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By Root 305 0

other disease of civilization, it is not the soluble fiber from fruits and vegetables that will reduce your digestive problems, but rather the entire diet. Dairy products, cereals, and yeast have been implicated time and again in the development of Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract. Elemental diets (special liquid formulas without dairy, cereal, or yeast proteins) are the first line of defense physicians use in treating these patients. Amazingly, almost 80 percent of patients achieve complete remission while on elemental diets with absolutely no drug therapy. But there is a big problem here: hardly anyone can stay on a liquid diet forever. What would you rather do, drink a liquid diet or eat humanity’s real foods—fruits, veggies, and lean meats?

One of our most powerful therapies to calm down the inflammation of both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (an inflammatory disease of the colon) is to prescribe fish oil capsules—an excellent source of omega 3 fats. Once again, we find that multiple elements in humanity’s original diet complement one another to eliminate or prevent chronic illness. And it is our deviation from the three simple foods (fruits, vegetables, and lean meats) we are genetically adapted to eat that invariably causes us trouble and ill health.

Inflammatory Diseases

Omega 3 fats are powerful weapons in other wars as well. Perhaps because of their anti-inflammatory properties, they may prevent cancer from developing. They are also extremely effective in calming down virtually all inflammatory diseases—illnesses that end in “itis,” such as rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, and gingivitis. These amazingly healthful fats can even reduce symptoms of certain autoimmune diseases: the combination of supplementing your diet with omega 3 fats and eliminating grains, dairy foods, legumes, potatoes, and yeast may substantially reduce the severity of symptoms of these diseases.

Autoimmune Diseases

Autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and type 1 (juvenile) diabetes develop when the body’s immune system can’t tell the difference between its own tissues and those of foreign invaders. The result: the body attacks itself. The type of disease depends on the nature of the body’s assault: When the immune system invades and destroys nerve tissue, multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases develop. When the pancreas is the target, type 1 diabetes occurs. When joint tissues are attacked and destroyed, the result is rheumatoid arthritis.

All autoimmune diseases develop because of interactions between the genes and one or more environmental factors, such as a viral or bacterial infection or exposure to a certain food. No one knows exactly how viruses, bacteria, and foods can spark the disease in genetically susceptible people, but research from our laboratory increasingly implicates recently introduced Neolithic foods such as grains, legumes, dairy foods, potatoes, and other members of the nightshade family.

Many environmental agents have been suspected in the development of autoimmune diseases. But only one of these types has proved capable of causing a disease. Cereal grains—such as wheat, rye, barley, and oats—are responsible for celiac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis. In celiac disease, the immune system attacks and destroys cells in the intestine, leading to diarrhea and many nutritional problems. In dermatitis herpetiformis, the skin is attacked.

Withdrawal of all gluten-containing cereals causes complete remission of both diseases. Cereal grains, dairy products, and legumes are suspected in other autoimmune diseases, such as type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. To date, no dietary intervention studies have been conducted to see whether Paleo diets—free of grains, dairy products, and legumes—can reduce the symptoms of these diseases. However, anecdotal reports from Canada show improvement in symptoms of multiple sclerosis patients following the Paleo Diet.

Lectins and Autoimmune Disease