Inspired by her son's autism,
Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride brought out a book in 2004 entitled Gut
and Psychology Syndrome.As a
doctor working with children, she saw countless cases of ADHD and ADD,
allergies, asthma, eczema, as well as autism, and discovered that these
problems were often ameliorated by a diet she calls the GAPS -- gut and
psychology syndrome -- diet.It closely
resembles the Specific Carbohydrate Diet written about in the early 90's by
Elaine Gottschall in her book Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal
Health Through Diet, also inspired by the illness of a child, in this case
the writer's daughter.
Gut and Psychology Syndrome begins with an apt quote from
Hippocrates, "All diseases begin in the gut."The subsequent description of what happens there -- or should happen -- is
easy to follow.The health of the gut
wall and the importance of beneficial bacteria are illustrated by cartoons that
add to the accessibility of the book.The role of the immune system is often subverted in susceptible people
when the important balance of Th 1 and Th2 (T-cell helpers) is upset leading to "friendly fire" -- antibodies attacking the patient's own tissues.This gives quite various conditions like
asthma, eczema, candidiasis and even autism something in common, to wit, a lack
of beneficial gut flora.This problem is
compounded by a corresponding increase in harmful gut bacteria.
What could cause such a dearth of "good" gut flora?Antibiotics are an obvious answer.Other medicines contribute, as does sugar,
stress, and some of the infectious diseases.We know that antibiotics have been routinely administered to meat and
dairy animals to help them survive the drastic conditions of factory
farming.Who subsequently gets those
antibiotics?Those who eat the meat or
drink the milk.
Wheat and milk are two staples of the American diet.Why? We get accustomed to the taste in
childhood and both come with a "feel good" effect.Bread gives serotonin a boost and milk is
soothing.That is, unless you have a
compromised intestinal tract that can't digest the gluten in wheat or the
casein in milk.If they are percolating
through your gut wall they may well become what Dr. Campbell-McBride calls
gluteomorphins and casomorphins.If
those sound to you like drugs, well, they apparently affect the brain that way,
so gluten and casein are at the top of the list of what to avoid.
What to avoid besides wheat and milk?Sugar in most forms, starchy vegetables,
grains, unripe fruit, and starchy legumes, including soy.What does that leave on the menu?Quite a bit, actually.Among dairy products, only ghee (clarified
butter) is truly safe, as it has neither lactose nor casein.Fish and meat are important, especially stock
made from bones.Eggs, which are very nourishing
and also easy to digest, should be on the list unless a specific allergy
intervenes.Non-starchy vegetables and
ripe fruit are recommended.Nuts and
seeds are likewise recommended, but with the suggestion that they be soaked
first for ease of digestion.As with
beans, throw away the soak water and, if you want them crisp, pop them in the
oven.Despite the prohibition on sugar,
some honey can creep in.And probiotics
will help.
Dr.
Campbell-McBride's recommendations are very close to those in Elaine
Gottschall's Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet --
now a classic in it's eighth printing, available as the revised 2007
edition.The Specific Carbohydrate Diet
Ms. Gottschall recommends excludes starch and disaccharides because, as she
explains, they require digestive enzymes not readily available to people with
Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, chronic diarrhea, celiac disease, diverticulitis,
and other intestinal problems. Monosaccharides (raw honey with its own enzymes
to break down the disaccharides into mono's) are much more easily absorbed.The fructose in very ripe fruit and the
galactose (not lactose) in yoghurt are monosaccharides, too.
Yoghurt falls into the fermented category and fermented
food is chief among the recommendations of Thomas Cowan, MD, in his book The
Fourfold Path to Healing.He
points out how important it is to make the yogurt and sauerkraut and beet
kvass, etc. at home, unless you are absolutely sure of your source.Avoid pasteurized products as the enzymes
you're looking for will not survive that process.If you're wondering how to make these things,
take a look at Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon or Wild Fermentation by
Sandor Katz.Note that
lacto-fermentation doesn't mean that you will be consuming lactose.
Gut and Psychology Syndrome and Breaking the Vicious Cycle
are essentially singing the same song: no sweets, no grains, no starchy
vegetables, and no processed food because labels are confusing and often
incomplete.If you have any lingering
intestinal problems or mental disorders stemming possibly therefrom, you would
do well to read either or both books.Both, by the way, include some pretty tempting recipes.Breaking the Vicious Cycle also
includes instructions on how to make your own infant formula.
Recommended Reading:
--Breaking the
Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet, Elaine
Gottschall, Kirkton Press (Canada),
2007
--Gut and
Psychology Syndrome, Natasha Campbell-McBride, Medinform (U.K.)2004
--The Fourfold
Path to Healing, Thomas Cowan, New Trends, 2004
--Nourishing
Traditions, Sally Fallon, New Trends, 2001
--Wild
Fermentation, Sandor Katz, Chelsea Green, 2003