Nutrition: Steps to improve women's health

Nourishing Wisdom & Holly's Garden Products. Nutrition Counselor & Natural Skin Care Products

as featured in Woodstock Times October 1, 2009

Extreme diet makeover
by Carrie W. Ross

Over the past seven years, I've had more diseases than a CDC lab rat. My husband knows which nurses at Vassar Brothers like his chocolate-chip cookies and which prefer the oatmeal. Full-time work, graduate school, vacations or even commitments for dinner reservations have long been just wishful thinking.

When I witnessed the seemingly miraculous recovery of my extremely ill wheelchair-bound childhood friend Charlene, I was ready to sign on for high-level healing. She giddily told me about how the Body Ecology Diet (BED), engineered by California nutrition expert Donna Gates, helped to restore her body from the more savage side effects of her constant antibiotic treatments.

Antibiotics, along with killing disease-causing germs, may deplete or destroy the "good" bacteria in our intestines, making digestion harder and weakening the immune system. If you're going to be on antibiotics for a long time, it's recommended to take a probiotic supplement (helpful bacteria like acidophilus and lactobacilli strains). If not, our bodies begin to produce yeast, toxins and bad bacteria.

Exacerbating an already bad scenario is this: Diets filled with sugar and refined wheat grow harmful yeast; as the yeast ferments in our guts, we can get gassy, bloated and constipated.

After years of intravenous and oral antibiotics in dosages and quantity powerful and plentiful enough to rid an entire continent of disease, my system was shot. I was suffering with chronic vaginal yeast infections, thrush, exhaustion, vitamin deficiencies, endless sore throats, anemia, weak and peeling nails, broken hair, scattered and painful menstrual cycles, digestive dilemmas, B-12 deficiency, constant colds, viruses, infections and ailments, bladder infections and more unmentionable unpleasantness. I needed some intestinal flora intervention.

"Show me the book," I insisted.

"It's not easy, Carrie," Charlene warned. "It requires a lot of strength, and staying power. It's a really hard diet to follow. No sugars...but I did drop 15 pounds almost right away. And my hair has never been so healthy. Look."

And as Charlene shook out her long, gleaming healthy blonde tresses, I was sold. "Fifteen pounds?" I screeched.

"Yes, and it literally fell off me. And I have never felt better in my life."

My heart fluttered. My hair and nail follicles tingled with anticipation of growth. I visualized the exact pair of size two skinny jeans I would wear. The yeast in my gut began to quiver in fear.

Time for BED

The diet's aim is to starve the yeast and bad bacteria and feed the good bacteria to create an ideal "body ecology" (hence the name of the diet). The first few weeks of the diet involve very extreme and severe rules which can turn off nearly anyone.

No sugars, refined, natural, or otherwise, including nearly all fruits except low-sugar ones such as lemons, limes and currants. BED enthusiast and certified nutrition counselor Holly Anne Shelowitz of Nourishing Wisdom Nutrition Center in Rosendale explained. "There are certain fruits easier on the body than others," she said. "Fruit is sugar and water, and some vitamins. There are plenty of ways for someone to get those vitamins in other ways if they can't tolerate fruits."

Foods which metabolize into sugars, including all refined starches and starchy vegetables, are not allowed in the BED regime. Later into the diet, once yeast symptoms subside, certain starchy vegetables and low-sugar fruits such as strawberries may be reintroduced.

Quinoa, millet, amaranth and buckwheat are the only initially allowed grains. Later, brown rice, flax and spelt are okay. Avoiding acidic foods (ph of 6 or lower, meaning that they are low in oxygen and thereby host fungus and yeast) and eating largely alkaline foods are strongly encouraged.

No dairy, as it breaks down as sugars. Dairy often wreaks havoc in the intestines of immune-weakened people, quickly building up mucous in the intestinal walls. Cheeses (soft cheeses being the worst) are slathered in yeast. Later, fermented dairy products such as kefir, cr?me fraiche and plain yogurt can be reintroduced.

"The sour taste has left the American diet - one of the things I teach is that in every culture but ours there are fermented foods," said Shelowitz, who offers classes on preparing fermented foods. "Kim chee, fermented fish. Mexican salsa was a lacto-fermented food - vinegar and pasteurization took its place. Think of commercially produced pickles and sauerkraut sold in the grocery store, versus [naturally fermented] pickles and sauerkraut in the refrigerator."

Back to the restrictions: No nuts, except almonds. Peanuts, also coated in yeast, are particularly forbidden. Letting go of all-time-fave comfort-food peanut butter was traumatizing, until I wrapped my hands around a smooth glass jar of almond butter. Come to Mama ....

Butter needs to be clarified by boiling and straining the milk fats out of it, converting it into ghee - one of the most unexpected heavenly delights on the diet. Cook in unrefined coconut and olive oils. Season with sea salt rather than refined table salt.

How to satisfy the sweet tooth? Sweeten teas and other foods with natural stevia, a zero on the glycemic index. After a few adjusting days, I felt like I needed sugar less and less.

In addition to starchy vegetables being on the no-list, so are mushrooms, obviously. Also on the list are nightshade vegetables (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants and all peppers), because they can create inflammation and sensitivity for those with shaky immune systems.

Though the diet is largely vegetables, meats, poultry, shellfish and fish are all permitted on the diet because they do not feed the fungus. Seeds are permissible.

Alcohol? Welcome to the wagon. As a substitute, the diet offers water, water and more water. Squeeze lemon juice into every glass. Hungry? Drink water. Thirsty? Drink it - water. Though schlepping a gallon of lemon water around was socially awkward, I saw an immediate improvement - I was finally peeing clean and clear. The diet also calls for frequent bowel cleansing, but I'm going to let you work that out without my input.

Time to get a little culture

Eating naturally fermented, probiotics-rich food is essential to the BED. I made my own cultured vegetables (okay, my husband made my own) by jarring fresh cabbage, carrots, ginger and garlic with an opened probiotic capsule and spices or herbs. These sat for a week in airtight bell jars to grow the healthy bacteria. When the concoction is opened, it makes a hissing or bubbling sound. Oh, yes. That's how you know it's ready.

Though the fermented vegetables are very sour and tangy, they are also somehow very gratifying - a point which both Gates and Shelowitz believe is a function of the body's naturally knowing what it needs. Fermenting young coconut milk into coconut kefir is thought to be even better than taking probiotics capsules. And it's kinda tasty.

Gates insists that the more fermented foods are consumed, the more yeast dies and the more the sugar cravings subside. Within three days, my sugar cravings were nearly done.

Reintroduction of certain foods to start phases two and three of the diet should occur once the yeast symptoms seem to be gone- a situation unique to each person.

Shelowitz recommends bringing one "potential allergen-trigger" food back at a time, giving it several days before moving onto the next. The most typical reactive foods, she says, are corn, soy, gluten products (wheat) and dairy. Symptoms can include anything from an immediate sneeze or cramp to a delayed fogginess or fatigue. Re-try the food within 24 hours again to ensure the reaction (or lack of) is consistent; space food reintroductions within a few days of one another. Nightshades should be reintroduced slowly and carefully.

Registered dietician and diet educator Kathy Guarino of Marlborough says that from her 30 years of examining diets she has developed a standard approach on evaluating them.

"Variety," she said. "No one food or food group contains all the needed nutrients. So, is there a broad assortment to help insure all bases are covered? Moderation - this one is especially true when it comes to portion sizes - and balance among food types. Flexibility - can you take this eating routine on the road, eat out, dine at a friend's without porting a cooler full of acceptable foods? And practicality - are the foods readily available, and can the average person afford them?"

Guarino likes the BED's inclusion of vegetables for variety, but questions the water intake. "Does that mean more than twelve glasses a day? If so, the diuretic effect this has may reduce the amount of nutrients actually absorbed as they pass through the GI tract."

Admittedly, eating rotten foods in poorly-ventilated public spaces may be questionable and unwelcome at times. "Oh my God! Dude! I think someone puked!" exclaimed my friend, covering his mouth and joke-gagging when I cracked open my Tupperware.

Whatever, I thought, as I looked down and admired my newly-growing nails, and elongating locks of healthy, thickening hair.

"No," I said. "That's just my lunch."

Holly Anne Shelowitz Email: info@nourishingwisdom.com Phone: 845.658.7887