|
Reviewed
by Irene Alleger (In the Townsend Letter for Doctors,
February/March, 1994, #127/128)
Food
and the Gut Reaction by Elaine Gottschall, B.A., M.Sc.
The Kirkton Press R.R.1 Kirkton, Ontario, Canada N0K, 905-349-3443
1987
softcover, $16.95 + shipping, 143 pp.
or 1-800-332-3663, the American warehouse and shipper, where
buyers can use their credit cards.
|
|
The title
of this small book reflects the academic background of the
author, a research biochemist and nutritionist, working in
Canada. Although written primarily for those people who suffer
from specific digestive and intestinal disorders, she documents
the results of her years of research on diet-related illness,
an area in which many physicians could educate themselves,
as well.
The author
clearly explains the role of microbes and intestinal flora
in the maintenance of a healthy digestive system, and how
an imbalance triggers an unhealthy milieu, leading to intestinal
disorders. The author's research focused on the gut's reaction
to different kinds of diet, in the treatment of Crohn's disease,
ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis, celiac disease, cystic
fibrosis, and chronic diarrhea. From this data a surprising
diet emerged, showing the most optimal results from the restriction
of carbohydrates.
The Specific
Carbohydrate Diet is the centerpiece of this book, with each
segment of the diet explained in terms of how it works in
the gut, and the scientific rationale for including or excluding
different foods. Research has shown that the underlying problem
in intestinal disorders is the inability to digest carbohydrates
due to microbial overgrowth and toxins. The process that results
in illness is begun in the altered milieu of the digestive
system, a progressively more inflammatory condition, leading
to the inability to digest a major part of our Western diet,
with concomitant malabsorption and its resulting nutritional
deficiencies.
Good explanations
are given of the breakdown of foods by enzymes and their role
in the digestive process. The author also explains the different
kinds of carbohydrates found in food and the few, such as
legumes, fruit, and yogurt, which are digestible by patients
with intestinal disorders. Although celiac disease is explored
in more depth than some of the other digestive disorders,
the general thesis is that all of these (above named) intestinal
disorders are simply earlier or later stages of the same process.
The Specific
Carbohydrate Diet is highly nutritious, and by judicious choice
of foods, can be well-balanced. The case histories cited often
speak of subjective improvement within days of beginning the
diet, and symptomology significantly improved within months.
Although no large-scale studies have yet been done, patient
populations in Canada that were put on the diet were often
cured completely after several years. The value of this dietary
treatment is in the scientific work done which is so completely
ignored by the orthodox medical community. I dare say a chunk
of the pharmaceutical profits are generated by drug treatments
of these disorders, as well as keeping a large force of specialists
in the style to which they've become accustomed.
This diet
is not merely a listing of foods allowable and not allowable,
it is much more. In just the discussion of allowable fruits,
for instance, distinctions are made between "loose" California
dates (okay), and dates which stick together in a mass, showing
they have had syrup or sugar added. Nothing is overlooked;
one must be committed to improving one's health to stay with
this diet, but the outcome is worth it. The most restrictive
part of the diet is of course, with grains; no cereals or
flour, no potatoes, But once the gut is healthy again, these
can be re-introduced slowly.
The purpose
of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet is to deprive the microbial
worlds of the intestine of the food it needs to overpopulate,
the sugars from the carbohydrates. By using a diet which contains
predominantly "predigested" carbohydrates, the individual
with an intestinal problem can be maximally nourished without
overstimulation of the intestinal microbial population. The
diet presents a method for breaking the dysfunctional cycle
by allowing only carbohydrates requiring minimal digestive
processes which are absorbed and leave virtually none to be
used for furthering microbial growth in the intestine. As
the microbial population decreases due to lack of food (while
being balanced by lactobacilli), its harmful by-products also
decrease, freeing the intestinal surface of injurious substances.
No longer needing protection, the mucus producing cells stop
producing excessive mucus, and carbohydrate digestion improved.
Intestinal
disorders are becoming endemic, and worse, the conventional
medical wisdom has little to offer. Anyone with any of these
disorders would be prudent to give this diet serious attention.
|
Breaking The Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through
Diet