY APRIL 18
2-3 QUARTS OF WATER THROUGHOUT EVERY DAY!!
7:30 AM Tea with a little cream
9:00 AM Apple
11:00 AM Leftover broccoli, leeks, brown rice – 1 cup
12:00 PM Leftover chicken pad thai – 1 1/2 cup
2:00 PM Salad of lettuce, veggies, sesame seeds – 3 cups
4:30 PM More of above salad – 2 cups
5:30 PM Tea with rice milk
8:00 PM Half of a poached salmon (three-quarters of your palm size) and 7 brussels
sprouts, leaks, garlic in butter
9:00PM Baked sweet potato
10:30 PM Ginger-peppermint tea with stevia
