Functional Nutrition

Our Microbiome

The microbiome of you and your children consists of all the cells that are not human in nature. This includes in the womb and during natural birth. The microbiome is yeast, viruses, bacteria and other organisms that are beneficial and symbiotic to you. And you get much of your microbiome through natural birth. This is important because a child’s microbiome will change during a cesarean. This sets them up for many health challenges vs. natural childbirth

The microbiome is 50-55% of your body weight from cells that are symbiotic with us. It consists of bacteria, yeast, fungi and parasites. Gains in strength and food tolerance are better in infants when given foods one at a time to identify, metabolize and dampen inflammation. When we have patients with a lot of microbiome issues, we start them with a very diverse shake to help decrease the inflammation. The plan is so they can absorb the food and nutrition that we are suggesting for their case. This also creates diversity which will help their microbiome. We combine this shake with an in-home pulse test for subtle food sensitivities. Or, we replace their microbiome with well-researched organisms.

Some foods affect your microbiome. The most common are wheat, gluten, milk, peanuts, corn and milk. Soy, sugar, citrus, shellfish and coffee and food additives are second. Look for replacement foods before beginning, or you may feel starved even though you’re not. Replacements can help you cope with the loss of something once savored. If your microbiome is not intact, you will crave foods to feed them and not you.

If you’re not already doing it, limit the main inflammatory foods. These are gluten, dairy, sugar, soy, eggs, corn, nightshade vegetables, alcohol and refined foods. Inflammatory foods and inflammatory conditions also affect your microbiome. This is when you start, and I know it sounds like a lot. You can eat as many dark leafy green vegetables along with other vegetables and fruit in the beginning. You can have nuts and seeds and healthy sources of animal protein unless you feel you can’t digest much, then avoid nuts. As a side note, peanuts are not a nut. Healthy animal proteins are free-range, grass-fed and grass-finished and antibiotic-free. If this doesn’t work when you start reducing foods, there is much more to your case. We have to test for autoimmune conditions or advanced digestive issues.

To run an in-home food allergy test, select suspected foods or a food group and avoid them for three weeks. Read every food label! You may be surprised that even your healthy foods have ingredients such as gluten or MSG. Even a small amount, like a bite, can trigger a negative allergic response. This is not full-borne anaphylaxis allergies. Those are different antibodies and very severe. They are food allergies causing inflammation and decreased function. Avoidance allows the body to clear its immune properties. When you begin to reintroduce a suspected food or foods, do it one food at a time. Eat the suspect food throughout the day, along with non-allergic foods. Pay attention to any reactions. This could be headaches, dizziness, nausea, or other symptoms. Especially a symptom that has gone away or decreased during the three-week period. If you have a reaction, you need to avoid it for 60-90 days. Wait three days before reintroducing the next food, especially if you have more than one sensitivity or questioned food.

The most common are wheat, gluten, milk, peanuts, corn and milk. Soy, sugar, citrus, shellfish and coffee and food additives are second. Look for replacement foods before beginning, or you may feel starved even though you’re not. Replacements can help you cope with the loss of something once savored.

How can you tell if anything is good or bad? Again, check your body. If you eat a food and your pulse is, for example, 60 beats per minute, make a note. And after eating a possible problematic food, the pulse goes up more than ten beats per minute. Then you will want to remove the food from the diet for 90 days because this is a positive pulse test and a potential problem. If in 90 days it tests ok with your pulse, you may eat it in rotation but not daily. This is how you most likely had the problem began.

If you’re home and you have ten weeks to simplify and decide what is inflammatory or not, here’re a few things to review for your food. You’ll want to observe see if it’ll affect your mood, energy your brain through elimination. When you cut the foods and then add them back, you’ll find out if they’re inflammatory. Most of the time, you get an inflammatory response: a symptom, a headache, fatigue or pain. Remember, there are many variables for a diet, whether such as blood type, lifestyle or common allergies.

If you are a sugar addict sticking to this for three weeks will help with your sugar cravings. You might also find that symptoms such as bloating, sinus congestion, and excess gas also reduce or go away. Introduce one of these inflammatory foods once you’ve gone past your two or three weeks or none. Observe symptoms and in three days, introduce another. So, let’s say you ate corn on the 15th day and you bloat or swell, a symptom you haven’t been doing for that time interval. That’s a great indicator that corn is a problem. You’ll need to wait three days or more until the swelling is gone before introducing another food.

We recommend you chart your foods so you know what is good and what isn’t and when you can eat them again if ever. If these methods have failed, a food allergy sensitivity test should be your next step. This is available on our website or other sites. Yet, this is buyer beware for food sensitivity testing. Most food sensitivity companies test only raw food. My question is, how many people eat raw beef, chicken or fish? Few. There’s a difference between how your body reacts or has the ability to react to raw or cooked food. When you are tested, you need both of these tested.

Furthermore, one may not be allergic to foods such as wheat, tomato or cheese. But combine them in something called a pizza, and it changes the expression of the proteins. And yes, one can indeed be allergic to pizza and not the individual ingredients. Frustrating, yes. But a doctor who understands this can help you get there. The gold standard for any food allergy testing is Elisa blood serum testing. Skin scratch and cytotoxic testing are hard to reproduce and, in my humble opinion, a waste of good money.

If you didn’t hear me before, a strong word of caution. Do not self-test any severe allergic foods! This rotation does not work for severe allergies as it is a completely different mechanism for the immune system. You are putting yourself in harm and not taking your health seriously enough.

A glass of wine, a beer, a cocktail? A little bread and cheese? No harm, right?

Alcohol—when is it ok? Alcohol will damage the liver as well as destroy the brain. Alcohol kills brain cells that are important in communicating specific functions to your body. Other organs are also implicated with its consumption, such as the gastrointestinal tract and the pancreas. Alcohol is sugar in nature and causes an acidic imbalance. This impairs the immune system and allowing processes such as yeast, bacteria, virus, mold, fungus, parasites, and, unfortunately, cancer, to go unnoticed. Those who are carbohydrate intolerant suffer the same effects as a full bore alcoholic, even with small amounts of alcohol. Their body can at times convert sugar to alcohol. Or, the intestines have the wrong bacteria and convert carbohydrates to alcohol. That’s rough. We actually have patients who were auto fermenting. I hope you noticed I said “were.” We actually understand the mechanism. It’s a bizarre conversation with a patient who eats a sandwich and some fries and then blows into a breathalyzer over the legal limit. Where do you start? We know where.

But what about wine and its benefits? There are many studies about the benefits and the effects. But the dose for when the alcohol outweighs the benefits is only four ounces. I haven’t recently observed a four-ounce pour at any restaurant or from my wife at dinner. But these are the guidelines for a beneficial response.

My goal in this process is to help your body work more efficiently, heal naturally and feel better.

Be well,

Dr. Trites

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