what to do with a leaky gut

Recently on Dr. Drew's show, he behaved like an immature asshole that doesn't know what he's talking about and completely condescended this woman when she clearly knew what she was talking about made some rather unfortunate remarks about leaky gut.

Seriously, we're not in the 1980's anymore. Leaky gut exists. When you have celiac disease or some other gastrointestinal disorder, your gut permeability increases, which leads to an autoimmune response, as your body interprets the food particles coming through as invaders. This leads to: chronic inflammation and increased risk of developing other autoimmune diseases, unnecessary food allergies, skin rashes and worsening dermatitis herpitiformis, if you've ever had the misfortune of having that, fatigue, and it's simple shitty.

I've had some very serious issues with leaky gut, so I'm going to share some of my tips to actually fix it. This is essentially a guide for those of you who have been gluten free for a while that still kinda feel shitty.

Elimination Diet

For one month, try to cut out the following foods:
-all grains (if you must have some grains, go for white rice, not brown rice!)
-eggs
-nuts and seeds
-nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, bell peppers, etc.)
-all soy products
-all beans and legumes
-all dairy, including ghee
-root vegetables, like carrots and beets

Just do it for a month, and slowly reintroduce things one by one.

Bone broth

Check out my blog post on bone broth.

Gelatin is one of the most calming proteins to your microvilli in your small intestine. It used to be used as medicine until medicine turned into the industry that it is today. I drink bone broth daily, and it's the only thing that helped me with my endless battle with DH.

Eat fatty cuts of meat

When you buy meat, don't eat boneless, skinless chicken breast. Your body was only made to eat 20-30% of calories from protein, and in the wild you wouldn't just eat the muscle meat. You would eat the fat, the skin, the organ meats. I would also recommend eating organ meats, but I recognize that growing up in westernized society, we're not used to the flavor or texture of organ meats.

Either way, if you're buying lean meats, add some fat. This will aid in digestion.

Proper food combining

Effectively, your goal should be to make your body have to do the least amount of work for the maximum amount of nutrition.

First off, eat fruit either half an hour before a meal or an hour and a half after your meal. I know fruit for dessert is tasty, but wait a bit. Fruit digests very quickly, so it gets backed up and ferments.

I wouldn't cut out fruit from your diet as it helps boost intestinal mobility and soluble fiber is easy on the digestive tract.

Eat vegetables with fat or cooked

As fond of raw produce as I am, I no longer eat vegetables without some kind of fat, be it avocado or olive oil or a fatty cut of meat. Think of the fat as a lubricant so to speak for your digestive tract. If you try eating a lot of raw vegetables, you are not going to heal your leaky gut, and you'll likely develop an oxolate sensitivity.

Some people with autoimmune conditions need to peel their produce and cook it thoroughly in order to digest it. While I love my huge salads and acknowledge that cooking removes some vital nutrients, you need to focus on healing your digestive tract because with leaky gut, you're only absorbing a fraction of your nutritional intake anyway.

Fish oil supplements

Omega-3's are highly anti-inflammatory, and leaky gut is largely caused by inflammation. You see my logic?

Also, there's lots of scientific data to support me. Just do it. 

Buy a high quality one. You don't want to be taking mercury daily. 

The big guns

If that doesn't work, I would highly recommend the gaps diet. I've had tremendous success with that. I've also heard good thing about the specific carbohydrate diet (SCD), but I've never personally tried it.