What is Leaky Gut Syndrome?

An overview

As the name suggests, this has something to do with your guts. Ayurveda mentions the importance of gut health. Health of gut impacts our mood, our well being. Guts are also called as our 'second nervous system'. What goes on in your gut, is reported to your brain from time to time and thus, a certain chemical 'locha'/ changes occur in our brain. Also, Ayurveda states that the root cause of any disorder/ disease, begins in our gut.

Ayurveda existed or was preached around when there were no environmental toxins or antibiotics or any processed food. It is interesting to see how this science of life was complete within itself to treat any disease or disorder that could potentially arise 5000 years after then. Scholars back then were true visionaries. They did foresee these conditions, centuries and centuries ago and explained treatments in detail through their work.

What happens when food is in your gut?

The job of out intestines is to hold a tight connection along the tissue lining to keep all the food particles inside the gut. When this connection wears off or loosens its 'security', the cell lining becomes permeable. This allows undigested food particles, toxins and other waste from our guts to mix in with blood and thus travel through our body. As a result, we experience various disorders like constipation, anxiety, acne, fatigue, depression, bacterial overgrowth etc

In Ayurveda, root cause of a disease is ama. Ama means toxins. These toxins are different from what we call toxins today- pesticides, smoke, chemicals etc. Ama means any undigested or waste food that is rejected by our body and is on its way to be expelled. To fix any gut problem, we need to take care of this ama leaking into our system and rekindle our agni. Agni literally means fire. Agni in our guts in different from Angi- fire/ heat that we get from Sun or a flame or a combustion. Our digestion fire is what helps us digest food- chemicals within out system that help breakdown food, take what is required and sort the waste out. If you think about it, it's quite a process.Our body engineering is marvelous indeed!

What to do when your gut is leaky?

It is important to address this issue ASAP. A lot of times, this results from consuming excessive processed foods, sugar, pop, alcoholic beverages, grains, gluten, and junk food in general! So what am I supposed to eat then? Nothing?

Here is a list of foods that will actually help you rekindle your stomach agni.

- LOTS OF GHEE

- Khichdi - Click here for recipe

- Bone broth - Click here for recipe

- Yogurt (avoid flavoured store bought yogurt, instead grab organic probiotic non- GMO)

- Fermented foods- kimchi, dosa, khatta dhokla, lassi, kadhi ( Dosa batter recipe)

- Avoid processed sugar, but eat fruits

- Lots of leafy greens

- Everything homemade

- Avoid dairy like milk, cheese, sour cream, ice cream etc

- Probiotic supplements

It will take about three-four weeks to completely heal your gut provided you stick to your diet. And this is enough time to make a lifestyle change. There is no going back to eating junk. Once your body is used to fresh- homemade food, you will not want to eat processed crap as much.

If you ask me, I did not even know about Leaky Gut until a few weeks ago, it has been almost 4 weeks now that I am following a certain diet ( I cheat a lot though). Working in a kitchen where I have to taste food before I send it to my guests (which is a part of my job), does not really help faster healing. But progress is remarkable. I shall share my story, the foods that I ate, foods that caused inflammation, weekly plans and how I am fighting Leaky Gut Syndrome in my future posts. Stay there!