Food restriction is not the answer - Week 4 of Gut School
This goes against basic nutrition science. This week’s unit of Gut Class was challenging because I had to un-learn a lot of what I learned in grad school about digestion. We busted some of the common “gut myths” and I’m going to bust a major one for you today. Just a warning, though, this is complicated! Working with a nutrition professional is going to be key here if you want to implement these strategies. Maybe go eat some kale and then dive into this. Get those brain juices flowing!
Ok, here we go.
In nutrition school, I learned what I thought was common sense. If you have a sensitivity to a certain food, meaning the food causes digestive issues such as gas, bloating, diarrhea, or constipation, you need to eliminate that food from your diet. Stop eating it.
That seems to make perfect sense, right? Why would you continue to consume food that hurts your tummy?
Here’s the thing. Researchers are finding that eliminating food from your diet damages your gut. It’s not just bad for you. But it actually causes damage to your body.
Let me pause here before I get too far…. An important caveat to this is if you have an allergy to a certain food, obviously don’t eat it. Or, if you have been diagnosed with Celiac Disease through biopsies during an endoscopy (which is the only way to accurately diagnose Celiac), then you need to avoid gluten.
So, if you don’t have confirmed Celiac and you don’t have actual food allergies, you should be consuming a wide range of foods. Specifically, a wide range of plants, since only plants have fiber.
Let’s back up a step. Your gut is completely adaptable. Within 24 hours of changing dietary patterns, research shows that your gut microbiome begins to adapt. If you read my previous blog posts from Gut School, you may remember when I explained how the microbiome works. As a brief refresher, the gut houses trillions of teeny tiny microbes. Each species has an ideal diet so you have to feed them the right foods. They eat fiber, which is only found in plants. Each plant contains different types of fiber. The greater the variety of plants we consume, the greater variety of beneficial microbes that will be in your gut.
Microbes eat fiber and then produce products called short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). It’s waste to them, but GOLD to us! SCFAs help to maintain good overall health, fight disease, and help you lose weight, just to name a few benefits. The greater the variety of microbes in your gut, the greater the variety and quantity of SCFAs you will receive. SCFAs are looking like a major key to human health.
When you stop eating a certain food, such as broccoli, the microbes that thrive on broccoli will suffer. They may be able to survive on other foods, but if not, they will go dormant or die off, we’re not sure at this time exactly what happens. But either way, you lose the ability to digest that food. The more foods that you stop eating, the more microbes you lose. Eventually, there becomes an imbalance between good and bad microbes. When the bad microbes take control, you are in some trouble. The result is gut dysbiosis, which is a fancy way of saying there’s damage to the gut.
A damaged gut needs “rehab”. In Gut School, Dr. B uses the analogy of a shoulder injury. If you injured your shoulder on Monday, would you go to the gym on Tuesday and try to bench press 100 pounds? No. Instead, you may go to physical therapy, use ice, and rest your shoulder. Slowly, you would regain strength back in your shoulder by restoring range of motion then lifting small weights. Eventually, over several weeks or months, depending on the severity, you would be able to work your way up to the weight you were lifting before the injury.
The same is true for your gut.
When you recognize damage, which again, manifests as symptoms such as gas, bloating, diarrhea, acne, heartburn, nausea, and more, you need to slow down with that food. It’s time for gut rehab. That may mean eliminating that food for a few days to see how you feel and hopefully get your system back to neutral. When you’re not feeling any symptoms, you can start adding that food back in, but very slowly. That might mean just a tablespoon for a few days. If that’s cool, increase it to two tablespoons.
Don’t overdo it and don’t abuse it.
This process can take several weeks or months. You may be much more sensitive to the food when you add it back in. That’s normal but really frustrating. That’s why I recommend working with a professional to help you through it. It’s really easy to get over-confident and go overboard. Which can set you right back to where you started.
This process may seem daunting and anything but fun. But here’s the thing. If you’re a person who has eliminated several foods or food groups from your diet because of digestive symptoms, the idea of being able to eat some of your favorite foods again is some of the best news you can hear!
The bottom line is that we need to get back to dietary freedom. We need to start having positive relationships with food. If the thought of eating gives you stress because you’re afraid or stressed about what you “can” or “can’t” eat, that’s the sign of an unhealthy relationship. It’s time to take back your health and eat yummy foods. The key to good health is eating a wide range of plants - that’s not a push for veganism, that’s just the latest science.
Cool? Cool.
Ok, what do you think? Overwhelmed? Lost? Excited? This is a lot of information, but it’s incredibly empowering! It leaves Y O U in control!!
I’d love to hear what you think about all this! Send me a message! Let’s start a conversation!
Peace, love & kale!
Lindsay
PS - If you want to dig into the research I referenced in this article, head on over to Dr. B’s website here or check out his book, Fiber Fueled. It will change your life! Or at least the way you look at plants!