The entire human structure for a healthy body revolves around the immune system. It is usually the first and last line of defense against illness, bacterium, and many unsightly substances that can make a person sick. It is simply the body’s “maintenance worker.” It makes sure it regulates every cell and tissue in working order and only becomes active when the need arises. When foreign substances enter the body, the immune system kicks in and practically searches all infected tissue and cells and destroys them. It is practically the system that keeps many people healthy and, for the most part, alive. When the immunities fail to do their job, however, it can cause many problems. An imbalanced immune system can lead to many scary and life threatening illnesses. In short, the system can get “confused” and start attacking healthy cells which could lead to many types of cancer and chronic diseases.
The Leaky Gut
A connected syndrome to immunity imbalance is “leaky gut.” What this means is that certain foods that are marketed as healthy do more damage than good. Leaky gut is a syndrome that causes mild to threatening digestive symptoms. A malfunctioning digestive system may cause irregularities in the immune system, which then can lead to other problems within the body. One example is intestinal permeability, which means that any liquid or gas can easily pass through a very thin intestinal wall and consequentially “leak.” The most common illness related to leaky gut is: people affected with this Crohn’s disease, but what are the foods that can lead to immunity imbalance and leaky guts?
Avoid the Grains
As contradictory as it may sound, it has always been promoted that adding grains as part of any daily diet is key to a healthy body. Still, the growing medicinal research shows that grains have anti-nutrients and other problematic substances that increase intestinal permeability. Meaning, grains can “tear holes” in your intestines and cause leaky gut syndrome. According to research, grains have many substances that are damaging to our bodies. One example is Gliadin.
The Anti-Nutrients
As mentioned above, gliadin is one of the substance anti-nutrient found in grains. This particular breed is found in wheat gluten. People in recent years have grown accustomed to avoid gluten-rich foods and for good reason. Gliadin is the most damaging and is commonly found in wheat bread. The substance is what makes the texture of dough the way it is and the reason why it can open gaps between intestinal cells. So how does this affect the immune system? Basically it creates a disease called Celiac disease because Gliadin is, in essence, an immunotoxin protein that causes immunities to weaken and ultimately damage the system causing many irregularities. The second most commonly found anti-nutrient are Lectins, which are basically the “safeguard” substances, found in seeds (grains), that plants create to prevent their seeds from being eaten in the wild. When animals consume foods with lectins, they often experience digestive problems. In humans, the leaky gut syndrome can be one of the many digestive problems that appear by consuming lectins and ultimately cause autoimmune dysfunction as well.
Avoid the Sugars
The most widely advertised food as healthy is cereal, but as awareness of grains and leaky gut spreads more and more, it is now common knowledge that whole grain cereals are anything but healthy. Aside the fact that most cereals are highly concentrated with sugar, they majority are created with grains and more often than not, advertised towards children. Cereals are abundant with refined sugar, more so than cakes and any sweet pastry. So it is reasonable to argue that sugar is undoubtedly healthy, but how it pertains to leaky gut and autoimmune dysfunction, is a simple matter. Sugar is mostly acidic and consuming too much can imbalance the natural bacteria found inside the intestinal track and stomach. That is why parents advise not to eat too much candy on Halloween, it causes gut upset, but more often than not it slowly tears away at the intestinal lining. So, a cereal with sugar and grains is like a double-edged sword that will irreversibly damage intestines and cause leaky gut.
The viciousness of leaky gut can lead to many symptoms that would often be very easy to misdiagnose. Once the intestinal lining tears it invites many foreign substances to invade the bloodstream, which can then trigger and eventually confuse an immunity system into attacking itself rather than defending itself. Leaky gut is often a hard-to-diagnose syndrome for the sole reason that once a person is affected an imbalanced immune system can raise other, much worse, physical illnesses, or even anxiety. Luckily, there are natural remedies for auto immune diseases like leaky gut.