As you may already know, leaky gut syndrome occurs when certain foods overwhelm your body’s autoimmune system. When that happens, your own body’s defenses react to and “attack” certain types of food. Because of this, the intestinal lining becomes overloaded with continued exposure to the same foods. This can lead to inflammation of the mucous membrane or even the formation of pores, which means that the intestines can no longer do their job properly. Don’t waste your time with the many diets out there today because they just don’t work! You should focus on eliminating certain foods from your diet for a while, at least a month or so. This leaky gut diet also gives your body the opportunity it needs to heal and repair itself.
Start by eliminating certain fruits and vegetables from your diet. Now I know you probably think that fruits and veggies are your friend, they’re healthy and so on. And for the most part, that’s true. But do yourself a favor and just give it a try for a month. Diet is designed to find and eliminate the food sources that are the cause of the problem. Start with bananas, strawberries, kiwis, citrus, corn, pineapple, and papaya, as well as nightshade vegetables like eggplant, peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes. Now you’re probably thinking, “I’m going to starve,” but remember the ban is only for a month to determine what exactly is causing your problem. Next, eliminate soy and dairy products from your diet, including eggs. Grains and foods containing yeast such as bread, flour, wheat, spelt, kamut, rye, barley, oats and millet should also be eliminated from your diet. In addition, you must eliminate beans, caffeine, chocolate, honey, vanilla extract, vinegar, mushrooms, and peanuts.
Before you say, “Now I really don’t have anything to eat. I might as well die,” see this as a chance to discover “new foods” and “new tastes,” so to speak. Take a look at all the wonderful foods you can enjoy right now! Stick to certain fruits and vegetables, such as apples, apricots, lettuce, avocados, onions, peaches, pears, beets, Brussels sprouts, carrots, plums, cherries, nectarines, coconut milk, spinach, figs, and grapes and berries (except strawberries). Just as there are some foods you should avoid, you should also eat some. In the first month, you can also eat parsnips, pak choi, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, coriander, brown and wild rice, dandelions, sprouts, sunflower seeds and kale.
After a month, you will find for yourself that the symptoms associated with leaky gut syndrome are significantly reduced, if not eliminated completely! You have now given your body the opportunity to heal itself and what a great feeling that is. If you’re ever in doubt, just take the time to think about the leaky gut syndrome symptoms you’ve experienced before ie (cramping, bloating and gastrointestinal discomfort). Now you can start slowly adding food back into your diet. Start with meat, fish, chicken and turkey. Not too much at once as meat takes longer to digest anyway and you may feel a little bloated from all the digestion going on in your stomach.
Remember to try each food for three days first. Then slowly introduce another food and so on until you can finally start adding more complex foods like caffeine, kiwi, peanuts, refined sugar, peas, strawberries and sesame seeds. The important thing here is not to add everything at once. This is a gradual process where you should add foods at a time over a three day period. Pay very close attention to your body’s response to any food you add to your diet. If you have symptoms again, remove the food you just added from your menu immediately.
By following this leaky gut diet, you not only give your body the opportunity it needs to heal itself, but you also learn which foods and foods caused your initial reaction in the first place, causing you to have similar symptoms can better avoid future.
Thanks to Deborah Flemming
