Cold Hands and Feet? It Could Be Your Metabolism!

Do you have cold hands and feet? Are you armed with a stockade of assorted thermal socks and slippers just to keep your toes from freezing? Do your fingers feel like icicles even when other people in the same room are complaining about how warm it is?

It could be your metabolism!

One of the chief signs of a slow metabolism (aka low thyroid function) is cold hands and feet. You might also notice low basal temperature, dry skin, brittle nails and hair, insomnia, low sex drive, tooth sensitivity and a slew of other symptoms associated with a low metabolic rate.

There seems to be a lot of controversy about what affects the metabolic rate (or to put it simply, how your body uses energy). However, when you're walking around all day with cold hands and feet, you know something isn't right. And all you want is a solution that works.

I know because I used to be one of those girls who keeps an extra blanket at the foot of my bed just for my feet. And after sitting at the computer for twenty minutes I felt like I had the hands of a frozen corpse.

Cold hands and feet used to be a consistent and bothersome problem for me, even in the middle of a hot Alabama summer. As I've learned about improving my metabolic health, my cold hands and feet slowly turned into an occasional nuisance rather than an everyday problem.

But no one enjoys icy extremities, and I had to wonder why the problem still sprang up on occasion. And moreover, was it possible to make it go away?

Got Cold Hands and Feet? Read Eat for Heat

Yeah. That totally reads like it came from a Dr. Seuss book. But, anyway, while I spent the afternoon reading Eat for Heat by Matt Stone, I couldn't help noticing my toes were undeniably chilled. It was puzzling, because it was unusually warm for January,  and yet those cold hands and feet were still bugging me!

Luckily, I was reading the right book. Within hours of following the advice in Eat for Heat, my cold hands and feet were toasty warm. I'm not kidding. The difference was pretty much immediate and definitely noticeable.

Eating to Stop Cold Hands and Feet

The funny thing about metabolic health is its ability to change--from year to year, day to day, and even throughout the day. Hormones and other biochemicals certainly vary during the course of our day. What does this mean? Our metabolic needs also change throughout the day.

With this in mind, Eat for Heat offers some practical (though somewhat bizarre from a mainstream view) advice for solving the problem of cold hands and feet--with the side benefit of eliminating other negative symptoms caused by a low metabolic rate. Here's a few tips I learned from Eat for Heat:

1. Biofeedback is critical.

This is number one for a reason. Because metabolic needs do fluctuate throughout the days, weeks, and months, what works for one meal, or one day, or even one month, won't necessary work for every meal, every day for the rest of your life. So pay attention! Notice how your body responds to what you eat, and even when you eat what you eat (if that makes sense). By the way, cold hands and feet are definitely biofeedback.


2. Don't Drink Too Much

Not alcohol, silly (that's another discussion). I mean water. Yes, you can drink too much water. And you can also drink it at the wrong times. This is where biofeedback becomes really important, because mainstream advice is to chug, chug, chug that plain old water until you reach some magical quota every day. Don't get me wrong: dehydration is no good. But gulping water without regards to how your body responds is also not so good. Eat for Heat offers a few handy suggestions for determining how much fluid you really need, as well as when you need that fluid. (Hint: chugging half a gallon of plain water in the morning... probably not helping your metabolism.)


3. Do Eat Some Salt

Here we go against mainstream advice again. Ever wonder why they put saline (salt) solution in hospital IVs? Because salt is essential to our survival! But somehow, even though pumping salt through our veins is supposed to be life-saving, eating salt is supposed to be unhealthy? That just makes no sense. There was a recent study that even attributed low-salt diets to strokes and heart attacks. And it's not the only study that warns against eating too little salt. They're popping up all over the place. Probably because restricting salt lowers the metabolism and then all those nasty diseases of aging start showing up.


4. Eating the Right Foods for Warmth

If you've got cold hands and feet, did you know it might have to do with what you just ate? I didn't. But after reading Eat for Heat, I decided to test this out for myself. Like I said, while I was reading the book, my feet were ice cold. What did I have to lose? So I ate a supposedly "warming" meal, not sure if I should be expecting results right away (if at all). But, wham! It was like my body kicked circulation into high gear. I noticed a difference within 30 minutes, and two hours later my feet were actually warm. Since running the heat, wearing extra socks, and loads of other temporary fixes couldn't even get my feet feeling warm that quickly, I was quite impressed.


5. Timing is Everything

Some people have problems with cold hands and feet in the mornings. For others, it might be mid-afternoon or right before bed. The timing of symptoms (which might be cold hands and feet, but can also include irritability, fatigue, lack of focus, frequent urination, etc.) is important, because this is when you need to bring your metabolism into balance. Eat for Heat provides some examples of what a basic eating/drinking structure might look like for various metabolic states. Matt Stone also seriously encourages you to individualize the ideas so they work for your body and metabolism.

Want to learn more? Find out more about Eat for Heat here.

UPDATE: Some of you wanted to know more specifics about what I did to solve my cold hands and feet, so I wrote a follow-up post that gets into the details. Check it out here: How to Eat to Increase Your Metabolism


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Book Review: Cure Tooth Decay by Ramiel Nagel

Tooth decay has become an accepted norm in our culture. Sure, we fluoridate our water, scrub our teeth with plastic bristles and dutifully have our teeth scraped with metal objects a couple times every year. But for all our effort, tooth decay remains an ever present part of our lives. While modern dentistry preaches prevention, the underlying policy is to drill and fill the imperfections in our teeth. Above all, the word "cure" is never used in conjunction with subjects like cavities, gingivitis and other dental woes.

Until now. Ramiel Nagel takes the daring leap from drilling to curing in his book Cure Tooth Decay. To be perfectly honest, before hearing about this book I never even considered the idea that tooth decay could be reversed. I was so swamped by cultural bias that I assumed cavities could only be prevented by brushing, flossing, and staying away from sweets. And if that didn't work (as it often doesn't) then it was time to drill those poor teeth to oblivion. But according to Rami, this system of dental care fails at every level:

"Modern dentistry is a profound failure. The enormity of suffering and disease caused by dentistry is so massive that it is beyond comprehension."

"High speed drilling creates high friction and raises the temperature of the tooth nerve, causing irreversible nerve damage in 60% of cases."

Nagel goes into depth about why and how modern dentistry has failed us. For not only are their treatments ineffective (some might even call them cruel), but the focus is never on the right thing: preventing and healing tooth decay. He also addresses several of the common myths about tooth decay (such as food on teeth causing cavities).

A Comprehensive Guide to Tooth Decay

I was floored by the amount of information contained in Cure Tooth Decay. I honestly did not expect to learn so much about what makes teeth healthy and why tooth decay happens. I was also surprised how little I really knew about dental health. Reading about the process of how teeth remineralize was absolutely fascinating.

For years, dentists have been treating teeth as if they are separate from the rest of the body. And perhaps this is the greatest mistake concerning the health of our teeth and gums.

Nutrient Density and Tooth Decay

As we know from the work of Weston A. Price (detailed in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration), tooth decay was far less rampant in traditional cultures who consumed their ancestral diet than it was in modern society. Price took the information he gathered from traveling the world and applied it to his patients when he got home. 

It's interesting to note that Price did not put his patients on traditional diet. Instead, he applied the principles of traditional diets by adding a few key nutrient dense foods to their diets. This had a marvelous effect on their general health as well as the health of their teeth.

In Cure Tooth Decay, Nagel outlines these same principles and gives specific tips for supplying the body with the nutrients it needs to remineralize teeth. Some of these key nutrients include vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin K2 (what Price refers to as Activator X), and important minerals like calcium, phosphorous, and trace minerals as well. 

Nagel suggests specific foods that can help supply these nutrients (grass-fed dairy, pastured eggs, bone broth, liver and seafood top the list, of course) and also outlines which foods may be causing problems with nutrient absorption. Following in Price's footsteps, he emphasizes the benefits of supplementing with high quality cod liver oil and butter oil.

"If you have tooth decay, you are presumably deficient in vitamins A and D."

  

Metabolic Function and Tooth Decay

"A malfunctioning thyroid gland also plays a role in producing tooth decay and gum disease because the thyroid plays a role in maintaining blood calcium levels."

I was impressed when Nagel brought metabolic function into the picture. He touched on how overall metabolic health (such as thyroid and pituitary function) can affect how the body regulates where minerals are deposited. A poor metabolism may very well lead to tooth decay and gum disease.

Obey Nature, Heal Tooth Decay

"All you need to do to heal cavities is understand Nature's rules for health, and then follow them. When you follow these rules, the built-in ability for your teeth to heal will take over."

Nagel goes into great detail in Cure Tooth Decay about all of the ways our diet can affect the health of our teeth and gums. He offers plenty of practical and specific directions for healing tooth decay.

But he does manage to avoid sounding preachy and rigid in his suggestions. While he admits that those with extensive tooth damage will probably need to follow the stricter approach, he fully embraces the idea that you should do what works and what feels right for you as an individual. He also offers meal ideas and suggestions for eating out. He even provides details for a "One-Amazing-Meal-A-Day" protocol that can be really helpful for those need a stepping stone into the world of nourishing food.


Final Thoughts on Cure Tooth Decay

There is honestly so much good information packed in this book that it's impossible for me to even come close to summarizing it in a blog post. I'm pretty sure that tomorrow I'm going to think of a hundred things I forgot to mention. Here's some more topics Nagel covers in Cure Tooth Decay:

• Weston A. Price's original tooth decay curing protocol
• How teeth remineralize
• Blood sugar regulation and tooth decay
• Why healthy gums matter (and how to heal your gums)
• What causes plaque and calculus deposits
• Toxicity of mercury fillings and fluoride treatments
• Safe filling materials
• How to find a good dentist
• How your dental palate affects your health
• Alternatives to braces
• Safe tooth whitening
• Healing your children's teeth (from infants to older children)

Read more reviews of Cure Tooth Decay here. Or you can check out the official Cure Tooth Decay web site at www.curetoothdecay.com. If you're looking for sources for the nutrient dense foods and supplements that can help cure tooth decay, check out my resources page.

Want more book reviews? Check out my other reviews below:

• Fat Politics by J. Eric Oliver
• Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride
• The Coconut Miracle by Bruce Fife
• The Magnesium Miracle by Carolyn Dean
• The Detox Book by Bruce Fife
• The Gabriel Method by Jon Gabriel
• Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes
• Adrenal Fatigue by James Wilson
• The Schwarzbein Principle (the entire series) by Diana Schwarzbein
• The Mood Cure by Julia Ross
• Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Mary Enig and Sally Fallon

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday.

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Book Review: Fat Politics by J. Eric Oliver

If you want to fire people up, try talking about fat. Not spicy enough for you? Throw in some commentary about politics, money, society, exercise, diet and health. Now you've got the perfect recipe for controversy. We're talking about Fat Politics by J. Eric Oliver. You're either going to love this book or hate it with a passion. But either way, it's sure to stir up some strong opinions.

Oliver questions the existence of an obesity epidemic and whether fat itself should be labeled as a dangerous disease. If read with an open mind, his research certainly gives you something to think about (whether or not you end up fully agreeing with him).

"Consider, for example, what an obesity epidemic means for the following groups. For scientists researching issues of weight, an obesity epidemic inflates their stature and allows them to get more research grants. For government health agencies, it is a powerful rationale for increasing their programs and budget allocations. For weight-loss companies and surgeons, it is a way to get their services covered by Medicare and health insurance providers. And, for pharmaceutical companies it can justify the release of new drugs, and help inflate their stock prices. The very same people who have proclaimed that obesity is a major health problem also stand the most to gain from it being classified as a disease. For America's public health establishment, an obesity epidemic is worth billions."

In chapter two, Oliver explains How Obesity Became an Epidemic Disease. He demonstrates how politics and the media skewed our ideas about fat and health, and why labeling obesity as a disease actually holds us back from finding real solutions for lasting health.


The Link Between Metabolic Health and Disease

Oliver rightly points to overall metabolic action as the cause not only of obesity but also degenerative disease. He questions the idea that weight itself is the cause behind our more troubling health problems, and suggests that perhaps there is a bigger picture.

"And it is these other metabolic changes that are behind many of the diseases that are typically associated with being too fat. The reason that diabetes and some types of cancer are on the rise is not because Americans weight too much, it is because their metabolisms are out of whack. Fatness may result from metabolic processes that are behind these ailments, but it is the underlying metabolic processes, and not the weight, that cause us so much trouble."

Why We Hate Fat People

Have you ever thought about it? Why our society harbors such resentment and malice toward heavier people? We are afraid of fat. This has to do with numerous factors, according the Oliver, including our modern standards of beauty and propaganda from the medical community. But wherever it's coming from, the fear of fat is very real.

"For instance, more that a quarter of college students believe that becoming fat is the worst thing that could happen to a person."

Really? That sure says a lot about our priorities in life. Oliver suggests getting some perspective about fat in his chapter about genetics and obesity:

"Fatness is not a disease or a bodily dysfunction; it is a protective mechanism that evolved to survive fluctuations in our food supply. Judging someone's health by how much they weigh is like judging a camel by how much water it has in its hump--in conditions of privation, our extra weight, just like water, may be exactly what we need to survive. Our weight is merely an expression of this adaptive mechanism at work."

What We Eat and What We Weigh

Oliver challenges many beliefs about diet and weight. He's read the work of Gary Taubes (awesome, right?) but doesn't fall into the trap of blaming any particular macronutrient for our weight and health problems. His stance is that carbs are no more to blame than fat. Instead Oliver speculates that there are a number of dietary factors that could be contributing to obesity and disease. After all, a lot has changed in the last 40 years when it comes to what (and how) we eat. Oliver discusses everything from crop subsidies to the invention of the microwave, but in the end concludes that it's most likely the combination of all these things--rather than just one of them--that impacts our weight the most.


Being Thin Versus Being Healthy

This is always one of my favorite topics. In our pursuit of being thin, many of us have sacrificed our health. According to Oliver, it is the American way.

"Although most Americans value bodily fitness as a marker of social prestige, they value thinness more. And for good reason--in a culture in which obesity is so demonized, being fit yet heavy does little to remove the stigma of a large body size, particularly for women. For instance, if a woman is incredibly fit but still bulky or heavy, she is still likely to face size discrimination. The emphasis on female fitness is primarily concerned with being thin not necessarily being healthy. Because of our cultural obsession with thinness, any discussion of exercise inevitably becomes connected to issues of weight while concerns of health fly out the window."

I mean, think about it: how many people do you know that joined a gym to get healthy? Yeah, right. Most people exercise to achieve a particular physical appearance, not to achieve better health. Which is too bad, because research shows that exercise has a far more substantial impact on our health that it does on our waistlines.


But Are There Any Solutions?

My biggest beef with Oliver's book is that you aren't left with a solid idea of what we should be doing, perhaps because Oliver believes that his research doesn't point to there being a particular solution.

"In truth, the only way we are going to 'solve' the problem of obesity is to stop making fatness a scapegoat for all our ills. The means that public health officials and doctors need to stop making weight a barometer of health and issuing so many alarmist claims about the obesity epidemic. This also means that the rest of us need to stop judging others and ourselves by our size."

I personally couldn't agree more. There's far too much hate and melodrama surrounding our weight. But considering we're in a society that puts so much focus on being thin, at the end of the book you're sort of left standing with your hands up in the air thinking, "Well, what the heck am I supposed to do now?"

The answer: simply allow yourself to focus on more important things than weight. Whether or not you are at the weight you would like to be cannot be a determining factor in your happiness. If it is, then it's guaranteed you'll be miserable. Regard health as part of the bigger picture and not just in terms of your dress size. Live to be healthy and enjoy life, rather than living to be thin.

Buy Fat Politics by J. Eric Oliver today.

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2010: Popular Posts, Best Books, and Best Blogs!

It's hard not to do some reflection this time of year. A year is closing, another one on its way.  Looking back on 2010, I know this year was a huge stepping stone for me. I spent all of this year experimenting with different ways of eating (remember the milk diet?), putting the final nail in the coffin for dieting, and finally getting a grasp on where I want this blog to go. 

I must have known it all along. After all, why else would I have called it The Nourished Life? But something in me was still looking for the perfect macronutrient ratio, the perfect superfood, and the perfect supplement. Letting go of the dream of finding perfection and finally being able to look at my life (and my body) as a whole gave me some perspective and set me on the right track.

So in 2011 we're going to stay truer than every to living a nourished life. I've going to dig deeper and unveil what's really holding you back from living life to the fullest. We'll talk about food, we'll talk about health, we'll talk about dieting, and most importantly we'll talk about life.

Thanks for spending 2010 with me. I've valued every comment left on this blog (even the occasional snarky one!), and every email from all of you. You've all challenged me to think even more deeply about the message I want to be sending to the readers of this blog.

Top Ten Most Viewed Posts from 2010

#10 Day 7 on RRARF: Benefits Already!

#9 6 Shampoo Alternatives for Life Without Suds

#8 The Easiest Coconut Oil Fudge You'll Ever Make!

#7 There is No Obesity Epidemic

#6 10 Foods that Affect Thyroid Health For Better or For Worse

#5 Is Butter Healthy? Part One: Butyric Acid Benefits

#4 Learn How to Detox with a Coconut Oil Cleanse

#3 Why I Eat Raw Egg Yolks Every Day

#2 Podcast with Matt Stone: The Body Weight Set Point and Metabolism

#1 30 Days of RRARF, Day 1: What is RRARF?

Best Books I Read in 2010

Health At Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight by Linda Bacon literally changed the course of my life and my blog. After reading this amazing book, I immediately knew I'd been thinking all wrong about my weight. I gave up the scale and haven't weighed myself in three months. I gave myself permission to be happy, to be beautiful and to live life to the fullest regardless of my weight and my imperfections.

Although I've read snippets in Nourishing Traditions and on other real food blogs, this year I actually sat down with Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price and looked at every picture, read about the different native diets, and had some incredible realizations about real food. You can't sit down with this book without coming away completely astonished at the health and happiness available through living in a community centered around real traditions and real food. I wish everyone (and especially every dietician, nutritionist and physician!) would take the time to read through this amazing book.

While completely unrelated to nutrition, The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss got me to think hard about the kind of life I wanted to lead and how I wanted to spend my time. Sure, some of his suggestions are out there and occasionally he sounds like a salesman, but frankly I've never read anything that touched this. If you feel like you're stuck on the treadmill of life, pick up this book and read it today.

My Favorite Blogs from 2010 

Whole Health Source

Zen to Fitness

Kelly the Kitchen Kop

Cheeseslave

The Healthy Home Economist

180 Degree Health 

Perfect Health Diet

Agriculture Society 

180 Degree Metabolism 

Food Renegade 

A special thanks to Ann Marie from Cheeseslave, who motivated me to do my first podcast (more of those coming in 2011!). And to Kelly from Kelly the Kitchen Kop, whose amazing e-course for rookies gave me the best gift in the entire world: a real food friend who I can go buy raw milk with!

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Book of the Month Review: The Coconut Oil Miracle by Bruce Fife

It's time to go coconuts here at The Nourished Life. I confess: as I've read through The Coconut Oil Miracle this month, my kitchen has taken on a more tropical theme (at least as far as our meals are concerned). Coconut flour, coconut cream concentrate, coconut milk and dried coconut have all made their way into my pantry and my cooking. Why? Because Fife's book is quite convincing about the healing properties of coconut oil!

The Coconut Oil Miracle starts off explaining why coconut oil and other traditional fats have a tainted reputation. I applaud Fife for managing to set the record straight in one short, sweet chapter. He then moves on to possibly one of the most informative pieces I've ever read on the structure of fats. I'm no biologist, and I know most of you aren't either.  And I don't want to spend an unearthly amount of hours trying to decipher the differences between all the fatty acids. Well, thanks to this book I don't have to. The explanation was swift and to the point, visually helpful without getting too long-winded. These two chapters along with the next one about the true causes of heart disease alone are worth the cost of the book, in my opinion.

And then comes the coconut oil. Its abilities are no less than astonishing, and yet coconut oil remains a relatively undiscovered gem in the medical community (who seems to have its communal head so far up its... er, textbook... that it refuses to acknowledge the healing power of traditional foods). I can't compete with Fife's elucidation on the benefits of coconut oil, but I can give you a basic summary:

• The unique fatty acids in coconut oil (medium chain triglycerides) are antimicrobial, antiviral, and antifungal. That means that it takes one heck of a burden off the immune system when it comes to fighting pesky fiends like bacterial infections, candida, the common cold and even HIV. That's why doing a coconut oil detox is so effective.

• Fife also praises coconut oil's ability to burn off excess fat because of it has been shown to heighten metabolic activity. He acknowledges that diets have a habit of not working, and that coconut oil can help combat the typical metabolic slow-down that accompanies weight loss plans. He also warns of the anti-metabolic effects of vegetables oils and suggests that for many people just switching over to coconut oil can be enough to stimulate weight loss. (Read more about coconut oil and metabolism here.)

• Coconut oil also makes for luminous skin and hair. Used externally as well as internally, it improves the natural balance of the skin and can be used by those with dandruff, dry skin, skin irritations and even acne (for real).

• Fife emphasizes that the medium chain fatty acids found most abundantly in coconut oil are also one of the most important fats in breastmilk, and that a nursing mother who regularly consumes these fats will have a higher concentration in her breastmilk (and thus her baby will receive more of these beneficial fatty acids). So, all you moms out there enjoy a little coconut oil fudge now and then, okay?

• According to The Coconut Oil Miracle, this tropical fat is also great for the liver, bone health, digestive health, and thyroid function. It's shown benefits for chronic fatigue syndrome, psoriasis, cancer, stomach ulcers, diabetes and epileptic seizures. I could go on, but I fear my fingers may cramp up if I attempt to list all the benefits associated with coconut oil!

  

How Much Coconut Oil Do We Need?

Fife recommends 3 1/2 tablespoons of coconut oil per day. He distinguishes the important differences between commonly refined coconut oil and virgin coconut oil, and also adds that you can get the same beneficial fats from coconut milk and coconut meat (dried or fresh) as well.

To finish up, I'll quote Fife from page 88:

"In my opinion, the coconut is one of God's greatest health foods and, when consumed as a part of your regular diet, can protect you against a host of infectious illnesses. Eating coconuts and coconut oil can provide you with some degree of protection from a wide variety of disease-causing organisms."

Buy The Coconut Oil Miracle by Bruce Fife today.

Or buy high quality coconut oil from a trusted source here.

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Book of The Month Review: Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride

What if you could tie all your health problems to one central system in the body? What if skin disorders, allergies, depression, and learning disabilities could all be cured by repairing this single system? Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride proposes just this in her book Gut and Psychology Syndrome.

Dr. Campbell-McBride believes your overall health is a direct reflection of the health of your gut. A thread that runs through the entire book is the importance of gut flora:

“Anatomical integrity of our digestive tract, its functionality, ability to adapt and regenerate, ability to defend itself and many other functions are directly dependent on the state of its microscopic housekeepers–our gut flora.”

“A well-functioning gut with healthy gut flora holds the roots of our health. And, like a tree with sick roots is not going to thrive, the rest of the body cannot thrive without a well-functioning digestive system.”

“If the gut flora is damaged, the best foods and supplements in the world may not have a good chance of being broken down and absorbed.”

According to Dr. Campbell-McBride, there are several primary ways gut health is damaged: antibiotics, steroids, birth control pills, a poor diet and stress are just a few examples. She also explains how gut health is inherited, which helps explain why our health problems are getting progressively worse with each generation.

It was fascinating for me to read that our gut has the capacity to neutralize the myriad of toxins we encounter in a given day--if gut health has not been compromised. But because so many of us have poor gut health, we can no longer handle all of these toxins in our food, water and environment (which is probably why detoxification is such a popular trend in the alternative health arena). 

In the book, Dr. Campbell-McBride speaks in detail about:

• Why the current explosion of autism cannot be explained solely by genetics or modern diagnostic procedures.
• Why dietary fiber is beneficial but may cause problems in those with poor gut health.
• How restoring gut health can correct many vitamin deficiencies.
• Why the gut is the “cradle of the immune system” and how gut health directly affects the strength of our immunity against viruses, bacteria and fungi. 
• How the growth of specific strains of pathogenic bacteria can affect the digestion of certain foods so dramatically that these foods can actually affect us just like consuming alcohol and or using recreational drugs.
• Why the popular gluten-free/casein-free diet may not be enough for most autistic children.
• How you can actually heal the gut to the extent that a GAPS patient may eventually be able to tolerate formerly intolerable ingredients (such as both gluten and casein).
• What Dr. Campbell-McBride thinks about vaccinations and their link to the current autism epidemic (it may not be what you think!).
• Why stomach acid is essential for digestive health and nutrient absorption.
• Why everyone should be on a therapeutic dose of high-quality probiotics.
• Which supplements are most essential and why getting nutrients from food is more effective than pills.
• How to assist healing by implementing very simple detoxification methods and getting rid of common everyday toxins.
• How ear infections happen, why they reoccur, and how we can properly prevent and treat them (I didn't know much about ear infections so this was really interesting to me!).
• What role genetics really plays in our predisposition to specific health issues.

The Actual Diet

“Yet appropriate nutrition is the cornerstone of any successful treatment of any chronic disease.”

The diet for GAPS is considered by most to be very strict, and rightfully so. While not necessarily low-carb, the GAPS diet could be considered close to Paleo standards--cutting out all grains and starchy foods, eliminating almost all dairy products, focusing on traditional fats, proteins, vegetables and fruit. (Most of these changes are required during the beginning of the diet, but many foods are reintroduced in moderation as time goes on.)

Traditional broth and fermented foods are a staple of the GAPS diet because of their ability to heal the gut and replenish it with healthy flora. Cod liver oil and liver are valued for their vitamin A content. Coconut fat also has a special place in the GAPS diet--from page 184:

“It is a good idea for GAPS patients to have coconut on a regular basis.”        

This says it all for me. This is one of the only books I have reviewed that heartily recommends animal foods, saturated fats and other traditional foods as part of a healing diet. That alone is pretty impressive to me.

My biggest quibble with the diet is that most people tend to put a tremendous focus on eating lots of nuts (and nut flours, nut milks, etc.) while eating GAPS style. My personal concern would be the immense omega-6 fatty acid content in nuts and how easy it would be on such a diet to consume a serious excess of these fats. Most of the food in the modern diet is drenched in omega-6 fats. I’m really not too sure we need to consume a whole lot more of them.

Since the diet is so strict, the recipes and meal ideas in this book (as well as in the GAPS guide book) are essential and will no doubt come in handy to anyone embarking on the diet.


Who Belongs on the GAPS Diet?

I will come right out and say I've never tried the full GAPS diet. (I'm just too wimpy to give up my raw milk.) But in spite of that, I've still made several lifestyle changes based on what I've read in the GAPS book, including eating sauerkraut daily, taking a good probiotic, eating a lot less gluten, taking hydrochloric acid as needed, using broth more often, etc. Sure, there are other nutritional programs that teach some of these practices, but let me tell you: I did not take any of this half as seriously as I did after reading GAPS. I now put my gut health on a pedestal where it belongs. So while not everyone needs to do the full GAPS diet, I'm convinced that darn near everyone can benefit from reading the book.


What about the GAPS Guide?

I have both Gut and Psychology Syndrome as well as the GAPS guide by Baden Lashkov. While it isn't necessarily essential to have both books, it certainly helps. Dr. Campbell-McBride's book is the foundation of the GAPS diet: it is in-depth and comprehensive. The GAPS guide is more of a condensed, how-to version that provides a little further direction in how you should go about actually implementing the diet. It also includes detailed instructions for doing the GAPS intro diet, which many people have found to be an essential part of the healing process. I personally found both books very helpful and would recommend using them together.

Buy Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Campbell-McBride today.

Don't forget to try these probiotic recipes:

• How to Make Raw Milk Kefir
• How to Make Raw Milk Yogurt

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