Advice on how to heal the gut

[Spearhead]

I am not sure what to think. On the one hand I am three weeks into AV's plan for me and I don't feel any real improvements, on the other hand I was on a pretty much RPD three weeks before AV and I didn't go through a "quick detox" either, I started getting heavy itching, fungal type reactions BEFORE I went to PD and that has now largely subsided. Since my stool test revealed I had a very abundant fungal infection and I just eliminated lexapro, it stands to reason I may need a longer time to fully eliminate the fungus as it runs its course. Also my colon has been having problems for years so I doubt a short detox period is realistic. That being said, AV said my type of heavy detox lasts up to 6 weeks. Since I am halfway through, if in three weeks I am still toxic, then I'll have to assume something is not working, and maybe start eliminating dairy products. In any case, my intention has never been to use PD (bar butter and maybe cheese) as a maintenance diet, but since I have a specific plan to follow for healing it seemed like a good initial option to follow to restore digestive integrity and give me back some of that flora I need to live (barring any heavy allergies which I don't think I have).


No offense intended Tyler but your claim that only a small minority can do well with raw dairy seems to me to be as unlikely as AV's claim that raw dairy allergies don't exist. I think the likelihood is there is a middle ground somewhere on this. However, I do believe RPD is better for long term health.

The one thing I'm curious about is that my stools now, though they are loose this week, are now green instead of pale, I wonder if this is a good sign indicating bile activity has picked up again?

[miles]

Why don't you just go for Cooked-meat Paleo first? That should get rid of your initial problems. That's what I did, but now after about a year of gradually fine-tuning my Cooked-meat Paleo, I've felt that raw meat is the next step for improvement. My next, after tuning that, will I expect be sourcing more and more pastured beef, and then by adding variety: Other animals and maybe some organs.

[goodsamaritan]

Hi Spearhead,

I used to follow Aajonus in the case of raw dairy and kept trying and trying and trying.  You can see my old posts in this forum.  Raw dairy just doesn't work for me, I'm lactose intolerant.  So those symptoms of my farting my guts out every time I drank dairy were signs of lactose intolerance.

Gut healers that worked for me were Bieler's soup and fully roasted pork loin.  These aren't raw but they did the job really fast.  Like 2 days.

Candida for me was eliminated in 3 days with vco detox. http://tinyurl.com/vcodetox if you are not allergic to virgin coconut oil.

[TylerDurden]

No offense intended Tyler but your claim that only a small minority can do well with raw dairy seems to me to be as unlikely as AV's claim that raw dairy allergies don't exist. I think the likelihood is there is a middle ground somewhere on this. However, I do believe RPD is better for long term health.

If you look at all the posts on the various forums, you will see, again and again, that the biggest health-issues reported with a RVAF diet are to do with raw dairy. And that's just those who are honest about it. I have encountered another large proportion of people who claim that raw dairy is the ultimate "detoxing" food, and one finds out, again and again, that such people only experience such nasty side-effects when they are consuming raw dairy as opposed to other raw foods, thus making it clear that they have some sort of allergy/food-intolerance towards it. Indeed, if you had a look at the closed Primal Diet yahoo group, you would find posts where people who claim to be fine on raw dairy, reluctantly admit that they need to supplement with magnesium supplements in order to counter the negative effects caused by the very high levels of calcium in raw dairy, so even that minority of people have some issues with it, unless they take steps to avoid certain consequences.

[PaleoPhil]

If you look at all the posts on the various forums, you will see, again and again, that the biggest health-issues reported with a RVAF diet are to do with raw dairy. And that's just those who are honest about it. I have encountered another large proportion of people who claim that raw dairy is the ultimate "detoxing" food, and one find out, again and again, that such people only experience such nasty side-effects when they are consuming raw dairy as opposed to other raw foods....

I agree with Van and Tyler and I've noticed the same things Tyler has among raw dairy eaters and also among raw vegans--especially extreme raw fruitarians. You only have to compare the forum posts of raw vegan/fruitarian and AV followers to the posts of RPDers here to see that we RPDers tend to have far less "detox" issues like constipation/diarrhea, anxiety, depression, dry skin, acne, etc., etc. Like Tyler indicated, most of the "toxins" that need to be detoxed come from the foods the people are eating.

Most of the people I've encountered who are still having problems with Paleo are doing one or both of two things:
1) eating dairy (raw or otherwise)
2) eating lots of heavily-cooked foods

Then there are others who have pre-existing glandular problems with thyroid or adrenals.

As for the raw vegans, one guy (Amir) who tried a raw vegan diet found he was getting negative symptoms from it (he was healthy before he started) and posted about his concerns at a raw vegan forum. The other forum members essentially castigated him for worrying and complaining about nothing and told him it was detox. He asked them why the people in this forum didn't seem to have nearly as many of the nasty "detox" symptoms, and instead seemed to report all sorts of benefits. They ignored his points and just dismissed them with scorn and laughter.

Who knows, some folks may be able to handle raw dairy without problems, but given that it's not part of our evolutionary heritage I think the caution principle suggests we should skeptical of it until it's proven healthy, unless it's simply impossible to obtain any healthier fats. If I were hell-bound to try raw dairy I would get rid of all negative health symptoms with RPD first, then I would try a raw dairy experiment, and even then it would only include raw dairy fat, not raw dairy milk. Raw dairy is too expensive and inconvenient for me now to bother with it anyway. However, my market's grassfed suet price shot up from 90c/lb to over $5/lb again at the last visit. If that price holds I may need to reconsider.

[TylerDurden]

I'm surprised that you find raw dairy so expensive. Here in the UK, r grassfed raw dairy can be had for a little less than 2 pounds for a bottle.

[PaleoPhil]

I'm surprised that you find raw dairy so expensive. Here in the UK, r grassfed raw dairy can be had for a little less than 2 pounds for a bottle.

I would never try raw milk. I was referring to raw fats. As I've stated many times before, so far my grassfed suet has been much cheaper than commercial butter, much less raw grassfed butter and other dairy fats.

[yon yonson]

hey spearhead, how you doing these days?