Change your diet: change your life
Louise Blanchfield, aka ‘the food physio’, tells LISA SALMON how she helped her ailing husband eat his way to good health and a pain-free life
the same. It’s never advisable to make any changes to your treatment regime, or any big diet changes without discussing it carefully with your own doctor.
“Our guts are as individual as our hair and our eye colour – what one person can eat and thrive on just doesn’t work for someone else. It’s about finding what works for you,” says Louise.
These are the dietary changes that worked for Richard...
■ Go gluten and dairy-free FOLLOWING a gluten and dairy-free diet, to remove probable food intolerances inflaming or damaging the gut, proved beneficial for Richard. However, this doesn’t mean ditching gluten and dairy is right for everyone.
■ Eat raw garlic
EATING raw garlic, via an olive tapenade recipe in the book, was another change he adopted. “This is to help balance gut bacteria, as it kills bad bacteria,” explains Louise.
■ Eat more than five fruit and veg a day
EATING eight to 10 fruit and vegetables per day, rather than the standard five a day, can boost antioxidant levels and provide extra vitamins and minerals needed for optimum body function.
■ Make homemade sauerkraut SAUERKRAUT is said to help boost good gut bacteria. “This is due to it being a fermented vegetable containing good bacteria, and because cabbage contains glutamine, which is needed as a fuel by gut cells,” explains Louise.
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LOUISE says avoiding white potatoes and white rice, as they can feed harmful bacteria in the gut and help the bacteria multiply, was another change Richard found helpful.
■ Eat the rainbow
EAT a variety of coloured fruit and vegetables, as this will give a good mix of vitamins and minerals. Include sweet potatoes, beetroot, turnip and carrots, as they feed beneficial bacteria and help them grow in numbers.
■ Fill up on chicken bone broth MAKE and eat chicken bone broth; the collagen in it helps the gut to heal, says Louise.
■ No processed food PROCESSED food “contains additives that add to the toxic load in our bodies, increasing inflammation and making digestion harder,” says Louise.
■ Avoid alcohol
ALCOHOL is also inflammatory and adds to the toxic load.
■ Avoid fizzy drinks HOWEVER, don’t have a carbonated drink instead of alcohol. Louise says fizzy drinks are inflammatory too.
■ Pull the pork
AVOID all pork products, she suggests, as they are very inflammatory.
■ Avoid crisps, cakes and biscuits
STEER clear of baked goodies like cakes and biscuits – even if they’re gluten and dairy-free – as well as crisps, as they’re made from inflammatory fats.
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TRY to avoid vegetable oils, as they can be very inflammatory, says Louise.
■ Use Indian spices
INCLUDE spices like ginger and turmeric regularly in your diet, as they are highly anti-inflammatory.
Use them for cooking in recipes