If you have an autoimmune illness, spend enough time in the paleo community and your foggy head might start sprouting arms to keep a grasp on all the different branches of Paleo diet. On the plus side, you’re one step closer to real enlightenment ….
© by Cåsbr
But here is where being an autoimmune’d patient actually simplifies things. Using an elimination diet, my decision is often a clear yes/no due to strong reactions to foods. Instead of asking vague q’s like “does reducing carbs boost my energy level above 90%? I get to ask along lines of “Can I or can’t I sleep after eating it?” It’s always easier to quantify improvement when you’re a hot mess than when you’re Beyonce. Now if only we knew what diets are safest to start with….
And that’s why I decided to put together this little exposé on how 4 popular autoimmune spins on Paleo diet address leaky gut.
1) Terry Wahls Diet
MD with MS, famous for going from rocking the wheelchair to rocking the stage of TEDtalks. Some vegetarians/vegans have used her “9 cups of veggies” recommendation and her mention about farmed (not grassfed) red meat as pro-inflammatory, as a basis for their choices, but she clearly stated that she believes Paleo to be superior to the grain-and-legume heavy diet used in the China study. Her diet can be summarized as the following:
“Phase 1 = Eating 9 cups of non-starchy vegetables and berries each day (greens, sulfur, color).
Phase 2 = Going gluten free, dairy free and soy free to reduce the risk of food allergies.
Phase 3 = Going Paleo by reducing/eliminating grains, legumes and potatoes.
Phase 4 = Getting evaluated for potential food allergies, toxic load issues and more personalized nutritional needs by a practitioner of functional medicine - http://www.terrywahls.com/_blog/Terry_Wahls’_Blog/post/One_Way_to_Adopt_the_Wahls_Diet%E2%84%A2/“
Grok’s New Clothes: How does this diet differ from the caveman diet? Clear limitation of starches. Other Paleo experts often allow simple starches like white rice & tubers, but starches (being a chain of sugars) can also lead to gut fermentation (“bad” bacteria feeding on them) and promote more dysbiosis.
2) Robb Wolf’s Autoimmune Diet
Robb is one of the oft-mentioned Paleo experts, and he actually developed an autoimmune protocol in his book, The Paleo Solution. Here’s a summary of the protocol:
“I took this directly from Robb’s website in the FAQ section….
If you suffer from an autoimmune disease we highly recommend you start a Paleo diet and let us know what your results are. To give your body its best chance to heal we recommend that you initially limit the following foods:
Eggs
Tomatoes
eggplants
Peppers including bell peppers and hot peppers Spices such as curries, paprika, and chili powder.
Some of these otherwise Paleo-friendly foods have been shown to be problematic in individuals with autoimmune issues. We recommend you fully remove not only these foods but also all Neolithic foods (grains, breads, potatoes, beans and dairy) for at least a month to see if they pose a problem for you.
I have also heard him say in his pod casts to not eat nuts and seeds, to watch out for emulsifiers in foods…such as gaur gum, soy lecithin etc, and to limit the consumption of fruit, as all of those things can be gut irritants.” - http://paleohacks.com/questions/79396/what-is-robb-wolfs-autoimmune-protocol#ixzz26Tb1UkHk
Grok’s New Clothes: Notice the emphasis on limiting nightshades, which may be inflammatory: “A particular group of substances in these foods, called alkaloids, can impact nerve-muscle function and digestive function in animals and humans, and may also be able to compromise joint function. ” Although recognized as a problem by Paleo experts such as Mark Sisson, they’re treated with a laxer mentality such as : ”Our simple answer: eat them (and enjoy them) in moderation if you don’t feel any ill effects.”
3) SCD Diet
You had me at “diet intended mainly for Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease, diverticulitis, cystic fibrosis and chronic diarrhea.” As you might guess, it’s main focus is on safe types of carbohydrates: the purpose is to remove difficult-to-digest carbs which might feed bad bacteria. The diet is discussed in depth in Elaine Gottschall’s book, Breaking The Vicious Cycle, but the intro diet is available online:
“Breakfast:
- Dry curd cottage cheese (moisten with homemade yogurt)
- Eggs (boiled, poached, or scrambled)*
- Pressed apple cider or grape juice mixed 1/2 and 1/2 with water. See, SCD™ Legal / Illegal List for more information about allowable juices.
- Homemade gelatin made with juice, unflavored gelatin, and sweetener (honey or saccharine)
Lunch:
- Homemade chicken soup
- Broiled beef patty or broiled fish
- Cheesecake
- Homemade gelatin made with juice, unflavored gelatin, and sweetener (honey or saccharine)
Dinner:
Variations of the above” - http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/p/the-intro-diet/
Grok’s New Clothes: At first glance you’ll notice even the intro diet appears much more dairy-tolerant than others, with the caveat that SCD legal yogurt requires 24 hours of fermentation in an effort to remove all casein & lactose. Secondly: ”One basic principle of the SCD™ diet must be firmly established and persistently repeated: no food should be ingested that contains carbohydrates other than those found in fruits, honey, properly prepared yogurt, and those vegetables and nuts listed” - http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/p/the-intro-diet/
4) GAPS Diet
Not for the throbby eyed or faint of heart. Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride went one step further on the SCD diet to make it the crown jewel of leaky gut diets. The full diet is in her book, Gut and Psychology Syndrome (throbby eye alert: the 2010 edition has 400 pages), but again the intro diet is available online (and for some reason, not incl in her actual book). In the spirit of keeping things concise though, here’s an excellent summary of the intro diet from kitchenstewardship.com:
“Stage one: allows bone broth with well cooked vegetables, meat, and probiotic food at every meal & ginger tea between meals.
Stage two: add raw organic egg yolks, meat and veg casseroles with no spices, & increase probiotic food and ghee
Stage three: add grain-free or Paleo pancakes, scrambled eggs
Stage four: add roasted meat, olive oil, fresh juice& bread baked w/nut flour
Stage five: add cooked apple puree, some raw vegs, fruit juices
Stage six: add raw fruits, raw honey, grain-free approved baked goods w/only dried fruit as sweetener” - http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2010/10/27/the-comparison-the-specific-carbohydrate-diet-scd-gaps-diet-gut-psychology-syndrome-and-the-makers-diet/
Throbby eye alert: Only after you finish the above 6 steps can continue onto the actual GAPS diet. Excited? I know I’m not.
Grok’s New Clothes: I will admit that the unrelenting elimination of starches and potential traces of casein & dairy, along with adding bone broths to actually heal the gut (vs. not feeding bad bacteria) makes this sound like the most appealing diet for LGS. I’ve heard of many patients that have done extremely well with this diet, so busting rocks on a chain gang to get through this may pay off in a big way.
High-Fat or Highway?
A personal note: seemingly nothing is as simple as advertised when you have LGS, and that may also go for Paleo. As one example, high fat intake (~50% of your calories) is a pillar of Paleo which happens to be retained by all 4 of the above diets, but I’ve heard from many LGS patients that have trouble digesting fats. I had some nausea when I started the bacon, for example. Allison Siebecker, ND, MSOM, LAC discusses this issue:
“Now, let me go back to that other one I wanted to mention for those with problems when starting Paleo, and thatʼs the problem with the fat digestion. The way youʼll notice this will be nausea, probably. You just felt like it was just too much fat [in your meal], or you might just feel too full. And this is really common. A lot of people who switch to Paleo, it can be a pretty radical dietary transition for a lot of people.” - http://paleosummit-src.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Dr-Allison-Siebecker-Paleo-Digestive-Troubleshooting.pdf
The only laws that apply to us are what our body tells us it tolerates. Ease into high fat or high protein if you have trouble digesting either. Consider adding bile salt and/or lipase enzymes to get the fat down (+protease for protein, +amylase for starches) to prevent gut fermentation. Hunting for clues and gathering knowledge about your body still makes you a hunter-gatherer, just a much nerdier and introspective one. That’s hot.
