After decades of being told by the experts that a diet high in fiber and low in fat is the key to robust good health, why is it that one in every 5 Americans is being treated for Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease, (GERD)?

Studies show more than 60 million Americans are currently being treated by their physicians for acid reflux. Last year there were 470,000 hospitalizations and 1.9 million visits to the emergency room as a result of GERD, commonly known as acid reflux. What’s more, GERD is now being diagnosed in children, birth to four years.

Since 1999 the majority of Americans say they are now following the dietary guidelines recommended by the FDA, eating at least 5 servings of fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains each day.  We are also following the advice of the medical community and eliminating from our diets traditional fats,(like butter) and decreasing our intake of protein—especially our favorite food-to-hate—red meat.

What is it, then, that such a large percentage of our population is doing that would promote the massive increase in this ailment? Should our entire nation succumb to popular medications that merely treat the symptoms but do nothing to remedy the underlying cause?

In my e-book, Acid Reflux: A National Epidemic and Precursor to Chronic Illness I pull back the curtain of misinformation to reveal the truth about why we are all chronically ill not only with GERD, but a variety of ailments including cancer, heart disease, allergies, dementia, even autism: see The Healing Diet for Acid Reflux Disease

Much of what we are told about good nutrition today is based on trends and faulty research funded by the Goliath factory farming industry. For 25 years I suffered from debilitating pain and chronic illness. Over that time I also suffered from symptoms of impaired digestion including persistent flatulence and at the age of 42, I was diagnosed with acid reflux that almost ended my career as a professional clarinetist. Even though I diligently followed popular health dictates as outlined in the traditional Food Pyramid and the resulting digestive illness and malnutrition nearly cost me my life.

If the Food Pyramid isn’t the answer, what is?  In Acid Reflux: A National Epidemic and Precursor to Chronic Illness I explain how our bodies actually work to digest and assimilate the food we eat.

Before the 1950s most of our foods came from small family farms. These high quality foods were from animals eating their natural diets.  Cows ate grass, chickens ate bugs and worms, and all fish were caught in the wild.  These are nutrient-dense foods our bodies need for optimal health and digestion, but unfortunately, this is not what we find at our grocery stores today.

Consider how many ads you see for drugs to address chronic health problems like acid reflux, gas, indigestion, constipation, and diarrhea. Pharmaceutical companies expect to earn a whopping $400,000,000 in annual sales from going over-the-counter with the ‘little purple pill. This remedy for acid reflux is nothing more than a slow death.

Current information on so-called healthy eating will not heal digestive disorders and will ultimately lead to nutrient deficiencies, illness, and even death, it behooves us to learn the difference.

The principles of a truly healthy diet are but one aspect found in this exceptional e-book.  Acid Reflux: A National Epidemic and Precursor to Chronic Illness also provides information on where to find nutrient-dense foods, shares delicious recipes and menu ideas, and makes the road to true healing informative and enjoyable.

For more information on healing and building health with nutrient-dense foods and seminars on this subject, see Performance without Pain and The Healing Diet for Acid Reflux Disease

Best in Health,

Kathryne Pirtle

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Help for Singers
Effective Nutritional Solutions to Healing Acid Reflux Disease

Imagine: You are rehearsing for your first major singing role with an opera company and your vocal range has become unpredictable. Some days you have your full range; others, you do not. But you have never experienced this problem. The opening night is in just one week. Your doctor says you have a nodule on your vocal cords, which has developed because you have acid-reflux disease. He tells you that you must rest your voice and not do the performances. You are devastated.

Health problems that affect performance are extremely frightening. They not only affect you physically, but they are an enormous burden to your mental well-being. Acid-reflux disease is a serious ailment that can permanently damage the voice. If we heed the profound statement of Hippocrates (460-370 BC) that ”All diseases begin in the gut,” then we must make a serious pursuit finding the root cause and correcting the source of any digestive issue. Since the longevity of a vocal career depends on health, it is imperative that true solutions are found to this problem.

Have you ever asked yourself why digestive ailments have become so common? There are endless radio, television and magazine ads about medication that helps acid-reflux and other digestive complaints. What is a large percent of our population doing that would promote this massive increase in the incidence of digestive disorders? Should the entire population succumb to these medications? It would seem that there are underlying reasons that so many people have these disorders.

I had acid reflux disease in my early forties just prior to becoming extremely ill with a life-threatening digestive disorder that nearly ended my musical career. I am the clarinetist and executive director of the Orion Ensemble, now in its 18th season. We tour throughout North America, present three series each year in the Chicago metropolitan area, and perform a live, internationally broadcast series on WFMT, Fine Arts Radio in Chicago. Besides playing principal clarinet with the Lake Forest Symphony, I frequently perform with the Lyric Opera Orchestra, Grant Park Symphony and the Ravinia Festival Orchestra. In addition, I have taught for over 30 years and have served on the faculties of the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music, Northern Illinois University, Indiana University and Bradley University. In 2004, the Hal Leonard Corporation released my solo album of Bach unaccompanied cello and violin suites and sonatas transcribed for the clarinet.

In the fall of 2001, I became chronically ill for two years, suffering from a severe inflammatory condition in my spine, which caused debilitating pain in my arms, shoulders, hands and fingers making it difficult to play. I developed chronic diarrhea and my embouchure, the facial muscles I use to produce my sound, also began to shake uncontrollably. This was ultimately diagnosed as coming from a long-term digestive problem, intestinal damage and malabsorption as a result of following common nutritional dictates and Celiac disease—an intolerance to gluten grains.

Of great significance, despite the fact that I was chronically ill for two years, is that I had experienced ongoing musculoskeletal inflammation, often of a severe nature, since my 20s and relieved it through physical therapy-type approaches common to the field of music—you name it; I became an expert at it! In my late twenties and throughout my thirties, I was constantly “chasing” pain and stiffness from practicing and performing. When I would solve the discomfort in one area, another area would become irritated. I was also trying to eat a healthy diet and closely followed popular guidelines for healthy eating.

Along with inflammatory conditions, I had early digestive illness symptoms starting in my childhood.  Beginning in my youth I had ongoing flatulence, which is a sign of poor digestion and intestinal bacterial flora imbalances. When I was 42, I began to experience acid reflux disease. A very distracting problem for a wind player, I felt a constant pressure in my throat and the sensation of wanting to burp. Of course, when I did burp, acid would be released into my esophagus. This was very frightening and I sought answers to this problem. At this point, my solution was to stop eating wheat, which was quite helpful for the time being. However, several years later, I developed a spinal inflammation followed by a severe digestive disorder—life-threatening chronic diarrhea and malabsorption. Obviously, cutting out wheat was not the full answer to acid reflux, as my digestive disorder, unknowingly to me, continued to develop.

We have become complacent in accepting the widely publicized recommendation that a low-fat, high fiber diet is essential to good health. I later learned that the nutritional advice I was following was not based on the study of healthy people, but on trends. Although I thought I was eating a healthy diet, and for years had faithfully followed the US governmental guidelines, these modern conventions were clearly causing health problems.

If following modern dietary trends resulted in digestive problems, what then were the answers to healing? In order to not only save my career, but also save my life, I needed accurate information. This complicated puzzle was solved through a radical change in my diet based on studying the work of Dr. Weston Price that reversed my acid reflux and intestinal damage, and provided my body with the nutritional elements necessary for building health. I am now recovered and vibrantly healthy! For the first time in 25 years, even with a full performing, practicing and teaching schedule, I have had no pain or inflammation in my body for over four years. My embouchure is completely strong and I have excellent stamina and muscle strength.

Dr. Price was a prominent dentist in the 1930s who was baffled by the large percentage of degenerative illness in his patients—chronic ailments of all sorts such as arthritis, inflammatory conditions and digestive complaints, fertility problems, cavities, crooked and crowded teeth and behavior and learning problems in children. He sought answers to these problems by traveling worldwide to see if there were cultures free of these types of conditions. He found 14 vibrantly healthy isolated cultures that had no signs of degenerative illness and had eaten the same foods for centuries from generation to generation. Although their diets were completely different, he analyzed their foods and found common characteristics that determined their diet’s ability to promote optimal health and genetic potential in humans. He was able to cure chronic illness in his own patients through his findings. He wrote an incredible book called Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Through his unprecedented work and the development of the Weston A. Price Foundation, (www.westonaprice.org.)  there is a growing movement of people who are finding solutions to healing chronic conditions and serious illness through traditional foods.

What are some of the foods that Dr. Price found to be absolutely essential to optimal human health?  The surprising traditional practices involve high-fat, easy-to-digest, nutrient-dense nutrition from pastured animals and wild-caught fish including:
•    Nutrient-dense, high-vitamin A and D foods, such as liver, cod liver oil and egg yolks—essential for nutrient absorption (Price found that healthy populations had 10x the amount of Vitamin A and D from natural sources in their diets.)
•    High quality traditional fats critical for digestion and nutrient absorption, such as raw butter and coconut oil.
•    Bone-broth soups made from chicken, beef, or fish with vegetables, simmered for up to 36 hours that heal the intestinal tract, are easy-to-digest, and provide essential nutrients in an easy-to-assimilate form, such as calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and other amino acids. Secondly, they provide important bone and tendon-healing components.
•    Easy-to-digest, high-enzyme, traditionally cultured foods to help develop a healthy intestinal flora, such as homemade sauerkraut, pickled beets, and raw milk kefir and yogurt from grass-fed cows.
•    High quality proteins—meats, raw dairy and dairy products, poultry, eggs and fish—from animals eating their natural diets.

By focusing on eating ample nutrient-dense, traditional foods that support good digestion, such as raw milk from grass-fed cows often cultured into kefir or yogurt (yes, it’s legal—for details on finding a certified raw milk source, visit www.realmilk.com ), traditional lacto-fermented vegetables, egg yolks, meats and poultry from pastured animals, liver and organ meats, wild-caught fish—especially salmon and seafood, bone-broth soups daily, cod liver oil, and ample traditional fats, I was able give my body the nutritional elements to heal and build optimal health. Through these easy-to digest, nutrient-rich foods that supported the development of a healthy intestinal flora, I also corrected the low-acid state of my stomach, which ended the ongoing stomach and intestinal fermentation that I had experienced for so many years. Therefore, I no longer suffered from flatulence or any other digestion ailment symptoms, including those from acid reflux and a hiatal hernia. And after five years of following the principles of that Dr. Price discovered, I continue to notice improvements in my well-being.

Since my recovery, I felt that I needed to write a book that would help people in high-performing fields and others understand how our modern foods are causing so many health problems and offer accurate answers to healing. I knew that many artists were desperately trying to find solutions to serious career-threatening ailments, and had often exhausted all available resources. With the help of co-authors, Sally Fallon, international lecturer on nutrition and the founder of the Weston A. Price Foundation, and Dr. John Turner, DC, CCSP, DIBCN, the doctor who helped me with my recovery and has over 25 years of experience treating athletes, artists and the general public, I wrote a book called Performance without Pain (pub. 2006 by New Trends Publishing) and an acid reflux e-book called Acid Reflux: A National Epidemic and Precursor to Chronic Illness: Achieving Lasting Healing with Traditional Foods.

I have given over 70 seminars since 2004 for the general public, performing artists and families with children who have Autism. Since then, I have had the opportunity to witness how powerful Dr. Price’s principles are in helping world-class singers permanently recover from acid-reflux. The following are two recent stories that chronicle recovery with traditional foods:

I am a successful, internationally acclaimed singer in my fourteenth year of singing professionally. In that time, I have often struggled, plagued with GERD or performance anxiety that resulted in a reduced performance capacity. Let me start from the beginning, though, before I became a singer.

I grew up poor in a small town in Indiana. I was blessed to live in an area where growing one’s own vegetables or going to local farmer’s markets was common. We drank powdered milk and ate lots of red meat, all of which was corn-fed. Wonder bread was a staple, but, luckily, junk food was an expensive indulgence, as was eating-out, so we seldom experienced either, although we had our fill of KoolAid. I was diagnosed at the age of seven with a nervous stomach, which I now believe was reflux. I avoided sausage and very spicy foods, which seemed to make we feel the worst, and didn’t think anything else about it. I was always a very high-strung person, with lots of energy, nervous and otherwise, and I attributed that to metabolism and personality.

Fast-forward to college, when I am finally singing on a daily basis. I experienced problems with lots of unfocused, frantic energy that made settling into singing difficult. I also panicked easily. I would experience my “nervous stomach” problems before important events, and would never really know when I would have trouble with my voice. Being an extremely determined person, I soldiered on and performed well by sheer willpower. I advanced and improved and managed to make it into Orlando Opera’s Resident Artists program. I shortly thereafter was admitted into the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. I had to complete my work with Orlando, which included many exhausting programs for children and adults, sometimes having three to four shows in one day. I snag myself into a vocal node, and was on vocal rest for almost two months, only talking for two minutes a day. The first time I sang in public again after the node was my house audition for the Lyric; thus began my vocal descent.

My node never healed, my “nervous stomach” got much worse, my range was erratic, my voice unpredictable, my nerves shot. People heard that I was in trouble, but attributed it to bad repertoire choices and tried to change my fach. I still had the same willpower, which did help me get through performances, but it wasn’t enough. I had my biggest successes during this time, but suffered from the fact that my voice wasn’t “stellar” like it used to be. On a day that I was in vocal distress, I visited an ENT in Portland who scoped my cords and informed me that the node I had contracted five years earlier had never healed, and the “nervous stomach” from which I had suffered was indeed GERD. Scared, shocked, and a bit relieved, I visited a famous doctor who specializes in vocal surgery, which was very successful. My surgery was very successful and my cords were perfect again, and there was no reason that I should struggle anymore. Yet, I still had GERD, which acid reflux medicine and the diet the doctors prescribed didn’t help, and it wasn’t consistent enough for me to want to be on a medication constantly. My nerves were still shot, also, and I was panicked beyond belief. I found a wonderful teacher and got into therapy, which helped enormously. I also had a baby, which tends to affect the voice in a positive way, but I still could not get rid of the GERD, so my top range was inconsistent, and my focus and nerves were spotty on the best days, like I couldn’t stop the constant stream of noise in my head.

I met Kathy Pirtle when I was a guest performer with the Orion Ensemble, of which she is a founder. She saw I was drinking a lot of water, and had mentioned that I had GERD, which is a bad combination. She talked to me about Weston Price and the book she herself had just written about her performing problems and the life-changing diet she discovered. At this point, I had tried everything, from vegetarianism to Atkins to South Beach to the Blood-type diet, so I was willing to try anything. I was terrified that such a high fat diet would make me blow up like a balloon, and I had just gotten rid of all the weight I had gained from giving birth, but I thought my voice and health were more important. From day one, I noticed that I was hungry on less, and felt vital. My mood calmed down and my nerves settled, so that I could focus and think while singing, which is something I was rarely able to do. Also, reflux was a thing of the past, as well as gas, which I thought was something with which all people had to deal. I also continued to lose weight, and didn’t bloat the way I used to at any hormonal times of the month. If I decided to cheat and eat lots of refined grains and sugars, I would bloat up again, quickly put on pounds, get gassy, and might have reflux that night, so the proof for me has been, so to speak, in the pudding. Now, I am happier in my singing than any other time in my life, and feel I finally have the stamina to do it.

Another huge reason I decided to take up the diet was because of my mother. She recently has been diagnosed with breast cancer, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, high blood pressure, Atrial Fibrillation, plantar fasciatis, bone spurs, thickening of the uterus, and depression. It all started for her with GERD, which went unnoticed for fifty years. I knew if I did not do something, I could end up in that condition. It wasn’t all about my voice, it was about my quality of life after my singing career was through.

Here is another professional singer’s story of healing from acid-reflux through traditional foods:

When I was in my early 20’s, I remember having a ’sensitive’ stomach but thinking it was dorm food in college or stress. I didn’t think much of it. My stomach would hurt but I didn’t have throat burning or excessive throat mucous. This was prior to the first surgery.

I had my first vocal surgery in 1992. I was 33. I had a varicosity on my left vocal cord that needed to be cauterized. They had no idea what caused it. They said
it could’ve been overuse—hereditary—they weren’t sure. No one at that time mentioned acid reflux. I had been experiencing erratic vocal symptoms. Sometimes I felt great, strong, like I could sing anything and for extended periods of time. Other times I would experience quick fatigue, muscle tensions that I couldn’t control and tightness in the throat. I later learned it was from the varicosity, which would swell sometimes but not always. He thought it had probably been there a long time and was working it’s way to the surface of the cord. It eventually burst which was how I figured out what was wrong. I lost my singing voice entirely when that happened. It was like I suddenly went hoarse.

I had another vocal surgery in 1997 for a similar thing. This time I had a pollup on the left vocal cord but when they went in to take it off, they found more varicosities on the cord, which they again cauterized. At that time, my doctor mentioned that he thought I maybe had some acid reflux symptoms and suggested I go on some medication. I can’t remember which one it was—maybe Nexium? He said I could take it whenever I felt it was necessary so I messed around with it a little but didn’t feel like I wanted to get dependent and didn’t end up taking it. I didn’t really believe him because at that time I wasn’t experiencing throat burning or even upset stomach. This surgery was a surprise. I had been singing regularly and had been feeling great. He thought it was a ‘vocal accident’—just a fluke.

By 1999, I had started my own business and was having more severe problems. I would notice that certain foods seemed to trigger symptoms. I was experiencing painful upset stomach and lots of gas and burping. I tried to control it with eating blandly and eating more often in lesser amounts. This helped some. I was under a tremendous amount of stress at that time with a new business and trying to get pregnant with our second. We eventually ended up adopting. I was noticing that the acid reflux was sometimes affecting my endurance and my voice would tire more quickly. I also felt like I needed to clear my throat a lot which of course exacerbates the symptoms. I was in a vicious cycle and it was starting to mess with my head. I felt I had no control over my instrument and couldn’t rely on it. Sometimes it was fine. Other times I felt nothing but struggle. I was experiencing a mild form of depression because of it. I had fantasies of quitting entirely and just giving up.

By 2002, I needed another surgery. This time, I had had it. I worked with a vocal therapist who told me that acid reflux can cause varicosities on the vocal cords. I had always been against taking medication and so struggled with the idea of taking something every day. But the therapist said I needed to take it regularly or it wouldn’t work. It needed to build up in my system. After the surgery, I had barely been talking, let alone singing and one month later, another swelling appeared on the right vocal cord (first time on this side). I went into a tail spin. I decided to go on the medication to protect my voice. I also decided to wait and see if I could ‘heal’ the problem naturally. I just wasn’t ready for another surgery. I found a great voice teacher who helped me get back on track. I was singing better but still feeling some vocal symptoms that I couldn’t control. (Weird fluttering in my mid register was the most annoying and prominent). I decided to have a fourth surgery in 2004 to get rid of the pollup. At this surgery, he said the cords looked cleaner and there was less redness and varicose problems so I felt like the medication was helping. I still felt uneasy about being on it indefinitely though.

Since that time, I have read your book and have been following the recommendations (at least about 80% of the time). I have taken myself off the medication and my voice is healthier than it’s been in a long time. I feel like my range has diminished slightly but other than that, I’m in good shape. This may be due to the fact that I’m older and am not using the upper most part of my range as much as I did when I was singing more classical music. It may also be because I’m peri-menopausal—at least that is what my doctor has suggested. I like to think that it has nothing to do with that, but I’m not sure.
Additionally, through eating this way, after suffering my whole life with debilitating back pain, my back is much better. I’m sure it’s all related. I have a ways to go but am doing what I can to get as healthy as I can. Your book, along with Sally’s and the Weston Price Foundation’s stuff has been an inspiration. I finally feel like I’m on the RIGHT track.

These are just a few examples of healing through traditional foods. Why did our food supply change? To better understand this, let’s first examine the drastic changes that occurred since the dawn of the profit-based industrial farming industry in the 1950s. The foods we are purchasing in our grocery stores today have almost no resemblance to the quality and types of foods that our ancestors ate for thousands of years. With profit as the sole guiding force, our livestock are fed unnatural diets, which are generating foods that are very low in nutrient value; we pasteurize, homogenize, irradiate and alter our fresh foods in countless ways; we use chemical fertilizers and spray our foods with insecticides and herbicides; the shelves of our grocery stores are bursting with processed junk food of all kinds and the average person is eating about 180 pounds of sugar a year.

Before the 1950s, most of our foods came from small family farms. These high quality foods came from animals eating their natural diets—cows ate grass, chickens ate bugs and worms and all fish were wild caught. The food from animals raised on their natural diet was nutrient-dense. The grains, nuts and seasonal vegetables and fruits were, of course, also naturally, or “organically,” grown. Sugar consumption was much less—at about 40 pounds a year per person.
With the industrial farming industry, came dramatic changes in land use. As our livestock were now fed grains instead of their natural diets, much of the land that was formerly used for pasturing animals was now allotted for grain production.

Significantly, profit from grains was essential to this new system of farming. This ignited a huge push to make profit from products made from grains. Thus the processed food industry progressed, vegetable oils were developed, the cholesterol-heart disease theory evolved and the Food Pyramid, which emphasized grains, became our nation’s nutritional guide. We went from a country that primarily ate nutrient-dense foods—raw whole milk and milk products; eggs; high quality meats, poultry and organ meats; traditional fats like butter, lard and coconut oil; seasonal fruits and seasonal vegetables—to a country that ate a lot of nutrient-poor grains and new-fangled processed foods, refined sugar, vegetable oils, and meats, dairy and poultry that were factory farmed. Beginning in the 1970s, fresh fruits and vegetables from around the world also gradually became available year round.

How did these changes to our food supply affect my dietary choices? As a child in the 1960s, my family ate plenty of grains—both whole, refined and in some processed foods—modest amounts of meat, eggs, dairy, vegetables, sugar and vegetable oils, including margarine, which was hydrogenated vegetable oil, and no butter or other traditional fats. I remember “Velveeta Cheese,” “Miracle Whip,” powdered milk (which my mother added to whole milk to make it stretch farther), “Blue-Bonnet” margarine, and many “new” sugarcoated breakfast cereals. All these exciting products had endless television commercials touting their wonderful attributes. My mom (thank goodness), having to stretch the family budget to feed 5 kids, did not let us have “Twinkies,” “Hostess Cupcakes” or other very popular—and expensive—snack cakes in our lunch like all the other kids—we got plain old, store bought, bargain cookies and fresh fruit.  I also remember the “bran cereal phase” where my mother heard that bran was really good for you—fiber was the “craze” in the early 1970s. We had bran breakfast cereal with added wheat germ every morning! My approach to “healthy eating” beginning in college in the late 1970s, did not include the “new-fangled” processed foods, but incorporated lots of salads, whole grains, fresh vegetables, fruit, peanut butter (it was cheap), small amounts of meat, dairy and eggs, vegetable oils, little sugar and no “evil” traditional fats—the Food Pyramid was in full force in our country and the “key” to healthy eating.

The consequences of these dietary habits were profound. First, I learned that the lack of traditional fats contributed to my problems with digestion and nutrient absorption. Second, I developed malnourishment and a “leaky gut”—a factor in inflammatory conditions—because most of the foods I ate as a child and those I thought were so “nutritious” as an adult were difficult-to-digest, nutrient-poor, and created intestinal flora imbalances, an incomplete digestion of foods to occur and nutrients to be unavailable. In fact, without foods that promote a healthy intestinal flora, the whole grains that I consumed could not be fully digested, and contributed to the development of “gut dysbiosis,” where unhealthy bacteria thrive in the intestinal tract and cause bacterial fermentation and intestinal damage. When the intestinal tract become damaged, undigested proteins can “leak” through the intestinal wall, causing an immune system response and inflammatory chemicals to constantly circulate throughout the body. Third, the result of following the US high-fiber nutritional dictates was persistent flatulence and fermentation in the stomach from these bacterial imbalances, which lead to acid reflux—my first serious digestive disorder symptom.

Often, acid-reflux disease is a sign of a hiatal hernia, where part of the stomach protrudes up through the esophagus and stomach acid can easily be released in the wrong direction. A lifetime of fermentation in my stomach produced a constant upward pressure against the esophagus due to the undigested foods being acted on by bacteria and yeast, thereby causing both of these ailments.
Insoluble fiber is exceedingly difficult to digest, especially when digestion is not optimal, and historically, people consumed far less fiber in favor of more nutrient dense, easy-to-digest foods such as high quality dairy from grass-fed animals—raw milk, cream, cheese and butter—high quality meats and fish, bone broth soups and cooked vegetables with butter.

In a remarkable book by Konstantin Monastyrsky called Fiber Menace, (pub. by Ageless Press, 2005), the author describes major health problems that can develop from eating what’s considered a modern healthy diet high in insoluble fiber from grains, raw vegetables, fruits, legumes and even fiber supplements. He details how high-fiber diets cause large stools which stretch the intestinal tract beyond its normal range—eventually resulting in intestinal damage—and a drastic upset of the natural bacterial flora of the gut. The end results can manifest as hernias, acid-reflux, hemorrhoidal disease, constipation, malnourishment, irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn’s disease.  He also provides numerous medical references to show that high fiber diets do not confer the benefits claimed for them.

The author of this book is a brilliant professional man who suffered a life-threatening illness from years as a vegetarian living on high-fiber foods. Konstantin Monastyrsky was trained as a pharmacologist, but after immigrating to the US from the Ukraine, pursued a career in high technology. He worked in two premier Wall Street firms: as a senior systems analyst at First Boston Corporation and as a consultant at Goldman-Sachs & Co. He has also written two best-selling books in Russian: Functional Nutrition: The Foundation of Absolute Health and Longevity, and Disorders of Carbohydrate Metabolism.

Monastyrsky explains that human teeth are fashioned to chop flesh and that our digestive system is built to handle mainly protein digestion, with only small amounts of fiber. When we eat too much insoluble fiber, digestion lasts longer and fermentation occurs, damaging the bacterial flora and causing problems such as bloating, flatulence and enlarged stools, leading to acid reflux, constipation or diarrhea, IBS and diverticular disease.

From eating a high fiber diet that encouraged poor intestinal bacterial flora, I also developed low acid in the stomach, further contributing to acid reflux. Where most research on poor digestion focuses on unhealthy intestinal flora, the book, Gut and Psychology Syndrome, by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, MD, Mmed (neurology), MmedSci (nutrition), (pub. by Medinform, 2004), uniquely points to many problems with gut flora actually beginning with an unnatural growth of the fungus, Candida Albicans, in the stomach when it is not producing enough acid. Dr. Campbell-McBride discusses that this overgrowth interferes with the first step of digestion by causing the stomach to produce inadequate amounts of the hydrochloric acid necessary to break proteins into “peptides” before entering the small intestine. For instance, under normal circumstances, the gluteomorphine and casomorphine proteins in wheat and milk are broken down in the stomach in the presence of proper amounts of stomach acid. However, with less stomach acid, these foods in fact begin to ferment in the stomach and are not broken down into peptides before passing into the small intestine. Besides causing an inadequate digestion of foods, the pressure of the gas created from this fermentation can lead to acid reflux, esophageal problems and even hiatal hernias, which are some of the most common digestive problems that people experience. Consequently, medications that curtail the production of stomach acid further exacerbate poor digestion and bacterial flora problems.

For those who worry about getting enough nutrients without eating raw vegetables and fruits, nutrient-dense animal foods contain concentrated nutrients because the animals spend their whole lives “chowing down” literally bushels of fresh green grass and other plant matter. The result is meat and fat containing all the vitamins and minerals found in fresh produce, not only in more concentrated form, but also one that is easy to digest.

In Fiber Menace, the author gives practical advice not to eat anything that your great, great, great, great grandparents wouldn’t eat . . . but when our grandparents did include high-fiber foods like grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables in their diets, they could do this without ill effects because they had a healthy intestinal flora from eating cultured beverages and fermented foods, and they knew how to properly prepare legumes and grains for easy digestibility through soaking, sprouting and sour leavening or, in the case of vegetables and even many fruits, by cooking.  Additionally, they were able to eat these foods because they did not weaken the intestinal mucosal tissue by following a low-fat vegetarian diet.

It is wise to refrain from consuming raw vegetables and fruit until acid reflux symptoms are well under control for an extended period of time. After a full recovery, it may be possible to add small amounts of these foods providing symptoms do not return. The addition of grains, however, should be very cautious, as they may be difficult to tolerate or produce allergic reactions. It is best to only test properly prepared grains.

If you are concerned about constipation, some of the healthiest cultures had very little fiber in their diets. A diet with adequate traditional fats, fermented and cultured foods and beverages for a healthy intestinal flora, and easy-to-digest bone-broth soups will correct irritable bowel symptoms of both constipation and diarrhea.
Acid reflux is a very complicated problem that requires a thorough and honest assessment of all possible causes. As the optimal health of every body system is dependent on nutrition that supports the proper functioning of the digestive system, certainly studying and applying the essential components of the diets of cultures that had perfect health is a wise endeavor.

Although finding high-quality foods and changing your diet may at first be complicated, your health is your most important asset. Without your health, you may not reach your potential and your dreams may not become a reality. The foods that Dr. Price found that supported optimal human health are not the foods that are currently recommended by US governmental standards for healthy eating. However, these nutrient-dense foods were the permanent answer to correcting malnourishment, healing acid reflux and my digestive tract, and therefore, my long-term pain. The exciting news is there is a growing movement of people across the country that is turning to these same foods to improve chronic illness of all kinds.

Written By Kathryne Pirtle

Kathryne Pirtle is a world-class clarinetist whose career nearly ended because of performance difficulties caused by celiac disease, acid reflux, chronic inflammation and other health problems. Performance without Pain, written with Sally Fallon, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation and John Turner, DC tells the story of her trials and recovery.   As a health educator, she has given more than 70 workshops around the country with Dr. John Turner and appeared on numerous radio and television shows.  She has been published in the Autism File Global, Advance Magazine (a publication for Physical Therapy), Wise Traditions, International Musician, the Clarinet and writes a blog on her website www.performancewithoutpain.com  about issues relating to building health with nutrient-dense foods. She has also just published an e-book called Acid Reflux, A National Epidemic and Precursor to Chronic Illness—Achieving Lasting Healing with Nutrient-Dense Foods.

Pirtle is executive director of the Orion Ensemble, which gives three concert series in Metropolitan Chicago, presents a live internationally broadcast series on Chicago’s WFMT-FM Fine Arts Radio Network and tours throughout North America. She is also is principal clarinetist of the Lake Forest Symphony and frequently performs with the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra, the Grant Park Music Festival, The Ravinia Festival Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

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There is mounting evidence that as more people are experiencing healing from inflammation and digestive illness with nutrient-dense foods, that this factor is in itself a protection from degenerative disease. In  articles from the Wise Traditions Journal–A Holistic Approach to Cancer:The Disease of Civilization, by Tom Cowan, MD and The Pilot Research Study, Live Blood Analysis of Adults Comparing The Weston A. Price Foundation Diet and the Conventional Modern Diet, by Beverly Rubick, PhD–we can see this relationship.

Dr. Cowan notes that “civilization is the cause of cancer….The hunter-gatherer indigenous populations that were dependent upon animals feeding on perennial grass-based environments lived free of cancer for literally thousands and thousands of years. Organic agriculture turned the soil nearly into a desert, and brought cancer to people who had no cancer. Weston Price got in at the tail end of this inquiry in the 1930s and documented the health of these people from the standpoint of their teeth. But again, whenever we look at the health of non-industrialized people we see the same thing: these people are without cancer, and also without heart disease.”

Cowan discusses how a diet high in hard-to-digest carbohydrates–including hard-to-digest raw vegetables–can cause dysbiosis, intestinal damage and leaky gut, which puts the body in a constant state of inflammation. This state of inflammation is what leads to degenerative illness like cancer and heart disease. It is by returning to the hunter-gatherer diet that we can correct this disease state. This is the same diet that Dr. Weston Price found in immune cultures and that is reversing chronic illness in so many ill people who follow this approach today.

I love Cowan’s statements in response to the question,  “Is the hunter-gatherer diet “square with human anatomy?” He says, “I am not against changing certain patterns of the diet based on what a person can tolerate. But when someone says that their blood type needs to be a herbivore, a vegan, I think to myself well, yes, that would be fine if they had rumen. Let me tell you, the first cancer patients that come in with rumen, I’m putting them on a vegetarian diet. If they have very long intestines and a rumen with bacteria to ferment cellulose, I’d put them on a vegetarian diet.”

Cowan uses a nutrient-dense diet in his work with cancer patients. This diet eliminates all disaccharides–sugars in grains, lactose in fluid milk (even raw) and starchy vegetables. It emphasizes lots of healthy fats–butter, ghee, and coconut oil–grass-fed meats and organ meats, wild seafood, fermented raw dairy, low-starch vegetables, some fruit, bone broth soups and cod-liver oil. This is exactly the same diet that saved my life and that I have written about extensively for the last eight years. This is how I overcame 25 years of chronic inflammation and a severe digestive disorder. IT WORKS!

A new exciting study, The Pilot Research Study, Live Blood Analysis of Adults Comparing The Weston A. Price Foundation Diet and the Conventional Modern Diet, by Beverly Rubick, PhD, compares the blood from two groups of men of three age groups–one eating the Weston A. Price diet and the other a conventional diet. “The blood of the subjects on the WAPF diet showed reduced blood coagulation and clotting within forty-five minutes compared to those on conventional modern diets. Blood coagulation and clotting in fresh blood draws are generally associated with increased inflammation.” Here again, in the  prevention of inflammation, a traditional, nutrient-dense diet is showing great promise.

As we see more people healing and being protected from inflammation, digestive disorders and degenerative illness with nutrient-dense diets, and even more research pointing to the support of this powerful traditional dietary approach, we will hopefully move our society in the direction of seeking true solutions for our ever-increasing modern health epidemics. As more people also seek the foods produced by traditional small-farm agriculture to accomplish this goal, we can reform our food supply to improve the health of future generations.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

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When considering the disturbing rise in the percentage of degenerative diseases, brain disorders and mental health issues in children today, intuition would suggest that these statistics will not improve without drastic changes in the trends that have lead us to this looming catastrophe. In the book, The Truth about Children’s Health: The Comprehensive Guide to Understanding, Preventing, and Reversing Disease, by Robert Bernardini, MS (PRI Publishing, 2003), Bernardini points to the fact that children are far less healthy today than in the 1950s—that we have forgotten what a healthy child is—that diseases have become so common, that we think this trend is not unusual.

Another book, Is Your Child’s Brain Starving?, by Dr. Michael R. Lyon, MD and Dr. Christine Laurell, PhD (Mind Publishing, 2002) makes these profound statements:

• ADHD, Autism, OCD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and depression have become rampant in today’s kids. What happens when these children grow up? Without real solutions to these conditions, the future of our world is in jeopardy.
• Think of this: a very subtle downturn in the overall intelligence of our population would have a profound effect on society. If the average IQ decreased by only 5 points, the number of individuals officially considered to be mentally retarded/disabled would increase by 50%, while the number of individuals officially labeled as “intellectually gifted” would decrease by 50% (www.igc.org/psr) The whole course of history could change if such a shift were to take place on a global scale.
• Although the brain is built to survive and perform under adverse conditions, optimal brain performance requires optimal nutrition. Brain cells are the most sophisticated cells in the body. They need a wide array of nutrients.
• Junk food, contaminants like pesticides and heavy metals, and a decrease in dietary nutrition cause a deadly combination against the brain.

In a review of Bernardini’s book by Janice M. Curtin, she explains:

Beginning with a report on the status of children in America today, Bernardini asks the question I have raised many times. “If you’re an adult reading this who is older than about 40 years of age, I’d like you to think back to your childhood. How many kids did you know who had leukemia, asthma, diabetes, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), arthritis, multiple sclerosis, cancer, autism or were obese? Chances are, you may have known a few. Perhaps the kid down the street had asthma. Maybe there was a distant relative who had juvenile diabetes. Or you heard on the news about some rare child with leukemia. Now, it seems like everywhere you turn, you read or hear about a child with a serious health problem. How many kids do you know of who are on Ritalin or were diagnosed with a learning disability? There are whole hospitals devoted to children’s cancer. Asthma and diabetes are now considered epidemics.”

Bernadini points out that “we live in a universe of laws. These laws that don’t care if you’re black or white, Japanese or Mexican, 90 years old or still a fetus. These laws are fundamental in the nature of matter and energy and determine how life progresses. If we live in harmony with these laws, we will as consequence live in harmony. If we break the laws, we will become discordant. Enough of this discord will create sickness, disease, and aberrant behavior.” Dr. Price expressed this fact in a similar manner as “Life in all its fullness is Mother Nature obeyed.”

Bernadini explains that whenever a health problem occurs, we must determine what the problem really is and determine the cause of the symptoms. Then we must apply our knowledge and technology in a way that works with nature, not against it, in order to get our children well. A good example of this might be the treatment of ADHD. Bernardini recommends removing the heavy metal toxicity from a child’s tissues and giving him a good diet instead of giving him Ritalin. If you do not remove the cause you never truly get rid of the problem. It may, however, seem to disappear but then surface in a new way.

Bernardini also addresses mental and emotional health and the growth of violence in our schools. “According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the years between 1985 and 1995 saw a 249 percent increase in gun-related murders committed by juveniles.” Bernardini says our kids are going crazy because “they’re not happy. And they’re not happy because they’re not healthy.”

Furthermore, “People are getting sicker younger and younger–physically, mentally and emotionally. And it’s not by chance –it’s because our bodies are not being treated and cared for the way nature intended.” Our children are exposed to environmental toxins which their small bodies cannot handle and they are stressed out and poorly fed.

Bernardini stresses that the diet of pregnant mothers and infants during the first few years of life is critical to their health and happiness later on. He quotes Susan B. Robbers, Ph.D, professor of nutrition at Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston, who says, “As a nutrition researcher, I have spent 20 years studying the importance of healthy food at all stages of life. . . Studies from my own laboratory and others around the world have taught me that the foods my daughter eats during the first months and years of life have long-lasting–and in some cases–permanent effects. Foods make an important difference in virtually everything–from mental and physical developments to vitality, personality and health from childhood through old age.” Bernardini provides extensive information on the foods and nutrients your baby needs, what these nutrients do, and how to get them.

Bernardini’s dietary advice is in line with that of Dr. Price. Characteristic of the entire book, Bernardini is not afraid to tell us that it is important for your growing child to get enough fat in the diet. “Newborns must derive 50 percent of the calories they consume from dietary fat. Fat is essential for normal growth from infancy on, since fats provide fatty acids, the building block children need for critical metabolic programming of brain growth and development.” Bernardini gives specific advice on how to feed your child. He includes our recipes for homemade baby formula and recommends cod liver oil, egg yolks, raw whole milk and liver.

Dr. Bernardini fearlessly addresses an array of controversial topics including birth defects, infertility, baby food and formula, soy, vaccines, and SIDS. He gives extensive advice on what to avoid but also has plenty of support and resources on ways to deal with any problems your child may be experiencing already.

Bernardini does a good job of empowering us to be proactive. He is particularly concerned that we take back responsibility for our own and our children’s health. He gives good advice when he says: “You must scrutinize closely the information you receive from the government and the mass media. Policy decisions, guidelines and laws are oftentimes made not so much for the preservation of our health, but for the preservation of profits. Big money can do big things, including influencing our government. A 1980 study showed that almost half of the leading officials at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had at one time worked for organizations the agency is mandated to regulate. Similarly, many FDA officials quit to go work for a company in the field they were once regulating. . . . Do some research and ask some questions. Don’t necessarily believe somebody just because he or she is on the nightly news, in the papers or is a so-called ‘expert.’ Make yourself the expert. Learn to seek answers, not just accept what is foisted upon you–for the truth is often quiet and the truth is often hidden. Truth is not in it for the money, it just is. Truth doesn’t advertise.” He reminds us to be wary of the advertisers and be watchful that we do not become brainwashed. We must constantly be aware of the fact that we could lose our health freedoms if we are not educated, aware and vigilant about protecting them.

Although the problems we are seeing today may seem overwhelming in their scope, it is the responsibility of an alerted society to protect future generations of children from the suffering caused by the obvious mistakes and profit-driven decisions that have given birth to a wildly untamed massive power structure and authority that we cannot afford to blindly support. As statistics are showing seriously unfavorable trends in wide areas of health, we have no time to waste in correcting this path, for our children’s ability to thrive depends on our courage to help change this misguided direction of history.

The enlightened work of the Weston A. Price Foundation and the expansive healing information it is providing, which is helping to reverse these trends, must be communicated in exponential proportion to every person by those who understand and have experienced its power. Through understanding the root cause of our mistakes and the proven answers to these problems, we can steer a sinking ship from disaster to great hope for a brighter future for upcoming generations.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

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In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming discovered the first antibiotic by accident when he found no staphylococcus bacterial growth around a mold spore (penicillin) that had contaminated his culture dishes. Although the miracle cure was an exciting breakthrough for the infectious diseases that were killing soldiers and civilians during the two World Wars, in 1945, Flemming prophesized in the New York Times that the “misuse of penicillin could lead to a selection and propagation of mutant forms of bacteria resistant to the drug”–an occurrence he had already experienced in the laboratory. Flemming saw that the bacteria could communicate and change their form to survive the antibiotic remedy so quickly that this approach to fighting disease would be like a dog chasing its tail–just as he thinks he’s got it–it gets away!

Since we know this to be true, it seems ridiculous that the medical community keeps chasing bugs, as this kind of health initiative is rather new in the history of health care. Yet the germ theory is preached almost like a terrorist plot–as if we can succeed in outwitting germs! The underlying reason for this insanity is, of course, money!

“Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food” was state of the art health care for thousands of years. As we return to this approach and build our immune systems with nutrient-dense, pasture-raised foods, we can live in harmony with “bugs.”

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

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We have discussed the severe problems with mercury-laden silver fillings. Mercury is one of the most toxic metals in the world and amalgams contain 45% mercury. Dr. Louisa Williams’ important book called Radical Medicine”points to research done by Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt in the 1990’s that shows how mercury amalgams initiate candida overgrowth.

He states that:
“Mercury suffocates the intracellular respiratory mechanism and can cause cell death. So, the immune system makes a deal: it cultivates fungi and bacteria that can bind large amounts of toxic metals. The gain:the cells can breathe. The cost: the system has to provide nutrition for the microorganisms and has to deal with their metabolic products.”

Also from the book The Mercury in Your Mouth-The Truth About Dental Fillings, it states that:

Indigestion and weak stomach acid are associated with mercury toxicity. The gastrointestinal tract is one of the organ systems which absorbs the highest concentration of mercury. Fillings are constantly bathed in saliva. When the immune system is weakened by mercury, candida fungus multiplies rapidly.

Although the removal of dental amalgams is a very complicated process and a biological dentist must thoroughly assess the health of the patient before removal can be recommended, the eventual removal of these amalgams is a prudent step in long-term health. Removing mercury amalgams along with a nutrient-dense diet will help to alleviate the pervasive health problems associated with Candida overgrowth and dysbiosis significantly.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

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Asthma is one of the serious epidemics we are seeing in our population. Since just 1995, the number of diagnosed cases of this illness has jumped from 14.9 million to 34.1 million! Although one would assume this jump is a direct result of toxins in the air, this is not the underlying cause in many cases. You may be surprised to learn that 41.1% of non-smokers who have a chronic cough and 60% of those who have asthma also have acid reflux!

How does acid reflux cause asthma? First, the refluxed liquid may cause people to inhale tiny drops of acid into their lungs thus aggravating the delicate pulmonary lining and initiating spasms in the airways triggering an asthma attack. Second, the digestive acid may damage the esophageal lining and expose some of the nerves that are connected to the lungs. The irritation of the nerve endings can create a constriction of airways, thereby causing an asthma attack. Additionally, the acid can cause inflammation of the throat and larynx. To make things even more complicated, some asthma medications that dilate the bronchial tubes can produce acid reflux symptoms as they may cause the cardiac sphincter to relax—allowing acid to escape up through the esophagus. Therefore, treating the symptoms of asthma without looking at the possibility of acid reflux is like holding your finger over the hole of a sinking boat!

If the acid reflux issues are symptomatically treated with yet more medications, there may be a risk for serious long-term health issues. Acid reflux is most often treated with acid-lowering drugs.  However, the true source of most acid reflux problems is a Candida, or yeast overgrowth, in the stomach that is actually caused by low acid in the stomach itself! A yeast overgrowth slows down digestion and foods will ferment under these conditions. As Candida will also paralyze the esophageal sphincter, the gases from the fermentation push the food up through the weakened esophageal muscles.

Because candida only grows in low acid conditions in the first place–acid lowering drugs are going to further compromise digestion. As Candida proliferates,  it can promote severe dysbiosis, or poor intestinal flora. With poor intestinal flora, foods are not digested properly, nutrients are not absorbed, intestinal damage is forthcoming and eventually malnourishment will occur. Besides compromised nutrient absorption, intestinal damage causes leaky gut, which can initiate allergic tendencies such as asthma!  Therefore, one problem incorrectly treated cascades into more problems.

If we can find the source of the asthma and acid reflux epidemic, we will have the answer to help millions of people. Both asthma and acid reflux have grown exponentially since the industrialization of our food supply that spurred the creation of processed, denatured and low-nutrient foods. Before this time, most people’s diets included foods that were high in nutrients and supported good digestion like meats, poultry, eggs and dairy from grass-fed animals and cultured dairy and vegetables like kefir, yogurt, sauerkraut and pickled beets. They also ate ample traditional fats like butter, lard and coconut oil and foods with natural sources of vitamins A and D like cod liver oil, liver and egg yolks, which are necessary for good digestion and nutrient absorption. With good digestion and a nutrient-rich diet, a person will diminish the probability of suffering from an illness like acid reflux, allergies and it’s related condition–asthma.

By returning to traditional farming and the foods that our ancestors ate, we will diminish the exponential growth of illnesses rooted in poor digestion. If we can move from the symptomatic treatment of asthma to solving the problem, we will help to support better health for generations to come.

For more information building health and treating acid reflux and its related illnesses such as asthma with nutrient-dense foods, see our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

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Ear infections have become a common ailment in children. A child who suffers from frequent ear infections is at risk for permanent hearing loss. Although the most widely used treatment for ear infections is antibiotics, is this approach really addressing the underlying cause and are there long-term risks of not looking at the real health issue? When a society sees a common health problem and the answer is a medication, one must ask, “Is there is a great danger in following this path?”

What could possibly be an underlying reason for a mass epidemic in ear infections in children? What many people do not realize is that acid reflux is often present in a child with ear infections. As refluxed liquid enters the upper throat and inflames the adenoids, it causes them to swell. The swollen adenoids can block the passages of the sinuses and Eustation tube and fluid can build in the sinuses and middle ear. Acid reflux affects 1 in 5 people in our country. Therefore, looking at the acid reflux problem closely will not only help these children heal permanently, but also help to understand what our society as a whole faces to prevent this and other health epidemics that are related to poor digestion from continuing to escalate.

Acid reflux is caused from poor digestion. Hippocrates said that, “All diseases begin in the gut.” So treating ear infections with antibiotics is not only an incorrect long-term healing approach, it does not address the underlying problem of poor digestion and can be just one more element that puts a person at risk for other serious diseases.

The acid reflux epidemic in children is most often a direct outgrowth of a familial inheritance of poor gut flora when the child is born. When a child passes through the birth canal, it should acquire a healthy dose of gut flora from the mother. However, if the mother’s digestive health is poor or the child is born by a cesarean section, it’s gut flora, a first line of defense for illness, may be greatly compromised. If the child is breast-fed, this can help establish good intestinal flora for digestion, but only if the mother also has this asset.

Acid reflux and its related symptom, ear infections, have become epidemic since the drastic change to our food supply in the 1950s, where people began eating hard-to-digest foods that were very low in nutrient-density and stopped eating traditional probiotic cultured foods. This has caused a society laden with digestive problems. Hard-to-digest, low-nutrient foods slow down digestion and can promote the proliferation of a candida overgrowth in the stomach and intestinal tract. The gases from the fermentation of food create the acid  reflux conditions that can cause ear infections.

The solution for permanent healing is to return to the types of foods that supported healthy digestion and optimal health in our ancestors. These foods are the nutrient-dense meats, poultry, dairy and eggs from pastured animals and the wide array of cultured and fermented foods that used to grace our tables and provide the body with the building blocks of optimal health. Cultured foods like raw milk kefir, yogurt, homemade sauerkraut, pickled beets and beet kvass were a part of the everyday meals of people worldwide for thousands of years. They insure the proper gut flora that is absolutely necessary for good digestion.  By approaching ear infections from the much broader perspective of poor digestion and changes to our food supply, we have the tools to improve our own health and help future generations to free themselves of the far-reaching effects of a profit-based industrial food supply.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

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Most people would agree that the skin beauty is a multi-billion dollar industry. However, most of the products we can purchase fail to discuss how much we can improve our skin through diet and how many issues with skin are signs of leaky gut, systemic inflammation and nutrient deficiencies.

One of the components of healthy, firm skin is collagen. One of the foods richest is collagen is old-fashioned bone broth from pastured animals or wild-caught fish. This historic traditional food was a mainstay of the diet for thousands of years.  High quality eggs, meats and dairy from pastured animals also help to maintain collagen. As we have not only removed traditional fats from the diet, but also other nutrient-dense foods, many people today have signs of early aging skin.

The skin is the largest detoxifying organ of the body, so many issues of the skin are caused by this important protective function. Often, when people eat a high carbohydrate diet or one that is high in processed foods,  they may develop a leaky gut. This is most often the result of intestinal damage from a candida overgrowth.  With a leaky gut, the body has more difficulty detoxifying itself through the intestinal tract as it is often inflamed.  A leaky gut can also cause the body to have allergic reactions to many foods and airborne molds and pollens. Under these conditions, the body frequently tries to rid itself of toxins through the skin and various types of epidermal eruptions may be prevalent. All the expensive creams in the world will not heal a leaky gut!

The best way to improve these types of skin problems is to look at the diet and the digestive system.  Working on a long-term time line with a nutrient-dense diet that corrects digestion and malnourishment, will often dramatically improve skin quality. If you look at the remarkable pictures that Dr. Weston A. Price took of immune populations, you will be taken by the undeniable beauty of their skin.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

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There are mountains of books on natural healing from digestive disorders. Considering that 1 in five people have GERD/acid reflux–the mountain of information does seem necessary. In most circles, an illness that affects 1 in 5 people would surely be considered an epidemic! I have gleaned all the health books that have natural remedies and have compiled a good list below. While all of these are helpful for healing the symptoms, they do not address the fact that with a digestive disorder there is serious long-term malnourishment. These books also do not ask the question, “Why do we have an exponential increase in acid reflux in our population?” Or–”Is acid reflux a precursor to other degenerative illnesses?” If we look at the two profound statements of leaders in the study of optimal human health; that “All diseases begin in the gut,” of Hippocrates and “All disease is caused from malnourishment,” of Dr. Weston A. Price, we can begin to ascertain the magnitude of the acid reflux epidemic and see that we are probably at the brink of a health disaster unless we begin changing our food supply. A nutrient-dense, traditional foods diet is an effective approach to healing symptoms and the underlying cause of acid reflux/GERD. When you purchase traditionally raised foods from small farms dedicated to bringing you the highest quality foods, you vote with your wallet! (For sources of nutrient-dense foods see www.realmilk.com)

Good Suggestions:
• Eat small, frequent meals
• Eat slowly
• Follow an anti-Candida diet
• Take enzymes and probiotics
• Eat fermented foods
• Eat an easy-to-digest diet
• Cut down on simple carbohydrates
• Cabbage juice, celery juice potato juice may be helpful
• Aloe Vera juice may be helpful for healing
• Helpful herbs: slippery elm, ginger, marshmallow root, licorice, bladderwrack, chamomile, fennel seed, lemon balm and turmeric, cumin, meadowsweet
• Orange peel extract may be helpful
• Papaya and papaya juice may be helpful
• Bitters may help digestion
• Colostrum may help to boost the immune system
• Raw honey and cinnamon before bed may be helpful
• MSM and Zinc Carnosine helps heal damaged tissue in stomach and intestinal lining (never found bone broth as a remedy, which will do the same thing much more effectively)
• Acupressure may be helpful
• Wear loose clothing
• Minimize stress
• Meditation is helpful
• Regular exercise is helpful
• Sleep 8 hours
• Elevate you bed
• Avoid eating 2-3 hours before bedtime
• Avoid allergenic foods
• Avoid grains
• Avoid vegetables that produce gas
• Avoid high-fiber foods
• Avoid fried foods
• Avoid juices and citrus fruits (except lemon)
• Avoid alcohol, coffee, chocolate, tomatoes, mint and mint flavorings
• Avoid spicy foods
• Avoid microwaving, food additives, vegetable oils and nutrient-poor foods
• Avoid NSAIDS and antibiotics
• Avoid smoking

For more information on a healing and building health with nutrient-dense foods, see our e-book on acid reflux and Performance without Pain.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

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There are many natural treatments that you can read about that help with the symptoms of GERD–also called acid reflux. One of the common suggestions that you will see is taking raw apple cider vinegar. This approach has a lot of merit as it will often help a great deal.

First, because with acid reflux, you have fermentation and actually low acid in the stomach caused from a yeast or Candida overgrowth, the acidic raw apple cider vinegar helps to change the PH in the stomach. Normal PH for good digestion is between .2 and 2.8, but when the PH rises to 4.0 and above, there will be a rapid colonization of yeast, bacteria and viruses in the stomach–this is not ideal! GERD or acid reflux is caused by fermentation in the stomach from low acid and a yeast overgrowth. So the raw apple cider vinegar can raise the acidity of the stomach to improve digestion and keep yeast, bacteria and viruses in check.

Second, the raw apple cider vinegar contains healthy bacteria like acidophiles that eat the yeast. As the yeast overgrowth disappears, the PH of the stomach will be normalized.

However, raw apple cider vinegar is mostly a symptomatic treatment for GERD and does not address the long-term malnourishment that goes along with any digestive disorder. Malnourishment is a precursor to chronic illness. The only way to truly heal from the nutritional ramifications of having GERD is to eat a diet that is rich in traditional, nutrient-dense foods.

For more information on healing and building health with nutrient-dense foods, see our e-book on healing acid reflux and our book Performance without Pain.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

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You hear about corn-fed livestock and vegetarian-fed chicken–which also means corn-fed–but have you considered that you are what you eat-eats? In Dr. Francis Pottenger’s study of cats, he experimented with feeding them different types of raw milk. The health of the cats receiving raw milk from grain-fed cows was remarkably poor in comparison to those fed raw milk from grass-fed cows. These cats displayed all kinds of nutrient deficiencies. Their bones were weak, they had poor immune systems and they developed degenerative conditions of all kinds.

Just look around and see all the health epidemics. It does not take a brain surgeon to realize that corn-fed does not work!

If your health is your wealth, our country has a disaster waiting to happen! However, by purchasing foods that are traditionally raised, you will not only improve your own health, but be a part of a movement that is helping to insure the health of future generations!

For more information on healing and building health with nutrient-dense foods, see our book Performance without Pain and our new e-book on acid reflux.

Best in Health,

Kathryne Pirtle

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Traditionally cultured and fermented foods like plain whole milk kefir and yogurt from grass-fed cows, homemade sauerkraut, kimchee and pickled beets, and beverages like beet kvass and  kombucha were common foods throughout history before refrigeration. They were a way to preserve foods worldwide. Would it surprise you to know that you absolutely cannot afford to live without them though?

In order to function properly–that is to break down our foods into usable components and detoxify our body– the human digestive system needs ample probiotic bacteria and enzymes. Fermented and cultured foods naturally provide these components. Without these kinds of foods, we may develop many serious digestive problems like candida overgrowth, which chemically change the way our foods are processed and we will not be able to get rid of toxins. Ultimately, poor digestion equals poor health. In fact, acid reflux, inflammatory conditions of all kinds and cancer can be linked to poor digestion and a toxic overload.

Do your health a big favor–devote time to learning to prepare these delicious cultured and fermented foods. As your digestion improves so will your health!

For more information on preparing cultured and fermented foods see our website at www.performancewithoutpain.com. Both of our books, Performance without Pain and our e-book on healing acid reflux are wonderful guides to optimizing digestion.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

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As silly as this question sounds, it is a very important subject for good health. Sitting down to enjoy eating a meal and taking the time to chew each bite is another step you can take for maximizing the digestion and nutrient availability of your foods. The impact this ritual will make in your life can be astounding. As you literally bless the food with gratitude for nourishing your body and take the time to appreciate the every aspect of your meal, you will also notice over time an increased awareness of your connection to the earth and all its amazing gifts.

My favorite mantra is “Present moment–I am grateful.” May you be strengthened and enriched by each bite of life!

For more information on a healing diet and nutrient-dense foods see www.performancewithoutapain.com.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

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Eating a diet that is high in enzymes is very important to healing and building optimal health. Enzymes are not only necessary for digestion of our foods, they play an important role in every process of the human body. Dr. Edward Howell’s research on enzymes determined that we have an “enzyme bank, ” and for good health and longevity, it is important to eat foods that will not draw upon these reserves. (See  his books Enzyme Nutrition and Enzymes for Health and Longevity.) Eating a diet where the foods themselves are high in enzymes keeps the pancreas from having to secrete them for digestion, thus saving them for the repair and maintenance of cells, organs, tissues, muscles and tendons.

High-quality, naturally raised raw proteins like raw and cultured dairy, raw egg yolks, raw meats and fish are the highest in enzymes. However, eating cooked foods with high-enzyme fermented vegetables like unpasteurized sauerkraut, pickled beets and kimchee as well as cultured beverages like beet kvass, kombucha and lacto-fermented drinks also saves the body’s enzyme reserves.

Some raw foods  have anti-nutrients and enzyme inhibitors, and require special preparation to digest well. Nuts, seeds, grains and legumes all contain these difficult-to-digest elements in their raw form and need to be soaked in acidulated water to break down these components.

Our book, Performance without Pain, contains a wealth of information on high-enzyme foods, preparing cultured foods and the proper preparation of foods containing enzyme-inhibitors. It can get you started on understanding how to maximize the healing energy of your diet. For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

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Hi there. Kathy Pirtle’s substitute blog writer Paul Yeager has resurfaced for the 2nd of three days that Kathy Pirtle is away at the Weston A. Price Conference in Chicago!

Today I’d like to write about erosive gerd / acid reflux.

Just how erosive is erosive GERD? Is it really more erosive than nonerosive acid reflux? What defines it as more erosive? Is nonerosive gerd really *completely* nonerosive? Or is one just more erosive than the other? Just how advanced is modern science in making these kinds of distinctions? Well, I was interested in understanding the answers to these questions, so I started searching PubMed for some solid research literature.

Surprisingly like many things in modern science, I found the “most cutting-edge” answer I could find to be puzzlingly full of seemingly circular logic, with hordes of observations seeming to be made based on assumptions with little or no reference material. It surprises me that such studies even make it into PubMed, but then again, how scientific is science? Is science not based fundamentally on observations, or more acutely *our perceptions*?

For instance, Sir Isaac Newton and others found the acceleration rate of gravity to be quantifiable as 9.8 meters per second squared. He could throw an apple up into the air 10,000 times and predict with reasonable certainty that it was going to accelerate towards the earth at that rate. But then Einstein came along. And then Niels Bohr. And Schroedinger, etc. They–and then we (by going to space, studying eclipses, etc.)–discovered that that “law” had only been the result of living within the confines of our earth’s gravitational field–it still of course had an application, but it wasn’t *completely true* everywhere, all the time.

And such is HARDLY the case concerning distinctions such as those between erosive gerd and nonerosive gerd–here we’ll find that the conclusion simply completely contradicts the initial assumptions. At least with Newton, he started out with the “hunch” that there was something uniform about gravity and then found out he was pretty much right. Here we start out with the assumption that erosive gerd is more erosive than nonerosive gerd (or better yet that erosive gerd is just plain erosive and nonerosive isn’t) but we seem to find out, well… I won’t spoil it just yet. I’m just going to copy-paste the study I found below:

”

Relevance of ineffective esophageal motility with erosive and nonerosive gastroesophageal reflux disease.

Foroutan M, Doust HM, Jodeiri B, Derakhshan F, Mohaghegh H, Mousapour H, Poursaadati S, Kiarudi MY, Zali M.

Department of Gastroenterology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. swt_f@yahoo.com

”

Now wait a minute. The study says at the top “Since erosive GERD is a more severe disease than nonerosive GERD, it may be associated with IEM, which delays esophageal clearance.” But WHY is erosive GERD a more severe disease than nonerosive GERD?! The study just assumed that was known right off the bat! And then after making such assumptions, the study actually winds up proving that this IEM (“ineffective esophageal motility”) is actually only a little more than 10% more prevalent in the erosive gerd control group?! So first we have an assumption that erosive gerd is more “erosive” than nonerosive gerd, and then we have evidence to show that nonerosive gerd is actually ALMOST AS EROSIVE AS EROSIVE GERD!

This is entirely broken circular logic!

Here’s why I suspect the logic is broken: because as the study clearly provides statistics to support (which is the statistic showing that 28.3% of the supposedly nonerosive gerd group HAD “ineffective esophageal motility” aka EROSION), nonerosive GERD is actually VERY EROSIVE!

And what would happen if that many more people with gerd (which we know from Kathy and John Turner’s ebook on a true gerd natural remedy make up 1 in 5 people in the population at large) were to be told by doctors that their “plain ol’ not-a-big-deal gerd” (which they’re currently happy swallowing a purple pill for) is in fact EROSIVE?

They would think “woah, this is a serious disease!” And guess what? This IS ALREADY a serious disease, because as the above study clearly proves, even nonerosive gerd is erosive.

So what can we do about this erosion, both of our GI tracts and of our ability to think clearly (with its attempted subversion by the poor logic in studies such as that above, AND by inferior food choices)? This is another reason many doctors might not want folks to think their gerd is creating erosion, because what we CAN do is change our diets.

We can start eating nutrient-dense, traditional foods consisting of the building blocks of optimal digestion and optimal assimilation, these being the true cornerstones of good health all around. These foods are the foods that countless ancestors of traditional isolated peoples have been eating for millenia: saturated animal fats high in cholesterol and therefore GOOD, bone-broth from cartilaginous and marrow-rich bones with its high content of colloidal stomach-acid-ATTRACTING (yes, that’s GOOD for gerd! not bad!) properties, truly lacto-fermented foods with its high content of probiotics, enzymes, and lactic acid, plenty of high-quality protein from pastured animals, and a wide array of plant-based vitamins and minerals from seasonally-attuned veggies like squash, zucchini, collards, kale, etc.

We can make these changes now, regardless of whether our acid reflux has been labeled erosive or nonerosive–which as we have seen, is largely a misnomer anyhow, possibly even designed simply to keep people thinking their nonerosive gerd is no big deal.

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Hi there. My name is Paul Yeager and I’m a close friend of Kathy Pirtle’s. I also happen to be the developer/webmaster for PerformanceWithoutPain.com. Both Kathy and I have been eating nutrient dense, traditional foods for years now and we in fact met initially over the Internet, as the result of our crossed healing paths. We also both happen to be classical musicians with an immense love for music.

Kathy asked me to do a little writing on the blog in her stead, as a result of her immense dedication to as-close-to-daily-as-possible blog writing. I have to say, in all my years of reading–and then developing–blogs of various sorts, I have NEVER in my almost 20 or so years of life on the Internet seen *anyone* write such high-quality material on such a constant basis, and on such an important issue as this one.

So, when she asked me to be her substitute blog writer, I was greatly humbled and made sure to tell her, as I am telling you, that I am not the kind of writer she is, but that I would try my best to measure up. However, having gone through quite a bit of health crisis and resulting healing crises of my own, I do feel qualified to write on a few things (just not as elegantly and clearly), so I went ahead and created myself another administrative blog account named paulchfs–chfs stands for Certified Healing Foods Specialist by the way–and so here I am.

I’ve learned from Kathy and others some remarkable things about acid reflux, and this has been an incredible learning curve for me, not only because I know what she and others are saying is strikingly true about powerful, traditional, nutrient-dense foods healing acid reflux–from first hand experience–but also because the new things she keeps telling me about this disease make me realize that to some very degree, I am very much STILL healing from it!

Not only that, but I think I, just like the rest of society to some degree, tend to disregard many of the facets of this disease as “normal” when such a state of health is in fact, not normal at all. Kathy’s work continues to guide me in this way.

One thing that continues to startle me is that 1 in 5 people have acid reflux disease; ONE IN FIVE. Go back and read that again, because it means there’s a one in five chance you have acid reflux disease! That’s just a “delicious hors d’ouevre” of the plethora of startling acid reflux facts and statistics Kathy’s got around. Another is that last year there were 470,000 hospitalizations and 1.9 million visits to the emergency room for this illness.

The last one doesn’t startle me quite as much because I am actually amongst those people; just three or four years ago, I went to the emergency room with this illness! My acid reflux had turned into what the ER doctor labeled “acute gastritis” and he just told me I had too much stress and to go home and take it easy. Let me tell you, there’s a lot more to this disease than “go home and take it easy.” I mean sure, the life of a professional violinist and computer coder geek is stressful, but if there are 1.9 million visits to the ER over this thing, than that obviously isn’t a complete explanation!

Thankfully, I started talking to people like Kathy more than ER doctors. Kathy has enlightened me also to the fact that asthma and ear infections are a symptom of gerd, and all throughout my childhood I suffered from chronic ear infections and asthma! (By the way. all of this incredible information and more, along with what kind of menu of foods for gerd to have on a regular basis, will soon be able to be found in her ebook via the previous link.)

In relation to acid reflux and these symptoms of it I now know about, my health-life begins to make a lot of sense. Basically, I realize now that I had BAD acid reflux all my life until, about five years ago, I found out about and started constantly consuming traditional foods like fermented cod liver oil, bone broth from cartilaginous and marrow bones from pastured animals, lacto-fermented sauerkraut and other fermented foods (fermented the way our great-great-grandparents made things like this, not just jars of pickles from off the store shelf), and powerful healing fermented drinks like beet kvass and kombucha.

Also incremental to healing my acid reflux was the fact that I realized, with Kathy’s help and the help of Sally Fallon and Mary Enig’s books and the Weston A. Price Foundation, that saturated animal fat is GOOD FOR ME! That’s a lengthy subject all on its own, and for another post.

By now you might be wondering OKAY OKAY so what might acid reflux and bad breath have in common? Well get this: there are approximately 20 people a day google-searching for “gerd bad breath” –advertisers are willing to pay OVER a dollar per click to get potentially interested buyers to find them via their google search for “gerd bad breath” (oh, being a web developer is fun stuff)!

Along with my asthma and chronic ear infections, all my life prior to beginning to heal my gerd/acid reflux, is it possible that this has been another of my symptoms as well?! My mother and sister have complained of my bad breath literally ALL my life, until the complaints began to finally sizzle out STARTING five years ago when I got on traditional foods and began to heal my gut.

And that is what acid reflux and bad breath seem to have in common: they are both results of poor digestion and malnourishment. Both occurred all MY life UNTIL I began to fix my digestion with traditional foods in the ways that Kathy Pirtle eBook describes. This ebook also described chronic belching and flatulence as a symptom of this disease, and these are things that I’m not afraid to admit largely healed as well when I stopped eating Standard American Diet and ultimately switched to a traditional foods, Weston Price diet.

And also admittedly, these things (chronic belching, flatulence, and bad breath) are things that will come back if I begin to fall off the wagon (i.e. I love to eat Thai food out at restaurants out on occasion, but I know that if I do, these signs–and eventually gerd itself–will return since my digestion is “sliding backwards”). And now I know I’m not alone on my thinking that gerd and bad breath have something to do with each other–I’m simply amongst a statistic to add to Kathy’s incredible acid reflux statistic-heap: 20 people a day are google searching for gerd bad breath! That’s 20 * 365 = 7300 people a year! Coincidence?

Ah, the beauty of the Internet.

Ciao, Paul

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Although drinking  the “healthy” recommended 6 to 8 glasses of water a day to stay hydrated sounds like a great idea, this may cause problems for your health. Water may not be as hydrating as you think. If you consider that when you drink a lot of water, you are in the restroom a lot–maybe this means that all that water isn’t really doing the job you want it to do. Maybe your body tries to rid itself of this excess and the kidneys are working overtime! Drinking too much water often pulls minerals from the body and can create electrolyte imbalances.

Before refrigeration, people drank beverages that were much more hydrating, nutritious and helpful to digestion. Fermented drinks like kombucha, beet kvass, and countless other lacto-fermented drinks were consumed that were high in nutrients, enzymes and probiotics. Cultured dairy like yogurt and kefir were a mainstay of the diet as were bone broth and bone broth soups–all of which are loaded with health benefits.

You may also be surprised to learn that low-fat diets tend to make people thirsty. Water is a byproduct of fat digestion–so being thirsty all the time may indicate that your body needs more traditional fats. Traditional fats are critical to nutrient absorption and they offer you a natural source of hydration at a much deeper cellular level.

As a guideline, daily total liquid consumption–including foods and beverages–should equal about 8 cups. By adding more fermented and cultured beverages, bone broth and traditional fats to your daily diet, you will stay naturally hydrated and be improving your health with nutrient-density.

Our book, Performance without Pain, has a wealth of recipes for broths, fermented and cultured beverages. For more information on a healing diet and nutrient-dense foods see www.performancewithoutpain.com.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

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Of course, the best kefir and yogurt in the world is made of whole-fat raw milk from pastured animals.  Both kefir and yogurt are wonderful sources of enzymes, probiotics and nutrition. People who are lactose intolerant can most often tolerate cultured dairy–especially if it is from raw milk, as the lactose is nearly gone.

However, kefir has some benefits that yogurt lacks. The beneficial bacteria in kefir will colonize better in the intestinal tract where that of yogurt tends to move through the system. Also, kefir has a beneficial yeasts that eat candida such as Saccharomyces Kefir and Torula Kefir, which help balance the intestinal flora by penetrating the mucosal lining. They form a virtual SWAT team that housecleans and helps strengthen the intestines. Kefir is therefore an incredible partner in overcoming  compromised gut flora.

Kefir’s active yeast and bacteria may provide more nutritive value than yogurt by helping digest the foods that you eat and by keeping the colon environment clean and healthy. The curd size of Kefir is smaller than yogurt, so it’s also easier to digest

It’s very easy to make your own yogurt and kefir with a good source of whole raw milk–see www.realmilk.com If you cannot obtain that, you can use a high quality whole organic milk–preferably unhomogenized. You can obtain fantastic cultures from www.bodyecology.com. Just follow the instructions on the package. Our book, Performance without Pain, has recipes as well.

For more information on a healing diet and nutrient-dense foods, see www.performancewithoutpain.com.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

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Regularly eating bone broth soup has many wonderful health benefits. There is an old Latin saying, “Good broth raises the dead.” So what are the magical attributes to this slow food that have given it such an honor?

Bone broth is one of the easiest foods to digest. It is loaded with a wide array of easy-to-assimilate critical nutrients like calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, cartilage, marrow, amino acids and vitamins. The cartilage in broth will help you heal your own cartilage. Bone broths are also rich in gelatin, which can aid digestion and help to heal the intestinal tract.

In today’s world where everyone seems to have calcium and other nutrient deficiencies, good old-fashioned bone broth is the form of these nutrients that we can best utilize.

Bone broth can be made from chicken, fish or beef bones (for beef and chicken, pastured is best–free-range, organic is next best. For fish–wild-caught.) The most important thing is to add a little vinegar or wine to the water when simmering the bones as it pulls  the nutrients out of the bones and into the broth. Here is a wonderful bone broth soup recipe made from beef bones.

Rich Beef and Vegetable Bone Broth Soup

1 oxtail
1 knuckle bone
several marrow bones
several soup bones
2 T. vinegar
1-2 lb. stew meat
2 -3 large onions-chopped
4 large carrots-sliced
4 large beets-sliced
1/4 lb. Swiss chard-chopped
1 large bunch of parsley-chopped
other vegetables of your choice
2 cups dry red wine
filtered water to cover bones
Celtic Sea Salt to taste

In a large stock pot or crock pot, take the bones and cover them with water and put in the vinegar. Cover the pot and let the water come to a boil. Turn to simmer. When the meat from the soup bones and oxtail is cooked, take the meat off these bones and set aside in the refrigerator. Put bones back into same pot and continue simmering for about 24-36 hours!! (This is how you get nutrient-rich broth.) You may have to add water from time to time. After 24-36 hours, strain the broth and skim off the fat. Add the wine, meat from the bones, stew meat and vegetables. Simmer for about 2 hours. Salt to taste. (For easy lunches take a thermos of soup! Never heat in the microwave–it destroys the nutrients.)

For more information on a healing diet and nutrient-dense foods, see www.performancewithoutpain.com.

Best in health,

Kathyrne Pirtle

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Artists know very well that the ability to concentrate is critical to both practicing and performing. However all of us need these concentration skills to do well in our everyday lives. In addition mood instability that curtails a sense of well-being may impact our success. Today the cutting edge treatments for working with children who have autism, ADD, ADHD and mental health issues is a dietary protocol based on nutrient-dense foods that also maximizes digestion and absorption. This is because this scientific community has proven that this approach has offered remarkable advances in the reversal of all of these problems. These very same advances for serious ailments in children have a direct relationship on how we can look at what is helpful for optimal concentration and mood in less critical health situations.

When the diet is high in difficult-to-digest foods like high-fiber, complex carbohydrate and processed foods or sugar, digestion can slow down and cause an overgrowth of candida in both the stomach and the intestinal tract. The byproduct of sugars broken down by yeast (candida) is alcohol and acetaldehyde. The byproduct of poorly digested gluteomorphine protein from gluten grains is a morphine-like chemical. Need I say more! That alcohol and morphine would affect both the mood and the ability to concentrate even in small amounts is obvious. Acetaldehyde will bind itself to proteins we consume and make their nutrients unavailable to the body. Additionally, these foods become very addictive because of the chemicals they produce under these circumstances.

Therefore–changing your diet to foods that are easy-to-digest and nutrient rich is the best way to insure that your body and mind are able to function at peak performance.

Optimal digestion requires certain components.

• The first is good intestinal flora, which helps us to break down our foods and keep the intestinal walls and villi functioning well for optimal nutrient absorption. Foods that enhance good gut flora are old fashioned probiotic, high-enzyme  foods like cultured dairy–whole fat kefir and yogurt; lacto-fermented vegetables–homemade sauerkraut and pickled beets and cultured drinks like kombucha and beet kvass.
• Second, a diet rich in nutrient-dense foods such as meats, poultry, eggs and dairy from animals eating their natural diets and traditionally made bone broth soups
• Third, a diet that includes traditional fats like butter, cream and coconut oil which help with nutrient absorption, cell integrity and hormone function.
• Fourth, adequate vitamin A and D from natural sources like cod liver oil, egg yolks and liver also for nutrient absorption

For more information on healing and building optimal health with nutrient-dense, traditional foods, see www.performancewithoutpain.com.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

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Food addictions can be much more than just talk–they can be real biochemical dependencies that may be signs of health issues. Today, many people are addicted to carbohydrates, like breads, chips, cookies, candy, soda pop, etc. From the aisles of “organic” junk food products in our health food stores to literally hundreds of  junk foods that sit on the shelves of grocery, discount and countless other stores, and the billions of dollars that are spent on advertising these products especially to growing children, it is almost unfathomable that these types of “foods” were by-and-large created in the last 60 years. But why do people crave them?

Because there was no refrigeration, our ancestors consumed many foods that were preserved through lacto-fermentation like yogurt and kefir and fermented vegetables, such as traditionally prepared sauerkraut and pickled beets, which contained probiotic bacteria that helped to maintain a healthy digestive system. With refrigeration and the industrialization of our food supply we stopped making these probiotic foods and started consuming more and more new-fangled food creations. These new fascinating “foods” have wreaked havoc on our digestion and the health of our population as they are very nutrient deficient and hard to digest.

When we consume foods that are hard to digest–even organic foods, digestion slows down in our stomach and stomach acid diminishes. Low acid in the stomach can cause an overgrowth of candida . In addition, without adequate stomach acid, the gluteomorphine proteins in gluten containing grains may not to be properly broken down before they reach the small intestine. In the small intestine the resulting byproduct of poorly digested carbohydrates is alcohol and acetaldehyde as well as morphine-like chemicals. We all know that alcohol and morphine are extremely addictive substances. Acetaldehyde is a very toxic chemical that can bind itself to proteins and make them unusable as nutrients. Therefore, carbohydrate addiction is a real chemical problem and without healthy digestion, candida overgrowth and poor gut flora will ultimately cause intestinal damage and malnourishment.

The best way to end the candida cycle and food addictions is to focus on eating a diet of easy-to-digest, nutrient-dense foods. Foods with real nutrients will eventually help you end the cravings as digestion and nutrient absorption improves. For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

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If you are getting hungry two hours after eating breakfast, you may be choosing the wrong kind of foods for your morning meal and this may be a sign that you have absorption problems as well. Let’s look at both of these important issues.

First, a breakfast of cereal, toast or a bagel with non-fat spreads and a piece of fruit may not be the breakfast of champions! For years before I got deathly ill with a digestive disorder, my favorite breakfast was bagels, no-cholesterol “buttery flavor” spread and a piece of fruit. Another choice was a bowl of cold cereal. However by 10AM, I was very hungry again. This is not good. A healthy breakfast is not one that would leave you hungry in just a few hours.

Instead, a breakfast with higher amounts of protein and fat from traditional foods will literally nourish you until the afternoon and will offer far greater levels of nutrients. In our book we recommend a few great breakfasts that besides being nutrient-dense, will also help improve digestion. Smoothies made with 16 oz. whole fat kefir or yogurt (preferably raw milk from grass-fed animals), 2-4 raw egg yolks (from pastured chickens–not commercial eggs), fruit and 1 T. coconut oil are a fabulous breakfast. Another is old fashioned bacon (organic, no-nitrate) and eggs (from pastured chickens). Nutrient density is the key to building optimal health and maintaining blood sugar meal to meal. Nutrient-dense foods have ample high-quality traditional fats, protein and carbohydrates.

However, another reason that you are hungry just two hours after eating may be that you are suffering from inflammation in your intestinal tract. Inflammation is usually caused from bacterial imbalances in the gut flora like a candida overgrowth. When inflammation is present, nutrient absorption will be hampered and a person will feel hungry very quickly after eating a meal. After years of malabsorption, malnourishment is sure to follow.

For optimal health we need eat foods that are high in nutrients and also those that will support good digestion. For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,
Kathryne Pirtle

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Concurrent pivotal  research in the 1930s by Dr. Weston A. Price and Dr. Francis Pottenger determined that there was a profound relationship between nutrition and fertility in both humans and cats. Dr. Price found that in the 14 healthy populations he studied, women had no fertility issues or problems in pregnancy or childbirth, and their children were very sturdy. In fact he noted that the Eskimo women had one healthy baby after another. However, people from these same cultures who had moved away and obtained access to “modern foods” –pasteurized milk, white flour, refined sugar and vegetable oils, had fertility and pregnancy problems, and the children born from these mothers had structural imperfections like narrowed faces and crooked and crowded teeth as well as health problems–the very same issues that he had seen in his own patients in the United States.

During this same time period, Dr. Francis Pottenger was working with nutritional healing for the treatment of tuberculosis and other diseases at the Pottenger Sanatorium in Monrovia, California. He always focused healing on a proper diet based on the principles discovered by Weston A. Price, and served liberal amounts of liver, butter, cream and eggs to his patients.

He also kept colonies of cats who had had their adrenal glands removed to help him determine how much adrenal cortex to give to his own patients. He found that when the cats consumed a species appropriate diet of raw milk and raw meat that they thrived from one generation to the next. However, if they received either a diet of pasteurized milk and raw meat, raw milk and cooked meat or pasteurized milk and cooked meat that the cats developed degenerative conditions. In fact, with these problem diets, in the second generation, the cats had narrowed faces and crooked and crowded teeth, and in the third generation, the cats could produce no more young!

These astonishing independent yet parallel outcomes between both Dr. Price and Dr. Pottenger can teach us the keys to the exponential percentage of fertility problems that we are seeing today. Both humans and cats who have superior nutrition will have no fertility problems and their offspring will be healthy. But when nutrition is inadequate, the first sign is in fertility problems, structural problems and the presence of health issues.

What we must wake up to understand is that widespread fertility problems are truly a sign of something very wrong with our foods and nutritional beliefs. And if we are really honest, by not choosing and supporting a supply of nutrient-dense foods, this lack of fertility really will ultimately translate into extinction. What both Pottenger and Price revealed can help us to be determined to help to turn the clock back.

For more information on a nutrient-dense diet, see www.performancewithoutpain.com

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

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These profound words of Dr. Weston A. Price came as a result of  a 10 year meticulous study of healthy populations worldwide. Dr. Price, a prominent dentist in the 1930’s, was a pioneer on the quest to understand why the majority of  his patients in the United States had crooked and crowded teeth, cavities, facial deformities and degenerative illnesses of all kinds. He did not feel that this was normal and traveled during the summers of a ten year period to see if he could find populations of people with perfect health. He found 14 cultures who had completely different diets that had this perfect health–no cavities, perfect facial structure with plenty of room for the teeth and no degenerative diseases–including TB.

Although their diets were different, Price found certain common key components. First, the diets had 10 times the amount of vitamin A and D from natural sources–like cod liver oil, egg yolks, organ meats, fish eggs and traditional fats–like butter and cream from grass-fed animals–foods that we are largely told to avoid. Next, he found that their diets had ample traditional fats such as butter, cream, lard, coconut oil and meat with its fat. He found that without both adequate vitamin A and D and traditional fats, that a person could not absorb the nutrients from the foods they ate no matter how good the diet. Lastly, he found that their diets consisted of high quality proteins from animals eating their natural diets, and they ate no refined foods whatsoever.

Importantly, Price found that when people from these same cultures moved to areas where they were able to have access to modern foods–white flour, pasteurized milk, refined sugar and vegetable oils–that they developed cavities and degenerative illnesses and in the next generation, the children had crooked and crowded teeth, cavities and poor health as well.

Today, cavities are commonplace, our entire population is exhibiting  crooked and crowded teeth and the percentage of people–adults and children alike–affected by degenerative disease of all kinds, is growing at an exponential rate. Our modern food supply is a large part of the reason this is happening as our foods are highly nutrient-deficient.

If we follow Dr. Price’s work, we will see that the future of the health of our people lies in improving our broken food supply in favor of traditionally raised, nutrient-dense foods. When we correct malnourishment, healing and building optimal health are possible.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

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Acid Reflux—a National Epidemic and a Precursor to Chronic illness

Treatment of Acid Reflux/GERD with Traditional Foods

There are endless radio, television, internet and magazine ads dedicated to medication that treats acid-reflux and other related digestive complaints. In fact, 60 million Americans have acid-reflux and many people have acid reflux without knowing it. In addition to the typical symptom of acid-regurgitation, other less-known symptoms include hoarseness, belching, chronic throat clearing and sore throat, persistent cough, difficulty swallowing, nausea, asthma and wheezing and persistent hiccups in adults.  In infants and children, frequent ear infections, excessive crying, nausea with or without vomiting, excessive coughing, respiratory problems, refusing food, excessive belching and burping.

What is the cause of this massive increase in GERD—there has been a 56% increase in the last few years of medicine for acid-reflux and digestive disorders in infants and children from 0-4 years old! Should our entire population succumb to these medications that magically “heal” the symptoms of these discomforts, thereby inadvertently expanding the wealth of drug companies? Could it be that there is a great danger in the “purple pill solution”—that the “purple pill” is the wrong answer to your health challenge? In fact, what you need to know is that untreated or incorrectly treated acid reflux may lead to serious, life-threatening illness—that it may be a precursor of severe degenerative conditions.

The most effective approach to the treatment of acid reflux with traditional foods. Through a diet of nutrient-dense, easy-to-digest foods from pastured animals and wild-caught fish, adequate vitamin A and D, and cultured foods that correct poor intestinal flora, acid reflux and intestinal damage can be permanently healed.

For more information see www.performancewithoutpain.com

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The “healthy”  high-fiber/low fat diet diet that has been given the greatest press by doctors, ads and news reports may actually be quite harmful for your digestive system and leave you over time with chronic inflammation, allergies of all kinds and malnourishment.

High fiber foods are quite difficult to digest as they are high in cellulose. First, when we eat a high amount of fiber, it can expand in our stomach and cause digestion to last longer. This can lower the stomach acid in the stomach making it difficult for the food to be broken down. As soon as stomach acid lowers, bacteria, viruses and fungi can thrive in the stomach where they normally will be kept at bay. This can cause over time a candida overgrowth.

A  candida-or yeast-overgrowth-in the stomach will pass into the intestinal tract causing bacterial imbalances and dysbiosis. Some of the symptoms of dysbiosis are acid reflux, flatulence and bowel disorders of all kinds like constipation or diarrhea. With a candida overgrowth, our foods are not broken down properly, we cannot absorb nutrients well, our intestinal tract can become damaged and inflamed and we eventually can become malnourished. This cycle can cause systemic inflammation throughout the body as well as allergies.

Traditional fats are essential for nutrient absorption. Dr. Weston A. Price (www.westonaprice.org) found that the diets of healthy populations worldwide included ample fats, like butter, cream, lard and meat with its fat from pastured animals, coconut oil and eggs from pastured chickens. He determined that without adequate fat in the diet, a person could not absorb the nutrients from the food no matter how good the diet. When the Indians and explorers could only find lean meat, they starved to death. Adaquate fat from traditonal foods is absolutely necessary to good health and without it, good digestion will not be possible and eventually one will become malnourished and have chronic inflammation.

Following the media’s “healthy” diet may not provide you with a life-time of good health. Building health with traditional nutrient-dense foods can offer healing and protection from digestive disorders and chronic inflammation.

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A Review of the Important Book: Fiber Menace

By Konstantin Monastyrsky
Ageless Press

The striking cover illustration of Fiber Menace—a cereal bowl full of gold screws—primes the reader for its startling message: the USDA-endorsed high-fiber diet has a disastrous effects on the digestive system.

Fiber Menace describes major health problems that can develop from eating what’s considered a modern healthy diet high in fiber from grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes and even fiber supplements. The author details how high-fiber diets cause large stools which stretch the intestinal tract beyond its normal range–eventually resulting in intestinal damage–and a drastic upset of the natural bacterial flora of the gut. The end results manifest as hernias, hemorrhoidal disease, constipation, malnourishment, irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn’s disease.  He also provides numerous medical references to show that high-fiber diets do not confer the benefits claimed for them.

The author of this book is a brilliant professional man who suffered a life-threatening illness from years as a vegetarian living on high-fiber foods. Konstantin Monastyrsky was trained as a pharmacologist, but after immigrating to the US from the Ukraine, pursued a career in high technology. He worked in two premier Wall Street firms: as a senior systems analyst at First Boston Corporation and as a consultant at Goldman-Sachs & Co. He has also written two best-selling books in Russian: Functional Nutrition: The Foundation of Absolute Health and Longevity, and Disorders of Carbohydrate Metabolism.

Monastyrsky explains that human teeth are fashioned to chop flesh and that our digestive system is built to handle mainly protein digestion, with only small amounts of fiber. When we eat too much fiber, digestion lasts longer and fermentation occurs, damaging the bacterial flora and causing problems such as bloating, flatulence and enlarged stools, leading to constipation or diarrhea, IBS and diverticular disease.

One fascinating chapter of Monastyrsky’s book details the problems with drinking too much water. Drinking the recommended eight glasses of water a day may cause problems such as mineral depletion and imbalances, which can contribute to digestive disorders, kidney disease, degenerative bone disease, muscular disorders and even cardiac arrest from electrical dysfunction. Paradoxically, overconsumption of water may also cause constipation.  When too much water is added to a high-fiber diet, the fibrous foods swell and ferment in the intestinal tract, leading to gas, bloating and other uncomfortable effects.

Traditional peoples did not drink large quantities of water. Instead, they stayed hydrated with milk, fermented beverages and bone broth soups, which have incredible nutrient qualities and do not upset the body’s homeostasis.  Plus, traditional peoples consumed plenty of fat, which renders much more water during metabolism than proteins or carbohydrates.

I was very interested with this author’s perspective as I also suffered a life-threatening digestive illness and recovered through eating a nutrient-dense diet, which happens to be a low-fiber diet. For years, I ate lots of fruits and vegetables—mostly raw—ate tons of grains and faithfully drank eight glasses of water daily. I ate some meat and dairy but avoided fat— and definitely no butter! I developed severe intestinal damage from undiagnosed Celiac disease and a hiatal hernia. The material presented in Fiber Menace makes me wonder whether my digestive disorders—which led to intestinal damage and severe malnutrition–may have been caused by all the fiber I was eating, rather than gluten intolerance.

For those who worry about getting enough nutrients without eating raw vegetables and fruits, the author reminds us that nutrient-dense animal foods contain concentrated nutrients because the animals spend their whole lives chowing down literally bushels of fresh green grass and other plant matter. The result is meat and fat containing all the vitamins and minerals found in fresh produce, not only in more concentrated form, but also one that is easy to digest.

Fiber Menace gets a Thumbs Up, but the book is not without flaws.  The book becomes repetitive in the later chapters in the descriptions of various diseases caused by eating the way the doctors tell us to.  Monastyrsky’s audience would have been better served with a concise presentation of what to eat. He is firmly in the WAPF camp, recommending butter and small amounts of cod liver oil, but in this book he fails to emphasize the healing effects of bone broths, fermented foods, medium-chain fatty acids and liberal amounts of the fat-soluble activators A and D. (His book in Russian, Functional Nutrition, does emphasize these foods, and Monastyrsky tells us that he will be translating these sections into English and posting them at fibermenace.com.) The author does warn his readers not to eat anything that your great, great, great, great grandparents wouldn’t eat . . . but our grandparents did include high-fiber foods like grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables in their diets.  They could do this without ill effects because they knew how to prepare these foods by soaking and sour leavening or, in the case of vegetables and even many fruits, by cooking and because they did not weaken the mucosal tissue by following a low-fat vegetarian diet.

Monastyrsky warns readers of problems when switching to a low-fiber diet. It is important to gradually cut down on fiber and make sure you are getting adequate fats and foods that build the intestinal flora. As stools are smaller, the urge to go to the bathroom will be less pronounced, so it is very important to pay attention to the “urge” signal; otherwise stools may harden and cause constipation. Interestingly, he points out that a healthy stool is easy to pass, rather small in diameter and is mostly composed of bacteria leaving the body rather than protein residue—the human digestive tract is design to digest proteins completely. He stresses the fact that it is not necessary to consume fiber to have regular stools as we have been led to believe. Some of the healthiest cultures had very little fiber in their diets.

Dr. John Turner, DC, CCSP, DIBCN, who lectures with me on building health through traditional nutrient-dense foods notes that, “my training as a physician included many hours of nutrition, but fiber was only mentioned in regards to the effects of a deficiency.  Never once did any of my professors consider the possibility that too much of what has always been considered a ‘good thing’ could have such harmful or far-reaching consequences.  The author’s detailed description of the trauma imposed to the gastrointestinal mucosa by the expanding fiber is a vivid reminder that returning to the basics of GI function and logically thinking through what our bodies actually are designed to do with the food we eat, should be the first step on anyone’s journey to recovery from digestive disorders. Thanks to the insights in this book I have slowly begun to change my approach to common patient symptoms, which I traditionally would have treated by suggesting increased fiber and more water to correct!  So far the results are promising.”

Many thanks to Konstantin Monastyrsky for writing this important book.

Review by Kathryne Pirtle

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Review

Gut and Psychology Syndrome:
Natural Treatment for Autism, Dyspraxia, A.D.D., A.D.H.D., Dyslexia, Depression and Schizophrenia
By Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, MD, MMed(nuerology), MmedSci(nutrition)
(Published by Medinform, 2004)

Just as Dr. Weston A. Price was baffled by the amount of chronic illness in his patients and sought to identify the parameters that could foster such a trend, so too does Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride advance our understanding of the underlying factors present in a growing percentage of people who are suffering from brain disorders and mental illness. The latest estimates are that 1 in 150 children is diagnosed for autism alone and 1 in 94 boys is on the autistic spectrum. She states that although genetics is often given as an explanation for brain disorders such as autism and ADD/ADHD and psychiatric illnesses such as depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, genetics could never cause an exponential increase in health or developmental problems—because genetics work much more slowly. As a parent of a child diagnosed with learning disabilities, Dr. Campbell-McBride has boldly sought to identify elements common to people with brain disorders and mental illness and craft an effective approach to improving their condition. When genetics is no longer used as a “scapegoat” for health problems, then and only then will accurate knowledge and solutions be found.

Through studying the health of hundreds of patients with autism, learning disabilities, psychiatric illness and other problems, Dr. Campbell-McBride discovered that in all cases these children and adults had digestive problems, often of a severe nature. Through her research, she has determined that there is a distinct correlation between unhealthy intestinal flora, poor digestion and toxicity from chemicals created by undigested foods that can severely affect brain chemistry. She coins this as “Gut and Psychology Syndrome,” or GAPS.

But if a child develops problems such as autism or ADD/ADHD at an early age, how can that child have already developed poor digestion? This is where Dr. Campbell-McBride so brilliantly defines that the probable source is familial and generational, which moves past genetic theory. Just as Dr. Price ascertained that without adequate nutrition, each generation would produce less healthy children—so Dr. Campbell-McBride postulates that poor intestinal flora and digestion is being passed down from one generation to the next. When a child is born it acquires the flora of the mother during the passage through the birth canal. If the mother has a history of antibiotic or contraceptive use and poor digestive health, her flora will likely be far less than healthy. If she does not breast-feed her baby, the gut flora of the child will be further compromised. The infant will often develop digestive problems such as colic, bloating, flatulence, diarrhea, constipation, feeding difficulties, intestinal damage and malnourishment very early in life and is typically afflicted by a host of allergies. The child usually has frequent ear infections that are treated with many rounds of antibiotics, which only make the situation worse.

Poor bacterial flora and digestion are at the heart of serious health problems. When children are born with intestinal bacterial imbalances or “gut dysbiosis” they tend to have a compromised immune system and are prone to illness. Dr. Campbell-McBride states that often the intestinal tract of children who have autism is caked with hard fecal material. This terrible condition of course would lead to enormous and serious health consequences. She brings to light the profound statements of Hippocrates (460-370 BC) that, ”All diseases begin in the gut,” and of the father of modern psychiatry, French psychiatrist Phillipe Pinel (1745-1828), that “The primary seat of insanity is the region of the stomach and intestines.”

But what exactly happens in the gut that can upset brain chemistry? Dr. Campbell-McBride provides us with a magnificent explanation of the cascade of events that can occur when digestion is not supported by a healthy gut flora. A child or adult who eats a diet that is high in difficult-to-digest carbohydrates such as grains and processed foods, will continue to encourage the underlying condition of gut dysbiosis. Dr. Campbell-McBride states that people with damaged flora will even crave the very foods that support the survival of the unhealthy bacteria often to the exclusion and refusal of others.

Where most research on poor digestion focuses on unhealthy intestinal flora, Dr. Campbell-McBride’s work uniquely points to many problems with gut flora actually beginning with an unnatural growth of the fungus, Candida Albicans, in the stomach when it is not producing enough acid. She discusses that this overgrowth interferes with the first step of digestion by causing the stomach to produce inadequate amounts of the hydrochloric acid necessary to break proteins into “peptides” before entering the small intestine. For instance, under normal circumstances, the gluteomorphine and casomorphine proteins in wheat and milk are broken down in the stomach in the presence of proper amounts of stomach acid. However, with less stomach acid, these foods in fact begin to ferment in the stomach and are not broken down into peptides before passing into the small intestine. Besides causing an inadequate digestion of foods, the pressure of the gas created from this fermentation can lead to acid reflux, esophageal problems and even hiatal hernias, which are some of the most common digestive problems that people experience.

When insufficiently digested food enters the small intestines without adequate stomach acid, the pancreas in turn does not get the signal to release adequate pancreatic juices. Because people with GAPS lack healthy bacterial flora, they also lack production of enzymes called “peptidases.” These enzymes normally are produced by the enterocytes on the microvilli of the small intestine and will further break down proteins and carbohydrates into usable nutrients. With poor flora, the mucosal lining of the intestinal tract also becomes damaged and “leaky gut syndrome” develops. Therefore, the undigested casomorphine and gluteomorphine proteins, which resemble the chemical structure of opiates like heroin and morphine, are absorbed into the bloodstream unchanged and can cause severe interference with brain and immune system function. Dr. Campbell-McBride states that “There has been a considerable amount of research in this area in patients with autism, schizophrenia, ADHD, psychosis, depression and autoimmunity, who show high levels of casomorphines and gluteomorphines in their bodies, which means that their gut wall is in no fit state to complete appropriate digestion of these substances.”

Undigested carbohydrates, poor digestion and candida overgrowth in turn result in the production of the chemicals ethanol and acetaldehyde, which have profound consequences on brain chemistry and development. With these chemicals, a person can technically be considered “drunk” after a meal of carbohydrates even though they consumed no alcohol. We all know that alcohol is extremely toxic, especially to a developing fetus or a child. Besides reduced stomach acid and pancreatic enzymes, the following are some of the effects of a prolonged presence of alcohol from an overgrowth of candida in the body: damage and inflammation to the gut lining and resulting malabsorption; nutrient deficiencies; stress to the immune system; liver damage; accumulation of toxins, old neurotransmitters and hormones that can cause abnormal behavior; brain damage that can lead to lack of self control, impaired coordination and speech development, aggression, mental retardation, loss of memory and stupor; peripheral nerve damage; muscle tissue damage and weakness; metabolic alteration of proteins, carbohydrates and lipids and pancreatic degeneration.

Dr. Campbell-McBride reveals that there are many other toxins and bacteria created by poor digestion that are routinely found in stool samples of patients with GAPS. Of particular importance are those of the Bacteriods and Clostridia Family. These bacterium are present in all of us but kept under control when a healthy bacterial flora is in place. The Bacteriods are almost always found in infected tissues of the digestive tract, mouth, and gums, lungs, urinary tact, blood, heart valves and in diseased teeth, etc. Members of the Clostridia Family are also usually present in the stools of people with schizophrenia, psychosis, severe depression and those with other muscle, neurological and psychiatric conditions. Although many Clostridium species are normally found in the healthy gut, when gut dysbiosis in present, these bacterium may cause problems. If, for instance, the bacterium that causes tetanus, Clostridium tetani, which generally lives in check in a healthy gut, begins to thrive with gut dysbiosis; the toxins from this bacterium can infiltrate the tissues of the body. Some of the symptoms of the presence of a low exposure to the tetanus infection are sensitivity to light and noises and abnormalities of muscle function, i.e. the extensor muscles and flexor muscles may not function properly. Thus, children and adults with autism may exhibit the behavior of walking on tiptoes and stretching their muscles unusually in self-stimulation.

She also discloses some of the troubles with many countries’ vaccination programs. Where vaccinations in the past may have protected our children from a host of serious diseases, today, a young child with unhealthy gut flora and resulting digestive and immune system problems, receiving vaccinations for multiple diseases such as the MMR and DPT vaccine, may not produce an expected reaction to the vaccine. The vaccinations tend to put an enormous strain on the immune system. She therefore suggests a very cautious use of single vaccinations for a limited number of diseases, given to the child only when their digestive health is improved.

What then are the solutions to helping turn poor digestion into that which can help a person thrive. Dr. Campbell-McBride outlines a nutrient-dense dietary plan that is totally void of grains and at first, dairy, and provides high quality, organically grown meats, poultry, fish, nuts, eggs—especially raw egg yolks, cooked, non-starchy vegetables and fresh fruit with bone-broth soups, traditionally fermented foods, and ample traditional fats. She suggests supplements of cod liver, fish oil, digestive enzymes, a stomach acid supplement called Betaine HCL with added Pepsin and a non-enteric coated probiotic (minimum of 8 billion cultures per gram) to rid the stomach of bacterial growth and help develop healthy intestinal flora. Through a grain, sugar and dairy-free diet, the focus will be on removing foods that either feed the candida overgrowth, cause morphine-like peptides or an allergic response. She advises replacing the grains that most children crave with breads and crackers made from nut flours. After the gut flora is improved, she recommends adding homemade yogurt gradually to the diet and eventually cheeses. Once the stomach acid is normalized, a healthy gut flora is developed, nutrient rich foods take the place of depleted foods, the intestinal tract heals and digestion is repaired, both mental and physical health improvements are sure to follow.

She advises that the earlier these dietary changes are made, the more likely the success. She realizes, however, the difficulties that parents have with making changes to the diet of a young child and thoughtfully provides a method of encouraging new foods with a reward structure in place. She does not cover the challenges of changing the diet of an adolescent or adult, but we feel her information can aid both health practitioners and parents, friends and caregivers in understanding the necessity of helping their patients and loved ones to incorporate as much of this nutritional plan as is possible—certainly, the effort is well-worthwhile. It would seem, however, that the best time to implement Dr. Campbell-McBride’s recommendations is when the child is very young. This would minimize the damage induced by the neurotoxins that are produced by the dysbiotic flora. This would also minimize the psychosocial consequences of the abnormal behavior that accompany the neurotoxic affects on the brain.

Dr. Campbell-McBride makes another important point about the modern, commonly held belief that a gluten-free, casein-free dietary approach will help people with autism. She has found that most people do not improve with this diet because the gluten-free foods on the market are really just another form of nutrient-deficient junk food that foster the growth of candida and contribute to poor digestion. She states that this is also often true for people with Celiac disease. She sites research that even attributes the development of Celiac disease not to genetics as much as to an overgrowth of Candida. In fact she discusses that the best treatment for Celiac, Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis and other digestive disorders is a grain-free diet that was developed more than 60 years ago called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, by the renowned American pediatrician, Dr. Sidney Haas. She has used many of the principles of this diet to develop her own program.

While Dr. Campbell-McBride suggests problems with milk, she does not discuss the difference between pasteurized commercial or organic milk and raw milk from grass-fed cows. Within the Weston Price Foundation research, there are abundant examples of the benefits of raw milk in improving the function of people with autism, learning disabilities and mental illness. The pasteurization of milk alters its proteins, making them difficult to digest and of course destroys the enzymes. It seems prudent, therefore, to differentiate the use of raw milk and explore its possible benefits in her plan. Additionally, recommending the use of nuts that have been soaked in sea salt and dehydrated, thereby increasing their digestibility and nutrient availability could enhance her suggestion of replacing grains with nuts and recipes made with nut flours.

After the thorough discussion of her nutritional plan, the book contains a wonderful section of recipes followed by details of important supplements. At the end of the book, she outlines a significant natural approach to treating ear infections and constipation. She also again stresses the need to move away from finding answers to difficult problems with human health by merely turning to genetics.

Through the study of the principles that Dr. Campbell-McBride provides, alternative medicine practitioners, who frequently encounter patients that are plagued with allergies, may want to re-evaluate their approach to treatment. Food allergies are a source of constant stress to a patient’s immune system. Not only do they manifest as dyspepsia, abdominal pain and altered bowel function but they can also result in a variety of non-local symptoms such as headaches, joint pain and eczema, to name a few. In light of Dr. Campbell-McBride’s approach, a thorough review of a patients history and symptoms may lead a conscientious practitioner down a frequently traveled path that has it trailhead nestled between the cardiac and pyloric sphincters.

Although Dr. Campbell-McBride’s pivotal work focuses on the correlation between the often-severe digestive disorders and the development of brain disorders, learning disabilities and mental illness, we must not underestimate that these same digestive disorders are at the heart of the exponential increase of degenerative illness in our country. If we observe the amount and kind of medications that we as a nation consume, we will coincidently find that most of the top 10 prescriptions written in the US correlate to gut and psychological disorders—two were for ulcers and acid reflux, two were for depression, one was for schizophrenia, two for high cholesterol, one for sexual dysfunction, one for anemia and one for chronic pain. It appears that we need a paradigm shift when looking at the cause and treatment of what is ailing us as a nation and that Dr. Campbell-McBride has suggested a starting point.

The disturbing, far-reaching consequences of the mass-consumption of foods produced by the industrial farming industry and inaccurate dietary trends are affecting the health of our entire population. Besides the knowledge that we have gained on the nutritional requirements of optimal health and the nutritional causes of degenerative conditions from Dr. Price’s work, Dr. Campbell-McBride’s thorough discourse detailing the effects of faulty digestion on brain function and chemistry can serve as a template for the further exploration and explanation of the source of a multitude of diseases that plague our modern culture.

Reviewed by Kathryne Pirtle and Dr. John Turner, DC, CCSP, DIBCN
Co-authors, with Sally Fallon, of Performance without Pain

For more informationabout the book and seminars on this subject, see www.performancewithoutpain.com

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