How to fix your guts…

What can you do to repair your damaged digestive system? The first step is one you’ve already taken: eliminating those items that cause the damage in the first place! But there’s more you can do to help  your body heal. At the recent Paleolithic Solutions seminar, Coconut was mentioned as a contributor to healing the digestive system; in fact, coconut in many forms (fresh, oil, water, milk) has many healing properties, which you can read about in this article from the Coconut Research Center. There are several other articles there that are well worth checking out. Sally Fallon and Mary Enig wrote a marvellous piece on digestion which includes this description of coconut:

“Coconut Oil for Digestion

Coconut oil is rich in medium-chain fatty acids that provide unique benefits for the digestive process. They have anti-microbial properties; that is, they fight against pathogenic viruses, yeasts, bacteria and parasites in the gut. These special fats are also the preferred food for beneficial bacteria in the colon.

For those who have gall bladder problems and difficulty in digesting fats, coconut oil can be very useful because the medium-chain fatty acids do not need to be acted on by the bile salts. And for those who have trouble digesting milk and cream, coconut milk and coconut cream can serve as substitutes.

Best of all, the body uses the medium-chain fatty acids for energy and rarely stores them as fat. Coconut oil aids digestion and boosts metabolism—wonderful benefits that come in a delicious package.”

In that article, Sally & Mary also give us great information on nutrients for the Digestive Tract (just ignore the references to grains and dairy, and replace them in your mind with Paleo sources 🙂 ).

It takes just 48 hours for your digestive system to begin repairing itself, and if you don’t screw it up by ingesting those foods which cause the damage, within about 2 weeks you are well on your way to a healed and fully functional digestive system. Unfortunately, one lapse can set you back immediately.

My 83-year-old mother arrived in the US 4 years ago to live with me, and was in horrible shape, digestively speaking. In her 70s she had developed sensitivity to glutens, dairy and the tannins in tea (a nasty development for an English-woman!). She had had 2 courses of strong antibiotics within the previous 2 years (which had killed off all her intestinal flora, good and bad), and had lived on a diet heavy on carbohydrates, low in fat and low in protein (in addition she was vegetarian)  which had re-populated her system with the “bad”, Candida-based bacteria. My wonderful chiropractor (also a nutritionist) put her on a grain-free, dairy-free, sugar-free nutrition plan, which she followed for several months; the goal of this plan was to eliminate all the “bad bacteria” lining my mother’s gut, and to make a fresh “fertile environment” for the new, “good bacteria”. She began to eat vegetable broth made out of beets and greens, and to take a pro-biotic supplement called Primal Defense which contained lots of the “good bacteria” to get her system populated again; here’s a great primer on pro-biotics. Those “Green Shakes” that I mentioned 3 weeks ago also featured in her “digestive recovery”, as the green, leafy stuff also helped to re-populate her system with good bacteria.  This is a very good overview of “Leaky Gut Syndrome” which explains the importance of intestinal flora, and the roles of enzymes and probiotics. My mom also took a  digestive enzyme supplement, but unfortunately I can’t remember which it was (it was a Pancreatin supplement). There are quite a few available, and you can find many at the local health food/natural foods store. Today, she is healthy and happy, and has adjusted well to life without many of the staples she was accustomed to eating (and she loves my Paleo meals, especially the “Veggie Critters”!)

So, although your gut/intestinal system is most likely damaged from eating grains and other irritants, all is not lost. Eliminating the “bad stuff” is a good start, which you need to follow by  helping your system to heal and to re-populate with the “good stuff”. Pro-biotics and a broad-spectrum digestive enzyme will help. Glutamine and Zinc also can help heal your guts, as can Omega-3 supplements (you ARE taking your Fish Oil, right?).