“We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.” ~Galileo Galilei

It was early 2002, and my sixteen-year-old daughter climbed out of bed and stumbled into the kitchen. "How do you feel this morning?" I asked. Her response broke me. "I never feel good anymore mom. I feel bad all the time. My stomach hurts after everything I eat." What had happened to my daughter that caused her to become allergic to the foods she would eat? What was causing all the pain in her gut? Doctors couldn't help me except to suggest the removal of her gallbladder, hoping this would help. I was in pain because she was in pain, and I was on a mission to help her. I had just started making cultured foods the previous year and found that these foods helped with her digestion. That morning I called someone who had sold me coconut oil and was, in my opinion, a health expert. What happened next changed not only the course of Maci's gut but my whole life as well. I told this person I was making cultured foods, which she also believed in, and she said something to me that I will never forget. "You should feed your daughter a cultured food at every meal since it helps with digestion, and see if it makes a difference." So I did.

Cultured Food At Every Meal

Stopping The Pain

Maci had a cultured food with each of her meals and within a month her stomach stopped hurting. Within three months her food allergies started evaporating, and a year later she could eat anything she desired. She was no longer allergic to the mass of foods she had been allergic to. It felt like someone had casually handed me the keys to the kingdom of food allergies. I am so glad I heeded that casual advice because it changed everything for me. I began telling my friends about this miraculous method of healing food allergies and fixing their guts, and they began to heal too. Before I knew it, people were coming to me in droves and my life began to change dramatically. I started researching everywhere trying to find evidence of what I was witnessing and none was to be found. Since this message of eating cultured foods at every meal was given to me to help my daughter, I decided I would share it with anybody who needed help.

I had no research and no proof besides the lives I was helping and witnessing - until now.

They Were No Longer Allergic

A study,1 published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has discovered not only a possible cause of food allergies but a probable cure. The team found that young children overexposed to antibiotics were at greater risk of developing food allergies. They were able to identify a naturally occurring bacteria in the human gut that keeps people from developing food allergies. The bacteria, called Clostridia, is a big class of bacteria which includes hundreds of members. This strain of bacteria diminishes with frequent antibiotic use at a young age — making children more susceptible to food allergies later in life. Maci was given antibiotics every year when she would get her yearly sinus infection, and now I can see how this affected her.

The research team administered antibiotics to young mice2 and found they were more likely to develop peanut allergies than the control group. Then they were given this special and diverse group of bacteria called Clostridia. This is a good bacteria that naturally occurs in mammalian guts — and like magic, the mice's sensitivity went away. They were no longer allergic.

I got chills when I first read this study and felt myself well up inside and I shouted out loud, "I KNEW IT!" even though nobody was around to hear me. I believe that cultured foods are so effective at healing the gut because they contain many different strains of good bacteria and good yeasts and they are predigested foods that help us digest the foods we eat with them. The special group of super cultured foods called the Trilogy (kefir, kombucha and cultured veggies) were the ones I used to heal my daughter and help many others. They have many different strains of bacteria and will colonize the gut and repair it.

More Studies

Another study done on peanut allergies in children was published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. This study was done on children who had peanut allergies and were given a probiotic strain of bacteria that over time eliminated their peanut allergies.3 A follow-up study on the children done four years later confirmed the findings that they were still free of peanut allergies.

The use of probiotics for food allergies is growing and even being used to treat babies and pregnant women. Supplementing with probiotics, specifically B. lactis, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Lactobacillus rhamnosus has been found to help prevent food allergies in infants whose families have a predisposition to food allergies. (These species are in milk kefir as well.)4, 5

Reasons For Food Allergies

Food allergies rose a whopping 50% between 1997 and 2011,6 and I saw this in my own home. My daughter, who had no previous food allergies, had suddenly developed them and I wanted to know why. The reasons include:

  • A rise in antibiotic use that kills the bacteria we need to digest our foods.
  • A diet devoid of fiber (prebiotics) and nutrients to feed the microbiome.
  • A lack of probiotic foods in our diet has wreaked havoc on our 10 trillion microbes that keep us well.
  • Chemicals that flood our environment that disrupt our inner flora.
    (A common ingredient in antibacterial soaps called Triclosan7 has been linked to food allergens. The FDA  issued a final rule establishing that over-the-counter consumer antiseptic wash products containing the active ingredients Triclosan can no longer be marketed.)8

These common occurrences in everyday life have unknowingly led to a decline in gut bacteria and we have suffered the consequences.

What You Can Do

If we give our bodies what they need, they can do the job they were designed to do - heal us! It's how it works; and when you are confused and feel afraid and in pain, there is always help for you. You are not alone. I was struggling to find answers to heal my daughter's gut pain - if I can heal and find the answers, so can you. The answer came to me when I needed it. It wasn't a billboard, it was in a conversation that felt really important. I just had to act on it, trusting that the power that made the body can heal the body if we give it what it needs. So if you are reading this, I urge you to heed the call and start eating a small amount of cultured foods at each meal.

As things continue to evolve, there will be more evidence of what I am telling you. Restoring the gut with good bacteria that has been stripped through antibiotics is one of the keys to restoring our health and our lives. When you are healthy, you can't help but show others the way too. The exciting part? This is just food, not drugs, which makes this accessible and easy for everyone to do.

Carb Training

I did an interview with Joel Greene (@realjoelgreene) who has done so much research on this topic of food allergies. In his own experience and helping hundreds of people he started to see the very same thing I had found. Many of the issues with dairy, gluten, and other food sensitivities can be WIPED OUT simply by doing a little thing he calls ”CARB TRAINING.” It’s very real and it's not the food, it’s the bugs in your gut!

Joel says, "What is carb training? It’s the idea that the ability to handle things like dairy, carbs, and other sensitivities can quite literally be TRAINED into the body. In other words, simply by feeding the gut the substrate needed to make key species of bacteria thrive and grow, we can GAIN the genes needed to make the enzymes to digest things like dairy and gluten, and even lectins!" He's had a lot of success helping people do this with Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs) which is a prebiotic that increases Bifidobacteria. If you have a strong base of bifido, it helps feed all the other bacteria in your gut and helps restore order and balance to the microbiome.

Here is what he suggests:

CARB TRAINING 101:
Start with small amounts of Human Milk Oligosaccharides HMOs
Add in small amounts of red phenol powder which is concentrated berries to feed specific species in your gut.
As the weeks pass, as bloating and gas decrease, increase amounts slowly.
Begin to add in tiny amounts of the foods you previously could not tolerate and slowly increase over time.

"Too many people needlessly suffer these food intolerances when there is an easy fix. Let's get the word out."~Joel

The Formula —Have a cultured food at every meal.

A cup of kefir for breakfast made into a smoothie.

Smoothie Recipes


A spoonful of cultured veggies, or the brine, with lunch and dinner to help with digestion and build your microbiome.

Veggie Recipes


Kombucha (about 6-8 ounces) for lunch and dinner. Or you can substitute Coconut Water Kefir or Beet Kvass to drink at every meal (4 to 8 ounces).

Kombucha Recipes Coconut Water Kefir Beet Kvass


🍲  Maci had bone broths made into soups a few times a week. The collagen in the broth is very healing to the digestive tract.

Collagen recipes


🍎🥦 Prebiotics are super important in the form of veggies, fruits, prebiotic teas, or supplements. Prebiotics are certain indigestible fibers that nourish the good bacteria in the large bowel or colon.

Prebiotics 


Start with small amounts of Human Milk Oligosaccharides HMOs  (1 teaspoon)

HMOs


Add in small amounts (1 scoop)  of red phenol powder which is concentrated berries to feed specific species in your gut.

Red Phenols


Build up your microbiome with the species it needs to thrive and digest your food and watch what happens. It's not the food, it's what we've done to our guts. Replace those missing bacteria and, as I have witnessed, food allergies are no more.  If you are reading this blog, chances are your body is trying to tell you something.

Listen To My Podcast

Food allergies have tripled in the last few years. More and more research supports that many important gut bacteria are missing, or have been damaged and causing food allergies. Check out this podcast to learn more.

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