Healing your Gut Gluten & Sugar Free

So I thought I would share with everyone out there the journey of becoming Gluten Free & Sugar free. It’s not like I woke up one day and said hey I'm going to try this. It was a growing process. It took months to even figure out this is something I absolutely had to do. It’s not easy having digestive issues. I didn't even know that the specific foods such as Gluten and Sugar were what always made me feel bad. It was more of theory that all foods or an abundance of foods where the cause and I should just eat less. It was a question I did want answers to. I was always on the hunt for the right diet, the perfect one that was just going to be easy and that I didn't feel bloated or sick all the time. I just wanted to be able to eat and feel fine. I didn't know it was not how much I eat but it was what I ate. So day after day I continued to make excuses and justifications for what I could eat as a reward for my hard work. Food to me always equaled a reward. I mean don't we all do this in a way? It’s been a hard day or a really amazing day and what do we think? Let’s go out to eat, or let’s get that ice cream or let’s go get that triple chocolate late with whip cream and all the rest. It’s a reward system. Then I ask do we always feel good after? Well, for me no I felt bloated and really tired. On top of that I had the worst indigestion afterwards. Wow could this be my reality for the rest of my life anytime I go out to eat? So after learning through my Mom that I needed to get an allergy test which took some tug-a-war to even want to get the tests done. I went to so many Dr Appointments and even had them scope me to tell me nothing is wrong. But why do I always feel this way and why can't I go to the bathroom? No answers. To be honest I don't think they know the answer and they eat that way too. So after learning that my mom had been developing food allergies and she had to begin to eliminate foods to determine why she was feeling so sick all the time I came forth and admitted that I have bad digestion too. It was so frustrating having the feeling like I am full all the time because I barely went to the bathroom. But I loved all those foods so much. It was an addiction. Once I started to learn how to read my labels and buy the foods I knew would not make me sick I began to feel a lot better. It wasn’t instant that I began to have a strong digestive system. It took months. I had to then come to terms that I could never be free of all those toxins until I cleanse my body of them. I tried to do just 2 or 3 day ones but never seemed to help. I finally got the courage to do an 8 day cleanse eating strictly vegetables, salad oils & herbs a special shake mix that provided all my vitamins and minerals to get me through my days. It was surprising. It was easy. I felt full all day long and I had amazing results. I dropped a lot of excess weight and began to start seeing improvement. Then after I began to get back into the normal routine I started to see that I can eat what I want as long as its Gluten Free. Then after tackling that big task my next task was my acne. It was months before my wedding and what Bride wants to have acne on their big day. So I began to see that I had to cut out the sugar and dairy(well at least the kind thats pasturized and full of antibiotics) to rebuild my gut. I immediately started to load my system with healthy flora (Probiotics). At first it was Keifer from the health food store, and then it was Probiotic pills and back to Keifer. Then discovering I could make my own yogurt from Goats milk without all the additives and pasteurized milk they used eliminating the Casein that is the part that most are allergic too from Goats Milk. Since I wanted to be free of processed dairy foods it took some discovery to find the right balance of Micro-flora that was not from Cows milk. So my Mom got me a yogurt maker and the starter to make my own yogurt from Goats Milk. It’s probably the most inexpensive thing I could do and I can make as much as I want. The key was how much I should eat at first because this stuff is powerful. Almost 3billion living healthy bacteria in 1/8tsp. Isn’t that amazing. They will flood your system clearing out all the bad bacteria that your body has. It will begin to detox your system and colon as they are introduced it to your system. It took about 4 days before I felt good and strong enough. The reason I chose to eliminate the sugar as well is because if I continue to introduce good healthy bacteria into my system and still eat sugar I will keep feeding the bad bacteria. This can then cause bacteria overgrowth. Some of the symptoms that come from the overgrowth are nausea, bloating, vomiting and diarrhea. If food is not digested properly, it can cause acid reflux, yeast overgrowth, or fermentation in the stomach. Yeast and various bad bacteria can produce byproducts are foul-smelling and trigger bad breath. As the percentage of "Good bacteria" vs. "Bad Bacteria" become more common with the types of foods our society eats we can easily through our systems off balance. In a colon that has a healthy balance of beneficial bacteria, there are over 400 separate species of friendly microbes. That's literally billions of bacteria per square centimeter, all working to keep your body strong and healthy.

Even though you can be 100% Gluten free there are still a lot of grains out there that are high in starch so you may want to limit them as much as possible because you could see a lot of bloating. Its tricky to understand Gluten but if we stick with whole grains and not the processed ones we are doing our selves a favor. Though there still are many people out there that cannot brake down the proteins on the grain leaving them to take that out of their diet. As grains have been around forever the way they were cultivated and used for foods was much different than todays grains so we just have to be careful. Gluten or other wise known as Starch tends to activate the fermentation process in our guts which can also not help the overgrowth. A simple diet that eliminates the starch is called the specific carbohydrate diet or "SCD". You can refer to the allowed foods in that category. Sometimes eliminating only the Gluten could not be the answer for you if you have serious bowel disorders. This has been a success for children with Autism because a lot of their behaviors come from the foods they eat and this has helped them to overcome and recover even though there are lots of links towards children with Autism this can be a start to recovery. They have found that some grains still feed the overgrowth and have also tested that honey and fruit are the only safe sugars.

So now after months of eating my yogurt, staying about 95% sugar free, 99% gluten Free and 75% starch free(rices, and Non Gluten Grains) I am seeing such a difference. It’s amazing that just a little motivation and research you can heal yourself. I found that no Dr. prescribed me the foods and supplements that I needed other than myself. We know our bodies better than anyone else and no matter what a Dr tells you to do you will eventually develop your own system after seeing what works and doesn’t work. So listen to your body. Do your research. Talk to your friends who take care of their bodies and be optimistic. Don't just do everything they do because it may not be the answer for you. Just keep an open mind and eventually you will find the right answers. With the love of God I would of never been guided the way I was. He provided healing with all the answers right there in front of me. It took a lot of trial and error. It’s not always going to be peachy. Of course we get sick and we do have indigestion but if it’s rare then we know we are doing something right. You will also notice that if you treat your body the way it needs to be treated you will get health in return; a strong immune system, fast metabolism and lots of energy; The way God intended right? If you feel the opposite it’s time to start figuring out what it is that’s causing you so much struggle and drag. Please check out some of my recipes that I have added to my blog for a Gluten free lifestyle. You can substitute where needed if you cannot have a certain ingredients and where it calls for sugar I also noted that you can substitute with honey as well where you can substitute for other forms of milk.

Here are some tips on avoiding gluten:

• Avoid cereals, breads or other grain products that include wheat, rye, barley or oats. This includes white or whole-wheat flour (including cookies, crackers, cakes and most other baked goods), semolina, couscous, bread crumbs, most pastas and malt.
• Avoid processed cheese, cheese mixes, low-fat or fat-free cottage cheese or sour cream.
• Avoid any dairy products, such as yogurt or ice cream, which contain fillers or additives.
• Avoid canned soups or soup mixes.
• Avoid creamed vegetables.
• Avoid products that contain modified food starch, food starch, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, stabilizers or fat replacers or substitutes.
• Avoid prepared or processed meats.
• Avoid beer, gin and whiskey.
• Avoid flavored coffee, malted milk or herbal tea with malted barley.
  

Look for products marked "gluten-free." As more attention is being given to this disease, more products are becoming available.

Foods that do not contain gluten include products made with soybean or tapioca flours, rice, corn, buckwheat or potatoes. Other gluten-free foods include nuts; fresh fish, meat or poultry; fresh, frozen or canned vegetables without sauces; wine; and plain, natural cheeses and yogurt.
Current evidence suggests up to 2 ounces of oats each day may be tolerated well by people with celiac disease.

If symptoms are not helped by restricting gluten or if the inflammation in the intestine is severe, your health care professional may prescribe corticosteroids, medication that can reduce inflammation. I also have links to a natural option for reducing inflammation on my Healthy Living Links page.

Here is a great article all about reducing inflammation:

http://www.womentowomen.com/inflammation/naturalantiinflammatories.aspxp

Please refer to my other article at the Healthy Living Links page for resources for supplements such as Omega 3 fish oils, MultiVitamins and Minerals.

10 Suggestions to becoming healthy:
1. Be honest with your symptoms
3. Stop any antibiotics if possible or NSAIDs.
2. Try to talk with your Dr about a healthy lifestyle
3. Get a Food Allergy Tests Done for Gluten, Soy, Dairy, Eggs, & Yeast. Food Symptom Matrix
4. Do a cleanse to get the bad toxins and foods out of your body
5. Flood your system with a Probiotic (Yogurt, Keifer, Probiotic Pills)
6. After a complete cleanse eliminate any foods that you have an allergy to.
7. Journal your symptoms good or bad
8. Try to begin introducing slowly so you can determine what your body likes and doesn’t. After a cleanse you want to try and stick with simple foods and slowly introduce new things and stay with it for a few days. If you have a bad symptom stop and journal it.
9. Stick to the new diet. Stay strong when eating out and with friends so you won't cheat.
10. Realize there are some withdrawals and run the course and be proud of your new life.

References:
Celiac Disease (Non-Tropical Sprue): http://www.everydayhealth.com/
Ginger Nash, N.D., naturopathic physician in New Haven, Conn: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NAH/is_3_35/ai_n9775577
Micro Flora Restore http://www.altcancer.com/microflora.htm