Digestive Wellness: Strengthen the Immune System and Prevent Disease Through Healthy Digestion, Fourth Edition (61 page)

Diluted fruit juices

It’s important that you stay hydrated. Your body is two-thirds water. You may find that drinking teas or warm water is most soothing. Here is a list of beverages to try.

Water, water with a bit of juice, water with lemon, water with raw apple cider vinegar

Teas, such as mint, slippery elm, fennel, fenugreek, ginger, umeboshi, roobios, green tea

Fresh vegetable juices

Broths

Use fresh or dried herbs and spices in cooking: salt, pepper, basil, oregano, dill, caraway, fenugreek, fennel, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and so on. Try to avoid “hot” spices such as cayenne and chili powder unless they call out to you!

If you are wasting away and cannot eat much at all, you may want to consider eating a medical food. I’ve found that medical foods can be life-saving for people who are literally starving. These are hypoallergenic “foods” that are composed of nutrients that are already fully digested. Proteins are presented as free amino acids. Fats are presented as fatty acids. Carbohydrates are simple. Vitamins and minerals are in basic forms that are easily utilized. Typically you would want to drink these one to six times daily to either replace or supplement your diet. There are many of these on the market today. Your physician or nutritionist may recommend one that is covered by your medical insurance plan. There are also others that are manufactured by supplement companies. Typically these are not reimbursable through your healthcare plan.

There are also several specialized diets that are being used for gut healing. In this section, you’ll find short descriptions of the candida diet, Body Ecology Diet, Specific Carbohydrate Diet, and Gut and Psychology Syndrome Diet. What these
all
have in common is that they are low-carbohydrate diets. Bacteria and yeast feed on starches and sugars. By limiting these, you help promote a healthy gut microbiome.

Candida diet.
There are many variations of this diet. Typically allowed foods include vegetables that grow above the ground; protein foods such as chicken, fish, pork, beef, lamb, and bison are included. Dairy products, such as yogurt and kefir, are included, as are fats and oils. It looks much like an Atkins Diet. By restricting carbohydrates, you can starve out yeast and bacteria. I typically allow brown rice, millet, flax, psyllium, buckwheat, quinoa, and wild rice when soaked, cooked, and eaten as a whole grain. For my candida diet, go to
http://www.digestivewellnessbook.com
.

Body Ecology Diet.
I particularly like this diet. It allows for whole grains and adds fermented and cultured foods such as yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, and kimchi. See
http://www.bodyecologydiet.com
.

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD)
. Originally developed for people with Crohn’s disease, this diet cuts out all disaccharides (two-sugar molecules), polysaccharides, and starches. It allows meat, fish, poultry, shellfish, hard cheeses, homemade yogurt, honey, nonstarchy vegetables, beans, peanut butter, nuts, fruit, coconut, fats and oils, tea and coffee, gelatin, mustard, and vinegar. It can be helpful for many people. See
http://www.scdiet.org
.

The Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) diet.
This diet is similar to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. It is another low-carbohydrate diet and focuses on fresh local meats, raw dairy products, eggs, fish, shellfish, fresh vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, garlic, and olive oil. It works well, but I believe it is the hardest to follow. It requires the most change in your diet and the most home cooking and preparation. Nonetheless, it’s the best diet for some people. See
http://www.gapsdiet.com
.

Here are a few basic recipes you may want to try. They are all nutrient laden and gut healing.

Four-Minute Chicken Stock

Yield: 1 gallon

See the video of Liz making chicken stock at
http://www.youtube.com/user/InnovativeHealing#p/u/3/xqelGyeT14g
.