I’m not going to be one of those who promises a cure, but I am going to offer you a thought to see if maybe, just maybe you can actually get those bumps to go away. ‘Cuz it ain’t normal to have bumpy skin – I don’t care what doctor tells you, “that’s just the way you are,” that’s NOT just the way you are and you may be able to do something about it. After trying to get rid of the bumps on my arms for as many years as I’ve been alive and aware that I had weird bumps on me, I finally got mine to go away – so who knows – this just may work for you too. But maybe not, because there’s waaaay more to optimal health than just 1 cure-all ‘fix’, so don’t hate on me if you still have bumps after trying what I did.

First let me tell you what I did that didn’t work: I scrubbed w/ a hard brush in the shower, I used one of those soaps that has “acne medicine” in it, I switched my sunscreen, I tried laying in the sun more(in case I wasn’t getting ENOUGH vitD), I tried picking them (for the love of all things holy, do not do this!!!), I tried using alpha-hydroxy pads meant for peeling layers of dead skin off your aged-face on the backs of my arms, I switched to an all-natural soap (like seriously all-natural, practically make-it-yourself all-natural, castile soap w/ no fragrances), I switched my lotion from the pretty-smelling ones to a plain lotion (again, all-natural, no gluten, no parabens, etc), I switched my detergent to an all-natural, unscented one, I tried just about every do-it-yourself scrub routine listed in whatever glossy mag landed on my doorstep each month.

So when I tell you I tried a lot of things, I really did. Maybe I can spare you the time I wasted…none of them worked.

Could It Really Be ALL About Diet?

When we (Drew and I) first began considering the pros of switching from a gluten-free diet to a paleo diet, one of the things Robb Wolf talked a lot about in his podcasts (which are free ya’ll and you’re crazy if you don’t download them, those things are science-as-told-by-your-smart-ass-best-friend-who-when-half-drunk-is-still-smarter-than-you-solid-gold) was skin irritations from eczema to acne that were cured after going on a paleo diet, specifically, an auto-immune protocol of the diet. **Also get Robb’s podcasts via your smartphone in iTunes by searching “Robb Wolf”**

First off, a paleo diet is essentially an anti-inflammatory diet – as in – you eat foods that are rich in ANTI-inflammatory properties, and you avoid foods that are PRO-inflammatory. Foods that are anti-inflammatory are high-quality meats/fish, veggies & fruits, and certain fats (especially coconut oil, which is anti-bacterial, sort of ‘scrubbing you out’ from the inside when consumed, and thus why some homeopathic cancer diets recommend consuming daily Tbsp’s of straight coconut oil).

Foods that are PRO-inflammatory are grains (highly acidic AND contain a large protein called lectin, which wiggles its way through the gut lining of the majority of humans, essentially leaving the barn door open for the lectins and all the other food particles to get out & begin circulating in your body. This sets off your immune response to attack anything that looks like the food particles, and unfortunately in the process, it ends up attacking your human cells too. Some people think they have no issues with grains, but most actually are having symptoms that have become ‘normal’ parts of aging & will become noticeable once a person goes without grains for 30 days to see how “normal” begins to change for them.), dairy (which also contains gut irritants, especially casein, which is similar in size and function to gluten), legumes (peanuts & beans, which also contain lectins), sugar, processed foods, and soy.

This allows the gut lining to begin to heal and close itself so that food particles are no longer escaping into the bloodstream and setting off an immune reaction in other areas of your body, like the organs, tissues, joints, and brain. I figured I had nothing to lose by giving it a shot – because really – what’s 30 days if it means I start to see some results. I think even the most skeptical person can grant that 30 days is not that long when it could mean your health and life take a turn for the better. And if giving up those addictive grains & cheese is just too much for you, then you’re just not sick enough to try. ‘Cuz when people are searching, really searching, for an answer..they’re willing to try even the “craziest” of ideas, like giving up grains. The symptoms are THAT BAD that giving up grains holds enough potential to give it a shot….and for me, bumps on my arms were a symptom that something was going on “under the hood” that may become a much more serious issue down the road. For instance, what if the bloat or bumps or GERD is a symptom of your immune system saying “hey! the check engine light is ON! achtung!” And you’re all “m’eh, that’s just the way I am.” So your body 1o years from now is all “ok, told ya so, I can’t take it anymore…insert disease HERE.”

I digress…my point is that I was willing to try because what did I have to lose? Nothing else had made the bumps on my arms go away, may as well try. So I followed a paleo diet for 30 days. And I haven’t stopped following a paleo diet since then. And it’s been 13 months now, and shocker of shockers, I am almost bump-free!

Be Your Own Science Experiment

My arms started clearing after I seriously reduced my egg consumption, as well as my nut consumption. Some folks who lean more into the auto-immune condition camp also have cross-reactions to compounds in nuts, eggs, and nightshades (tomatoes/potatoes). So I eliminated them 1 by 1 from my diet for a period of time, and then re-introduced them to see what happened. Eggs & nuts seemed to have the biggest response for me in arm bumpy-ness. Eat them a lot (several times per week), and I have bumps. Eat eggs 2-3x/month and stick mainly to macadamia nuts (which are lowest in n-6 fatty acids as compared to other nuts, which are quite high in the not-so-awesome n-6 fatty acids) & my body does well. My conclusion is that large doses of egg proteins and excessive n-6, especially from nuts, seems to flare up my immune system by raising little pilaris kerastosis bumps on my arms.

And it wasn’t just my backs of my arms that began changing for the better. Within 30 days of going paleo, my face became much brighter and clearer. I never had acne on my face (thank GOD!) but my skin was dull and I had dark circles under my eyes, for which I used every under-eye concealer and lotion out there. I started getting asked what I was doing for my skin. I stopped wearing any under-eye concealer, I stopped wearing any kind of base/bronzer, except when I was doing night-out make-up when bronzer is an obvious must.

Stick It Out – This is Not Miracle-ville

While I hoped my bumps would be gone after 30, 60, or even 90 days – I saw modest improvements in the overall bumpy-ness  over that time period – it was really closer to 6 months when my arms started more fully clearing.

(Side note: I had LOTS of other things I was hoping would improve on an anti-inflammatory/paleo-style diet, and they did improve – DRAMATICALLY – which is why I stuck with this way of eating. I also stuck with it because, having taken numerous nutrition courses in college and having tried the low-fat/carb-based diet that is recommended by the USDA & having looked into vegetarianism – there simply isn’t another way of eating that makes this much sense. The science is there. I can’t say the same for the USDA rec’s and while I appreciate vegetarians’ approach to ‘love all things on Earth’, they’re wrong about meat being the problem when it comes to long-term health. The fact is, eating an anti-inflammatory diet is easy to do for the rest of your life. It’s not a “diet”, it’s not super restrictive, and it re-directs our intuition back to hearing our body’s real signals of hunger, satiety, “feeling good”, and overall health.)

And being able to do this for the long-haul is important…because as I found with my own Kerastosis Pilaris, it takes a while for the body to truly begin healing YEARS of improper nutrition. Did you know it can take 5 years for a gluten-intolerant individual to heal their gut from the damage of eating gluten up to the point of diagnosis? 5 years to get back to restored health. Most people are far too impatient to go the long haul, but I encourage you to not be an impatient type & see what is really possible with a change to your diet and/or lifestyle. It’s not a death sentence to make changes to your diet and lifestyle if it means you actually get MORE years on your life and BETTER quality years from the changes you’ve made.

So for my fellow Kerastosis Pilaris friends out there, consider what a change to your diet could do for your skin. And for everyone who never had to hide the little bumps on their arms, what symptoms that you’ve grown to consider “normal” may be positively affected by changing some part of your diet/lifestyle? You’re the driver in this life, why settle for “that’s just the way it is” when there is massive potential for you to make it whatever you want it to be…

I attended an online summit recently centered around all things paleo & anti-inflammatory. It was nothing short of incredible – with many of the top industry leaders giving presentations on the latest evolutionary nutrition news, and doing so for free, it was like college but so much more awesome. I took notes on the gluten intolerance lecture that gluten intolerance expert, Dr. Tom O’Bryan gave so that I could share the latest info on gluten intolerance with you.

As many long-time readers know, I was diagnosed with non-Celiac gluten intolerance in May of 2009. That means that I’m not in the end-stages of gluten intolerance – Celiac Disease – which is the very last stage of devastation caused by continued ingestion of gluten when intolerant. (Full-blown Celiac Disease is diagnosed by a flattening of the finger-like surfaces within the gut, this occurs after someone has been eating gluten for long enough to wear down their gut lining, making absorption of nutrients extremely difficult from that point forward.)

Just because I do not have Celiac Disease does not mean my gluten intolerance is any less severe – I just caught my intolerance early enough to stop the breakdown of my gut before it got to that point. I cannot stress this enough: if you are diagnosed with gluten intolerance, there is NO more severe/less severe diagnosis – the only concern is how soon was it caught & what symptoms are associated with that stage of health breakdown due to gluten. And as you’ll discover in Dr. O’Bryans’ talk, just because you had some test done for gluten and it came back as ‘not a problem for you’ doesn’t tell the entire story!

As a reminder to folks diagnosed with any level of gluten intolerance: THERE IS NO SAFE EFFECTIVE DOSE OF GLUTEN for someone intolerant to it. Consuming gluten when you know you have a sensitivity to it equates to speeding up the day you’ll meet your Maker. Gluten intolerant individuals die 20% earlier, mostly from cancer and heart disease, than any other person when they continue consuming gluten post-diagnosis. Why, oh why, would you do that to yourself?! Lest we digress into a full-blown discussion on the “why’s” behind people’s food and life choices, let’s get on with the notes that I took from Dr. Tom O’Bryan, leader in gluten intolerance, Celiac Disease, and the care for individuals with gluten intolerance.

Gluten & Gluten Intolerance:
Going Mainstream (or was it always here & just getting overlooked)

Presentation by Dr. Tom O’Bryan

“Let’s be clear about how gluten intolerance can manifest….it can manifest as Celiac Disease (in the gut), as myocarditis (in the heart), as autism or ADD (in the brain), as PCOS or infertility (in the reproductive organs)…gluten sensitivity can manifest anywhere that the immune reaction occurs. You see, gluten is a gnarly protein that loosens up the gut lining so it can slip through, taking other food particles with it to various places in the body. The immune system catches that & says, “woah, send immune responders over to the brain/ovaries/joints/pancreas/any place the food and gluten end up”, and the immune carries out its response on the cells in that area – including the cells of that organ or tissue. As those cells get broken down, strange things happen to that organ or tissue – it develops problems like ADD or autism, it stops working correctly thereby creating pain, dysfunction & disease in that area of the body. Gluten sensitivity is on a spectrum – you can be majorly reactive to it, or very minor-ly reactive to it. But make no mistake, everyone reacts to gluten. “

“Let’s back up a minute…there is something about calling it “gluten intolerance” or “gluten sensitivity” that makes it sound ‘less bad.’ In fact, people will say, ‘do you have a gluten allergy’ and it’s often easiest to say “yes!” even though that is actually not true. You see, when the skin-prick allergy testing first began, this was the very first method used for testing if someone had an immune-response to foods, environmental things, or chemicals. And so if you got a positive response from that skin-prick test, you were told you had an ‘ALLERGY’ to it. Even though, the skin-prick test is only testing for 1 FORM of immune-response…

Let’s back up again…think of your immune response as the Armed Forces. You’ve got the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and so on. In your body, you also have several divisions of armed force immune responders – they are called IgE, IgA, IgG, and so on – there are actually 5 types of immune response, and only ONE is measured by doing a skin-prick. Similarly, only  ONE type is measured when you do a blood-allergy test (thus why those tests are only 30% effective)……

So we’ve got these skin-prick immune responses as the 1st kind ever tested for & so the flag was struck in the ground naming those as “allergies.” It’s kind of like “Kleenex” ‘will you get me a Kleenex,’ we all know that it may not be an actual Kleenex-brand tissue that we are requesting, in fact, we’re just requesting a tissue, but it’s so tied into our lexicon, that getting everybody to change and call it by its’ correct name, ‘a tissue’ instead of saying ‘Kleenex’ and everyone knowing what you mean – it’s just not going to happen. Well, the same is true for “allergy”. Many scientific papers were written using the term ‘allergy’ & then later on, we discovered we could test for these other immune responders, the other divisions of the armed forces within us, and it was just too late to go back & change the lexicon, so discovering an immune-response that uses other divisions of the armed forces in our body had to be called something else, and so we got “intolerance” and “sensitivity”. They are no less worse than “allergy” but they simply must be called something different.”

“A food sensitivity is when you have an immune response to that food. A food intolerance is when you don’t have enough of that enzyme to break down that food i.e. ‘lactose intolerance.’ Far more people have food sensitivities than realize it. This is not a rare problem, and it is not exclusive to gluten, although that is one of the worst immune-producing responders out there.’

“Autoimmune disease is the #1 cause of morbidity(meaning; you die)/mortality(meaning: you get sick & it leads to death) in the industrial world. We thought it was heart disease for a long time, but we are now seeing a strong auto-immune connection in the progression of heart disease. Heart disease, remember, begins with inflammation in the heart walls.”

“Almost all of us have an autoimmune condition within us already, it’s just not bad enough to make us sick yet. No one gets Alzheimers’ in their 70s. It begins in their 30′s and 40′s & progresses….

There are 3 components to developing an autoimmune condition into something that produces major symptoms:
1) genetic variability – do you have the genes for it AND did you up-regulate those nasty genes by your lifestyle choices
2) environmental trigger – gluten is the most common trigger that leads to #3
3) intestinal permeability – we find in patients with end-stage autoimmune conditions, many have long-standing leaky gut syndrome”

“Every bit of food is either inflammatory or anti-inflammatory.”

“If gluten gets through your gut, your immune response goes after it. It becomes trained to fire bullets at the gluten wherever it finds it (blood vessels, thyroid, brain, etc.). Regularly consuming gluten brings a regular onslaught of bullets at the gluten floating around your body. You have then successfully developed your autoimmune condition.”

“In the Annals of Internal Medicine Journal in 2006, there was such a strong correlation found of osteoporosis patients that were ALSO carrying a gluten sensitivity that the researchers of the study confidently wrote in the Journal that ALL osteoporosis/osteopenia patients SHOULD be checked for Celiac/gluten sensitivity….when you ingest gluten, it binds to the minerals in your diet, and since your body needs those minerals to function correctly, in an effort to save itself, it leaches the minerals from your bones, thereby creating weak & brittle bones – osteoporosis. Interestingly, the greater the degree of osteoporosis, the greater the degree of improvement on a gluten-free diet!”

“Another very common symptom of patients with a gluten sensitivity is terrible muscle pain, aches, and weaknesses. The reason? Sometimes, when the body makes antibodies to gluten to fight it off, it also makes antibodies to actin, myosin & endomysium. Every muscle in your body is made of actin, myosin & is covered by a sheath of endomysium. Now you have created a system where the immune response thinks it should be attacking the very things that make-up your muscles! This not only can make a person sore, but it can make them feel overly fatigued because their muscles are being torn down continuously.”

“Fatigue is the #1 symptom of people with allergies/sensitivities.”

“Athletes on a non-inflammatory diet consistently improve their performance.”

“The gut biopsy is no longer the gold-standard for testing for a gluten sensitivity. Other tests are catching Celiac and gluten sensitivity much earlier. If you have damage in your intestines, it’s already gotten bad. You want to catch an immune response to gluten early – before your gut is permanently damaged.”

CYREX LABS {cyrexlabs (dot) com} offers the best early testing.

“There are 2 steps to addressing gluten sensitivity: 1) stop throwing gas on the fire. You must eliminate gluten from your diet. Entirely & forever. 2) Heal the damage caused to your body (rebuild the brain cells that have been damaged, heal the gut wall that has been torn apart, fix the adrenals from all the stress your body has dealt with from constantly fighting the foods you’re eating)…

Many people eliminate gluten and begin to feel better. But many miss the 2nd step – you’re going to need to supplement with natural vitamins, minerals, and possibly herbs & nutrients in order to repair the damage. This is where a well-qualified naturopath or integrative physician/functional medicine doc can help you. Unfortunately, conventional doctors are not well-trained in this arena, and are often of little help in diagnosing or recovering from this. It can take 1-2 years of work on this issue to begin to fully heal the body. But don’t give up, your life will get better & better as you look, feel, and perform better & better!”

And the Doc’s final words of the presentation, which I love:
“Just think rationally & ask the question: Are there things that could be keeping me from truly being optimally healthy?”

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In addition to the busy-ness of the gym, I’m moving! And yes…getting threatened with stiff $ penalties if my apartment walls are not back to builder-white has been prioritized by me as greater than blogging. But I’m here now! So let’s get talking!

I was organizing the office last week, and while I was organizing the notebooks we have, one had the papers flipped so the back page was facing out. And on it had been written the first half of a day’s food journal – my food journal, actually. When I found that food journal, I read it and laughed while simultaneously shaking my head. “No wonder…” I thought. Here’s what my journal listed:

Bfast: Oats (steel cut) with berries and honey
Snack: Apple with almond butter, nuts (probably almonds or cashews)
Lunch: Caprese salad, asparagus
Snack: Gluten free crackers

Why do you think I laughed at this list & thought ‘no wonder?’…It looks like pretty decent food, right? I mean, it’s definitely not McD’s!

We’ll explore several variables that are ‘less than optimal’ with that food journal over a few blog posts (because you’ll glaze over if we do this all in 1 go) & it’s my hope that you’ll learn from my early mistakes & make more optimal choices for your meals and snacks.

So what’s wrong with that list of food? It’s just one big insulin-spiking roller coaster that contains very little protein or fat and a whole lotta carbs. It has approx. 34g of protein, 35g of fat and 100g of carbs. Remember I still had dinner to get through (where there would have been another grain + protein) to add to these totals. Compare that to today, when I don’t eat 100g of carbs in an entire day, I eat 2.5x that amount of fat, and eat 3.5x that amount of protein. And I’ve gotten significantly healthier since changing how I eat from that early food journal when I’d just gone gluten free.

Whether you’re on the Paleo bandwagon, the gluten free band wagon, or no wagon at all – one thing you simply must understand if you are to understand how food/lifestyle plays into health/wellness.

Inflammation is at the root of almost* all disease.

*the scientific theory does not allow for a definitive statement unless every variable has been proven/disproven. Since new diseases are still emerging, we cannot say all, but for the top killers of humans- heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and even cancer – look to inflammation first.

Here are 2 ways to create inflammation in your body. (There are other ways, but we’ll leave those for another time)

1. Eat foods that spike your blood sugar, causing lots of insulin to be released into your blood stream.

2. Eat foods that contain pro-inflammatory compounds in them.

Let’s take apart #1: When you eat a food, it breaks down into smaller components as you digest it. Eat a food that breaks down as a simple sugar (carbs do this) & your body has to send out insulin to deal with the spike in blood sugar. Because, you see, you no live long time if you have sugar for blood.

You don’t eat many sweets you say, eh? How about your whole wheat bread (2 slices raise blood sugar more than 2 Tbsp table sugar), your rolled oats (because you already know those ‘instant’ oats are not as healthy)…sorry, same deal- blood sugar spike, your side of fruit along with your yogurt (sigh…sorry Charlie, fruit is full of fructose & most yogurts have 8g of sugar or more)…and all those cheery little gluten-free goodies like gluten free pasta/crackers/bread/cookies/etc.? oh this is so not good, those spike your blood sugar even more than the whole wheat bread. Total bummer right? Initially, I agreed…yes, bummer.

But when I looked at what those silly little gluten free foods were doing for my wellness and performance, I was willing to try something different. What wasn’t working for me? Well, at the time I wrote that food journal, I was gluten free, but I was unknowingly relying on sugar to keep me going all day. No, I wasn’t eating sweets at every turn. I was eating grains at breakfast daily, as a small part of lunch or afternoon snack (usually tortilla chips or GF crackers) and a few nights a week quinoa would show up on the dinner plate.

Grains break down as glucose in your blood stream. Whole9 says it well in their Grain Manifesto: “When too much blood sugar is present in the system, your body quickly runs out of places to store it as useful energy, and will store any excess as body fat.

In addition, when too much insulin is present in the system, the cells in your body become desensitized to the hormonal “message” insulin is trying to send. Since the message isn’t getting through, your pancreas is prompted to release even more insulin when your body doesn’t need it.

Finally, chronically high insulin levels lead to a condition in which your body has trouble releasing the energy already stored in your cells. This is a bad place to be. If (via a diet high in carbohydrates) this pattern continues, insulin levels continue to rise, fat stores continue to grow and the body becomes completely incapable of responding to its own directions.”

Does that make you re-think that pre/post-long run bagel or your gluten free crackers and cheese afternoon snack? *For the record: I’ve leaned out more since cutting the grains in my diet way, way down. No, it’s not hard, you just have to learn what you’re doing. Vegetables and potatoes provide ample carbs for the diet of even an active person.

I’m also not “hangry” anymore. Hangry: ‘hungry’ + ‘angry’ = “hangry” <–not a good thing for all parties involved. Hangry-ness happens when your blood sugar is plummeting after a previous skyrocket. Now, I get hungry, but it’s a deep, real hunger of needing nutrients – not a response I’m feeling from my ‘here & then gone’ simple carb snacks. I can go several hours without eating, and am not wrecked from it. I used to eat literally every 90mins some bite, snack or meal would go in my mouth because of the blood sugar roller coaster I was on.

We’ll get to method #2 for creating inflammation in the next post. We’ll look at how you can limit the amount of pro-inflammatory compounds you eat & find more optimal foods that will fuel your body better. Till then, take a good look at what you’re eating – maybe do a food journal for a few days, and see what types of foods you’re eating most. If it’s a carb-heavy diet, take a serious look at how that’s making you feel, look, and perform & consider how a change to your diet could improve on those things.

1) It carries a compound that doesn’t break down all the way in a human gut, thus causing gut irritation, systemic inflammation, & potential for autoimmune disease.*

Answer: CEREAL GRAINS
(yep, all those grains you eat as part of your ‘diet rich in whole grains’ as prescribed by Biggest Loser and a whole bunch of other mainstream, misinformed people. Did you know cereal is a slurry of grains formed into a flake or shape depending on the cereal & was originally invented at a sanitarium for use on the patients staying there as a way to ‘calm their loins’, yeah, it’s what you’re thinking – seriously, read the story here.)

2) It has molecules called anti-nutrients in it that fight against what vitamins, minerals, amino acids & helpful molecules try to do in your body.*

Answer: WHOLE GRAINS
(foods in nature aim to survive, it’s built into their DNA – look at an apple, its seeds contain small amounts of poisons that are there by design. If an animal or human came along & ate the whole apple - seeds and all – then the apple would never reproduce & would eventually die off. Seeds can easily pass through stool & since pungent with the poison, can signal animals to avoid eating them, leaving them behind to mix into the soil and re-grow. Grains, while not full of cyanide like apples, have a hard endosperm there by design & when eaten, sets off molecules & chemicals that make it tough for your body to fully digest them – that grain is fighting for its life to make it out of your intestines & back to the earth for re-growth!)

3) It has a defense mechanism built into it similar to a soap molecule. Rather than attach itself to your carrier cells in the gut, it simply punches holes in the membranes of the gut lining cells*. <—It’s a bit barbaric don’t you think?

Answer: QUINOA. I know!! I know!  I was shocked when I learned this because I enjoyed quinoa & its complete profile of amino acids giving it a slightly higher protein content than other grains, but when I really looked at the science of it…well, read on…
(Quinoa is botanically NOT a grain, but it has evolved in a similar biological niche giving it similar properties to grains*. Grains essentially hitch a ride on your cells & generally wreak havoc on everyone through their chemical inflammation, regardless of if you are Celiac or non-Celiac gluten intolerant..but quinoa decides to skip that part & just punch a hole in your microvilli (hold your hand up with the fingers apart, that’s what your inside of your gut looks like with cells all over that surface area of finger-like folds). If you punch a hole in the microvilli, you’ve just opened the door for food particles to slip out of the gut…hello leaky-gut syndrome! And this is how people can become intolerant to seemingly innocuous things like chicken, garlic, and cinnamon.

4) Contains a molecule that makes the immune system mount a response to it (as a good little immune system should do) however also makes a close match to cells you already have in your body, like pancreas cells, and sets the scene for the immune system to mount that same attack it had against the molecule to the pancreas cells.*

Answer: ALL GRAINS.
“But I don’t have Celiac!” you say, I know, many people don’t have Celiac. You don’t have to have Celiac to have an immune response to grains*. All humans react similarly to grains, and those with Celiac or non-Celiac gluten intolerance (what I have) simply have a more intense reaction than non-Celiacs. But the reaction is still there in non-Celiacs: when grains are eaten regularly, the body is perpetually dealing with these inhospitable jerky molecules creating inflammation (the root of most diseases) and creates the possibility for your body to begin mounting an attack against its own cells creating auto-immune diseases that seem to pop out of nowhere but can be tied to leaky gut & the autoimmune response that creates. See list below:
-Infertility/PCOS
-Type 1 diabetes
- Multiple Sclerosis
-Rheumatoid Arthritis
-Lupus
-Vitiligo
-Narcolepsy
-Schizophrenia
-Autism
-Depression
- Huntington’s
- Non-Hodgkins’ lymphoma
- Hypothyroidism
- Porphyria

I’m not posting this to annoy you about your grain consumption, I’m doing this because the more I learn about food & nutrition, the more I can see the CLEAR LINK between what you eat & how sick or healthy you become. Since I was diagnosed with gluten intolerance 2 years ago, we’ve studied grains & how being gluten free positively impacts health, and now we’re studying the differences between Neolithic (post-agricultural revolution) and Paleolithic (pre-agricultural revolution) foods.

Those of you who know about Paleo diets & hate anything that takes away your beloved grains, don’t roll your eyes, there is some serious science around this. We are not studying it because we want this to be the next fad in diets. We are studying it because as students of human science, we are literally eating up all of these studies & scientific proof showing how foods we thought were healthy are negatively impacting our health & longevity.  

In the month of May, Drew & I are going to be doing a Nutritional Challenge – and blogging about it. If you’re so inclined to join us, super! We’ll be using scientific studies & the teachings of biochemist Robb Wolf & former professional marathoner/resident-smart-guy Mark Sisson. Check back this week for updates on what will be included in the Nutritional Challenge.

*Excerpts of Robb Wolf’s book, The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet were included in this post. Studies proving this data are listed in the back of Robb’s book.

Glutamine is a non-essential amino acid, meaning your body can make it itself, whereas other amino acids you must take in through your diet because your body cannot produce it. Recently, it has been classified as a conditionally essential amino acid, which means that even though the body can produce it, if there is a time of extreme stress, the body’s demands exceed the rate at which the body can produce it & depletion occurs, requiring supplementation to support the body’s needs.

Glutamine is involved in more metabolic pathways than any other amino acid. It converts to glucose, which is required for energy. It helps to manage blood glucose levels as well as the correct pH level in the body (which is critical to health!). It serves as a fuel source for cells of the intestinal lining, that without it, those cells waste away making digestion & nutrient absorption challenging. It is also the base of the building blocks for DNA & RNA synthesis.

So to summarize that paragraph: Your body uses glutamine to *have energy for daily & workout function *control blood sugar spikes & drops, which affect how much fat you store & if you develop diabetes *keep your pH in a range that does not cause disease, breakdown & sickness *help your body use the nutrients from the food you eat & keep the place where 80% of your immune system is stored (in your gut) healthy & *to upkeep the very things that make up who you are.

Glutamine also plays a role in helping the body to secrete HGH (human growth hormone) – which helps the body metabolize fat & support new muscle growth. And supplementation of glutamine can help in the treatment of arthritis, autoimmune diseases, fibrosis, intestinal disorders – and can play a big role in helping people to not waste away when they are going through treatments for critical health issues like cancer & AIDS.

When you are in good health, your gut lining is strong & functioning as God intended it- absorbing nutrients, digesting & eliminating the foods we take in. When your gut health is compromised, which antibiotics, the Pill, poor nutrition, extreme stress, medical treatments, lack of breast milk received as a newborn, and many more things can cause – your body lacks a major player in the key to optimal health. Glutamine plays a big role in helping the gut to heal if it is damaged & remain strong, especially if you’re someone like me, who already has an altered gut due to almost 3 decades of gluten intolerance that I didn’t know about & ate a gluten-filled diet that was damaging my gut the entire time.

Glutamine has many benefits for optimal health, but, if you are hyper-sensitive to MSG, you should use glutamine supplementation with caution as glutamine metabolizes in the body into glutamate. So if you have physical reactions to MSG in food, give due diligence before starting to supplement with glutamine. MSG & glutamate as metabolized from glutamine are NOT the same thing – MSG is a chemical compound that scientists still don’t really understand other than that it can make any food taste more like that food. MSG is EXTREMELY dangerous to consume regularly. Glutamate as the metabolized form of glutamine is simply what the body does to this amino acid to make it readily available for use within the body.

Glutamine is just one supplement that may help you to move closer to optimal health. Our diets today are so nutrient deficient, even in fruits & vegetables if they are not organic, and we’ve done such damage to them from living an unhealthful life at some point in our lives or from taking antibiotics, that we all need to consider supplementation to help us return to optimal health. We should not rely on them as something we need forever, as your supplement profile should change as your health changes, but you should explore supplements as an added benefit to your health plan.

Consult with your naturopath before beginning a program (I’d say doctor, but to be honest, very few doctors understand supplements in a natural or holistic way so you’d probably be met with the answer “you don’t need that” if you talk to them).

Gluten has the potential to shorten your life if you consume it with ANY level of intolerance. Gliadin, the protein in gluten, is difficult to digest & for those with intolerance to it this means that those proteins sneak through the stomach & into the blood stream, where they make their way to any & all parts of the body and act as an opiod. That’s right, when you eat gluten with an intolerance, even a tiny amount, it’s going to places like your brain, your joints, your heart, your immune system, and creating problems such as cancer, arthritis, brain fog, mood changes, and tons more.

So yeah, it’s not ok to eat gluten – even tiny amounts – if you’re intolerant. That doesn’t mean get crazy, but it means be totally freaking educated so you don’t accidentally activate cancer cells because your body does not have active natural killer cells because the gluten disables them. That’s one thing that can happen if you still eat gluten. As you can see, I’m passionate about this.

And if you don’t have any intolerance? Still better to limit your gluten intake because it IS an inflammatory food, which means when you eat it, your inflammation levels rise as your body tries to process it. Inflammation is seen in the body as dysfunction like arthritis, heart attacks, skin issues – and as excess stored body fat – for those of you who’d like to look like you workout.

So – what’s the deal with Modified Food Starch? (And modified corn/tapioca starch, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, and many more “flavorizers”) Well, I saw my naturopathic doc to get another ASI Stress Test done to check my adrenal levels (they’d been elevated the last time we checked). The test also checks your insulin levels, cortisol levels, DHEA & progesterone levels, and for any immune reaction to gluten in your system. When he called with the test results, I was shocked that he told me I was “borderline” for gluten intolerance.

“Um, Doc, shouldn’t my number for that reading be 0 since I already don’t eat gluten?” “Well Kate, obviously it’s sneaking through somewhere, one big area people don’t realize is they consume any products that contain things like HVP, modified food/corn/tapioca starch, and many more things, that the process to make those uses gluten- THUS, if you consume something that contains those things, you’re ingesting gluten.” Crap.

As you know I don’t eat processed/packaged stuff very often – but have you looked yet to see how pervasive those additives are in food today???? It’s sick how they are in virtually anything on a store shelf today. I was looking at tapioca pudding last week as a nice little summer-weather dessert for me & my man – and every single type contained modified tapioca starch. Your yogurt may have it. Your pudding cup definitely does. Your fruit snacks do. And if you check the things you eat daily, I’ll bet you find stuff that has chemicals in it that are made using gluten.

These are all basically new versions of MSG, and along with MSG, they should all be banned. They don’t do the body any favors. There are better ways to make food because we’ve done it for a long time without these newer chemical additives to food.

So! If you’re trying to stay gluten free, be wary that if you eat these chemicals, you are consuming gluten. I’m watching everything that goes into my diet now to see just how often I run into these food additives & to see if I can step around them. I urge you to read your labels this week & see if you can count how many times you go to eat something that contains these things in the ingredient list. It all comes down to eating as nutritionally valuable as possible – if that food gives you a big bang for your buck, then have at it! If it’s edible stock price is plummeting as you read the ingredients list, know that if you consume it, you’re consuming a lower quality product for your high performance body.

This week, we are so fortunate to have Dr. John D. Turner granting us an interview on how food, specifically gluten, plays a role in the improving or declining health of individuals. His interview sheds light on “optimal wellness” for non-athletes & athletes alike!

Dr. Turner has been the person to treat & guide me to good health through homeopathic, nutritional & supportive services. He also was the Dr. to diagnose my gluten intolerance after many different Dr.’s wrote my symptoms off as “just the way you’re built,” “take this pill for the rest of your life,” or as not really being a ‘big’ issue, even though I felt like my wellness was an important issue to me. I owe him the world & he’s been kind enough to share some insights in this interview. Please enjoy!

Kate: Dr. Turner, in 1 or 2 sentences, what is/are your practice philosophy(s) as relating to the care of ones’ health?

Dr. Turner: Health is a balance of the structural, nutritional, & emotional aspects of our beings. You cannot influence one part of the triangle without affecting the other two.

Kate: Celiacs’ disease is portrayed as a fairly UNcommon issue…is this true? What % of the pop has Celiacs? Can you estimate a % that has it & does not know it?

Dr. Turner: Uncommon? No. Poorly Diagnosed? Yes. Statistically it is diagnosed in 1 of every 200 individuals or 0.5% of the population, but that is the extreme form of the disease & only discovered through invasive diagnostic techniques. There are some estimates that say as much as 40% of the population could have some form of Celiacs’ disease & not be aware of it.

 Kate: Why kind of issues/symptoms can gluten create in the body for someone with gluten intolerance/Celiacs’ & for someone without intolerance of any kind?

 Dr. Turner: One of the reasons its poorly diagnosed is that the vast majority of the symptoms are not gastrointestinal. Headaches are one of the most common non-GI symptoms. There is a 20% decrease in blood flow to the frontal lobe of the brain during a gluten sensitivity reaction. Because of the constant stress on the immune system, the adrenal glands are eventually depleted and a host of problems can occur…anything from hypothyroid function to hormone imbalances to hypoglycemia.

Kate: Gluten intolerance is a very real issue to me and many people, however, it’s been written about as “some catchall name for when a person feels better in body/mind/or spirit after cutting grains from their diet & that it is not actually diagnosable” (from Slate.com, 2009). Would you give me your thoughts on this statement & also how you can diagnose gluten intolerance?

 Dr. Turner: The statement seems counter-intuitive to me. If someone feels better in body, mind & spirit after cutting grains out of their diet then who cares what you label it, you are obviously healthier. To diagnose gluten intolerance, we use laboratory testing to measure gliadin antibodies in a persons’ saliva. This method can register a ‘false negatives’ if someones’ Secretory IgA is suppressed due to adrenal imbalances. We also use applied kinesiology, or muscle testing, and sometimes we use a computerized acupuncture device to energetically test for sensitivities.

Kate: What are the short & long-term consequences of consuming gluten when you’re intolerant to some degree?

 Dr. Turner: Allergic gastritis due to food allergies will result in a reduction of the hydrochloric acid secretions in the stomach which will in turn impair protein digestion & overall nutrient absorption. Long term, this leads to malnourishment, dysbiosis, and symptoms of acid-reflux.

Kate: Does consuming too much gluten affect other chemical or hormonal functions of your body? Am I correct in assuming over-consumption also lays the groundwork for a Candida overgrowth?

 Dr. Turner: I’ve mentioned the endocrine imbalances related to Celiacs’ disease, you can only imagine the end result of year of poor nutritional support to the reproductive system, musculoskeletal system, & nervous system. Because of the low acid in the stomach resulting from allergic reactions, there is a rapid & dramatic rise in Candida growth in the stomach, small intestine & esophagus.

Kate: If you don’t have an intolerance, can you eat gluten freely without consequence?

 Dr. Turner: Too much grain based foods will drive the inflammation up in your body even if you don’t have an intolerance. Hard fiber from grains also tend to constipate you.

Kate: Is there any support for the idea of advising patients to go gluten-free (or very gluten-reduced) for improved sports performance or improved performance in daily functions, even if they are not intolerant?

 Dr. Turner: Although grains containing gluten can provide you with glycogen for muscle energy, they also make you more acidic which will increase inflammatory proteins. If you have an intolerance & don’t know it, then you will notice a big difference in how you feel, both mentally & physically, during and after your workouts (after removing gluten).

Kate: Is there anything else you think is vital for people to know about gluten or the over-consumption of grains?

Dr. Turner: Grains & fiber became a large part of our diets when two men, Mr. Kellogg & Mr. Graham, led a puritanical campaign at the turn of the century. Their premise was that constipation resulted in pressure being applied to our reproductive organs which generated “carnal thoughts.” Their solution was to eat lots and lots of fiber. Sadly, our modern-day food pyramid hasn’t wavered from that stance very much. (Link to this amazing historically factual story here. Of note – how corn flakes were invented by letting corn grains go stale!)

I would like to thank Dr. Turner for sharing his time & valuable education with us! Your interview has shed even more light on the fact that ‘all is not as it seems’ in the colorful & snazzy world of food-product-marketing & that we need to be constantly vigilant of what is going in our mouth & whether it is taking us toward optimal health or further from it.

A person with non-celiac gluten intolerance may develop celiac if they continue to ingest gluten & once you have one of these disorders, there is no going back. You will have it for life & the ONLY treatment is to live a gluten-free life.

Symptoms associated with Celiac’s Disease & Gluten Intolerance:

Gluten is a protein found in many cereal grains & is the main protein found in wheat. It’s what makes dough soft & chewy & is vital to making bread in the traditional recipes. The major grains that contain gluten are: wheat, barley, rye & oats*. A complete list of the grains containing gluten is found below. Gluten is made up of amino acids, which are like building blocks for that protein. Gliadan is one form of gluten, and is generally recognized as the problem for those who have gluten intolerance or Celiac’s disease- which are very different forms of a similar problem.

Celiac disease is the most severe form of gluten intolerance, recognized by villous atrophyin the lining of the stomach. The simple way to understand this is that Celiac patients are classified by a specific majormalabsorption issue in their small intestine. Gluten intolerance (non-Celiac) is a just as serious but not as severe. A gluten intolerant patient will not have the villous atrophyof a Celiac but will have symptoms that will limit their quality of life & could eventually become Celiac’s disease.

When a person ingests gluten regularly – which means they eat anything that comes from wheat/barley/rye/oats (like breads, pastas, muffins, cereals, baked goods) or is made with gluten (including some coffee creamers, lunch meats, soy sauce, dry seasoning packets, some personal hygiene products & the list goes on and on), their body has to try to digest & absorb that large protein, gliadin. Since it cannot digest the gliadin, the body sends out antibodies to attack this offender which sets off an immune reaction in the body. See my post on a complete list of symptoms of this disorder for more details on this immune reaction.

 Gluten intolerance/Celiac’s disease are auto-immune disorders, which means if you are diagnosed with it, family members should also be tested because there is a high likelihood that 1 or more of them are carriers as well. These disorders lead a person to have serious malabsorption issues – since their small intestine is where vitamins & minerals are absorbed by the body – a person with either disorder can begin to have serious problems as they absorb less & less vitamins – specifically vitamin B12 absorption is seriously affected in patients. B12 play a major role in cellular function & since you are made up of cells that need to function, this is a problem that can affect your entire body.

*Oats do not contain gluten on their own, but are commonly mixed with gluten-containing grains, thereby making them contaminated & a no-go for someone with gluten intolerance. If your doctor is ok with it, Certified GF(Gluten Free) Oats can be an option for porridge but some people also have an allergy to oats, and must avoid those as well.

Gluten-containing grains: Wheat, barley, rye, oats*, durum wheat, kamut, spelt, einkorn, triticale, semolina, bulgur, wheat germ, couscous, farina, emmer, matzoh, graham……*remember that there are a vast majority of processed & packaged foods out there that also have wheat gluten in them so you have to read labels.

Link to ”safe” foods for gluten intolerant:     http://www.celiac.com/categories/Safe-Gluten%252dFree-Food-List-%7B47%7D-Unsafe-Foods-%26amp%3B-Ingredients/

(Healthier Without Wheat, Dr. Stephen Wangen)