Comfortable Eating

Your digestive tract is intended to digest your food, then let the good things through into your bloodstream (nutrients and water) and keep the bad things out (toxins, parasites, undigested food). Anything that goes awry along the way can create digestive distress.

Digestive enzymes and stomach acid break food down into its most basic parts: fatty acids (from fat), amino acids (from protein), and simple sugars (from carbohydrates). Food that’s incompletely digested in the stomach and small intestine basically rots in the large intestine, and can cause bloating, diarrhea, and unpleasant gas.

While those conditions may be uncomfortable or embarrassing, there’s another consequence of poor digestion: food intolerance. In this situation, undigested protein fragments pass through the wall of the large intestine and into the bloodstream. Once they’re in the blood, they can travel anywhere in the body, which explains why a food intolerance can cause symptoms ranging from headaches to painful knees and ankles.

Strengthen Your Gut Wall

The first strategy for avoiding food intolerances is to strengthen your gut, so foreign particles can’t get through.

One beneficial substance for GI health is glutamine. This amino acid is a major fuel for the mucosal cells that line the intestinal wall and provide a protective barrier.

Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in the body, and most of us get adequate amounts of it from high-protein foods such as meat, fish, and beans. Sprouts, such as bean or pea sprouts, are a particularly good source of glutamine. For focused bowel restoration, however, up to 5 grams a day provides additional support.

Another solution for bowel restoration is butyric acid, or butyrate, which can have an amazing effect on the beneficial bacteria of the colon.

Butyric acid is a short-chain fatty acid that’s naturally created by friendly bacteria in the colon from undigested fiber. It stimulates more beneficial bacterial growth, improves one’s ability to absorb minerals, enhances fat digestion, and helps prevent inflammation.

For some people it seems difficult to either produce enough butyric acid or utilize the amount present in the colon. In these cases supplementation can work wonders to get everything back on track. Butyric acid is available at most health food stores and is available in tablet form. You can begin by taking two tablets with each meal, then cut back to one per meal as your symptoms improve. (Sources for the supplements discussed in this section and the next one can be found at the end of this e-mail.)

Ensure Complete Digestion

The other strategy for avoiding food intolerances is to support your digestion, to keep foreign particles from getting into your bowel in the first place.

A proper amount of stomach acid is essential for proper digestion, especially the digestion of protein. Too many people take antacids or acid-blockers to deal with stomach discomfort, only to cause other problems further along the tract. Instead, the solution is often more stomach acid.

Believe it or not, it’s possible to take a hydrochloric acid supplement, in the form of betaine hydrochloride, which you can get at your local health food store. I recommend that you take one or two tablets after you eat. Whatever you do, don’t take them before or during the meal, because you want your stomach to produce and secrete as much acid as it can on its own, then you add the additional acid as needed.

Digestive enzymes are the other part of the process. The three main types are lipase (to break down the fats), protease (for the protein), and amylase (to break down carbohydrates). By the way, trouble digesting dairy, beans, or broccoli comes from a lack of specific enzymes needed to address these foods.

Good Digestion for Every Individual

There’s one other point I should make, and that is that no matter what your digestive concern, you want to keep the bacteria that reside in your bowel in healthy balance. An overgrowth of bad bacteria disrupts proper absorption and elimination; an extreme overgrowth of the bad bacteria signals your body to purge itself quickly—which is why food poisoning causes diarrhea.

I recommend that everyone, young or old, healthy or ill, add good bacteria—known as probiotics—to their diet. That addition can come from either probiotic supplements or fermented foods.  The idea might seem a little repulsive to some people, but you do need bacteria for good health. They help complete digestion, and manufacture nutrients such as vitamin K.

Where to Start

All this might seem like an overwhelming “program” to address food intolerances. It needn’t be. Most people can identify their problem foods or food group with no trouble at all. You may also want to keep a food journal to help you identify problem foods. If you find that only one food or food group causes your symptoms, and it’s something you don’t want to give up in your diet, then begin with the digestive enzymes and move to betaine hydrochloride if you still need a little more support.

If a wide variety of foods or groups cause problems for you, then your gut is almost certainly the source of your troubles. Begin with the glutamine, because that works directly in supporting the cells that protect you from the foreign invaders. As you heal, you’ll find that fewer and fewer foods will cause distress for you.

Depending on the cause and treatment, it could take as long as a couple of weeks to see real improvement—or it could happen as quickly as your next meal. Keep at it, and enjoy all the delicious food that this summertime will bring your way.

Dr. David Williams