LIVE, LOVE AND EAT
If the gut is not healthy enough to produce the appropriate enzymes for digestion, eating a raw Summer salads go hand in hand with summer six-
veggie platter is about as healthy as going for a
pack abs. “I need to eat lots of veggies to look
run with a broken ankle. I often see my patients
good in that bathing suit.” But when I eat a raw
forcing themselves to eat large quantities of raw
veggie salad, I get bloated and gassy, and that six-
veggies, even when experiencing negative
pack feels buried." Does this happen to you? It
symptoms, because “Vegetables are good for me",
seems everything we hear is telling us we need to
But if your gut is irritated when eating these foods,
eat a lot of vegetables, increase our fiber content,
to quote Chris Kresser, “is like using a wire brush
and that raw is way healthier because it has all the
on a bad burn.”
nutrients unaltered by the cooking process.
Frequently the enzymes are not produced
Eating a variety of raw and cooked foods is
because the intestinal lining is damaged. The cells
extremely important! Believe it or not there are
of the gut are irritated and swollen. When this
times when eating raw foods is not “healthy”.
occurs, the space between the cells grows,
Often times vegetables are difficult to digest.
allowing for the undigested food to slip between
Digestion is a chemical reaction that breaks food
the cracks. Akin to when food gets trapped
down into nutrients that the body can absorb and
between the garbage can and the lining it can get
use. Many people do not produce the necessary
nasty. The intact particles will become food for
enzymes to digest these vegetables. If the body
bad gut bacteria rather than for you. The food
can’t absorb the nutrients, it doesn't matter how
particles may also enter the blood stream, which
healthy you eat, the because the nutrient value to
can trigger an immune reaction. This inflammatory
the body is worthless. What's even worse is that
process can further increase the damage to the
healthy foods can increase the inflammatory
gut lining which reduces the digestive enzyme
process in the gut.
production. The process can continue to spiral downward. This condition is frequently referred to as intestinal permeability or "Leaky Gut".