Holistic Nutrition Bytes--San Francisco Nutrition Consultation » digestion

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

Click Here for Our FREE Tele-Seminar on Digestive Issues

admin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:41:53 +0000

Did you miss our live call tonight? If you have heartburn, bloating, candida, or suffer from constipation, click this link for a free tele-seminar with holistic nutritionists Karen Diggs and myself. We discuss problems & solutions:

http://tinyurl.com/yguada8

Learn This Trick To Get Rid of Your Digestive Woes

admin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:28:00 +0000

FREE tele-seminar on Monday, October 19, 2009
We’ll address the top 3 digestive complaints and how to get rid of them for good! Plus, bonus tips you can use right away to get on the good digestion path. This call is for you if you struggle with heartburn, bloating, irregularity, or indigestion. The call will be recorded if you miss it, but joining the call live gives you the opportunity to ask us your questions!

Time: 7:00 pm, Pacific Daylight Time (San Francisco, GMT-07:00)
Call-in: 1 866 699 3239
Access Code: 579 262 569
You can also attend on-line: http://karendiggs.webex.com/karendiggs/j.php?ED=132456427&UID=0&PW=NYzIyMWU2NzM5&RT=MiM0
Password: Cleanse

Life-Changing Opportunity

admin — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 22:09:46 +0000

Do you want to feel better? Are you fatigued, stressed, overweight? Struggling with allergies, PMS, or digestive troubles? Read a lot about liver cleansing/full body detox on this blog and curious about how to get started on your own?

This opportunity is for you! My colleague Karen (www.benourishedsf.info) and I are now running group detox workshops! Below is the announcement. If you are not in the San Francisco Bay Area, you have the option to run the cleanse from wherever you are, because we will be offering a conference call or webinar option for those who cannot make the classes.

Cleanses can be life-changing and can open you up to good health in amazing ways. The cleanse lasts for 21 days. Cost $125. Call 415-786-7938 for info, or visit www.benourishedsf.info (click detox workshop) for easy online sign-up.

clarity can be yours

PROGRAM DETAILS
Dates: Wednesday evenings,
May 13, May 20 & June 3, 2009
Time: 7-9pm
Location:
Nandi Yoga, 309 8th Avenue
San Mateo, CA
94401
www.nandiyoga.com
Registration:
$125 by May 1
$145 after May 1
Space is limited, so register now!

THE PROGRAM INCLUDES

• Before & After Total Body composition assessment ($50 value)

• Three group meetings led by Certified Nutritionists Mary Vance and Karen Diggs

• Carefully planned menus with delicious recipes

• Invaluable handouts, tips, information, and support

• How to transition from your cleanse onto your new healthy eating plan

• E-mail check-ins with your nutritionists

• Healthy snack demonstrations

IN JUST 21 DAYS

• Jump-start yourself to successful weight loss!

• Dramatically improve your energy and vitality

• Reduce food cravings

• Raise your productivity

• Reduce allergy symptoms and skin conditions

Please note that optional but recommended herbal and nutritional supplements and meal replacement shakes that promote detoxification are not included in registration cost.

WHY DETOX?

We are all living in a toxic world. When toxins from our food and environment accumulate in our body, we may feel tired, sick, and overweight.

Internal toxicity increases the risk of degenerative diseases, accelerates the aging process, and increases depression, allergies, and skin reactions.

This detailed and highly effective 21-day detox program is designed to gently and thoroughly flush the excess toxins from your system.

BENEFITS OF DETOX:
• Increased energy & vitality
• Weight loss
• Improve digestion
• Clear skin
• Reduce joint pain
• Ease PMS & menopause symptoms
• Prepare for healthy pregnancy & baby

Fun Topics like Parasites

admin — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:26:01 +0000

Let’s just jump right in here.

There are two common problems that cause digestive symptoms: food allergies/sensitivities, most commonly to gluten and dairy (milk and cream). Consuming foods to which you are allergic is essentially like taking a blow torch to your lush green lawn, leaving it barren and charred. It completely destroys the villi (lining) of your gut, and the lining becomes inflamed. When this lining becomes damaged, food particles can leak through and become tagged by the body as antigens, and the body mounts an immune attack, seeing the food as an invader (after all, food is not meant to escape from your digestive tract). This is leaky gut! When you eat the food, you experience an immune response, and this is one way food allergies develop. If you are repeatedly eating foods to which you’re allergic, your immune system is running on hyper-drive and can begin to run amok and attack itself: an origin of auto-immune disease.

The second issue that causes digestive symptoms is pathogens or low-grade chronic infections in the digestive tract such as parasites, overgrowth of “bad” bacteria, and yeast. Either of these two issues causes tissue damage and inflammation in the digestive system, and that leads to constipation, gas, bloating, diarrhea, heartburn, or indigestion.

Conventional medicine only looks at extreme symptoms and therefore only recognizes acute parasitic infections, meaning it’s present right now and isn’t going away: chronic and severe diarrhea for 3 weeks after trip to Mexico = parasite = treatment. Outside of this model, no thought is paid to a parasitic infection and it is usually misdiagnosed as colitis, heartburn, IBS, etc. The misdiagnosis can be detrimental, as seemingly unrelated problems begin to crop up, such as hormonal imbalance. Because your immune system is stressed constantly fighting the infection (that you may not even know you have), your cortisol levels rise in response to stress and female hormone levels therefore drop since your body is using all raw materials it uses to make hormones to produce excess cortisol. Weight gain, infertility, and menstrual irregularities can occur.

It’s not really possible to test yourself for parasites. You need to see a practitioner and do a stool sample to test for giardia, amoeba hystolitica, blastocystis, and cryptosporidium. These tests can also check for pathogenic infections like c difficile, klebsiella, h pylori, e coli overgrowth, candida, etc.

We do a lot of digestive testing and repair at our Mill Valley office and can consult over the phone and send out the test kits that you can do at home. Call 415 383 9903 to make an appointment if you want to test.

If you do suspect a parasite, it’s easy to do an herbal cleanse on your own, as I’ve written about previously, but the treatment won’t work unless your lifestyle factors are in place. First off, you need to minimize digestive inflammation by cutting out potentially allergenic foods such as gluten, soy, and dairy. Focus on whole foods like fresh fruits, vegetables, cultured/fermented foods, and protein. Work on stress management, getting to bed by 10:30pm, and exercise.
Depending on the degree of infection, you can choose antibiotics, herbs, or both to kill the parasite, followed by a round of probiotics to recolonize the gut. This takes about 6-8 weeks.

It’s also advisable to follow up with a candida treatment after the parasite cleanse because candida is almost always a secondary infection to a parasite. This can be a similar herbal cleanse using goldenseal, berberine, oregano oil or leaf, caprylates, and pau d’arco, among others. A candida cleanse diet should be followed as well: in addition to gluten, cut out anything with yeast or mold such as beer, cheese, mushrooms, and also minimize fruit and starchy veggies. If you suspect candida, test for parasites too since they go hand in hand.

Parasites are little bugs that cause big damage. Check back often, as they’ll come up again.

Cultured Vegetables

admin — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:07:24 +0000

Repairing and maintaining digestion is the heart of my work in many ways. Testing for bacterial pathogens and parasites and eliminating them, repairing leaky gut, then restoring proper gut ecology improves health in ways people never thought imaginable; they are often used to feeling sub-par or have written their symptoms off as normal: “You mean I should be pooping every day? I’m not supposed to have gas?” Toxins from digestive infections affect the whole body, causing hormonal imbalance and liver congestion.

Cultured veggies are one of the top foods that help foster proper gut ecology, which essentially means you’re maintaining the proper ratio between good and bad bacteria in your intestinal tract. Too much bad bacteria means yeast infections, bloating, constipation, weight gain, cravings, even acne.

Raw, cultured vegetables have been around for thousands of years, but you may know them as sauerkraut. Over here in the holistic health community, we don’t refer to them as the same krauts like you’d find in the supermarket, because those have been heated and pasteurized and contain chemical preservatives (sodium benzoate, anyone?). The pasteurization (heating) process destroys precious enzymes.

Cultured veggies are made by fermenting vegetables of your choice (my faves are cabbage, ginger, beets, and carrots) in stainless steel. The fermentation process produces tons of probiotics and beneficial enzymes, good for digestion. Eating them makes me feel so good and healthy.

Here are some benefits of raw, cultured vegetables:
-improved digestion
-increased longevity via improved detoxification, better immunity, cell rejuvenation due to natural enzymes
-help control cravings
-help the body maintain alkalinity (remember acidoisis = degeneration)
-tons of probiotics

Eat 1/4 – 1/2 cup with every meal. They are slightly tart, which complements meat and veggie dishes very well. Eat more if you’ve undergone a recent round of antibiotics or if you take hormonal birth control, both of which upset your good gut bacteria. Cultured veggies help you digest meat proteins. When eaten every day, you should notice an improvement in regularity. They contain more probiotics than yogurt and can be enjoyed by those avoiding dairy!

Here is a recipe I have on file from the Body Ecology book. Be creative with your veggies. Enjoy.

Version 1
3 heads green cabbage, shredded in a food processor
1 bunch kale, chopped by hand
(optional): 2 cups wakame ocean vegetables (measured after soaking), drained, spine removed, and chopped
1 Tbsp. dill seed

Version 2
3 heads green cabbage, shredded in a food processor
6 carrots, large, shredded in a food processor
3 inch piece ginger, peeled and chopped
6 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

To make Cultured Vegetables

1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Remove several cups of this mixture and put into a blender.
3. Add enough filtered water to make a “brine” the consistency of a thick juice. Blend well and then add brine back into first mixture. Stir well.
4. Pack mixture down into a 1½ quart glass or stainless steel container. Use your fist, a wooden dowel, or a potato masher to pack veggies tightly.
5. Fill container almost full, but leave about 2 inches of room at the top for veggies to expand.
6. Roll up several cabbage leaves into a tight “log” and place them on top to fill the remaining 2 inch space. Clamp jar closed.
7. Let veggies sit at about a 70 degree room temperature for at least three days. A week is even better.

The Infertility Myth

admin — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 01:13:01 +0000

Trying unsuccessfully to conceive a baby is one of the most disheartening and frustrating situations a couple has to deal with. Aside from conflicting medical opinions and deciding on options, the stress associated with cost of treatments and testing can cause further complication.

Aw.

For women in the conventional medical system, most doctors will do blood tests to assess hormone levels and ultrasounds to look for fibroids, cysts, tumors, and to make sure the fallopian tubes are clear and not blocked by scarring or anything else. A woman may be prescribed synthetic hormones to raise progesterone or choose a number of fertility treatments including in vitro fertilization (IVF) where egg cells are fertilized by sperm outside of the womb and then implanted into womb. This is a pretty hard core treatment, often a last resort, and women usually have to do hormone injections so that they produce many eggs, which are then retrieved using a transvaginal technique involving an ultrasound-guided needle piercing the vaginal wall to reach the ovaries.

These treatments are costly, sometimes painful, and always stressful. And they don’t always work. The thing I find most troubling here is that conventional medicine always looks at the symptoms and the outcome: the woman can’t get pregnant, isn’t producing enough sex hormone, or can’t hold a pregnancy, so synthetic hormones or fertility drugs are the answer. But why not look at the REASON the woman is not producing hormones?

Fallopian tube scarring or other growths or obvious problems require specialized treatment. But I do want to address some issues for women who have hormonal imbalance, or just plain don’t know why they can’t conceive.

First off, taking fertility drugs certainly may do the trick, but watch out: you could end up with seven kids. Secondly, these and artificial progesterone are synthetic hormones that the body doesn’t recognize (i.e. they don’t fit properly into hormone receptors) and may not be able to process. They don’t work for everyone. In holistic medicine, we look at the whole person and make recommendations from there.

The first order of business is to address your stress level and test your adrenal hormones, many of which are precursors to your female hormones. So if your adrenals are exhausted, your cycle may not be regular, or you may not be producing enough progesterone (the pro-gestational hormone needed to get pregnant and carry a pregnancy to term). Once you have this information you can repair your adrenals using bioidentical hormones or herbs. The body recognizes bio-identical hormones because their structure is the exact same as the hormones your body produces.

You’ll want to test your female hormone levels – estrogen and progesterone – ideally for an entire month where you’ll submit a series of saliva samples – to see when you’re ovulating and read your hormone levels. Saliva testing is more accurate that blood testing to get an accurate hormone reading. For example, if you’re ovulating at day 5 instead of day 14, this could affect conception.

This is invaluable information to have about your cycle. If you’re not ovulating at all or ovulating too early or late, you can take certain amounts of bio-identical progesterone (often wild yam) at particular days in your cycle to boost progesterone levels and normalize progesterone. If you’re estrogen dominant (if you’ve had fibroids, endometriosis, heavy bleeding, or have been on the pill for years, chances are you are not producing enough progesterone in relation to estrogen), progesterone will balance your hormone levels and normalize your cycle.

You also want to assess your diet: are you getting quality protein and healthy fats, the precursor to hormones? Are you doing too much soy? This can really affect hormone levels. How is your digestion? If you’re not absorbing your food due to a damaged digestive tract, you won’t have the raw materials to make hormones and you won’t be able to utilize all the nutrients from your food. Test yourself for parasites, candida, or pathogens, and repair your digestion. Parasites can cause infertility because they affect hormone levels.

While I’ve really only touched the surface here, I want to illustrate that there are options. This is a very personal decision and a sensitive subject. Many, many women have had successes using fertility drugs and treatments. But for those who have not, there are alternative options that work with your body rather than further stress your reproductive system. Look at your overall health: the health of your adrenal glands, thyroid hormones, digestion, and your diet. Balance hormone levels naturally by working with the body. Take stock of your diet: eliminate refined foods, take a quality multi and a B complex, and get high quality hormone-free protein and good fats like coconut oil, olive oil, and flaxseed oil. Celiac (gluten allergy) disease is implicated in infertility. Eliminate coffee and reduce alcohol. Look at the health of your home. Mold and toxins can affect fertility. and finally, relax. Try some stress relief, acupuncture, or massage, and honor your body for the amazing ability it has to create life.

Radiant Health & Vitality for the New Year

admin — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 06:18:23 +0000

The dawn of a new year means renewed inspiration and attention to health and well-being for many folks. Losing weight, exercising, eating better…. whatever your resolutions may be, I invite you to explore my keys to good health. Here’s to your best year yet!

Eat only whole, seasonal, preferably organic foods. A whole food means just that: you are consuming a whole, natural, unrefined food. Egg whites are not a whole food; consume the whole egg. Fruit juice may sound healthy, but it is very high in sugar and lacks the fibrous part of the fruit. White flour was once whole wheat before it is refined and bleached. Packaged and processed foods may claim “low fat” or “all natural,” but they may have refined flour or hydrogenated oils/trans fats. Eat out of the box. Shop the perimeter of the store. Visit your farmers’ market. Eat REAL foods. If you can’t pronounce the ingredients, don’t eat it.

Aim for balance in your life. Too much stress, eating the Standard American Diet of fast foods or processed foods, skipping meals, too many drugs (prescription, over the counter, recreational, whatever), too much sugar, too much booze…. all of this makes your body acidic. Your body should be slightly alkaline, and when you consume acid-producing foods like caffeine, too much meat, and excess sugar, your body becomes acidic, creating a welcoming environment for viruses and bacteria to flourish. Pain and degenerative diseases such as osteoporosis, cancers, arthritis, etc. begin to take hold in an acidic body. Your body wants to maintain a state of homeostasis and will deplete your calcium and magnesium stores to offset acidity. Get plenty of green leafys, and explore some of the spirulina/chlorella green food powders on the market. Incredibly alkalinizing and high in micronutrients.

Maintain healthy gut flora. Digestion is the key to good health. If you’re not digesting properly, you’re not absorbing important nutrients and fatty acids from your food, and your health will suffer. You may experience cravings or overeat. Maybe you’re constipated (are you pooping every day, at least once?), or you’re gassy or bloated. Your inner ecosystem is a delicate balance of bacteria, and when this balance is upset (due to… you guessed it: stress, poor diet, too much sugar, parasites, pathogens, bacteria), bad bacteria can proliferate, causing candida overgrowth and unpleasant symptoms. Try a good digestive cleanse (see previous posts for candida and parasite cleansing), then follow up with a good probiotic for several months. 80% of your immune system is in your gut, so healthy gut = strong immunity.

Perform some sort of meditation or relaxation every day. Start with 5 minutes in the morning, and 5 minutes in the evening, working up to 20 minutes twice a day. This could include deep breathing, meditation, yoga, chi gong, or tai chi. Massage helps too.

Get at least 9 hours of sleep every night, in a dark, quiet room: think cave. This has been shown to help repair the entire body and reduce illness. Your body heals and detoxifies while you sleep.

Finally, replace worry with action. Worry is a signal that something is off balance in your life. What is it, and how can you fix it? Go ahead. What are you waiting for?