My Trip Around the Food Food Pyramid

In 2019 I shifted my way of eating to try and gain more health benefits. I was eating fairly well prior, homemade meals, self-made condiments/sauces and regulated sugar intake. Looking to the nutritional world and researching different ‘healthy’ ways of eating I started to remove dairy, meat/eggs and fat. I was never a salad person and still wasn’t so it was a little difficult thinking of meals daily. It was always a challenge to navigate the grocery or any needed trips out. I still ate seafood (and looking back, this was good) but I was in it, living the life that was supposed to help.

Fast forward almost two years, towards the end of 2020 and I started feeling really lousy. I wasn’t sure what it was. I had severe joint pain, was tired and noticing brain fog. I spent thousands of dollars on tests as I was having major fatigue crashes during the day and would need to leave work. That became unacceptable. Talking to different Dr.’s and not learning much I was left with no answers. But I couldn’t perform normal life, so I kept asking around. I was led to a friend’s father out of state who said he may be able to help, he was a qualified Dr. We met on Zoom, I was relieved when he said the blood work sent to him doesn’t do much in helping him find the root issue and that he uses other labs. His office sent me the kits in the mail with all the instructions and I completed the GI-Map DNA Stool Analysis by Diagnostic Solutions Laboratory and the 3100 ION Profile (ION-Individual Optimal Nutritional) by Genova Diagnostics. Then waited for the results.

I was blown away with the level of details these two reports showed me and with the help of the Dr. who reviewed each line item, I was able to get a better understanding of my body and how it’s working, for the first time in my life! The bad news was I was in bad shape. The reports showed that not only did I have massive gut bacteria imbalance, but that I had mercury poisoning as well as severely low amino acids. I was so thankful FINALLY something showed the pain I was in, but he made it clear I had a long road ahead of me. They set me up with an herbal protocol to combat the bacterial issues in the gut along with some suggested supplements and the amino acids I was lacking for my brain.

Few Bacterial Results Pulled from My GI-MAP Report 6/21/2021:

Normal Bacterial Flora ‘good’	Result	Normal
Lactobacillus spp.	3.19e4 LOW	8.6e5-6.20e8
Enterobacter spp.	6.01e5 LOW	1.00e6-5.00e7
Faecalibacterium prausnitzii	2.92e2 LOW	1.00e3-5.00e8
Opportunistic Bacteria ‘bad’	Result	Normal
Bacillus spp.	1.73e5 HIGH	<1.50e5
Enterococcus faecalis	1.93e6 HIGH	<1.00e4
Methanobacteriaceae                        (family)	9.63e7 HIGH	<5.00e9

Few Data Results Pulled from My ION report 6/21/2021:

Toxic Elements	Result	Normal (95% ref range)
Mercury	11.1 HIGH	<=9.8 ppb, under 4.3 considered in range
Amino Acids	Result	Normal (95% ref range)
Tryptophan	16 LOW	30-67
Phenylalanine	31 LOW	39-74
Tryptophan/LNAA*	0.036 LOW	0.095-0.106

By this point, while I was waiting for the results of the above tests, I figured it had to be the food. But I was so nervous to change my diet again and not know what was best for me. I almost didn’t want to eat anything because I was afraid of getting sick and being in pain. During this time, I discovered the carnivore trend. I say trend because it was never something I knew of growing up and food seems to go through trends throughout history. I kept hearing and reading how people with horrible inflammation and arthritis would see huge differences changing to an animal-based diet. After some time of really reviewing, I decided I should try it and really restrict down to make sure there weren’t too many variables. After two weeks of only animal fat, dairy, meat and seafood I noticed a huge difference. My body was feeling better but the drastic change again of the way I was eating, was a little too hard mentally to follow. I decided to try and follow a more keto approach until I spoke with the Dr. When he did review those results with me, he agreed that a more keto approach would be better for me, as the signs of the gut issues were most likely caused from leaky gut.

At this point in my journey both myself and my Dr. made a plan to combat the bacteria, which was wreaking havoc, while trying to regulate the amino acids. I was concerned with the mercury, but he said once the gut is healed it should take care of that. I stuck to my supplements, herbal remedies and a new, new way of eating. One year later I would do the labs again, this time we would add in the MRT (Mediator Release Test) by Oxford Biomedical Technologies which is a food allergy blood test. Over that year I had made some progress in my energy, less fatigue and better at being carb aware. However, I still had major joint pain, and couldn’t quite figure out what wasn’t right.

Mid 2022, take the labs and wait for the results. I’m excited, this time I will be able to see what progress I’ve made and also hone in more on lingering issues. My result priorities may have been different from the Dr., he wanted to get to the bacteria and I wanted to get to the mercury. The gut along with help of the herbal protocol was able to nearly bounce back, bringing up the critically low level of good bacteria and lowering the bad bacteria. But there remained one bad bacteria to keep and eye on. The mercury dropped from 11.1 to a 5.5 which he was very happy with, all done naturally by my body once my gut was functioning. I still showed some low levels in Limiting Amino Acids (Lysine, Tryptophan) and Neurotransmitter Metabolism Markers (Tyrosine, B6, Antioxidants). Another big part of these results came from my food allergy test. I was allergic to soybean, corn, tea & basil, cardamom. My diet for that nearly two years before becoming ill.

6/21/2021 to 4/13/2022 Lab Report Difference:

Normal Bacterial Flora ‘good’	6/21/2021	4/13/2022
Lactobacillus spp.	3.19e4 LOW	4.24e8 (in range)
Enterobacter spp.	6.01e5 LOW	4.41e7 (in range)
Faecalibacterium prausnitzii	2.92e2 LOW	1.31e4 (in range)
Opportunistic Bacteria ‘bad’	6/21/2021	4/13/2022
Bacillus spp.	1.73e5 HIGH	1.34e4 (in range)
Enterococcus faecalis	1.93e6 HIGH	<dl (considered in range)
Methanobacteriaceae                        (family)	9.63e7 HIGH	1.24e9 (in range)

Toxic Elements	6/21/2021	4/13/2022
Mercury	11.1 HIGH	5.5 (under 4.3 considered in range)
Ammino Acids	6/21/2021	4/13/2022
Tryptophan	16 LOW	33 (very low of range)
Phenylalanine	31 LOW	53 (in range, look to be higher)
Tryptophan/LNAA*	0.036 LOW	0.075 (low)

For the last year I have spent time really trying to decipher ingredients in foods and learn why some foods I could eat and some I could not. The most beneficial result coming from the allergy test was about three weeks into dropping soy and I noticed I had no pain. I was shocked that it could be the link. When I used to cook clean a decade ago the ingredients used differ than what we have available to us today. Soy is in almost ever product, even bags of mixed nuts. Corn is grown with toxic chemicals and mashed and pressurized into every form you can think of and injected into what soy hasn’t already touched. They even overlap just in case.

To anyone looking for answers to your pain, fatigue or just ickiness, I’m not a Dr. =D But I can tell you that most likely your body just doesn’t like the poison you are being subjected to. Today I try to live as close to this food method as possible: No soy ingredients, no corn ingredients, no oil ingredients besides olive/avocado/coconut, almost no raw veggies, berries for fruit, grass-fed local meat, wild seafood and organic grass-fed dairy. I only eat pasta made from imported Durum Wheat Semolina and only has two other ingredients, eggs and water (the brand I am currently using is Culinary Tours). Am I perfect at this? Heck no. I am by far the type of person who can weight, monitor and eat the same thing every day. I like variety, listening to my body and changing weekly routines up, but I also know that it is impossible to hit this method 100%. I needed to be ok with the guilt eating of something that may not be the best, but it’s the best option. When we go to restaurants, you are pretty much subjecting yourself to soy and corn in everything. In those cases, I stick to items that I can tolerate in general, so the reaction is less, knowing I might have some gastro inflammation later. Feeling sluggish, I cut back on carbs. Feeling achy, I know I’ve slipped too much on soy and oils. And I always plan before a dinner out! I will eat well at least three days prior so I don’t go into a planned poor meal already feeling cruddy.

As we age, live in different environments and navigate the modern food industry that’s constantly changing, the food pyramid we once looked to for advice will always be evolving. The best advice I can give to anyone reading this is to discover your body chemistry so you can intake the whole foods better for what you have going on. I don’t believe all people should eat like I do, but I do believe in the labs I have used to get feeling better! I will be taking them again soon to see how everything is doing and to see if there is anything I need to pay attention to. I am also excited to learn from others through their food journeys and maybe discover new labs and technologies being used to treat the damages done by toxins in our foods!