what is required for gut healing? (was: Healing LG with NT diet only?)

[Guest guest]

This is a really helpful post!

I have a hard time believing that GAPS is the *only* way to heal a

leaky gut. I have no doubt that it works, and it may work really

really well, but it's just really tough for me to believe that it's

the only thing that works.

That said, I would *love, love, love* a list of things that MUST be

avoided in order to heal. I'm thinking things like:

gluten

unsoaked grains

unsoaked nuts

improperly prepared beans

sugar? (vs honey? maple syrup? sucanat?)

and things that MUST be included, like:

probiotics

bone broth

On Mon, Mar 10, 2008 at 7:20 AM, <inasnit@...> wrote:

>

> I really think so many of us have severely damaged guts due to the

> " SAD " we've been on for so many years. Our children inherit our sad

> state of affairs.

>

> However, the body is amazing at healing itself. But I think unless you

> cut everything out for a while, it would be hard to heal the gut lining.

>

> Think of it like this -- if you had very irritated skin, a very bad

> rash or even open sores on your skin. You would not put anything on it

> to exacerbate the problem. Like for example, cayenne pepper. You would

> only want to put aloe on it and protect it from irritating things.

>

> Our gut is inflamed like that, with open holes or sores. We can't see

> it like we can see our skin, but that is what it is like. For some

> people it's worse than others. My husband always has intestinal pain

> and he is sensitive to gluten and dairy. He has a very inflamed gut.

>

> I don't have leaky gut (or if I do, it's very minor) and I've never

> had allergies or intestinal pain. I believe I would have leaky gut but

> I think I avoided it because I cleaned up my yeast infection when I

> was 26 by going on the candida diet and going off sugar and wheat (I

> was allergic) for 2 years.

>

> I'm almost 40 now. If I had not intervened at 26, I'm sure I would

> have leaky gut by now. And imagine someone whose mother had leaky gut

> (my mom did not) -- they would be in much worse shape. Starting off

> worse. So the leaky gut would happen faster.

>

> Leaky gut is caused by not having an adequate amount of beneficial gut

> flora. The more we have, the more they build up and fortify the gut

> walls. So we have the problem I had with my candida -- not enough good

> flora -- and then it is exacerbated by a very inflamed gut lining

> (think of the open sores).

>

> I was just listening to Kaayla 's lecture on hair analysis/

> nutritional testing (from the WAPF conference 2007) and she said

> across the board, digestion must be healed first. It is the root of

> all other problems. She also said that bone broth is the most

> miraculous healer. She said that alone cures people like she has never

> seen anything else do.

>

> I just ordered The Fiber Menace and I am excited to start reading

> that. I truly believe that eating unsoaked grains, legumes, nuts and

> seeds causes *so much damage* to our gut. My nanny from Guatemala said

> they always made their own bread and tortillas and they always soaked

> the grains for two weeks!

>

> I know the GAPS diet can be hard and overwhelming. So many rules! But

> if we were to just try to STOP eating any and all unsoaked grains,

> nuts and seeds and legumes, that alone would make a huge difference.

> Just stopping pouring the tabasco sauce on the open wounds. And try

> to drink a quart of bone broth a day. (That works like the fresh aloe

> vera.)

>

> I also think of course that avoiding sugar is critical because you

> don't want to feed the yeast.

>

> And one thing I have found... when I have to soak everything, I often

> don't get around to it. It is hard to plan meals that require days of

> soaking things.

>

> So I often just skip the grains. It's just easier. We end up eating a

> lot of soups (bone broth based -- plain broth or coconut or cream

> added -- with vegetables, pureed or not) and salads. I especially love

> salads with meat and hardboiled eggs. Instead of sandwiches, we put

> the egg salad or tunafish on some lettuce.

>

> That said, when I healed myself of candida overgrowth, I did go off

> yeast for 1-2 years. I did not eat it until my doctor said I could. It

> was an allergen --and I knew as long as I was ingesting an allergen it

> would make it harder for my body to heal.

>

> One thing I think that really helps when you majorly change your diet

> is to find easy substitutes for the things you can no longer eat. When

> I cut out the wheat, I ate more rice and other grains like quinoa. I

> remember I bought brown rice pasta at the HFS. And I bought foods that

> were fruit-juice sweetened instead of sweetened w/ sugar (this was in

> 1995 before I knew about WAP).

>

> It's not easy... this healing of the gut. But it is so worth it. And

> 1-2 years is not that long when you put it in perspective.

>

> Ann Marie