All Dis-ease Begins in the Gut (and mind)
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I wanted to post a quick reply to everyone who has asked about our diet and symptom relief.
We've been doing the healing diet prescribed in the Gut and Psychology Syndrome book.
So, we've temporarily removed all grains (whole, soaked, rice, everything) until the gut is strong enough to reintroduce healthier grains such as sprouted and fermented grains.
It seemed difficult and overwhelming at first, but we just tackled it in baby steps.
Before we eliminated the grains we were eating sprouted and fermented grains and found it to be very easy once we learned the process.
The sugar was tough to eliminate because it has so many forms/names and seems to be added to just about everything...so insidious. Even Whole Foods Market puts sugar/cane juice/etc. into most of their products. We had to give up on all of their salmon and other prepared meats because of the sugar content. Crazy.
The way we went about it was to get the Nourishing Traditions cookbook first and really learn about everything we were putting in our bodies. When we felt good and secure within that diet we were able to more easily tackle the heavier change of the GAPS diet.
I still find myself doubting the necessity of eliminating all grains/beans/sugar and trying to add little bits in, but I regret it every time. This week has been rough with figuring out how to store the food we eat and manage all of the errands, and we have had grains, beans and pasteurized dairy a few times.
Because of that I have been struggling with feelings which are entirely too like Fibromyalgia for my comfort (phys. & emotional), Neeka has a rash on her back, Quinn is struggling with some hyperactivity and Jeff is also struggling with ADHD symptoms which had been absent while we were eating appropriately.
I look forward to the day when we are able to have a slightly less restricted diet, but I can honestly say that the convenience of eating the way we have this week is not at all worth the health price we are paying now.
We find some relief of the symptoms from herbal supplements, but when the symptoms get to be chronic, the supplements are rather like a bandage too small for the wound. To make up the difference we work on dis-identifying from the mind/body as self. There are many schools of thought on this throughout all spirituality. I have found the most digestible form (hehe) to be in Buddhist writings and, of course, in my favorite books by Eckhart Tolle. The Four Agreements is another great book for this purpose. I can honestly say though, that nothing compares to the health brought of eating right. There are many diets that we have found symptom relief with...some more stringent than others, but anything from Dr. Christopher's Mucousless Diet to the GAPS diet; the Body Ecology Diet to the Nourishing Traditions diet: it all works and it is all SO very worth the trouble of learning to eat differently!
I wish you the best and hope that you are able to find the pain relief that I have!
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5 comments:
Couldn't agree more about disease springs from the diet - though I'd eat grains and beans before salmon.
My main diet weaknesses are an overfondness for stir-fries - too much highly-heated oil, though at least it's olive oil - and of course sugar. Even candy when I'm off the wagon.
Humans have a love-hate affair with grain, it's been keeping us alive and killing us for many generations. Sprouted and fermented is definitely better, I don't doubt. I havn't been disciplined enough to do that consistently. We do eat a lot of grain cooked whole, brown rice, of course, and also wheat cooked whole same as rice. We really like that cold with salad.
I increasingly find it difficult to digest dried beans and peas. Fresh from the garden is fine, otherwise we've been eating mostly dried lentils for pulse which seems much easier to digest. I think the gut bacteria vary a lot person-to-person, and I don't have the right ones for eating most dried beans, or even split-peas which used to be my favorite.
The ideal personal diet is very finicky, but the obvious things that nobody should eat on a regular basis are pretty simple.
Have you thought about a vegan diet? And a book to read for a holistic, plant-based diet that is unparalleled in the scientific literature of its kind is The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-term Health by T. Colin Campbell. I'm interested to see where your family ends up on the diet front.
Selling a vegan diet to a Nourishing Traditions devotee might be hard-going. We did gluten/caesin free with my daughter for a year, so I appreciate to a certain extent the difficulty of what you've undertaken to heal yourself. I've come to the conclusion that I must eat in a way that nourishes my family, politically correct or not. My meat-eating ways sometimes seem incongruous with some of my other life choices, but you do some amazing things to heal yourself or your children.
Well, I definitely don't want to "sell" you on anything. We all try and make the best decisions for ourselves and those we love, and I certainly respect the lifestyle choice you and your family have made. But, at some point human beings have to consider the deleterious effects of the meat and dairy agribusiness on the environment and other species. For example, close to 80 percent of the entire agriculture production system in America (land, water, food grown, etc.) is to feed animals that are slaughtered for human consumption. Approximately half the acreage of the entire United States is dedicated to that same end-use. This lifestyle is not sustainable, it causes millions of animals suffering and death every year, and it is scientifically proven that cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, etc. are greatly exacerbated by consuming meat and dairy. Anyway, I encourage you to read The China Study, just as I'm going to look into the scientific verifiability of Nourishing Traditions, because Campbell's argument and encouragement is much more articulate and refined than my impassioned diatribe. All the best to you and your family as you continue this journey.
Just a note on the Salmon. We only consume Wild Alaskan Sockeye salmon that is free of sugar and other additives.
This is the only non-local meat that we will consume and it is also the only fish we consume since it is very low on the Mercury watch list.
All of the other meat we eat is local and grass-fed or in the case of chicken, local, small farm raised free-roaming. We try and avoid all animal products which are fed grain because most of the grain contains industrial soy or corn (yes, even Whole Foods organic chicken).
We do not believe a proper sustaining diet is possible with a strict vegan lifestyle. There are just too many complex nutrients that we need that are only available from animals.
For more information, a good place to research is the Weston A Price foundation. They have an amazing quarterly publication that we subscribe to.
Thanks,
Jeff
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