Non-coeliac gluten sensitivity is on the rise. This is where your immune system over-reacts to a class of proteins collectively called gluten and causes symptoms anywhere in your body.
But is implementing a gluten-free diet really the best thing? Yes and No. If you replace your previously brown bread with a gluten-free sliced pan you may feel better for a little while. But what happens next?
You’ve now lost an important source of fibre. Fibre that fed bacteria critical for digestive health as well as the health of your immune system, your brain, your skin, and more.
You’re now eating more chemical emulsifiers like carboxymethylcellulose added to free-from foods to improve texture. These emulsifiers cause damage to your gut. This damage affects every system in your body.
You are now eating more ultra-processed grains and sugars like cornflour, dextrose, and modified starches. These feed pro-inflammatory and disease-causing bacteria in your gut.
Over time you may develop new, additional food sensitivities because the underlying causes of your initial sensitivity have not been resolved.
Sometimes the underlying causes of food sensitivity are very simple. With the right knowledge, you can learn to support your body’s journey back to magnificent health.
Plants contain biological toxins called polyphenols or bioflavonoids. Polyphenols are natural substances in fruit, vegetable herbs, and spices. Polyphenols help the plant deter infections (bacteria, viruses, moulds) and deter predators (insects, animals, and us!). Many plants with high polyphenol content have strong flavours that insects don’t like.
Examples of polyphenols include quercetin in apple skins and red onions, curcumin in turmeric, gingerol in ginger, and carotenoids in red/orange fruit and vegetables.
When you eat polyphenols they stimulate your body to strengthen its own defences and upregulate healing activities. A polyphenol-rich eating style helps calm and heal your whole gut. This is critically important if you want to get to grips with any digestive, skin, or immune issues including food sensitivities. Amazingly, many spices people with gut issues are afraid to eat are supremely anti-inflammatory and healing!
Autoimmune conditions e.g. psoriasis, hypothyroidism, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s
Digestive issues
Food sensitivities or allergies
If your vitamin D is below 100 nmol/L you don’t have enough.
More common signs can include back pain, fatigue, low mood, infections more than once a year, excessive sweating, dry skin, mood issues, high blood pressure, and joint pain.
Did you know that some common foods damage and inflame your gut, prolonging your struggles with IBS?
Refined products. These are “are food artifacts”. That is they’re not really food at all, only calories. Let’s take sugar. It comes from sugar cane which in nature contains nutrients like chromium and B vitamins. These nutrients helped the body cope with the natural sugars in there. Take sugar cane to the factory, get rid of the fibre and nutrients and you’re left with table sugar. White or brown it’s still depleted in nutrients. Your body has to draw nutrients away from other important functions to metabolise the sugar. Functions like keeping your mind calm (B vitamins and magnesium), or bowel healthy (folate, zinc, selenium, vitamin C) may suffer. Refined prsoducts feed pro-inflammatory bacteria in your gut. Refined foods include most wheat, pasta and sweet products as well as ready meals and things in packets with long lists of ingredients.
Gluten. Gluten is a collection of proteins found in grains like wheat, spelt, rye and barley. Humans can’t properly digest gluten so traditional ways of preparing grains like wheat evolved. Sourdough fermentation removes over 99% of the gluten from grains. This is why many people notice sourdough bread is easier on their system than yeast or soda bread. I ask all patients with digestive issues to lighten the gluten load by doing some very simple swaps in how they shop. Beware though, many “gluten-free” products are highly refined and can make matters worse!
Low-calorie or sugar-free products. These will often contain aspartame, saccharin, or sucralose. These chemicals alter your gut bacteria in favour of the “bad guys” that inflame you and prevent normal digestion.
It’s amazing how even a few simple changes can impact how you feel…
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Colitis and Crohn’s and other autoimmune conditions often run in families, right? You might be condemned to suffer these if you have a family history, right? WRONG!!
We, humans, have around 23,000 genes. Genes are essentially units of information and are made of DNA. We have 2 copies of each gene, one inherited from each parent. Genes instruct your body to make proteins. Proteins tell your body to do everything that ever happens in your body.
Out of all your genes, on average around 1000 are abnormal. Some of these abnormalities give you an advantage. You might be less predisposed to joint injury. Or be able to tolerate higher amounts of carbohydrates in your diet without becoming overweight or diabetic. Or a genetic abnormality might put you at a disadvantage. You might need more vitamin D than the next guy to avoid bowel disease, digestive disorders or psoriasis.
While there are genes that you can’t modify – like those for eye colour – the genes that govern health and disease can be modified. Gene behaviour is altered by its environment. You internal environment is governed by the food you eat, when you eat it, whether you exercise, the thoughts you think and subconscious factors that CAN be reprogrammed. That means you can support your genes to move you towards better health. Whether a gene “switches on” or stays inactive is governed by how you choose to eat, breathe, think and behave. For me, knowing I had an abnormal vitamin D receptor gene meant power to reverse (without meds) the osteoporosis diagnosis I got at age 47. You have more power than you know.
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Did you know that at the top of your stomach there’s a valve called the lower oesophageal sphincter? The LOS is there to prevent refluxing of stomach contents back upwards. This valve should be super-strong. If it becomes weak it relaxes and opens at the wrong time. It should only open when you are swallowing. It gets weak for a number of reasons. A lifetime of poor diet, inability to digest and absorb nutrients, or a stress-induced loss of normal healing and repair. If you are not making enough digestive juices in your stomach or if you are overweight this increases pressure on the LOS. If it’s weak as well you know the result – pressure behind your breastbone or burning.
I’ve seen many patients do what needs to be done to get themselves free of heartburn. Want to know more?
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If you do any of these it’s a sign your stomach is not able to digest. Your doctor may guess you have too much acid. Is this really the case? Surprisingly, it’s very rare for too much acid to be produced in the stomach. Acid is needed to break down protein you eat into smaller fragments in your stomach. That way, enzymes further down (in your small intestine) can complete digestion. A study published in the prestigious Journal of Gastroenterology shows that inadequate stomach acidity is inversely correlated with acid reflux. What that means in plain English is that the lower the acid in your stomach the worse your symptoms of heartburn. A common issue for people with acid reflux is that the little valve that stops stomach contents from coming back up is weakened. Healing from acid reflux is about you helping strengthen this valve, supporting the healing of your inflamed membranes, and getting your digestion working better.
IBS? IBD? Autoimmune issue? Any of those means your small intestine (not just your colon) is damaged and needs some TLC to heal.
If you eat commercially produced foods the chances are you’re eating polysorbate-80. This industrial emulsifier is a common food additive. It’s even used in laboratory animals to produce inflammatory bowel disease. And yet the food industry claims it’s safe for human consumption. But surprise, surprise it’s highly linked with inflammatory bowel disease in humans.
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Vitamin D is a critical vitamin. It’s made in your skin by the action of sunlight on cholesterol.
You are at risk of suboptimal levels if you
Take cholesterol-lowering medications, steroids, laxatives, or certain other meds
Are overweight
Wear sunblock
Don’t regularly get 15 minutes of bright sunlight on your bare skin
Have an impaired vitamin D receptor gene (yes you can do genetic tests for this)
Symptoms can include bone or joint pain, muscle cramps, mood changes, tiredness, being prone to colds/infections, low bone density, psoriasis, digestive troubles, and many cancers.
Your GP can do this simple test for you but make sure you get the result. The “reference range” (what is considered to be normal) is based on what was advised 25 years ago. When I was training in nutritional therapy in the early 90’s we were taught that a minuscule amount of vitamin D was enough. Newer research shows this is far from the truth.
To discuss your vitamin D result with me book your free quarter our discovery call now.
Book your FREE quarter-hour discovery call by phoning + 353 87 981666 NOW or emailing anna@annacollins.ie
Did you know that chronic stress breaks down the lining of your gut? We’re all designed to withstand short-term stress. A near-miss on the motorway, a challenging meeting, running late. Stress hormones rapidly rise but should normalize quickly after the incident. When your stress hormones are consistently too high that’s when problems start. Your body diverts its energy away from healing, repair, digestion, and immunity. It doesn’t matter if it’s your in-laws winding you up, a never-ending-seeming to-do list, or a real physical emergency. Your body doesn’t distinguish. Non-emergency functions take a back seat.
I know this from personal experience. In 2004 my lovely father had a catastrophic stroke. I was distressed for a very long time. Watching both him and my mother suffer horribly wrenched my heart every day. After 3 months I got a viral infection and spent 8 years ill. I was weakened by my lifestyle and way of thinking before the virus came along. If I were strong, I would have bounced back.
Knowing these 3 things could change your life:
Your food choices affect your stress levels
Certain products rob nutrients needed for resilience
Despite what’s going on in your life you can become more resilient to stress
Book your FREE quarter-hour discovery call by phoning + 353 87 981666 NOW or emailing anna@annacollins.ie
