High Tea...High Time For Change

I am currently in what I refer to as a bit of a 'f@#k it' period in relation to food. It doesn't look like anything extreme, it just means I'm not restricting food groups and will pretty much have a go at anything if it's offered to me. Although at home I have the last few weeks been experimenting with implementing aspects of the GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) protocol as I have a feel that's kind of where I'm headed, unfortunately.

I say unfortunately because it's a grain-free diet and as much as I try to ignore it I seem to be having trouble with grains, and I love grains! Still it will be an experience! And implementing the GAPS protocol into my own life, I believe, will help me in assisting others to do the same thing should they wish/need to which is something I would very much like to do as a practitioner. More about GAPS in a later post. However if you're curious check out the GAPS website. The creator of the GAPS protocol (fancy word for diet) Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride is my new hero. This interview and this presentation  sum up her work exceptionally well. She has completely changed my perspective of food as medicine and was my inspiration to study nutritional medicine.

But I wanted to talk about high tea! I love a high tea! Especially the half price ones you can get on the various coupon sites! Up until recently I've been able to handle the occasional high tea indulgence with relative ease. However I thought to post about how I have reacted to the one I shared today with my mum.

It was your average high tea; wheat based savouries with meat and dairy, scones with jam and cream, and numerous, delectable little cakes and pastries. Now, 6 hours later, I'm in a fair bit of discomfort. My stomach is mildly crampy, the glands around my jaw are swollen, my ear pressure feels different, probably from the swollen glands, and my throat is a little sore.

Over the past couple of months these symptoms and a few others have become increasingly regular after eating. I was roughly 85% raw vegan for some time there and I put the symptoms down to possible 'detox', however when I started to regularly experience uncomfortable bloating after a seemingly very simple meal of raw veggies, cooked (and pre-soaked) grains and avocado, I was stumped. I started to incorporate animal products back into my diet and many of the symptoms stopped, until I ate grains, unfermented dairy, or too much sugar.

So my guess (and I'm very open to being wrong) is that my gut flora is pretty seriously out of whack (for reasons I'll probably discuss in a later post), my gut lining is quite possibly damaged, I'm not digesting properly, and my body's not coping. The solution, I believe, is to start really looking after my gut flora and heal my gut-lining. So I'm thinking no grains or legumes, because apparently they damage the gut-lining. No refined sweeteners because they feed the opportunistic ('bad') bacteria. No unfermented dairy, cause...something about casein that I can't remember. No starchy vegetables, cause they're hard to digest and so also feed the opportunistic bacteria. Go easy on the raw veggies other than juices (because they're hard to digest and my tummy needs a break). And hello animal products! Bone broths (apparently awesome for healing the gut-lining, organic gelatin is also meant to be good), soups (easy to digest) and organ meats (concentrated nutrients) here I come! And hello fermented foods! Just as well I already love you! What I've described is pretty much the GAPS protocol in a nutshell. The Specific Carbohydrate Diet, I believe is similar but I haven't looked into it. It could be that simply going paleo might be enough. I will be curious to see what helps.

Next step. Seek some professional advice.

I share all this not to be boring and self-centred, I generally avoid talking about my food reactions from fear of it getting tedious, but because I hope to be able to share at a later stage how all these symptoms have disappeared and what led to that result. I'll be my first case study!

To be continued...