Hey, I was just wondering about the various things you guys have done to help the gut heal and I'm trying to put together some things to try. I've already read about:
probiotics - pill and sauerkraut
bone broth
l-glutamine
and maybe avoiding certain foods that upset the gut and work against it healing. So my questions are these:
What if something that is good for the gut is starchy? For instance, this sauerkraut I just bought turns black within 40 mins, and 2% iodine turns it immediately. No other ingredients but sauerkraut. Do you guys just take this stuff anyways?
What foods work against the healing of leaky gut? I'm eating slivered almonds for a decent amount of my calories but I don't know if that's working against my actual gut healing.
Are there other foods/supplements/things to try?
A no starch/sugar diet has helped considerably with my inflammation but it still sort of is nagging on after 6 months or so of being on it. I know it can still take longer but I feel that my specific needs perhaps need to be more gut centric, or at least not ignoring the prospect of healing the gut. Especially since my sacroilitis is not that bad, but it's still annoying and frustrating.
Thanks for the responses
Hi, kj243:
We don't get the trace minerals from foods and a lot of vitamins are lost in processing or otherwise not available; it is important to supplement aggressively.
Niacin/niacinamide, lysine, vitC, vitD, vitE together are all important for healing in general. Specific also to the gut are some foods and Your observation that some foods could be starchy yet helpful is quite perceptive: Yoghurt is kind of in this category, so take only a couple ounces daily but it is very good. Okra is safe and very gut-healing, also lychee fruit (canned in Asian markets).
EFAs are very important and it is useful and inexpensive to take several (eight or so) teaspoonfuls of EVOliveOil daily, especially just before meals. To take the edge off the pains and eliminate morning stiffness, borage seed oil is great at a large enough dosage (GLA ~ 240mg per capsule => 4 capsules per 100# body weight); it is safe to take in large amounts. Fresh wheatgrass juice for any flares (4-6oz on empty stomach 3 days in a row then skip 4 days. Repeat if necessary).
Get minerals zinc, copper, B12 (cobalt), calcium 2g and magnesium 1g, selenium, and boron. I have taken colloidal minerals with moderate results, also (these are a vinegar "tea" with good and bad stuff in natural but very dilute amounts): See Joel Wallach's "Dead Doctors Don't Lie" lecture(s).
This will get You back as close to normal as nature allows, I believe,
HEALTH,
John
How much starch in pumpkin seeds? I am on a non starch diet but made the mistake of thinking I was safe with sunflower seeds. I now realise I should stop eating them. But what level of starch is in pumpkin SEEDS? Please can anyone advise? Searching online did not help!
I'm about 3 months in to NSD. To heal my gut I've been alternating probiotics (6-8 weeks) with herbal antibacterials (1-2 weeks) such as goldenseal, oregano oil, berberine, etc.
This was suggested by a naturopath but it's too early to say if it's helping. But the underlying principle of "weed and seed" seems reasonable enough - kill off some bacteria, replenish with probiotics, and over time the balance can shift.
I also make bone broths regularly and have started taking gelatin (for my joints but hope it might help the gut lining as well)
So far I've seen zero improvement to my starch tolerance - the smallest amounts continue to cause pain and stiffness the next day.
By the way, I tested my sauerkraut and it didn't turn black. But given your experience I'll be more diligent about testing food with cabbage.
UPDATE: tonight I tested the cabbage I was going to have for dinner and it was very starchy, which had not been an issue with other cabbages I'very tested. So much for my 'safe' list.
How much starch in pumpkin seeds? I am on a non starch diet but made the mistake of thinking I was safe with sunflower seeds. I now realise I should stop eating them. But what level of starch is in pumpkin SEEDS? Please can anyone advise? Searching online did not help!
Unshelled pumpkin or squash seeds have 29.5g/100g
Shelled pumpkin seeds have .7 to 1.5g/100g
Sunflower seeds have 5.7g/100g
I use
cronometer.com to look foods up. I found it very helpful in the first few weeks to track everything I ate to help guide my eating (though no replacement for iodine since starch can vary).
What's the benefit of l-glutamine to gut healing?
Kellybells, thanks for your information about using herbal antibacterials and alternating with probiotics. I used oregano oil a few months ago off of probiotics so maybe I'll try that again.
The benefits of l-glutamine for gut healing apparently are that it contains something that directly helps the gut lining, it's essentially the same thing as in bone broth I think. However, upon further research, it sounds like people are worried about how bone broth affects some changing factor that has to do with underlying neurological disorders or strokes or something like that, and I'm pretty sure L-glutamine can affect that too. In short, it sounds like just starting with bone broth at a moderate pace instead of doing both bone broth and L-glutamine is a good idea. The Paleomom talks about this in a few of her articles but I do not have them on me.
I actually tried pumpkin seeds when I was unsuccessfully trying to branch out what I was eating a few months back. I tested them with 2% iodine and they would only ever turn brown or stay orange. I was convinced they weren't very starchy, but for some reason they didn't do that well for me. Neither did macadamia nuts. I think sometimes these foods have fermentable fiber or something that just may not sit well with some of these gut issues. I don't really have 'bad reactions' to food but after a few weeks I noticed that something had given me a mild flare and that it wasn't helping my cause.
I'll probably try them again at some point, because I don't think that shelled pumpkin seeds or macadamia nuts are *that* starchy, but maybe they are hard to get through the gut and end up not doing well, who knows.
Glutamine pretty much helps rebuild the damaged gut tissue and it helps prevent further mucosal breakdown.
Ah, thanks for the info about l-glutamine. I eat bone broth or gelatin almost daily, so I'm thinking I've got it covered. I knew both were recommended for joint issues but I didn't realize there was a gut healing effect as well, but it makes sense that collagen would be a building block for the gut lining.
I haven't actually gotten very far with the 'weed and seed' protocol so I can't honestly say if it's helpful - only two rounds of 'weeding' so far. I'll post my results in a few months, good or bad.
I've read a number of old posts on this site about people improving their starch tolerance over time, so that's my ultimate goal. I expect I will always have to be careful, but I'd like to be able to eat minimally starchy foods like carrots and squash and nuts again.
Yea, that's my goal as well. I want to get to where the majority of my calories isn't coming from fat in some form - fruits, moderately starchy vegetables, brown rice, whatever. I think it's attainable but I have to be patient.
I started oregano oil and plan to use ti 3 or so times a day for a few weeks before I start on the probiotic I have, just to be sure. Ive been having somewhat of a mild flare up since the macadamia nut experiment but, I did eat those nuts for about a month so it'll take a while to undo whatever I did.
Also, dragonslayer, I know that vitamin C is important but where in the world do you find starchless vitamin C. I cannot find it anywhere. And all liquids have some kind of sugar in it.
What kind of gelatin are you taking also? thanks for the responses
I use powdered gelatin, like the kind you use for making desserts. I take 1TB every morning, mixed with water.
I buy it in bulk (either from my health food store or the local bulk food store). I've been taking it off and on for a few years now to help with advanced arthritis in my knee. It's been very helpful. That was long before I knew anything about AS, so I've started it again hoping it will help now with my other joint issues. Sounds like it may also help with my gut healing, so bonus.
kj243 - try powder Vit C - I use Swanson pure Vit C powder, no starch. I just add it to big bottle of water and drink it throughout the day.
https://www.swansonvitamins.com/swanson-premium-pure-vitamin-c-powder-16-oz-454-grams-pwdr
Weed and Seed cycles (or "Weed and Feed"); i.e. alternating between probiotics and antimicrobials.
I like Kellybells weed and seed time period of about six to eight weeks of seed then one or two weeks of weed. But are there cases in which the cycle should be shorter to perhaps three weeks of seed and one week of weed? And even more extreme where the cycle repeats two or three times a day?
Also of course we need to learn to listen to our body and immediately give it what it screams for with respect to weed or seed.
Healthy people with healthy diets are probably weeding all the time at a low level by using parsley, sage, thyme, oregano, cayenne, rosemary, etc., simply as seasonings! Those herbs and spices are starchy when in dried form but can we consume them if we grow our own? I imagine that they are more potent too as antimicrobials when fresh since the compounds are still alive or have not had anytime to be decomposed by oxygen, light or microbes. Is eating those raw even better?
Perhaps we should be weeding all the time but only be changing the intensity.
I am out of answers. I seek wisdom. I have a racing brain that is running in the fog.
And in contradiction to my last post there are thoughts that long-term starch and FODMAP restriction will impair gut healing and function
https://chriskresser.com/why-diet-alone-is-not-enough-to-treat-sibo/