People often ask me why I focus on developing healthy eating habits as a way to work with autoimmune disease. The reality is, all health starts in your gut. I have learned this from firsthand experience. 

Before I knew I had autoimmune disease all I knew was that I didn’t feel good. I experienced extreme bouts of fatigue, I had brain fog constantly and could barely remember anything, my joints hurt from all the inflammation in my body, I suffered from anxiety, and I was constantly bloated.

During this time in my life, I understood how connected the body is and that you can’t heal one part without finding the root or the source of the problem. I understood it but I didn’t know how to apply it to my own life. 

Luckily, I had many people who entered my life who helped remind me that the only way I could deal with fatigue, brain fog, joint pain, inflammation, anxiety, and being bloated was to find what the root of all of these problems were. They all led back to one thing. My gut health. 

There are trillions of bacteria in your gut. There is basically an ecosystem of bugs in our gut. These bugs can create a healthy environment or an unhealthy environment depending on how we feed them. Often, with autoimmune disease you have bacteria growing where they shouldn’t grow. This changes how your food is processed, where it’s processed, and your body’s ability to absorb it. 

Doctors now know that when we alter gut immunity, we create inflammation and when we create inflammation we begin to break down the membrane that is responsible for opening and closing and letting good nutrients in and keeping the bad ones out. When this happens foreign protein leaks into our system and our immune system responds by creating systemic inflammation. This can result in brain fog, muscle aches, fatigue, joint pain, and sensitivity to food. 

You may find that you crave lots of simple carbohydrates, starch, and sweets. This is the bad bacteria in your gut telling your body how to feed it so it can stay alive. 

Once I understood all of this I could see how the foods I was putting in my body could continue to make me feel sick or would contribute to my health. I took all gluten, sugar, and dairy out of my diet to help reset my gut and kill off the bad bacteria. I remember when this was first suggested to me I immediately got angry. I thought it was ridiculous and didn’t know how I was going to do it. My reaction to the suggestion of eliminating those three things helped me realize how badly I needed to do it. 

Changing what I ate along with some supporting herbs and supplements made me feel like a completely different person. My fatigue lessened, my brain fog began to clear up, my joints didn’t hurt as much, I had less inflammation and less anxiety, and I wasn’t bloated. Over the years I have continued to learn more about foods that are healing for autoimmune disease versus foods that are not. I have also gotten to the point where I can almost immediately feel the effects when I choose foods that I know I should not eat. My body has become a great source of reliable information and I pay attention to how it reacts to what I put in it. 

Food for me, was the gateway to learning about holistic health and finding a deeper connection with my body. It helped set the course for me to see how my overall health was influenced by everything in my life; from my thoughts, my feelings, my relationships, my diet, my sleep, to how I move my body, and how I handle stress. 

If you are interested in having a conversation about how food can affect your health in a positive way let me know.