Sunday, December 22
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Research Links the Western Diet to Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Let me share this little story before you start to read the article.

Several years ago I was asked to do classes at a leading massage therapy school. Fortunately the classes became a mandatory class to graduate. After a few months the owners came to me and said….”we love your classes however we feel you would be more credible if you could honestly tell your students you were a vegetarian.” I was a little confused however being new in the alternative health field I complied…..

At that time I was maybe 95 lbs., nothing ached…I was in a great mood all the time…I had energy…and my hormones were balanced. 2 months later I was 45 lbs heavier, everything ached, I was a raging OMG get her away from me person, I was tired all the time and my hormones….let’s just say they were moaning…..

One day a client walked in with Dr. Peter D’Adamo’s best selling newly released book Eat Right For Your Blood Type….while she was getting ready I looked up my blood type…I am an “0” and being vegetarian I was eating basically nothing that my body could digest without a load of inflammation. I stopped everything loaded up with everything I could have as an “O” blood type and I was back to 95 lbs., nothing aching, great mood, high energy, and hormones singing happily….

INFLAMMATION is the culprit to every health challenge anyone has no matter what the diagnosis….so now back to the intended story.

Inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD, is a historically Western occurrence. Although mainly a problem in the United States, as the standard American diet has gone global, IBD has become more common across the globe.

All that fast food, fat, and sugar could be promoting the proliferation of IBD.

A recent study has found that eating a Western diet can harm the immune system in the gut and may boost the risk of infections or inflammatory bowel disease.

One of the ways a high fat, high sugar diet may influence immunity is its effect on Paneth cells. Paneth cells are immune cells in the gut that are responsible for keeping inflammation in check.

When these cells become impaired, the gut becomes more prone to inflammation, and the risk for IBD increases. Poorly, or non-functioning Paneth cells, for example, are a key feature of Crohn’s disease.

Researchers looked at data on 400 people and assessed their Paneth cells. They found that body mass index (BMI) played a factor in the cells. The higher a person’s BMI, the worse their Paneth cells looked.

Researchers then fed healthy mice a Western diet to see if it changed Paneth cell activity. It did, causing the researchers to suggest that it wasn’t obesity, per se, that led to problems, but a high-sugar and fat diet.

Paneth cells in mice returned to normal after being fed a healthy diet for a couple of weeks.

There could be several factors that contribute to gut inflammation and IBD, but this data sends a strong signal that diet is part of the problem. Eating a Western-style diet, rich in processed foods, fat, and sugar, may impair the immune system and increase the risk for IBD.

The best defense is a healthier diet. Cutting back on unhealthy fats and sugar, and eating more fiber, fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, and whole grains may be the best way to reduce the risk of IBD and potentially aid in treating the condition.

Let me just add this….PROBIOTICS…..PROBIOTICS…..PROBIOTICS……you can’t take enough of them and especially for children every day