Food, food, food

Well, the past month has been spent learning as much as I can about nutrition and how key all the vitamins and minerals are and how they interact - if you up one, another will be affected - not new stuff, but delving down into it more has given me a wider understanding and appreciation about it all. I've also been looking into different diet options most applicable to what we're dealing with here and a means of getting our nutrients via food sources rather than relying on supplements (although I have got myself on some to deal with the stress of it all LOL!).

When Nathan was 2.5yrs old he was diagnosed with Coeliac disease (an autoimmune disease which means he can't eat gluten without his immune system damaging his intestines and the lining inside them which then means his body won't absorb nutrients and becomes malnourished). It's not an allergy or an intolerance as he doesn't necessarily get ill when eating the gluten but it is still causing internal damage. Coeliac's is effectively "cured" by avoiding gluten. However, during the process of having had a "leaky gut" I believe that this has never been healed properly as other foods can cause aggravation such as dairy products or any other food intolerances while healing the gut from the damage of the gluten being in the body - And sheesh! Neither of my kids have required any drugs in their wee body's till now, not even any antibiotics to mess up gut flora. We haven't been aware of any of any intolerances, but I have never been satisfied that his gut ever really returned to "normal".

So, with now dealing with the nephrotic syndrome (which appears it could be another autoimmune issue - but an unknown in our case) I have decided to really crack down on our diet and see if there is a food source that needs looking into.

The purpose of the diet has many benefits - we could locate a food intolerance (and even possibly the trigger for the nephrotic syndrome), we heal the gut in the meantime using a gut healing diet (to the point where he may even be able to tolerate some gluten foods again - will believe it when I see it), we shape up our diet and cut out any processed foods (wowzer, I always talked about eating a made-from-scratch diet but didn't really take it all too seriously until I thought the state of the world would finally force me there), it puts Nathan's body in good shape for dealing with any illnesses which might come our way (he is now immunosuppressed due to the steroids) and of course we are now effectively eating local, fresh and in season. Yay!

So as mentioned previously we are going on the Gut and Psychology Syndrome diet which is based on the much older Specific Carbohydrate Diet. There are a few subtle differences and I have been swinging between the two over the past few weeks because one seems slightly easier than the other, but then we were still having issues - so I'm going to stop dithering around bringing in new foods, then forgetting what I've done etc (and going to stop the urge to bring in "illegal" foods which I had been doing to a small degree as well). The GAPS diet focuses more on drinking meat broths (containing gelatin) which is the key to the gut healing but the SCD doesn't really focus on this so much. The introductory diet would mean that you only drink broth for several days - but there is no way I could imagine asking the kids to do that, so we have just leapt into the main diet eating from the "allowed" list and ensuring there is plenty of broth being eaten as part of the meals I am making. Essentially the diet means "low starch" as this is a problem for an already damaged gut with out of balance bacteria levels.

No potatoes, no grains, no dairy (unless fermented) and no added sugar (and limited sweet fruit).

It's surprising how many options we still have though. Once I got my head around not having the starch to bulk out the meal (unfortunately the part that makes cooking CHEAP!) it hasn't been too hard. One thing that I'm not so chuffed on is that it does mean that we are eating meat a lot more than previously. I am trying to incorporate several vegan meals a week but really only have lentils and white beans to work with.

Fermented foods are also key to the diet and the gut healing due to their probiotic nature. Once I stabilize our diet a bit I will bring in some 24hr fermented yoghurt (which gives the bacteria time to "eat up" the lactose which often causes problems with dairy intolerance). The diet is also big on fermented vegetables - haven't gone there yet though lol. In the meantime I am giving him a probiotic powder to help balance out his immune system and bacterias in the gut.

So, excuse the slight morphing of the blog if it's not of interest as it takes a new slant for a wee while as I discover new recipes, take a journey into fermentation and perhaps a few nutrition 101s.