Listen to Your Gut
It’s tough to imagine going from this – gorging myself on pasta, bread, and piles of fresh buffalo mozzarella in Italy – to repping the #lowcarb, #glutenfree & #dairyfree life.
Once upon a time, I was known for having a stomach of steel. I loved South Korean street food, and my gut could handle just about anything short of a Guatemalan amoeba I once picked up in a jungle waterfall.
So, when I got very sick with a gut infection a little over a year ago (right here in my home town) and had to restrict my diet to little more than greens and bone broth, it made me wonder: what HAPPENED to me? 🤯
What happened was a combination of stress, and a very high-sugar, high-fibre diet that was low in collagen, and the amino acids we need to build a strong gut lining. This one-two punch resulted in dysbiosis (an imbalance of gut microbes), which caused chronic and severe bloating, sharp pain after eating, near-crippling anxiety, fatigue, and headaches that would swing in tandem with the stomach aches, because #gutbrainconnection.
To read more about that experience, and the specific techniques and protocols I used to recover, visit my previous post, “Let’s Talk About Meat + Why I Started Eating it Again“.
In order to heal, I had to remove any and all inflammatory foods from my diet, increase my protein intake, rebalance my gut flora, and most importantly, take serious inventory of my life and whether the path I was on was truly what was best for me.
It took time, and a lot of work (both physical and emotional), but I’m happy to report that I am finally back to my old self. I still avoid the most common allergens and irritants like gluten, dairy, and refined sugar, but I CAN eat them, on occasion, with little or no consequence. And silly as it may sound, this thrills me.
Even better, I am actually absorbing and reaping the full benefits of all of the nutrition and supplements I am consuming, which essentially means all of my symptoms have gone away.
These days, I do my best to focus on the quality of the food, rather than the food itself. I have no fear of a lusty, crusty loaf of homemade organic sourdough, although I probably would not eat it every day. I’ve completely renounced any dietary extremes or labels I once imposed on myself, trading them instead for a balanced and well-rounded respect for my body, and enjoyment of all foods (and my life) again.
Among the many takeaways from this experience (which I wish to pass on to anyone with similar struggles), were the following:
- Never underestimate the influence of emotional stress on your physical health. When you are losing yourself spiritually, you will eventually and inevitably begin to lose yourself physically, too. I will never again question whether mental/emotional “dis-ease” can manifest in physical ways. I would encourage you to check out When the Body Says No, a great reference book outlining the research on the physiological connections between life’s stresses and the body systems governing nerves, hormones, and the immune system.
- Just because your body can’t tolerate something now, doesn’t mean you will never be able to again. Diagnosed celiac disease aside, sometimes high-allergen foods can trigger reactions where there are reactions to be triggered. But by returning to the basics for a little while, and giving you and your gut the nourishment and boundaries to heal, you may in time regain the resilience and flexibility to enjoy all the experiences that life has to offer.
If you need help with this, check out The Well Fed Cookbook for lifestyle and dietary guidance, as well as a delicious variety of gluten-free, dairy-free, and refined-sugar-free recipes.