September 6, 2023 • 27 mins
Has your dinner ever declared war on your stomach? Imagine if you could decipher the secrets of your gut and take back control. Today, we're embarking on a fascinating journey through the complex world of food intolerances, exploring how changes in our diets and lifestyles may be contributing to this modern malady. From synthetic sweeteners to shifts in our gut microbiome, we'll investigate why this issue, once dismissed as psychological, is now taking center stage in medical conversations.
Intolerances to foods has become a widespread problem, with approximately 20% of the population experiencing unpleasant symptoms with consumption of common foods such as eggs, beef, vegetables, even after many decades of consuming them without problems. Food intolerances are a uniquely modern phenomenon—your great grandmother would have no idea what you are talking about if you reported such intolerances. In some cases, food intolerances have reached absurd levels. People who undergo IgG food testing to identify an immune response to foods, for instance, are often given lists of 20, 30, or 40 common foods they cannot consume because they trigger an IgG antibody-driven immune response, an impossibly restrictive lifestyle. Something has therefore changed—but what? Could it be some change in food? Could it be some change in us? Get ready, folks, it's time to take responsibility for our health. In this episode of Defiant Health, let’s try to make sense out of this troublesome modern phenomenon.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
INTOLORANCES Intolerances to foods has become
a widespread problem, withapproximately 20% of the
population experiencingunpleasant symptoms with
consumption of common foods suchas eggs, beef vegetables, even
after many decades of consumingthem without problems.
Food intolerances are auniquely modern phenomenon.
(00:27):
Your great-grandmother wouldhave no idea what you're talking
about if you reported suchintolerances.
In some cases, foodintolerances have reached absurd
levels.
People who undergo IgG foodtesting, for instance, to
identify an immune response tofoods, are often given lists of
20, 30, or 40 common foods theycannot consume because they
(00:49):
trigger an IgG antibody-drivenimmune response an impossibly
restrictive lifestyle.
Everything has thereforechanged, but what?
Could it be?
Some change in food?
Could it be some change in us?
In this episode of DefiantHealth, let's try to make sense
out of this troublesome modernphenomenon.
Later in the podcast, let'stalk about Defiant Health's
(01:10):
sponsors that include PaleoValley, who provide fermented
grass-fed beef sticks, bonebroth, protein rich in collagen,
organic supergreens andlow-carb superfood bars, and now
100% grass-fed and finishedpastured meats.
And also our newest sponsor,biotic Quest, who provides
unique probiotics such as sugarshift to support healthy blood
(01:33):
sugars and simple slumber toassist in obtaining healthy
sleep Propagatis crafted with aunique property of combining
synergistic microbes.
I'm sure you've noticed thatmany people, perhaps including
yourself, have developedintolerances to many foods.
It can take many forms.
(01:54):
It can show up as a skin rash,asthma, emotional reactions,
joint pain, abdominal pain,bloating, diarrhea and some
other effects that are all veryunpleasant and consistently
occur every time you consumesome food.
Sometimes the reaction isimmediate and sometimes it's
delayed.
The immediate reactions tend tosuggest an allergic reaction,
(02:16):
but not always, and a delayedreaction of hours to days
typically suggests animmune-mediated mechanism, but
there are exceptions.
Also, food allergies are a typeof food intolerance driven by
IgE class of antibodies.
A good example is peanutallergy.
That can be dangerous,sometimes resulting in an
anaphylaxis and cardiac arrest.
(02:37):
You know it wasn't that longago when food intolerances were
regarded as just something inyour head, something that you
made up, or it was not a realphenomenon.
It's become clear this is avery real phenomenon and
sometimes has dire consequences.
It can lead to extremelyrestrictive lifestyles and
eliminating many, many foods,and it can have real life
(03:00):
implications.
What has changed?
What can we blame that haschanged in the world around
humans that allows for theseintolerances to food?
Well, for one thing, the foodhas changed.
Modern food is filled withpreservatives with antimicrobial
effects, with emulsifyingagents that emulsify the mucus
barrier, thereby dissolve theprotective lining of your
(03:21):
intestines and open the doors tothe entry of both partially
digested food components as wellas breakdown products of
bacteria themselves.
The proliferation of syntheticsweeteners like aspartame and
sucralose in diet sodas andother foods.
That likewise changes bowelfloor composition to an
inflammatory status.
So food has changed and therebythe effects on humans, and that
(03:45):
leads to the development offood intolerances.
Have humans changed?
Well, I think it's been tooshort of time for genetic
changes, perhaps even epigeneticchanges, to have developed to
account for these foodintolerances, but one clear cut
change has been the microbiome.
Even in the last one or twogenerations, there have been
numerous distortions of thecomposition of bowel flora,
(04:08):
including a loss of speciesdiversity, that is, the loss of
many important microbes thatwere doing good things for us,
including protecting us from thedevelopment of food
intolerances.
Now I'm going to argue in thisepisode of Defiant Health that
the majority not all, but themajority of food intolerances
can be blamed on distortions ofthe gastrointestinal microbiome,
but specifically and most ofall, small intestinal bacterial
(04:32):
overgrowth, or SIBO.
That refers to the loss ofbeneficial species in the colon
that allowed fecal microbes toover proliferate and then
remarkably, ascend into the 24feet of small intestine small
intestinal bacterial overgrowth.
That is a highly inflammatorycondition.
It changes the composition ofBelflora.
(04:54):
It changes the protective mucusbarrier in the small intestine.
It allows the entry of bothfood breakdown products and
bacterial breakdown productsentry into the bloodstream and
lymph system and set in motionautoimmune response as well as
cytokine activation that causesinflammation.
Let's start, though, withreviewing what we know, what we
(05:15):
know with confidence about foodintolerances.
We know that people withirritable bowel syndrome, ivs
and inflammatory bowel diseases,crohn's and ulcerative colitis
are especially prone to developfood intolerances.
We also know that people withautoimmune conditions also have
a higher incidence of antibodiesagainst various foods.
(05:37):
We also know that people whohave food intolerances often
experience temporary relief fordays to weeks after a course of
antibiotics, suggesting thatthere are microbes underlying
the development of foodintolerances, and many people
with a variety of foodintolerances express antibodies
(05:57):
against foods that they appearto be intolerant of, often the
IgG variety, but sometimes otherforms like IgA or IgM.
We also know that people withfood intolerances show higher
levels of antibodies to fecalmicrobes such as E coli and
Klebsiella, the group ofmicrobes called proteobacteria.
These are the fecal microbesthat somehow launch an immune
(06:21):
response to generate antibodiesagainst some other organ in your
body.
There's also a very commonsituation that people who try to
ingest any food that hasprebiotic fiber properties this
could include fruit withfructose, legumes like beans in
all their variety, black beans,white beans, kidney beans,
(06:43):
chickpeas, etc.
Anglin mushrooms, fodmaps, thatis, fibers and sugars.
This is very common and it'sespecially diagnostic for SIBO
if those intolerant reactions,such as bloating and diarrhea or
emotional effects or anger orskin rash or asthma, developed
within the first 60 to 90minutes of consumption of that
(07:03):
food.
What that means is that thatfood was metabolized by fecal
microbes that are high up in thestomach, duodenum and jujunum.
Because it was occurring in thecolon, those foods could not
reach the colon that fast.
They can't reach the colon in60 to 90 minutes.
It takes more than 90 minutes,sometimes many hours, for any
(07:25):
food to wind through the 24 feetof small intestine and arrive
at the colon.
If you have symptoms, any formof intolerance to foods that
occurs within the first 60 to 90minutes of consuming it, that
is almost always due to fecalmicrobes residing in the small
intestine above the colon.
Now, many of us who have beeninvolved in identifying and
(07:47):
correcting SIBO have witnessedthe reversal of numerous forms
of food intolerance.
Someone may be intolerant tonightshades and FODMAPs and
histamine-containing foods, butif you are not aware of that,
you may not be able to find thatcorrection of SIBO leaves them
able to consume those foodsfreely with no problems.
Well, think about this.
It makes sense.
Sibo is associated with theproteobacteria, the fecal
(08:08):
microbes that directly contactthe intestinal wall.
They have proliferated, nowcontact the intestinal wall
directly, which increases bothintestal inflammation and
intestinal permeability, whatsome people call gut leak in the
already and normally permeablesmall intestine.
So the presence of fecalmicrobes, of proteobacteria,
(08:30):
directly contact the intestinalwall, erode the amukus barrier
and allow entry of bothpartially digested food products
and bacterial breakdownproducts, including the
endotoxin from the fecalmicrobes.
When endotoxin, of course,enters the bloodstream, you have
a situation called endotoxemiathat thereby exports effects of
(08:51):
the gastrointestinal microbiomein the small intestine body wide
.
Examining, for instance, howmicrobes in the GI tract can be
experienced as skin rashes,emotional effects from the brain
, joint pain, asthma, that is,effects in far away organs not
connected directly to thegastrointestinal tract.
How many IgE allergic reactionscan be explained by SIBO is not
(09:14):
clear, but I would offer thatmany emerging experiences
suggest that such allergicreactions are also due to
disrupted bowel flow.
That is SIBO.
Now there are two special casesof food intolerances that you
should know about.
Wheat is one of them, of course.
Now wheat has many componentsthat make people intolerant.
For instance, the glide inprotein, that is, the glide in
(09:35):
protein within gluten, is adirect toxin to the
gastrointestinal tract and italso increases intestinal
permeability.
Very few things increaseintestinal permeability or gut
leak.
Diseases like cholera ordysentery, in which there's
intractable diarrhea, is one wayto increase intestinal
permeability.
Another way is to consume theglide in protein of wheat.
(09:56):
Another way is forgram-negative fecal microbes to
populate the small intestine andinflame the intestinal wall and
thereby increase intestinalleak.
So those are the ways that theintestines become more leaky
than they usually are.
That is the normally very leakysmall intestine designed for
nutrient absorption.
There's also the lectin protein,wheat germaglutinin that is in
(10:19):
wheat.
It's also in rye and barley andthosumnary in rice as well.
That is a very potent directtoxin to the intestinal wall.
If you feed a milligram onemilligram of purified wheat
germaglutinin to a ratlaboratory rat its intestinal
tract is denuded, we say, thewheat germaglutinin destroys all
the absorptive villi, thehair-like villi lining the
(10:41):
intestinal tract, and it getsvery seriously ill, where the
average American who consumeshealthy whole grains gets about
18 to 19 milligrams of wheatgermaglutinin, a very potent
bowel toxin that opens you up tointestinal inflammation and
endotoxemia.
Then of course, there aremetabolic effects from the
amylopectin A of wheat and othergrains.
(11:03):
That raises blood sugar higherounce for ounce than table sugar
and that has a whole set of itsown implications, including
triggering insulin resistanceand inflammation, the two
processes that lead to numerousdiseases, including coronary
disease, heart disease, dementia, risk for dementia, breast
cancer, various other cancers,type 2 diabetes and other
(11:24):
conditions.
There are other toxins in wheatand related grains, but you get
the idea Wheat is aconglomeration, a collection of
very toxic compounds and there'sno way to make it healthy.
It would be like asking can wemake wheat good for you?
It would be like asking can wemake arsenic good for you?
There are too many toxiccomponents in wheat and related
(11:46):
grains that there is simply nopractical way to disable all its
toxic effects, so we eliminateit.
Another example to know about islactose intolerance, so
virtually all babies, whenthey're born, are
lactose-tolerant, which makessense.
They must be able to metabolizethe breast milk from their
mother.
But most kids lose the abilityto express the lactase enzyme to
(12:09):
digest lactose around age 4 to8.
And so many kids become lactoseintolerance as young children.
And this happens becausegenetically they are timed to
turn off the expression of thelactase gene.
But it's a different issue ifan adult develops lactose
intolerance.
Say, you're 35 years old andyou ate ice cream and cream
(12:31):
cheese and cottage cheese anddrank milk, no problem.
But at age 35, you now have gasfloating in diarrhea when you
consume anything that containslactose.
That is virtually always acombination of seaboats, small
intestine bacterial overgrowththat interferes with the
digestive enzymes in theduodenum, as well as the loss of
(12:52):
beneficial species, mostlylactobacilli, because
lactobacilli also can metabolizelactose.
So if you develop lactoseintolerance as an adult, it
tells you two things One, you'vegot seabo and all its
implications, and two, you'velost lactose consuming microbes
in your GI tract.
Let me now take a moment totell you about Defiant Health
(13:14):
sponsors and when we come backlet's talk about the various
subtypes of food intolerances.
If you understand the variousforms of food intolerances, it
helps you understand how thisall came about in the first
place and sets you in thedirection how to correct it.
Let's now talk about thevarious subtypes of food
intolerances, because it helpsyou understand how these food
(13:36):
intolerances are caused, whatkind of consequence you can
expect and how you best can getrid of these intolerances.
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(16:36):
The first is what I callmetabolic intolerance, and a
good way to illustrate this isto tell you my story from many
years ago over 30 years ago.
Then I was practicinginterventional cardiology in the
cath lab, putting in stents,opening arteries and those sorts
of things.
I started getting interested inhealth and so I adopted a super
strict, low fat diet almost noadded oils, no added fats, no
(16:58):
animal products, a vegetarian,super low fat diet, no more than
10% of calories from fat, withloading up on plenty of healthy
whole grains at every meal.
Well, I gained weight in myabdomen, abdominal, visceral fat
, inflammatory fat.
My blood sugar went into thetype two diabetic range, with
fasting blood glucose of 160 orhigher.
(17:19):
My triglycerides went sky high,so I developed hyper
triglyceridemia, with fastingtriglyceride levels of 390
milligrams per deciliter.
I developed abundance of smallLDL particles of about 1800
nanomoles per liter, which issevere and put you at high risk
for coronary disease and heartattack.
And I developed high bloodpressure, with blood pressures
(17:41):
of about 150 over 90.
All while I was jogging severalmiles several times a week,
riding my bike and playingtennis.
I was very active, yet I becamea metabolic disaster with
diabetes, hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia and other
problems.
So that's an example ofmetabolic intolerance that I
personally and most other peopleare intolerant of cutting fat,
(18:04):
cutting saturated fat andincreasing consumption of grain.
Other examples of metabolicintolerance would be
hyperuricemia, or a high levelof uric acid.
That can lead to increased riskfor coronary disease, for
dementia, for risk for type twodiabetes, as well as gout and
kidney disease.
Another example is a highoxalate level in the blood and
(18:26):
urine that leads to formation ofcalcium oxalate kidney stones.
That can do damage to yourkidneys.
So you get another example of ametabolic intolerance.
Another form of food intoleranceis direct toxic effects of
various components of food.
One good example is the wheatgerm aglutinin lectin protein
(18:46):
that's in wheat as well as inrye barley and a little bit in
rice also.
So that is a direct bowel toxinand it can damage your
intestines as it does in rats,as I discussed earlier.
Other food additives, such asthe emulsifying agents
polysorbate 80 and carrageenan,are directly toxic to the
intestinal lining and mucusbarrier.
So that's another form of foodintolerance.
(19:09):
A third subtype of foodintolerance are foods that
increase intestinal permeability, or what some people call gut
leak.
The glyatin protein of wheatand related proteins of other
grains, like the cecline of rye,the hordein of barley and the
zian protein of corn, increaseintestinal permeability,
allowing partially digested foodcomponents as well as breakdown
(19:31):
products of bacteria themselvesto enter the bloodstream and
lymph system, and this leads toimmune system activation and is
the probable explanation for whysome people develop antibodies
against both food as well asagainst microbes.
That thereby can cross reactwith various components of your
body's organs and launching anautoimmune form of intolerance.
(19:52):
It also leads to an increase.
The increase in intestinalpermeability also leads to an
increase in endotoxin entry intothe bloodstream.
That in turn activatescytokines, that is, the
inflammatory mediators thatinflame the carnaver arteries,
carotid arteries, brain andother organs.
So that's another example ofhow increased intestinal
(20:13):
permeability from a variety ofcauses can lead to a series of
other apparent food intolerances.
Another form of foodintolerance is the genetically
programmed loss of function,just like the loss of expression
of the lactase enzyme thatchildren lose, but full adults
into thinking that they havelost the lactase enzyme also.
They have not.
(20:34):
They have either SIBO and orloss of lactose consuming
microbes.
And lastly, there are what Icall secondary intolerances,
that is, apparent intolerancesto food due to some other
process that initiates theprocess.
A common cause would behypochlorhydria, that is, loss
or absence of stomach acid thatwas triggered by the presence of
(20:56):
helicobacter pylori theorganism, or an autoimmune
gastritis triggered byconsumption of the glyde and
protein of wheat, and thatdamages the parietal cells of
the stomach that produce stomachacid.
And the parietal cells do notrecover once you've lost them,
you've lost them forever andthat leads to a failure of
stomach acid production, whichin turn means you don't have
(21:17):
stomach acid to activatepancreatic enzymes to digest
food.
So the problem is not the food.
The problem is thehypochlorhydria caused by H
pylori or consumption of theglyde and protein of grains.
That leads to the apparentintolerance to foods, with
bloating and diarrhea and othersymptoms, because you're unable
to activate, you're unable toinitiate digestion with stomach
(21:39):
acid, you're unable to activatepancreatic enzymes because of
the lack of stomach acid.
So, over and over again, theproblem is not the food, just as
your great grandmother wouldtell you that she ate these
foods for decades with noproblem.
The problem is that we'vedeveloped changes both in food
and big changes in ourmicrobiome, but specifically,
(21:59):
most of all, small intestinalbacterial overgrowth, the
overgrowth of fecal microbes inthe small intestine where they
don't belong, where the smallintestine is hyperpermeable by
design for nutrient absorption,but made worse by the presence
of fecal microbes that inflamethe intestinal lining and
increase the entry of endotoxinto the bloodstream, activating
(22:20):
inflammation body-wide and othersymptoms such as skin rash,
brain effects, et cetera.
So the bottom line here is somany food intolerances originate
with SIBO, whether it'sintolerance to dietary fats or
probiotics, or any food withprebiotic fiber properties or
lactose, or indigestibility ofmeats, or gastrointestinal
(22:44):
intolerance or extragastrointestinal intolerances,
that is, intolerances manifestin other organs Always think
SIBO as the underlying processthat you have to deal with.
Now that's the bad news.
Sibo is tough to deal with.
Sometimes.
It has a multitude ofexpressions and joints and brain
and skin and metabolic health,fatty liver cancers.
(23:05):
The good news is, if you've beenfollowing my conversation, you
now know that you have a newoption in the management of SIBO
and that is to replace lostkeystone microbes, two
specifically Lactobacillusrhodii.
We use the ATCCPTA6475.
And I'm sorry about thesestrain designations, but you
have to pay attention to strainwhen you start to manipulate
(23:28):
microbes.
So it's lactobacillus rhodii,the 6475 strain, lactobacillus
gas rhodii, the BNR17 strain.
So these two very importantmicrobes have been lost by
nearly all modern people becausethey're very susceptible to
common antibiotics.
So if you took something likean ampicillin or a moxicillin,
(23:49):
even 10, 20, 30 years ago.
You've lost those two microbesand you've lost their capacity
to colonize the small intestinewhere SIBO occurs right, and the
capacity to produce bacteriathat are effective in killing
the fecal microbes of SIBO.
Gasripe produces up to sevenbacteriacins, rhodiopto 4, very
(24:10):
potent bacteriacins I did add inthe initial form of what I call
SIBO yogurt strain of bacilluscoagulants, the GBI306086.
Bacillus coagulants is aspore-forming microbe.
It has a good track record inreducing the symptoms of
irritable bowel syndrome, whichis essentially SIBO, and it does
produce one bactericin.
It does have the advantage ifyou make yogurt by itself from
(24:34):
bacillus coagulants at a highertemperature, because it likes
higher temperatures forreproduction, about 115 degrees
Fahrenheit it makes the mostdelicious yogurt you've ever had
.
Tastes like thick whipped cream.
But when you fold it into thosetwo other microbes and
co-ferment them it kind ofsoftens the rough edges of the
flavors of the SIBO yogurtBecause the gasri in particular
is quite sour and adding thebacillus coagulants kind of
(24:57):
softens it makes it more tastyand result.
So you can co-ferment thosethree and I use 106 degrees
Fahrenheit, a little higher thanusual, then the temperature we
use for rot.
We don't want to use atemperature high enough to kill
them, which is about 110 degreesand higher.
But we want to get a littlehigher temperature to get better
(25:18):
numbers and reproduction of thebacillus coagulants, the
spore-forming microbe that tendsto prefer higher temperatures.
So we use 106 Fahrenheit and weonce again ferment for extended
periods, for a minimum of 12doublings, and we typically get
something like 300 billionmicrobes.
And that may be part of thereason why we're seeing that the
majority of people who consumethe SIBO yogurt for four weeks
(25:40):
or longer get rid of SIBO, asevidenced by normalization of
breath hydrogen gas using theconsumer air device, the AIRE
device sold by the food marblecompany.
But one little twist, becauselactobacillus rhodii in
particular, because it colonizesthe small intestine and can
convert any prebiotic fiber,like inulin, to hydrogen gas, it
(26:02):
will give you appearance ofpersistent SIBO.
So if you want to test let'ssay you take the SIBO yogurt for
four weeks you want to see ifyou've normalized your hydrogen
gas.
That was abnormal at the startyou've got to stop the rhodii
yogurt for two weeks and thentest.
I wish it wasn't that.
It wasn't true.
It's a little complicated, butrecognize rhodii will give a
kind of a false positive testresult that looks like SIBO but
(26:24):
it's not SIBO.
So you have to hold back orstop the rhodii for two weeks
and then test.
But, to my great surprise, thisthing I call SIBO yogurt has
been magnificently effective,and I would continue consuming
it intermittently, two or threetimes a week or so in the after
the initial four weeks, becauseit's very effective so far in
preventing recurrence.
(26:44):
So it means that you may nothave to resort to such things as
antibiotics either conventionalantibiotics or herbal
antibiotics to get rid of SIBOin the vast majority of cases.
Okay, if you've learnedsomething from this episode of
Defiant Health, I invite you topost a review, subscribe to your
favorite podcast directory,post a comment and tell your
(27:04):
friends.
You can see what we're tryingto do here.
I'm trying to educate people inways to take care of their own
health because of the failure ofthe healthcare system to do so
for you.
Thanks for listening.
INTOLORANCES Intolerances to foods has become
a widespread problem, withapproximately 20% of the
population experiencingunpleasant symptoms with
consumption of common foods suchas eggs, beef vegetables, even
after many decades of consumingthem without problems.
Food intolerances are auniquely modern phenomenon.
(00:27):
Your great-grandmother wouldhave no idea what you're talking
about if you reported suchintolerances.
In some cases, foodintolerances have reached absurd
levels.
People who undergo IgG foodtesting, for instance, to
identify an immune response tofoods, are often given lists of
20, 30, or 40 common foods theycannot consume because they
(00:49):
trigger an IgG antibody-drivenimmune response an impossibly
restrictive lifestyle.
Everything has thereforechanged, but what?
Could it be?
Some change in food?
Could it be some change in us?
In this episode of DefiantHealth, let's try to make sense
out of this troublesome modernphenomenon.
Later in the podcast, let'stalk about Defiant Health's
(01:10):
sponsors that include PaleoValley, who provide fermented
grass-fed beef sticks, bonebroth, protein rich in collagen,
organic supergreens andlow-carb superfood bars, and now
100% grass-fed and finishedpastured meats.
And also our newest sponsor,biotic Quest, who provides
unique probiotics such as sugarshift to support healthy blood
(01:33):
sugars and simple slumber toassist in obtaining healthy
sleep Propagatis crafted with aunique property of combining
synergistic microbes.
I'm sure you've noticed thatmany people, perhaps including
yourself, have developedintolerances to many foods.
It can take many forms.
(01:54):
It can show up as a skin rash,asthma, emotional reactions,
joint pain, abdominal pain,bloating, diarrhea and some
other effects that are all veryunpleasant and consistently
occur every time you consumesome food.
Sometimes the reaction isimmediate and sometimes it's
delayed.
The immediate reactions tend tosuggest an allergic reaction,
(02:16):
but not always, and a delayedreaction of hours to days
typically suggests animmune-mediated mechanism, but
there are exceptions.
Also, food allergies are a typeof food intolerance driven by
IgE class of antibodies.
A good example is peanutallergy.
That can be dangerous,sometimes resulting in an
anaphylaxis and cardiac arrest.
(02:37):
You know it wasn't that longago when food intolerances were
regarded as just something inyour head, something that you
made up, or it was not a realphenomenon.
It's become clear this is avery real phenomenon and
sometimes has dire consequences.
It can lead to extremelyrestrictive lifestyles and
eliminating many, many foods,and it can have real life
(03:00):
implications.
What has changed?
What can we blame that haschanged in the world around
humans that allows for theseintolerances to food?
Well, for one thing, the foodhas changed.
Modern food is filled withpreservatives with antimicrobial
effects, with emulsifyingagents that emulsify the mucus
barrier, thereby dissolve theprotective lining of your
(03:21):
intestines and open the doors tothe entry of both partially
digested food components as wellas breakdown products of
bacteria themselves.
The proliferation of syntheticsweeteners like aspartame and
sucralose in diet sodas andother foods.
That likewise changes bowelfloor composition to an
inflammatory status.
So food has changed and therebythe effects on humans, and that
(03:45):
leads to the development offood intolerances.
Have humans changed?
Well, I think it's been tooshort of time for genetic
changes, perhaps even epigeneticchanges, to have developed to
account for these foodintolerances, but one clear cut
change has been the microbiome.
Even in the last one or twogenerations, there have been
numerous distortions of thecomposition of bowel flora,
(04:08):
including a loss of speciesdiversity, that is, the loss of
many important microbes thatwere doing good things for us,
including protecting us from thedevelopment of food
intolerances.
Now I'm going to argue in thisepisode of Defiant Health that
the majority not all, but themajority of food intolerances
can be blamed on distortions ofthe gastrointestinal microbiome,
but specifically and most ofall, small intestinal bacterial
(04:32):
overgrowth, or SIBO.
That refers to the loss ofbeneficial species in the colon
that allowed fecal microbes toover proliferate and then
remarkably, ascend into the 24feet of small intestine small
intestinal bacterial overgrowth.
That is a highly inflammatorycondition.
It changes the composition ofBelflora.
(04:54):
It changes the protective mucusbarrier in the small intestine.
It allows the entry of bothfood breakdown products and
bacterial breakdown productsentry into the bloodstream and
lymph system and set in motionautoimmune response as well as
cytokine activation that causesinflammation.
Let's start, though, withreviewing what we know, what we
(05:15):
know with confidence about foodintolerances.
We know that people withirritable bowel syndrome, ivs
and inflammatory bowel diseases,crohn's and ulcerative colitis
are especially prone to developfood intolerances.
We also know that people withautoimmune conditions also have
a higher incidence of antibodiesagainst various foods.
(05:37):
We also know that people whohave food intolerances often
experience temporary relief fordays to weeks after a course of
antibiotics, suggesting thatthere are microbes underlying
the development of foodintolerances, and many people
with a variety of foodintolerances express antibodies
(05:57):
against foods that they appearto be intolerant of, often the
IgG variety, but sometimes otherforms like IgA or IgM.
We also know that people withfood intolerances show higher
levels of antibodies to fecalmicrobes such as E coli and
Klebsiella, the group ofmicrobes called proteobacteria.
These are the fecal microbesthat somehow launch an immune
(06:21):
response to generate antibodiesagainst some other organ in your
body.
There's also a very commonsituation that people who try to
ingest any food that hasprebiotic fiber properties this
could include fruit withfructose, legumes like beans in
all their variety, black beans,white beans, kidney beans,
(06:43):
chickpeas, etc.
Anglin mushrooms, fodmaps, thatis, fibers and sugars.
This is very common and it'sespecially diagnostic for SIBO
if those intolerant reactions,such as bloating and diarrhea or
emotional effects or anger orskin rash or asthma, developed
within the first 60 to 90minutes of consumption of that
(07:03):
food.
What that means is that thatfood was metabolized by fecal
microbes that are high up in thestomach, duodenum and jujunum.
Because it was occurring in thecolon, those foods could not
reach the colon that fast.
They can't reach the colon in60 to 90 minutes.
It takes more than 90 minutes,sometimes many hours, for any
(07:25):
food to wind through the 24 feetof small intestine and arrive
at the colon.
If you have symptoms, any formof intolerance to foods that
occurs within the first 60 to 90minutes of consuming it, that
is almost always due to fecalmicrobes residing in the small
intestine above the colon.
Now, many of us who have beeninvolved in identifying and
(07:47):
correcting SIBO have witnessedthe reversal of numerous forms
of food intolerance.
Someone may be intolerant tonightshades and FODMAPs and
histamine-containing foods, butif you are not aware of that,
you may not be able to find thatcorrection of SIBO leaves them
able to consume those foodsfreely with no problems.
Well, think about this.
It makes sense.
Sibo is associated with theproteobacteria, the fecal
(08:08):
microbes that directly contactthe intestinal wall.
They have proliferated, nowcontact the intestinal wall
directly, which increases bothintestal inflammation and
intestinal permeability, whatsome people call gut leak in the
already and normally permeablesmall intestine.
So the presence of fecalmicrobes, of proteobacteria,
(08:30):
directly contact the intestinalwall, erode the amukus barrier
and allow entry of bothpartially digested food products
and bacterial breakdownproducts, including the
endotoxin from the fecalmicrobes.
When endotoxin, of course,enters the bloodstream, you have
a situation called endotoxemiathat thereby exports effects of
(08:51):
the gastrointestinal microbiomein the small intestine body wide
.
Examining, for instance, howmicrobes in the GI tract can be
experienced as skin rashes,emotional effects from the brain
, joint pain, asthma, that is,effects in far away organs not
connected directly to thegastrointestinal tract.
How many IgE allergic reactionscan be explained by SIBO is not
(09:14):
clear, but I would offer thatmany emerging experiences
suggest that such allergicreactions are also due to
disrupted bowel flow.
That is SIBO.
Now there are two special casesof food intolerances that you
should know about.
Wheat is one of them, of course.
Now wheat has many componentsthat make people intolerant.
For instance, the glide inprotein, that is, the glide in
(09:35):
protein within gluten, is adirect toxin to the
gastrointestinal tract and italso increases intestinal
permeability.
Very few things increaseintestinal permeability or gut
leak.
Diseases like cholera ordysentery, in which there's
intractable diarrhea, is one wayto increase intestinal
permeability.
Another way is to consume theglide in protein of wheat.
(09:56):
Another way is forgram-negative fecal microbes to
populate the small intestine andinflame the intestinal wall and
thereby increase intestinalleak.
So those are the ways that theintestines become more leaky
than they usually are.
That is the normally very leakysmall intestine designed for
nutrient absorption.
There's also the lectin protein,wheat germaglutinin that is in
(10:19):
wheat.
It's also in rye and barley andthosumnary in rice as well.
That is a very potent directtoxin to the intestinal wall.
If you feed a milligram onemilligram of purified wheat
germaglutinin to a ratlaboratory rat its intestinal
tract is denuded, we say, thewheat germaglutinin destroys all
the absorptive villi, thehair-like villi lining the
(10:41):
intestinal tract, and it getsvery seriously ill, where the
average American who consumeshealthy whole grains gets about
18 to 19 milligrams of wheatgermaglutinin, a very potent
bowel toxin that opens you up tointestinal inflammation and
endotoxemia.
Then of course, there aremetabolic effects from the
amylopectin A of wheat and othergrains.
(11:03):
That raises blood sugar higherounce for ounce than table sugar
and that has a whole set of itsown implications, including
triggering insulin resistanceand inflammation, the two
processes that lead to numerousdiseases, including coronary
disease, heart disease, dementia, risk for dementia, breast
cancer, various other cancers,type 2 diabetes and other
(11:24):
conditions.
There are other toxins in wheatand related grains, but you get
the idea Wheat is aconglomeration, a collection of
very toxic compounds and there'sno way to make it healthy.
It would be like asking can wemake wheat good for you?
It would be like asking can wemake arsenic good for you?
There are too many toxiccomponents in wheat and related
(11:46):
grains that there is simply nopractical way to disable all its
toxic effects, so we eliminateit.
Another example to know about islactose intolerance, so
virtually all babies, whenthey're born, are
lactose-tolerant, which makessense.
They must be able to metabolizethe breast milk from their
mother.
But most kids lose the abilityto express the lactase enzyme to
(12:09):
digest lactose around age 4 to8.
And so many kids become lactoseintolerance as young children.
And this happens becausegenetically they are timed to
turn off the expression of thelactase gene.
But it's a different issue ifan adult develops lactose
intolerance.
Say, you're 35 years old andyou ate ice cream and cream
(12:31):
cheese and cottage cheese anddrank milk, no problem.
But at age 35, you now have gasfloating in diarrhea when you
consume anything that containslactose.
That is virtually always acombination of seaboats, small
intestine bacterial overgrowththat interferes with the
digestive enzymes in theduodenum, as well as the loss of
(12:52):
beneficial species, mostlylactobacilli, because
lactobacilli also can metabolizelactose.
So if you develop lactoseintolerance as an adult, it
tells you two things One, you'vegot seabo and all its
implications, and two, you'velost lactose consuming microbes
in your GI tract.
Let me now take a moment totell you about Defiant Health
(13:14):
sponsors and when we come backlet's talk about the various
subtypes of food intolerances.
If you understand the variousforms of food intolerances, it
helps you understand how thisall came about in the first
place and sets you in thedirection how to correct it.
Let's now talk about thevarious subtypes of food
intolerances, because it helpsyou understand how these food
(13:36):
intolerances are caused, whatkind of consequence you can
expect and how you best can getrid of these intolerances.
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(16:36):
The first is what I callmetabolic intolerance, and a
good way to illustrate this isto tell you my story from many
years ago over 30 years ago.
Then I was practicinginterventional cardiology in the
cath lab, putting in stents,opening arteries and those sorts
of things.
I started getting interested inhealth and so I adopted a super
strict, low fat diet almost noadded oils, no added fats, no
(16:58):
animal products, a vegetarian,super low fat diet, no more than
10% of calories from fat, withloading up on plenty of healthy
whole grains at every meal.
Well, I gained weight in myabdomen, abdominal, visceral fat
, inflammatory fat.
My blood sugar went into thetype two diabetic range, with
fasting blood glucose of 160 orhigher.
(17:19):
My triglycerides went sky high,so I developed hyper
triglyceridemia, with fastingtriglyceride levels of 390
milligrams per deciliter.
I developed abundance of smallLDL particles of about 1800
nanomoles per liter, which issevere and put you at high risk
for coronary disease and heartattack.
And I developed high bloodpressure, with blood pressures
(17:41):
of about 150 over 90.
All while I was jogging severalmiles several times a week,
riding my bike and playingtennis.
I was very active, yet I becamea metabolic disaster with
diabetes, hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia and other
problems.
So that's an example ofmetabolic intolerance that I
personally and most other peopleare intolerant of cutting fat,
(18:04):
cutting saturated fat andincreasing consumption of grain.
Other examples of metabolicintolerance would be
hyperuricemia, or a high levelof uric acid.
That can lead to increased riskfor coronary disease, for
dementia, for risk for type twodiabetes, as well as gout and
kidney disease.
Another example is a highoxalate level in the blood and
(18:26):
urine that leads to formation ofcalcium oxalate kidney stones.
That can do damage to yourkidneys.
So you get another example of ametabolic intolerance.
Another form of food intoleranceis direct toxic effects of
various components of food.
One good example is the wheatgerm aglutinin lectin protein
(18:46):
that's in wheat as well as inrye barley and a little bit in
rice also.
So that is a direct bowel toxinand it can damage your
intestines as it does in rats,as I discussed earlier.
Other food additives, such asthe emulsifying agents
polysorbate 80 and carrageenan,are directly toxic to the
intestinal lining and mucusbarrier.
So that's another form of foodintolerance.
(19:09):
A third subtype of foodintolerance are foods that
increase intestinal permeability, or what some people call gut
leak.
The glyatin protein of wheatand related proteins of other
grains, like the cecline of rye,the hordein of barley and the
zian protein of corn, increaseintestinal permeability,
allowing partially digested foodcomponents as well as breakdown
(19:31):
products of bacteria themselvesto enter the bloodstream and
lymph system, and this leads toimmune system activation and is
the probable explanation for whysome people develop antibodies
against both food as well asagainst microbes.
That thereby can cross reactwith various components of your
body's organs and launching anautoimmune form of intolerance.
(19:52):
It also leads to an increase.
The increase in intestinalpermeability also leads to an
increase in endotoxin entry intothe bloodstream.
That in turn activatescytokines, that is, the
inflammatory mediators thatinflame the carnaver arteries,
carotid arteries, brain andother organs.
So that's another example ofhow increased intestinal
(20:13):
permeability from a variety ofcauses can lead to a series of
other apparent food intolerances.
Another form of foodintolerance is the genetically
programmed loss of function,just like the loss of expression
of the lactase enzyme thatchildren lose, but full adults
into thinking that they havelost the lactase enzyme also.
They have not.
(20:34):
They have either SIBO and orloss of lactose consuming
microbes.
And lastly, there are what Icall secondary intolerances,
that is, apparent intolerancesto food due to some other
process that initiates theprocess.
A common cause would behypochlorhydria, that is, loss
or absence of stomach acid thatwas triggered by the presence of
(20:56):
helicobacter pylori theorganism, or an autoimmune
gastritis triggered byconsumption of the glyde and
protein of wheat, and thatdamages the parietal cells of
the stomach that produce stomachacid.
And the parietal cells do notrecover once you've lost them,
you've lost them forever andthat leads to a failure of
stomach acid production, whichin turn means you don't have
(21:17):
stomach acid to activatepancreatic enzymes to digest
food.
So the problem is not the food.
The problem is thehypochlorhydria caused by H
pylori or consumption of theglyde and protein of grains.
That leads to the apparentintolerance to foods, with
bloating and diarrhea and othersymptoms, because you're unable
to activate, you're unable toinitiate digestion with stomach
(21:39):
acid, you're unable to activatepancreatic enzymes because of
the lack of stomach acid.
So, over and over again, theproblem is not the food, just as
your great grandmother wouldtell you that she ate these
foods for decades with noproblem.
The problem is that we'vedeveloped changes both in food
and big changes in ourmicrobiome, but specifically,
(21:59):
most of all, small intestinalbacterial overgrowth, the
overgrowth of fecal microbes inthe small intestine where they
don't belong, where the smallintestine is hyperpermeable by
design for nutrient absorption,but made worse by the presence
of fecal microbes that inflamethe intestinal lining and
increase the entry of endotoxinto the bloodstream, activating
(22:20):
inflammation body-wide and othersymptoms such as skin rash,
brain effects, et cetera.
So the bottom line here is somany food intolerances originate
with SIBO, whether it'sintolerance to dietary fats or
probiotics, or any food withprebiotic fiber properties or
lactose, or indigestibility ofmeats, or gastrointestinal
(22:44):
intolerance or extragastrointestinal intolerances,
that is, intolerances manifestin other organs Always think
SIBO as the underlying processthat you have to deal with.
Now that's the bad news.
Sibo is tough to deal with.
Sometimes.
It has a multitude ofexpressions and joints and brain
and skin and metabolic health,fatty liver cancers.
(23:05):
The good news is, if you've beenfollowing my conversation, you
now know that you have a newoption in the management of SIBO
and that is to replace lostkeystone microbes, two
specifically Lactobacillusrhodii.
We use the ATCCPTA6475.
And I'm sorry about thesestrain designations, but you
have to pay attention to strainwhen you start to manipulate
(23:28):
microbes.
So it's lactobacillus rhodii,the 6475 strain, lactobacillus
gas rhodii, the BNR17 strain.
So these two very importantmicrobes have been lost by
nearly all modern people becausethey're very susceptible to
common antibiotics.
So if you took something likean ampicillin or a moxicillin,
(23:49):
even 10, 20, 30 years ago.
You've lost those two microbesand you've lost their capacity
to colonize the small intestinewhere SIBO occurs right, and the
capacity to produce bacteriathat are effective in killing
the fecal microbes of SIBO.
Gasripe produces up to sevenbacteriacins, rhodiopto 4, very
(24:10):
potent bacteriacins I did add inthe initial form of what I call
SIBO yogurt strain of bacilluscoagulants, the GBI306086.
Bacillus coagulants is aspore-forming microbe.
It has a good track record inreducing the symptoms of
irritable bowel syndrome, whichis essentially SIBO, and it does
produce one bactericin.
It does have the advantage ifyou make yogurt by itself from
(24:34):
bacillus coagulants at a highertemperature, because it likes
higher temperatures forreproduction, about 115 degrees
Fahrenheit it makes the mostdelicious yogurt you've ever had
.
Tastes like thick whipped cream.
But when you fold it into thosetwo other microbes and
co-ferment them it kind ofsoftens the rough edges of the
flavors of the SIBO yogurtBecause the gasri in particular
is quite sour and adding thebacillus coagulants kind of
(24:57):
softens it makes it more tastyand result.
So you can co-ferment thosethree and I use 106 degrees
Fahrenheit, a little higher thanusual, then the temperature we
use for rot.
We don't want to use atemperature high enough to kill
them, which is about 110 degreesand higher.
But we want to get a littlehigher temperature to get better
(25:18):
numbers and reproduction of thebacillus coagulants, the
spore-forming microbe that tendsto prefer higher temperatures.
So we use 106 Fahrenheit and weonce again ferment for extended
periods, for a minimum of 12doublings, and we typically get
something like 300 billionmicrobes.
And that may be part of thereason why we're seeing that the
majority of people who consumethe SIBO yogurt for four weeks
(25:40):
or longer get rid of SIBO, asevidenced by normalization of
breath hydrogen gas using theconsumer air device, the AIRE
device sold by the food marblecompany.
But one little twist, becauselactobacillus rhodii in
particular, because it colonizesthe small intestine and can
convert any prebiotic fiber,like inulin, to hydrogen gas, it
(26:02):
will give you appearance ofpersistent SIBO.
So if you want to test let'ssay you take the SIBO yogurt for
four weeks you want to see ifyou've normalized your hydrogen
gas.
That was abnormal at the startyou've got to stop the rhodii
yogurt for two weeks and thentest.
I wish it wasn't that.
It wasn't true.
It's a little complicated, butrecognize rhodii will give a
kind of a false positive testresult that looks like SIBO but
(26:24):
it's not SIBO.
So you have to hold back orstop the rhodii for two weeks
and then test.
But, to my great surprise, thisthing I call SIBO yogurt has
been magnificently effective,and I would continue consuming
it intermittently, two or threetimes a week or so in the after
the initial four weeks, becauseit's very effective so far in
preventing recurrence.
(26:44):
So it means that you may nothave to resort to such things as
antibiotics either conventionalantibiotics or herbal
antibiotics to get rid of SIBOin the vast majority of cases.
Okay, if you've learnedsomething from this episode of
Defiant Health, I invite you topost a review, subscribe to your
favorite podcast directory,post a comment and tell your
(27:04):
friends.
You can see what we're tryingto do here.
I'm trying to educate people inways to take care of their own
health because of the failure ofthe healthcare system to do so
for you.
Thanks for listening.
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