Filling in the GAPS (with healing recipe!)

admin — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:19:12 +0000

The GAPS diet: Gut & psychology syndrome. This particular diet is based on the work of Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride using specific foods to heal the gut and therefore improve autism, ADD, ADHD, depression, schizophrenia, and other mood disorders. The link here fascinates me. Did you know that brain and gut health are intimately linked? Your brain is connected to your gut via a long tube called the vagus nerve. There is a reason why the gut is called ‘the second brain!’ If you have inflammation in your gut due to bad bacteria overgrowth (dysbiosis), eating too much sugar, too many grains/gluten, or foods that you’re allergic to (gluten, dairy, soy being the most common), you’ll likely have inflammation in the brain as well. That may manifest as the conditions listed above and eventually result in neuron bundle damage, dementia or even Alzheimer’s. The inflammation in the digestive tract can begin early in life and worsen over the years, eventually resulting in brain inflammation and the listed mood disorders.

I’ve been studying the connection between gut & brain health for a long time. Technically called the enteric nervous system, this second brain controls the gut function independently of the brain. There is a significant amount of the feel-good neurotransmitter serotonin produced in the gut. Intestinal inflammation can lower serotonin production, exacerbating depression and even contributing to constipation. That’s why anti-depressants (SSRIs or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) can cause digestive upset or side effects.

Because of this connection between gut and brain health, it only makes sense that healing the gut can improve certain mood disorders or neural conditions. The GAPS diet is similar to Elaine Gottschall’s Specific Carbohydrate Diet which eliminates certain complex carbs (like grains, starches) because they are not easy to digest and actually feed the harmful bacteria in the gut. The addition of so many processed grain based foods into our food supply has brought us to a place where digestive related illness is on the rise. And depression and mood related disorders too! We want to get back to a place of absorbing easily digestable nutrients in food and reversing the malabsorption that occurs as a result of our highly processed Standard American Diet with too many grains and complex carbs that aren’t easily digestable.

This stuff can get pretty (needlessly) complicated with lists of foods on a do and don’t list. The GAPS diet–which is appropriate not only for the mood disorders but also to heal the digestive tract in the case of Crohn’s, IBS, colitis, celiac, etc, and even chronic constipation, bloating, gas, and other digestive concerns–has you go through an introductory phase and then introduce other foods over time. It’s basically a more complicated version of the diet I preach: eggs, meats and fish, shellfish, fresh vegetables and fruit, nuts and seeds, garlic and olive oil. Plenty of broth and even raw egg yolks from free range chickens.

Avoid these foods: sugar, sweeteners, aspartame and artificial crap, desserts and sweets, booze, processed foods, grains (rice, corn, rye, oats, wheat and anything made of wheat flour (breads, pasta, biscuits, cakes and anything from the bakery, anything with bread crumbs or batter), buckwheat, quinoa, millet, couscous, spelt, semolina, tapioca, etc), breakfast cereals, starchy vegetables and anything made out of them (potato, parsnips, yams, Jerusalem artichoke and sweet potato), milk, fruit juice, soy, coffee, beans.

This type of diet will reduce intestinal inflammation (and brain inflammation) and help heal leaky gut while also boosting good gut flora. Win-win! One also must take probiotics and use broths and fermented cod liver oil for healing. I recommend this type of plan HIGHLY to all my clients with digestive concerns.

Here’s an example of a healing broth recipe to use in conjunction with the diet, at least twice daily digestive repair (edited from GAPS diet book):

broth is very healing for the digestive tract

“Chicken stock is particularly gentle on the stomach. To make good meat stock you need joints, bones, a piece of meat on the bone, a whole chicken, and giblets from chicken if possible. It is essential to use bones and joints, as they provide the healing substances like gelatin, but not so much the muscle meats. You can use the bones from a chicken you’ve roasted yourself, or ask the butcher to cut in half the large tubular bones, so you can get the bone marrow out of them after cooking. (ED NOTE: you can also make bone broth using other types of animal bones from the butcher. I’ll share that recipe another time. Same benefits) Put the bones, joints and meats into a large pan and fill it up with filtered water, add unrefined sea salt and sea vegetables (kelp, kombu, wakame, dulse: find at Whole Foods or natural food grocery) to your taste at the beginning of cooking and about a teaspoon of black peppercorns, roughly crushed. Bring to boil, cover and simmer on a low heat for 2.5 – 3 hours. You could do this in the crockpot too on low for several hours. The gelatinous soft tissues around the bones and the bone marrow provide some of the best healing remedies for the gut lining and the immune system. Consume a cup with every meal. The stock will keep well in the fridge for at least 7 days or it can be frozen. Do not use microwaves for warming up the stock; use conventional stove (microwaves destroy nutrients). It is very important to consume all the fat in the stock, as these fats are essential for the healing process. When cold, the fat/gelatin will solidify on the top. Just spoon out a portion and heat and sip. Take this with a probiotic, or add a little juice from sauerkraut or cultured veggies to the stock before you drink.”

Read more:
GAPS Diet: Gut & Psychology Syndrome, by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride

http://www.gutandpsychologysyndrome.com/

Breaking the Vicious Cycle, by Elaine Gottschall

http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/index.htm

Go Gluten Free Part II: HOW?

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 03:29:41 +0000

No.

Removing gluten from your diet is easy in theory: it’s just taking one food component out of rotation. But in practice, it can be difficult. What will I eat? Can I have sandwiches, pasta, pizza? What happens when I got out to eat?

I recommend that you pick a time when you’re not going to be tempted with parties, celebrations, or any big events that can throw you off track in the beginning. Plan to give yourself three weeks. Just three weeks. You can do anything for 21 days! Then, guess what? On day 22, go nuts. Eat all the pasta, pizza, and pancakes you can stomach and observe. If you feel terrible, avoid gluten, because you are intolerant. If you feel fine, then you’re not gluten intolerant, so you can continue to eat wheat products. I’ve personally maybe seen this happen like once, as gluten is a gummy, hard-to-digest protein that can cause constant fatigue and constipation, bloating, or other digestive disturbances. But it does happen, sure.

Anyway. Let’s take the first 3 weeks. Maybe you’re the type of person who gets motivated about something and just does it, never looking behind. Or, maybe you like to ease into something new. Either way, you’re basically breaking an addiction, so give yourself a break. Stay motivated but don’t beat yourself up if there are set-backs. Just move on and get back on track. Don’t use it as an excuse to completely derail.

I don’t recommend that you titrate down slowly in this case, because it really does work better if you quit cold turkey and mentally prep yourself to go gluten free for 3 weeks. Think about what you’ll be missing. Is it pasta? Cake? Pizza? Cookies? Cereal? Sandwiches? Well, most of these products are comprised of refined foods. This means they have had vital nutrients stripped from them, and when you eat them, it actually robs your body of nutrients to metabolize them. That’s why you still feel hungry or have cravings or find yourself overeating and dreaming of 3pm when you can have a muffin: because you’re not meeting your nutritional needs.

So, while there are substitutions for every product I mentioned, take this opportunity to make some changes and additions. Instead of “fortified” wheat bran cereal for breakfast, try a nutrient-dense smoothie with whey protein, flax for fiber, spirulina or a superfood addition, seasonal fruit, or even almonds or almond butter (pair well with bananas and is filling). Try a hot gluten-free cereal with dates and nuts and cinnamon. Out for lunch? Have a salad with chicken. Or, go Mexican and get corn tortillas, black beans, guac, chicken or fish or carnitas. Need a snack? Try fruit with nuts; turkey slices with hummus and veggies or avocado; or, if you’re really craving something bread-y, grab a gluten free muffin (often made with flax and pumpkin. Actually very good), or have some rice bread with tahini and apple slices. Dinner: skip the bread basket, if you’re out; ask that it not be brought to the table at all. Try fish, sweet potato, kale or spinach, brown rice, anything that doesn’t come in a box. Do some research. Find some delicious recipes. Whole foods truly nourish your body, and your body will thank you. Stable blood sugar and nutrient -dense foods mean no crash and no cravings.

End of week one. Are you dying? Can’t get cookies off your mind? Fine, have one. Did you lose control and eat the whole box? Well, this is good information. When you are intolerant/addicted to a substance, it’s not uncommon to lose control and binge. You’re filling feel-good endorphin receptors in your brain. Step away from the cookies and start over, knowing that it’ll be difficult, but if you can make it for a couple weeks, your cravings will disappear. Really. Try more protein, take a mineral supplement and a multi, or try 5-HTP. It really helps with cravings.

There are plenty of substitutions: brown rice pasta, rice-almond bread, flax muffins, gluten-free cereals and grains. The gluten free world is growing. Keep a food journal. Use this as an opportunity to gauge how you feel. You’ll likely be rewarded for your efforts with clearer skin, weight loss, less bloating and digestive symptoms, more energy. We were not evolved to eat such hard-to-digest grains. Life may be easier for you without. Give it a try and let us know how it goes.

Holistic Nutrition Bytes--San Francisco Nutrition Consultation » celiac

Filling in the GAPS (with healing recipe!)

Go Gluten Free Part II: HOW?