Dr. Mercola
6-27-2012
Research shows that your gut flora can affect numerous processes in your body, including your metabolism, energy production, nutrition, and genetic expression.
Your intestinal microflora is unique, although you will likely have one of three general “communities” of bacteria. This microbial balance is exceptionally sensitive to environmental conditions, beginning at birth. Children who are born with severely damaged gut flora are not only more susceptible to disease; they’re also more susceptible to vaccine damage.
Choice of foods can alter your microflora in a matter of days, for better or worse. The ideal way to optimize your gut flora is to include fermented foods in your daily diet. While most probiotic supplements contain no more than 10 billion colony-forming units, one serving of fermented vegetables can contain 10 trillion colony-forming units of bacteria. Fermented foods also give you a wider variety of beneficial bacteria, so all in all, it’s your most cost effective alternative.
Dr. Wilson comments:
Although I agree that consuming a GAPS style diet is a healthy way to eat for many people, I don’t agree with the GAPS theoretical model of why this is so. At the present time there is very little scientific evidence that gut flora directly affects brain function to cause conditions such as autism and ADHD. Although maintaining healthy gut bacteria is important, there are other ways our modern diet damages our health and brain function.
For example, we now know that excessive fructose primarily from sugar and HFCS is the primary driver of insulin resistance and central obesity. When someone with insulin resistance consumes carbohydrates, especially from grains, their brain is subjected to magnified glucose spikes. Because neurons don’t need insulin for glucose to enter into the cell, these toxic glucose spikes can eventually disrupt normal cell function leading to a condition called sugar-brain.
Sugar-brain is characterized by cravings for sweet or starchy foods and mild brain dysfunction symptoms. Because the brain plays a key role in auto-regulating total body fat stores, people with sugar-brain start to store too much fat even when they don’t overeat.
Over time sugar-brain can transition to a serious disease called Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome or CARB syndrome. People with CARB syndrome can develop up to 22 brain dysfunction symptoms that interfere with a person’s ability to function. It’s at this stage they are often diagnosed with autism, ADHD, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression and similar conditions. They also continue to store too much fat even as they lose lean body mass through dieting.
It appears that Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride and I are seeing the same clinical picture in our patients but have come up with competing theories to explain what we are seeing.
That’s OK because eventually science will sort this out.
There is a fair amount of scientific research indicating that our food choices do affect how are gastrointestinal tract functions. Grains, legumes and dairy contain many anti-nutrients and toxins. Loren Cordain is one of the world’s leading researchers on diet and health and he has done many studies showing the toxic nature of grains, legumes and milk. His views do overlap somewhat with Dr. Campbell-McBride’s but he believes that the anti-nutrients and toxins in dairy, grains and legumes directly damage the bowel lining leading to a leaky gut.
Once the gut barrier is breached, large molecules that normally don’t enter our body are allowed to do so. This triggers an immune response leading to many autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. If you want to learn more about diet and gut health I suggest reading his interview. http://.www.meandmydiabetes
Because whole grains contain the highest concentration of anti-nutrients and toxins, from a gut standpoint high glycemic grains are better for your gut than whole grains. As you can see, this is a complex picture. The GAPS model attempts to attribute everything to gut flora problems but I think the situation is a little more complex. If you are prone to autoimmune conditions I agree with Dr. Cordain that you should avoid grains—especially whole grains, legumes and dairy. Following a Paleo diet as outlined in his book “The Paleo Answer” would be a good idea. If you have obvious brain issues and fit the sugar-brain or CARB syndrome pattern and are storing too much fat, I would first focus on eliminating sugar, HFCS and high glycemic carbohydrates.
The picture is further complicated by genetics. The ability of a given race to tolerate grains, dairy and legumes is somewhat dependent on how long that race has been consuming these items. Because people from different races often intermarry, these genetic factors are hard to predict. The best way to approach this problem is to eat real food rather than processed foods. Most people tend to better by cutting down on grains in general and reducing milk and legume consumption. You might have to experiment with your diet to see what works best for you.