Why the Elimination Diet?

Why the Elimination Diet? Why would someone want to eliminate foods from their diet? To answer that question, first I want to talk about the GUT.

What is the GUT?
In basic terms, it is a long tube (outside of the body) extending 20-22 ft and if flattened out, has the surface area of a tennis court. Over 70% of your immune system is in the GUT. Why? Because our biggest exposure to toxins and threats to our immune system come from what we put in our mouths. The GUT has to decide who is friend and who is foe for every single thing that goes thru. As mentioned, the gut is still the outside of the body. Think of the hole in the middle of a donut. If you put your finger in the hole are you touching the inside of the donut? No it is still the outside of the donut. If you poke your finger thru the dough crust, now you are inside the donut. So everything that comes thru the GUT lumen has to be monitored by the GUT. The GUT has to determine what can get inside and where along the way is it allowed to get inside the body? This is all done thru the process of digestion and absorption. So you aren't really just what you eat, but rather what you absorb.

A lot of us are walking around with a 'leaky gut.' Which means the GUT is allowing things to get inside the body that shouldn't or is letting big chunks of food that are not fully digested get in. The immune system responds to these big chunks as threats and now the person has a food allergy or food sensitivity to whatever that chunk of food was that got thru the leaky gut. Imagine your GUT lined with cheese cloth, only small digested particles can come through. But what happens when you have a tear in your cheese cloth? LEAKY GUT! The symptoms can manifest as headaches, chronic pain, bloating, stomach aches, diahrrea, constipation, mucous and even things like ADHD, anxiety and depression.

How does Leaky GUT happen? It can be caused by SAD (the Standard American Diet), by medication, especially antibiotics that can kill off good GUT flora and bacteria that keep the gut healthy. The GUT is pretty steril before birth and needs to be exposed to good bacteria to build a healthy line of defense. If a person is born C-section instead of vaginally, they are not exposed to that first bacteria and their GUT remains steril. If the baby is not breast fed they are missing important nutrients that build a healthy GUT. And then if the baby/toddler gets an ear infection or tonsilitis and are given antibiotics, much of the good bacteria in the GUT are killed off along with whatever bacteria that was causing the infection. Then if a person's diet has little vegetables, fruit and fiber that feed the good bacteria, they cannot flourish. Any of these and many other factors can contribute to 'leaky gut.'

So now back to the original question, Why the elimination diet? Because it eliminates the common food allergens or food sensitivities that commonly arise and it gives the GUT time to rest from these possible invaders. During the process it is also a good idea to support natural healing of 'leaky gut' and encourage new healthy bacterial growth, so we will be taking probiotics and some other nutrients to help heal the intestinal lining, repairing any possible tears in our cheese cloth.

LET THE ELIMINATION BEGIN!