Food is medicine | All healing starts in the gut | You are what you eat
We’ve all heard these sayings, and they are true! The gut is the bridge between your external and internal environment, which is why most of your immune system and microbiomes live along this path. They need to regulate what is allowed in to your internal environment, and what gets eliminated.
When you eat conventionally-raised food – what you get at restaurants or if you are not buying grass-fed, pasture-raised, or organic foods at the store, you are asking your body to use its energy to assimilate food that provides less benefit, and more burden.
The first step to recovering your health is to Reduce Your Incoming Burden. The best dietary strategy is to start eating a nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory diet.
The foundation of a healthy diet focuses on the quality of your ingredients more than the name of what you are eating. Eating a burger doesn’t have to be unhealthy. You can buy pasture-raised meat, organic fixings and condiments, and have it over organic greens, wrapped in a big piece of lettuce, or buy a non-GMO organic bun. It’s all about the quality of the ingredients. Quality increases nutrient-density and reduces burden.
Just by eating more quality food, you will reduce the potential for inflammation. Unfortunately the soil isn’t as nutrient-dense as we would like, and organic isn’t as organic as one would hope, but it is the best option available.
Even if you are following the Foundational Diet, you may still experience inflammation due to your exposure to foods that you are allergic or sensitive to. Food allergies are easy to spot. Your histamine is recruited and you can see skin, gut, respiratory, cardiovascular, or Anaphylaxis.
Food sensitivities are less overt. All of the above can just be less severe. Often you become congested from the histamine response filling up your hollow spaces.
The most inflammatory foods are:
| Gluten Wheat, rye, barley containing foods and drinks | Activates your innate immune system Causes “leaky gut” Sometimes you are sensitive to the fructans in gluten, versus the gluten itself |
| Fructans Onions and garlic | Type of carbohydrate made of chains of fructose Small intestine can’t digest fructans, so they pass into the large intestine where your gut bacteria ferment them |
| Dairy Lactose (milk sugar) Casein or whey (proteins) | If you were able to tolerate milk after the age of 2, but you can’t tolerate it anymore, you are probably not lactose intolerant, but either sensitive to one of the proteins or you have SIBO (Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth) caused by eating too much processed-refined carbs and added sugar |
| High histamine Fermented foods Foods that are aged Leftovers | Fermentation is a metabolic process where microbes (bacteria, yeast) break down sugars and produce acids, alcohol, or gases. This increases the quantity of these microbes. Some bacterial strains have the enzyme histidine decarboxylase which can convert the amino acid histidine into histamine. |
| Caffeine | Stimulates the central nervous system by increasing adrenaline (epinephrine) which can raise your blood pressure, heart rate, increase urine production, and stimulate gastric acid and intestinal motility |
| Artificial dyes Red 40 (Allura Red AC) Yellow 5 (Tartrazine) Yellow 6 (Sunset Yellow FCF) Blue 1 (Brilliant Blue FCF) | Can directly activate basophils or mast cells by releasing histamine Can negatively alter your gut microbiota |
| Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) | Can act on the glutamate neurotransmitter precursor Can trigger mast cells to release histamine Can influence vagal nerve signaling and cause transient blood pressure changes |
| Sulfites Sodium sulfite, bisulfite, and metabisulfite Potassium bisulfite | Sulfur-based compounds in food and drinks used to prevent oxidation, browning, and microbial growth Can cause bronchoconstriction, skin reactions, nausea, diarrhea, or abdominal discomfort |
| Egg whites | Contains most allergenic proteins (ovalbumin, ovomucoid) that can activate the innate immune system |
| Fruit sugars Fructose (main sugar in most fruits) Glucose (simple sugar often paired with fructose) Sucrose (table sugar; composed of glucose + fructose) Sugar alcohols (polyols such as sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol) | Some people can’t absorb fructose in the small intestine leading to fermentation by your gut bacteria in the large intestine |
Eating real-food that is nutrient-dense and anti-inflammatory is your foundation. You can layer dietary strategies on top of this foundation based on your diet history, symptoms, and/or health goals.
One dietary strategy is to increase the diversity within each macronutrient category.:
| IF YOU’VE PRIMARILY BEEN EATING | YOU CAN PRIORITIZE |
| Lean meats | Fattier cuts of meats |
| Red meat | Cold-Water Fatty Fish |
| Non-starchy vegetables (greens) | Starchy vegetables (root vegetables) |
| Monounsaturated fats (olive oil, avocado) | Saturated Fats (animal fats) |
If most of your carbohydrate intake has been from processed-refined carbohydrates, adopting the Repair Diet will shift you toward eating real-food carbs. Initially most people end up eating low-carb because they focus on greens and minimize root vegetables. This is a great strategy for about a month because you starve off bacterial overgrowth created by all the simple sugars in your prior refined diet.
Starchy carbs are a mucinogenic nature, which can soothe your digestive tract. They are also food for your microbiome, so it is important to start low and work your way up. Begin with a fourth of a potato for a few days before increasing to a half of a potato. If you experience a lot of gas and bloating, reduce the amount to the prior level for a few more days. If this continues, it is important wait until you have complete the Repair Your Gut Wall section of the Wholistic Health Path. In Phase 3: Repair Your Digestive Tract.
Once you have completed this section, you may attempt to integrate more starchy carbs and fermentable fibers.
| STARCHY CARBS | FERMENTABLE FIBERS |
| White potato | Kefir/yogurt |
| Sweet potato/Yams | Sauerkraut/kimchi |
| Yucca/Cassava | Miso/tempeh/natto |
| Plantain | Pickled vegetables |
| Pumpkin | Raw Apple Cider Vinegar |
| Squash | Aged cheeses |
| Lotus root | Sourdough bread |
| White rice | Kombucha |
Step into Action
| Minimize your exposure | Reduce Your Incoming Burden |
| Reduce your congestion | Reduce your congestion |
| Provide nutrients missing from your diet | Replace Your Missing Nutrients |