FOLLOW YOUR GUT TO A HEALTHIER YOU

We have all heard the saying, You Are What You Eat… right?! Well, that might be true. Our digestive tract consists of our mouth all the way down to our… well you know. An opening leads to an exit.

But in between all of that is our GI tract or our gut. This part of our body is soooo important because it is where we absorb all of our nutrients… you know the stuff that keeps us alive! And it also plays a HUGE role in keeping out things we don’t want floating around in our body, like pathogens and bacteria.

The GI Tract

Once food hits our stomach, it gets broken down, then that food passes down to our small intestines. This is where the absorption into our body begins and whatever the body doesn’t absorb it becomes waste.

What we choose to put into our body may have a strong reaction or effect on our GI tract. And the crazy thing is, we may not know even that we are doing damage to our digestive system.

Inflammation

There is strong evidence supporting that diet has a direct impact on the inflammation process in our digestive tract. When you consume foods that are inflammatory to your system, it can repeatedly do damage to your gut barrier.

This lining is where we also store a good amount of our immune system. It’s there for a reason… by helping us keep out all the bad stuff. But over time this barrier gets broken down because of the foods we keep eating, that aren’t right for our bodies.

What ends up happening is with constant inflammation, you can develop food sensitivities or even an autoimmune disorder.

Autoimmune Disorder

With autoimmune disorders, it’s hard to know if it’s the chicken or the egg theory. Did eating the wrong foods give you an autoimmune disease or did your autoimmune disease make you become sensitive to foods that you could have eaten before?

One thing to note though is that evidence as of now shows that autoimmune diseases are known to be genetic. But who knows… that could change with more research.

For those of us with an autoimmune disorder, our immune systems can’t tell the difference between healthy body tissue and antigens. So we tend to have major issues with food sensitivities because of the inflammation in our body.

Studies show that when some people consume dairy and gluten their immune system sends out T-cell responses. T-cells are part of our body’s defense system to kill off infections. What happens is you eat foods like dairy, gluten, or even sugar, and once they make it to your small intestines your body recognizes them as a threat. Unfortunately, your body not only attacks these macronutrients but then it starts attacking your own tissue as well!

Don’t Have An Autoimmune Disease

I didn’t know I had an autoimmune disease for many years. And I didn’t always have those prominent signs of someone who did. I often wonder, if I had given up foods that weren’t right for my system earlier, I would have would I have developed an AD? Who knows.

You may not have an Autoimmune Disease, but even your own body has its likes and dislikes of what you put into your mouth.

The hard thing to know is exactly what foods can cause inflammation and break down your specific gut barrier. That’s why everyone can’t be on the same diet. Foods affect my body differently than the foods you can eat.

But I can tell you right now that there are foods out there that will destroy your gut barrier. These are inflammatory for all of us, foods like sugar, chemicals, and processed foods. Over time, they will have a negative effect on your body and how it functions.

How To Determine What Foods Are Good For Your Body

This is not an easy process, but once you know what your body doesn’t like then you will be glad you gave them up. The elimination diet helps by cutting everything out of your diet and then reintroducing foods back in. When you eat something that disagrees with your system you will know.

At first, I kept asking questions like… how will I know, what will the symptoms be, will it be a strong enough reaction for me to tell? When I say you will know… you will know. Whether it’s more energy, less gas, or just easier digestion. You will know and be glad you followed your gut to a better and healthier you!