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The Gut Restoration Diet




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April 29, 2015 by Andrea Fabry 24 Comments

When I was searching for answers to my family’s ongoing health issues, I made the decision to alter our diet. I found a great deal of conflicting information and found myself overwhelmed as I tried to sift through the various diet plans.

Are you wondering which antifungal diet is right for you? Confused by the various options? Let us help you sort it through!

The role of gut restoration in healing

Yeasts, bacteria, and other microbes exist in abundance in every individual’s digestive tract. The gut lining consists of both beneficial and harmful varieties. When the balance shifts in favor of pathogenic microbes, our immune system suffers.

Symptoms of bacterial and fungal overgrowth include fatigue, brain fog, joint pain, headaches, sugar cravings, OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), skin and nail fungal infections, dizziness, and much more. Antibiotics, environmental toxins, a highly processed diet, stress, and the aging process all contribute to microbial imbalance.

There are a myriad of options for those seeking to boost their immune system through diet. In this article we compare and contrast five popular diets designed to restore or maintain health.

  • Phase One Antifungal Diet
  • Bee’s Healing Diet
  • GAPS Diet
  • Paleo Diet
  • Body Ecology Diet

Before contrasting these diets, it’s important to note their similarities.

  • Elimination of processed foods

What exactly are processed foods? The Food and Drug Administration defines them as “any food other than a raw agricultural commodity and includes any raw agricultural commodity that has been subject to processing, such as canning, cooking, freezing, dehydration, or milling.”

Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, author of Gut and Psychology Syndrome notes that processed foods are natural foods that “get subjected to extreme heat, pressure, enzymes, solvents and countless number of various other chemicals.” In addition, she notes, “fats get hydrogenated and proteins get denatured.” She says the bulk of processed foods are carbohydrates which, in the form of processed foods, are burdensome to the body.

  • Elimination of sugar

Sugar is the primary food for pathogenic yeasts and bacteria. By taking sugar out of our diet, we essentially starve these pathogens. For more information on this concept (specifically relating to toxic fungi), see the article Forget Antibiotics, Steroids, and Medication – Starve This Toxin Out of Your Body by natural health advocate Dr. Joseph Mercola.

  • Elimination of grains

With the exception of Body Ecology’s inclusion of grain-like seeds such as quinoa or buckwheat, all of these diets are grain-free. Grains and many root vegetables such as yams and potatoes are rich in starch. Digestion of starch requires quite a bit of work for the digestive system, leaving much of the starch undigested. Undigested starch provides food for pathogens. Doug Kaufmann, author of the Phase One diet, notes that mycotoxins are commonly found in grains because “sugar is the staple food of fungi, which makes grains one of their prime targets.”

The following chart offers a comparison of the foods that are permitted on each of the diets. The chart is not a comprehensive assessment of each diet, but rather a tool to assist you in your research. See the individual websites linked above for specific protocols.

5 Gut Restoration Diets Compared

Antifungal-Diet-Chart_600

Click on chart to view and download

Other diets to consider:

The FODMAP diet
Autoimmune Paleo

Finding a diet that works for you and/or your family member may require some trial and error. Everyone’s immune system is unique. No matter which diet you choose, you can’t lose to move away from denatured food and toward real, whole food!

For more about our journey see:

A GAPS Diet Reflection

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Filed Under: Foodie, Gut Health, Uncategorized Tagged With: aip, AIP Paleo, antifungal, Bee's Healing Diet, bees, Body Ecology, diet, diets, Doug Kaufmann, ecology, food, foods, GAPS, grains, gut, Gut and Psychology Syndrome, healing, kaufmann, paleo, Phase One Antifungal diet, processed, sugar

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Comments

  1. Jennifer Cannon says

    April 29, 2015 at 10:12 am

    Again..great article and thanks for the time spent on creating the comparable chart. This is very useful!! I do have to say it’s quite sad when you look at the chart. The one common denominator causing gut disruption are “grains”. You would think that researchers could see this and see where we have gone wrong in destroying the original form of most grains.

    Reply
    • Andrea Fabry says

      April 29, 2015 at 10:20 am

      Yes this is so true, Jennifer. Thanks for the feedback.

      Reply
  2. Emily @ Recipes to Nourish says

    May 5, 2015 at 9:25 am

    This is so interesting! My family will be on a healing journey in the near future … so this was perfect timing for me. Thanks for sharing all of this with us.

    Reply
  3. Susanne says

    May 5, 2015 at 9:56 am

    This is so great. Gut dysfunction unfortunately just continues to grow and it can be hard to sort through all the natural options. As the other poster said, it is so interesting that none of these diets include grains. Thanks for explaining these diets so well.

    Reply
  4. Julia Worthy says

    May 5, 2015 at 10:11 am

    Hi, My partner has a fungi toe nail, which he hasnt been able to get rid of for many years. Recently, his fingers cracked and his fingernails started started to go yellow also. We think the cause of the cracking dried fingers was from mixing cement he was building in our garden. He then started to get dry red welts all over his body.

    Weve been treating it with apple cider vinegar and coconut oil.

    He also been drinking lemon juice with apple cider vinegar first thing in the morning and taking probiotics last thing at night.

    We are about 6 weeks in and although the skins looking much better and the finger nails are also. His finger tips are extremely painful and keep splitting. Do you think he would benefit from following an anti – fungal diet?

    Kind regards

    Julia

    Reply
    • Andrea Fabry says

      May 5, 2015 at 10:32 am

      Julia,
      The great thing about any of these diets is that they eliminate the processed food and sugar. If I had these symptoms remaining I know I would give it a shot. There’s nothing to lose as each of these diets offer plenty of nutrition. It simply depends on what his body requires and honestly he’ll probably get a good idea by trying something like this.

      Reply
  5. Eileen says

    May 5, 2015 at 10:20 am

    Thanks for this valuable overview! I have tried a few of these plans, GAPS has seemed to help the most. But all have some good things in common, as you mentioned.

    Reply
  6. Tash says

    May 5, 2015 at 10:44 am

    A fantastic resource! I have always felt better when I avoid processed sugar and grains. The chart proves this fact across the board!

    Reply
  7. linda spiker says

    May 5, 2015 at 12:47 pm

    Love it! I am in the middle of doing a somewhat similar post. Do you mind if I link to yours?

    Reply
    • Andrea Fabry says

      May 5, 2015 at 2:59 pm

      Sure Linda! Thanks!!

      Reply
  8. karen says

    May 6, 2015 at 4:47 am

    Great chart Andrea! I’ve been working on this chart for weeks now but with different diets. Great to see yours already done! Haven’t heard of “Bee’s” or “Phase One”. Good to know!

    Reply
    • Andrea Fabry says

      May 6, 2015 at 7:27 am

      Thanks Karen! I’ll be excited to see yours.

      Reply
  9. Chloe @ How We Flourish says

    May 6, 2015 at 1:48 pm

    Very helpful post, and I learned about some new diet options. Thank you so much for sharing this information. I’m currently doing GAPS Intro. It is amazing for me, but I love knowing what the other options are because GAPS is definitely not for everyone.

    Reply
    • Andrea Fabry says

      May 7, 2015 at 8:55 am

      Your blog is a wealth of information for anyone starting GAPS! Thanks for taking the time to comment, Chloe.

      Reply
  10. Vanessa says

    February 16, 2016 at 1:56 pm

    I’m always curious about coconut aminos and mushrooms, especially with people like me and you with past mold exposure. What’s been your experience?

    Reply
    • Andrea Fabry says

      February 16, 2016 at 2:16 pm

      I haven’t noticed anything adverse with either of these, Vanessa. I know that everyone is unique and no two ecosystems are the same. We enjoy the coconut amino’s and certain mushrooms have all sorts of health benefits if tolerated.

      Reply
  11. Kristine says

    August 6, 2018 at 7:48 pm

    I was actually thinking about combining the GAPS and the Body Ecology diet. Might sound crazy to do that but I think that’s what our bodies can tolerate the most in my household. And unfortunately, our income too. So sugar free, sour fruits, limited pseudo grains, sea vegetables, food combining, meat stock, coconut water kefir, milk kefir, fermented veggies, etc.

    Reply

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MEET ANDREA

I am a certified Building Biology Advocate, a former journalist, mother of nine, and avid CrossFitter who likes to think outside the box. After our family's health crisis in 2008, I learned to ask questions about what's in our food, our water, and our air. I hope to empower you as you seek to live safely in a complex world. Thankfully, small steps lead to big changes. Let's travel this road together, one step at a time.

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