How I Healed my Food Sensitivities + Heartburn WITHOUT Elimination Diets – & How You can too! // Diet/ED Recovery

 

Have you tried every diet change to cure bloating, heartburn or food sensitivities WITHOUT relief?

Or maybe relief for some time, but it's not long before you're back to square one or perhaps, it's only been getting worse?

Do you ask yourself:

» "Why do I have so many food sensitivities and heartburn on keto, elimination diets, or on an empty stomach?"

» What does it mean when you have a lot of food sensitivities?

» What's the cause of sudden food intolerance in adults?

» Can you heal and cure food sensitivities naturally, if so how?

» What happens if you keep eating food you're intolerant to

» How to reverse and heal food sensitivities, intolerances and allergies and even leaky gut?

» How to eat with food sensitivities

» And how to heal GERD, acid reflux, heartburn naturally without eliminating more foods?

...then you're in the right place!

 

In this video I talk about WHY the body develops:

✦ food sensitivities / food allergies / food intolerances,

✦ heartburn / acid reflux / GERD,

✦ stomach pains,

✦ gastroporesis,

✦ nausea,

✦ bloating,

✦ and so forth,

...AFTER you go on diets such as low carb / ketogenic, gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, paleo, fruitarianism, fasting, low-fat, FOODMAPS, low oxalates, low histamine, and all these other diets that say no-this and no-that to lists of foods.

I also talk about how I healed from my digestive issues without eliminating more foods and how you can too heal from this dietary prison, one step at a time in a diet recovery process, (or disordered eating recovery and eating disorder recovery, whatever you may prefer calling it).

 

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This post is another piece to an ongoing conversation in regards to healing various digestive issues, without eliminating foods you love.

You can check out the other two posts I've done on healing your gut by clicking here and clicking here.

So if you're someone who's been trying everything to heal your digestive problems coming from a restrictive past, whether it’s like elimination diets, certain trendy diets, so, ketogenic, paleo, vegan, low carb, low fats, low sugar, gluten free, dairy free, whatever, know this is a common phenomena and you're NOT alone!

There’s a lot of digestive problems that come as a result from these restrictive diets and a lot of people struggling to find answers as a result.

You may have backed yourself up into a corner, where you only have a few safe foods or you can only digest or handle, a handful of certain foods within the latest diet or "healing lifestyle" that you’re coming from.

And I understand where you are.

As you’ve heard me say in other videos or if you’ve read my book, I totally get it, because I've been there myself.

Years ago, before I found healing and freedom, when I was first searching for answers, I was told by my doctors that they couldn't find anything wrong from their tests, so therefore it was probably just anxiety or all in my head..

and so in an attempt to heal myself, I tried LITERALLY EVERYTHING OUT THERE..

I tried so many different gut healing alternative methods, as well as western medicine to try to heal my digestive system (anywhere from juice fasting and eating more fiber, to Miralax and pharmaceutical grade gut drugs).

I experienced everything from:

• candida overgrowth,
• to leaky gut,
• to food allergies,
• to severe bloating, to where you feel like you’re nine months pregnant,
• chronic constipation and a bowel obstruction,
• stomach pains,
• GERD,
• and gastroparesis

...and all these were only a short list of what I was facing.

But through a "diet recovery process" in which heals your metabolism, hormones and gut, and mind, I was able to overcome these.

And not only that, but I've also been able to now help others find freedom and healing as well! Here are some screenshots from some clients:

 

 

This can ALSO be YOU TOO!

Alright let's get into it.

I want to share with you in specific, part of my step by step approach, of what you can do, to start your journey towards healing and freedom.

Be sure to tweak things for yourself, do what feels right to you and then go from there. 

 

IS THIS YOU?

So you’re trying to heal, from your digestive problems, bloating, gas, pains, GERD, gut flora imbalance, candida, constipation, diarrhea, IBS, all of these things...

Right?

...yet you’ve tried all these other elimination type diets, medications, and different protocols and nothing has been working for you.

...or maybe you feel deprived and super restricted in your diet, that it's not sustainable, it's hindering your quality of life and you’re craving a lot of foods, but you’re scared to eat those foods because you've believed for so long that they were bad and terrible for you, for your health, for your gut, or for weight loss, or whatever other reason.

...Or maybe you want to be able to:

• go out with your loved ones, family, and friends, or just yourself, and travel
• or go out to lunch and not have a panic attack
• or not get deathly ill from eating specific foods,
• or you don’t want to be that person that calls the restaurant beforehand, you know, anxiously picking apart the menu.
• Or being that one that says, to the waiter, “Don’t cook it like this, and don’t add oil, and don’t add salt, and make sure there’s no cross-contamination with gluten or dairy,”
• or, you really truly want to just heal your digestion.
• or so if you do decide to eat certain foods when you’re at a restaurant, or when someone cooks it for you or because you’re just craving these foods... that you don’t have to have this feeling and reaction like you’re dying,

Well you CAN be free from this. 

I used to be all of the above, that was me before.

 

 

 

 

WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?

I’ve already explained in the other posts, why this can happen.

But I want to touch again on why our system starts to react to food and become sensitive to food.

Now of course there can be other reasons, this isn’t a one size fits all for everyone, certain people do have autoimmune disorders or some people legitimately have celiac disease and they actually have an allergy to gluten..

...But what we see a lot is that often people are just saying they’re gluten intolerant but they’ve gotten tests and they just feel some discomfort in their stomach, get constipated, maybe IBS... from cutting it for too long.

Now, I talk about more of what people can feel instant "relief" when initially cutting foods in my program The Find Your Balance System.

But yeah, some people can become gluten "intolerant," but they don’t have celiac disease.

Just like some people who cut dairy because they think it’s healthier to drink almond milk, (even if they never really had a lactose intolerance).

...And then if they try to drink dairy again after cutting it for a while, can face stomach upset.

And I don’t want to get into the debate of, “Oh, after you’re three or five years old, you stop producing the enzyme lactase to digest the lactose.” 

What I will say is that from personal experience, I was able to digest dairy again after not being able to digest it from cutting it for so long.

And so have my clients.

So, it can happen.

And this is only if you’re actually craving dairy obviously.

If you don’t like cheesy pizza, cheeseburgers, lasagna, etc, and you literally hate it and don't feel deprived by it by cutting it, you’re literally repulsed by it, you don’t have to add it back in.

Vegans have some of the worst digestive problems.

So whether: 

• you’re coming from a vegan diet and you want to expand your horizon,
• or if you’re coming from a low carb diet and you want to be able to digest carbs again,
• if you’re coming from a gluten free diet and you want to be able to have bread and pasta,
• or you want to be able to digest fats again after coming from a low fat diet.

We can make this happen.

The more time goes on and the more we start to restrict these foods, and the longer time went on without these foods in my diet, the weaker our digestive system (organs, digestive enzymes, etc) get.

And that’s when we started to face intolerances, severe bloating, constipation, food allergies, or food sensitivities.

It can happen after a while of being on these restrictive eating plans, elimination diets, cleansing and fasting protocols and all of this stuff.

And the foods we were fine with before, now we suddenly can't tolerate them anymore.

So you start to face MORE digestive problems AFTER more eliminations of foods on these restrictive type of diets: after going gluten free, dairy free, sugar free, etc for several months, a couple years or even more or less.

 

HYDROCHLORIC ACID & DIGESTION

When you cut these things, the body doesn’t have a reason to produce hydrochloric acid to digest meats, eggs, dairy, you know, animal proteins, so the body stops producing hydrochloric acid.

When you cut carbs and sugar, specific digestive enzymes for carbohydrate digestion are decreased.

It’s like a muscle - if you don’t use it, you lose it.

The same as with your digestive system.

If you’re not bringing in certain foods, macronutrients or whole food groups, the body’s like:

“Oh, well we don’t have a need to produce lactase to digest lactose from dairy.” 

“We don’t need to produce hydrochloric acid, there’s no reason,”

...so the production of enzymes and digestive juices halts altogether and certain digestive organs become weak, malnourished, depleted, and they shut down altogether.

For example, hydrochloric acid from vegans, they actually start to have digestive problems not only from not having a proper balanced diet, their gut flora becomes imbalanced because without sufficient hydrochloric acid, the bad bacteria can flourish in an over-alkaline environment. 

So a lot of vegans begin to have candida problems, digestive problems, major bloating, food allergies etc.

By upping your hydrochloric acid production, which can happen through eating more animal fats/protein (even just some humanely sourced pasture raised eggs, wild caught fish or grass fed cheese), eating even just some more animal products again, will give your body a reason to produce sufficient hydrochloric acid again.

Then slowly, balance is restored, food starts to become digested properly again, the gut microbiome / good gut flora, can actually be restored to natural homeostasis and the gut flora can go back to balance.

And then with time, the bloating and the gas can ease as well.

 

CARBOHYDRATE DIGESTION

This is similar with carbohydrates.

People who could handle carbs and sugar before going Keto, Atkins or on a sugar cleanse..

it wasn’t even a thought...

they had carbs in their diet and they didn’t react to carbs, they didn’t get the carb flu when eating carbs, they didn’t get fatigued, nauseous, or face stomach pains, acid reflux or constipation.

They didn’t feel like they were insulin resistant or pre-diabetic when they ate carbs or sugar.

It will look like and you will feel insulin resistant, after cutting carbs for so long and then trying to introduce them back into your diet.

Again, your body, there’s not a reason to produce the enzymes and keep carbohydrate metabolism at regular speed to properly digest and utilize the carbohydrates, that aren't coming in.

So when carbs/sugars finally do come in, (when you cave and binge) the carbs and sugars come into a system that isn’t in a healthy state to properly digest and utilize those carbs and sugars.

That's why it could literally feel like you’re insulin resistant or pre-diabetic for a while, until your system senses that carbs are coming back in again consistently and it has a reason to ramp up the system (carbohydrate metabolism, digestive enzymes) again, on top of nourishing the depleted digestive organs with the sufficient carbohydrates to heal them.

So it’s a both.

You have to be fueling yourself, giving yourself enough energy to heal the system but also giving your body a reason to turn back on the system.

I’m explaining all this, because these are all the buzzwords for the trendy diets out there.

But whether you’re just coming from a gluten free diet, a low carb diet, a dairy free diet, whatever, this is all similar.

Our body’s just haven't been in the proper environment to function properly.

 

And even if you feel it's too late and you feel like your digestive system is too far gone, it CAN be healed.

I too, felt like I was too far gone.

I was down to literally three safe foods at one point, avocado, seaweed and white rice.

And those I couldn’t even really handle.

And when I was raw vegan, food literally cam out the way it went in - completely undigested food, which left me severely malnourished.

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

I want to give you my recommendations on how to slowly heal and get your digestive system up to par again.

Emphasis on slowly, because this can be a long process.

It’s not just going to happen overnight or even within a month or so.

Typically it takes months of slow progress and discomfort.

I’m not a doctor, but I am a Holistic Nutritionist and this is my recommendation from my personal experience and the beginning steps I walk my clients through in my Find Your Balance System.

What you want to do when you’re trying to heal your digestion is you want to take a similar approach to what an ENT doctor does. (ear nose and throat doctor)

They’re the ones who treat your allergies.

Similar to with treating pollens and such.

What you typically would do with an ENT doctor is you would get tested and you would see what you’re sensitive to, and then what they would do is they would either give you sublingual drops under your tongue or they would give you shots, and you would come in weekly or however often you could to get the shots, or with the sublingual you’d do it every single day.

So basically you're taking in micro doses of whatever you were sensitive or allergic to.

And over time, they would slowly increase the doses that they would give to you.

The idea is that slowly over time you increase the amounts of what you’re sensitive to, and over time your body is able to handle these things that you were once allergic to or developed sensitivities to, again.

So slowly increase small amounts and increasing in increments over time.

This is a similar approach you can take with food sensitivities such as dairy, animal products or gluten and such.

WEEK 1

Let’s say you started out this week, right?

So the first week you would want to have one of those foods.

Let’s say, bread.

So at one of the meals, you would have a small little piece of bread with your regular meal, okay?

And then you could do every other day in the beginning depending on how bad you are, how badly you react to the foods. Or every single day that first week.

So the next day, you would choose the other food you’re trying to introduce. Or the same food, whatever. Gluten and meat.

So you would have a small amount of salmon, chicken, beef, eggs, cheese or whatever you are craving or that you want to eat.

Add that back in with your regular meal.

WEEK 2

The next week you would double that amount.

So you would have double the amount of bread with that meal, along with your regular meal.

Then the next day, you would double the amount of fish, or chicken, or maybe alternate the meats you’re trying to have.

You would go on and do that for another week.

And then you would reassess the next week where you’re at, right?

You would monitor how badly you’re reacting, or if things are getting a little bit better already, if you didn’t really feel too bad, or if you felt really terrible and that doubled amount was just too much, and maybe you should take it back down to the original dose in the first week.

I don’t want to say, on that small dose, you won't feel anything at all, because you often will feel something.

It’s typical to feel some sort of reaction during the healing process.

But it’s better than, going all out and being like, you know, “Screw this, I’m over this, I’m just gonna go out and eat a burger with fries and have a huge serving and then I’m gonna react terribly and feel like I’m dying and have severe pains.”

(even though that's what I did, and although I was miserable, there was no way I could take it slow as my extreme hunger was so strong, my hunger was uncontrollable as I added in more calories, and so I had to bare the discomfort and go all in)

So it's up to you how quick or how slow you go.

But if any amount of discomfit and extreme hunger is going to scare you completely away from ever wanting to try this again, you may want to start slow.

So if you need to take the slower approach, then do this, okay?

And just be patient and take the longer route.

Some people aren’t as severe in their digestion and they don’t have to do this, they can literally just go all in and follow their extreme hunger, binge on large amounts and they’ll feel bloated, gassy and maybe some minor pain or nausea, but they can handle it more so than some people that are severely, severely affected and they literally feel like they’re dying.

Those people don’t want to just go into it like the other people can.

So it’s really about assessing where you’re at, where your body is, and how you’re feeling.

With bread, I just went gung ho even though I was coming from a gluten free diet.

Yes, I faced all the nausea and the stomach pains, and the constipation and everything.

But I just couldn’t control myself from not bingeing on it anymore.

So my body had taken over, and obviously my body was more than capable of handling it to that extent.

I was feeling nauseous, but I was able to handle it somewhat.

But when it came to adding back in eggs, and meat, and cheese, I took that one slower. 

 

FRUITARIANISM

So low carb people, or fruitarians coming from no cooked food or no carbs at all, these both can produce really bad symptoms in diet recovery. 

And the people coming from fruitarianism, they could literally feel like they’re having such a bad reaction that they feel like they’re dying to cooked food.

And they need to go slower.

So it really all depends.

They might want to start with coconut oil and white rice.

Add those back in slowly, and then slowly expand from there.

As you do this, let’s say for meat, eggs or dairy, as your hydrochloric acid production starts to rise again you may feel less and less nauseous.

You may feel like your food is being digested a little bit better.

You may feel a little bit less bloated.

You may feel a little bit less stomach pain and bloating.

You may feel a little bit less GERD or acid reflux.

Your digestive enzymes begin to be produced again, and slowly the food reactions that you were facing to foods slowly diminish, and you’re able to step out of this dietary prison and get back to normalcy.

And get back to where you were before these extreme ways of eating.

And get your digestive system back running smoothly.

 

SUPPLEMENTATION

For some people, myself included, I need a little extra boost.

My body was so weak and depleted it needed something along with the nutritional rehabilitation.

I took digestive enzymes, hydrochloric acid + pesin and Ox Bile.

 

These are the brands I used:

1. MRM – Digestion
2. Pure – pancreatic enzymes
3. Digestion GB - Ox bile OR Nutricology – gallbladder/liver
4. HCL & Pepsin OR Thorne – Stomach

 

I took that for about two months, and then as my body slowly started to heal and produce everything on its own again, (as I continued to eat and up those foods), then I was able to get off of them completely.

No you won't develop a dependency on these supplements, if you're nutritionally rehabilitating simultaneously.

(Again, if you'e like a step-by-step guide on exactly what to do, from beginning to end, be sure to check out my program "Find Your Balance.")

 

GERD, HEARTBURN & ACID REFLUX

As for GERD or acid reflux, I experienced this too.

For a lot of people, it’s quite similar to what we just went over as it's all connected.

If you're coming from a past of restrictive eating, this can be a side effect.

Something’s not being digested properly.

And it's often from NOT ENOUGH stomach acid.

So I just want to talk about some of the things that I’ve personally found that helped me, and what I’ve seen with other people as well.

As you flood your body with nutritional abundance and heal your gut, this should diminish in due time as well.

Another tip is while, I know this might seem simple, but for me for so long I was like: “No, I can’t drink any liquids with my meals or else it will dilute my digestive juices, metabolism and stomach acid and my food won’t get digested properly,” and blah blah blah.

So, I would eat without any liquids, no water, no juice or milky drink or whatever with my meals because I was scared.

So drinking liquids with my meals really helped with my GERD and acid reflux.

Drinking water, chocolate milk, fruit juice either during or right after my meals.

I don’t know if it’s just the water either, or if it’s fluids in general. I personally, love drinking water, so it comes naturally to me.

So I tend to just drink the water with my meals and after meals. 

Too many raw onions can also do it for me.

The next suggestion is eating animal products.

When I was vegan, trying to recover as a vegan, I was having major GERD and acid reflux.

And then even after I left veganism and added back in animal products, I found that if I ever had days were, I was not balanced enough with animal products where I was eating a lot of beans and a lot of sweet potatoes without eggs, cheese or butter, that I would have really bad acid reflux after meals.

 

 

 

Whether it was the low hydrochloric acid from the vegan diet or if it was just too much fiber with not enough balance of the acidic (animal) proteins/fats to help stimulate digestion.

Everything has it's important role, that when we cut it in the name of a "health trend" it can lead to a domino of side effects in our digestive system.

For example, fats help to digest and assimilate certain vitamins.

And everything plays its role through the digestive process.

That’s why I always say like, have a meal with carbs, proteins and fats with a balance of both plant and animal fats, proteins and carbs.

Because it all helps with the digestive process.

So having AT LEAST eggs, butter or cheese or at least some kind of meat, even if with just one or two meals a day.

And making sure you're eating carbs at every meal, fats at every meal, etc.

That helps.

If it’s just carbs, just vegan, just fats, just protein, just vegetables, just fruits... digestion becomes imbalanced and GERD heartburn, etc can result. 

Digestion will function so much better when you have a balance of plant and animal.

Right, the bagel by itself doesn’t do well.

The bagel with cream cheese, and even an egg on there, does great.

The vegan salad or the vegan burrito with a lot of beans and rice and stuff, doesn’t do well alone.

But if I add some cheese, sour cream or some chicken, it does good and it also satisfies my hunger much better and for longer.

I do want to mention that it’s common to feel GERD or acid reflux in the beginning stages or your recovery regardless, because, just as we’ve been talking about, a lot of food is coming in, or more than your body is used to, coming from a low calorie or restrictive diet...

You will experience discomfort as a natural part of the healing process as your body is coming from a weak and depleted state and strengthening.

So remember, you’re in a malnourished state, your digestive organs aren’t up to par, your digestive enzymes, hydrochloric acid, all of this stuff isn’t being produced properly, so obviously when the food’s coming in it’s not going to be digested as efficiently or properly yet.

But this does heal with time.

 

And in the beginning of recovery it’s pretty common, since your HCl is often low, and proper digestive enzymes, and the digestive organs aren’t working as efficient, so  GERD can occur as a result.

And even people that are like, “I’m a year into recovery and it’s still not good, it’s gotten a little better but it’s still not there,”

...you know, this stuff can take a really long time for some people.

If this is the case, it can just get better with time.

Just as you continue to eat, rest, and heal.

Be patient and consistent with yourself, and no restricting ever again!

 

SALT & GERD / HEARTBURN

Another reason for GERD and heartburn could be that you’re not eating enough salt.

I know that the low salt craze diet is alive and well, but the reality is that sufficient sodium intake helps with stomach and your digestion. J

I know I tried apple cider vinegar and that didn’t really help.

All I needed was getting back to the basics.

 

FINAL WORDS

Lastly, make sure to DO ALL OF THIS TOGETHER.

Don't think you can just pick one or the other, picking and choosing.

Thinking, “I don’t want to do that, so I’m not gonna do that, I’m gonna just try this one thing that's "safe-ish, and not too "unhealthy...”

...and then not getting the results that you want, and then giving up altogether.

Right?

And then when that happens, you feel like giving up and you want to go back.

 

But you have to ask yourself: “Well, where am I coming from? Is it really going to get better or be any different if I go back to that?”

Probably not, right?

Instead think: "I've literally tried everything and nothing was working, so it’s not even an option to go back."

The only option is to go forward, not give up and just keep going forward.

You don’t want to keep having to do this over and over again, right?

...being stuck or relapsing and keep having to go back and do it all over again..

You don’t want to get stuck!!

You want to recover as quickly as possible, without rushing it, but recover without having to set yourself back too many times to be able to get on with your life.

If you feel like you’re too far gone, you’re probably not. Okay?

I felt like I was too far gone, too.

Don’t fall into that.

That’s a hopeless miserable place to be, and I want you to have hope that you can do this.

And it may just take a lot of patience if you're already doing this.

Sometimes that’s a bigger learning lesson out of all of this, in recovery, is learning patience.

And getting out of the quick fix, instant gratification, type mindset that we’ve been programmed into from diet culture.

So, take this all as a learning lesson to learn patience, too.

I know that that’s what I had to learn, and I still struggle with it, even still to this day, but I can always remember, working on the patience muscle strengthened me throughout my recovery to have more patience than I ever had in my life.

So, I’m not perfect, I still have my things that I’m working on, you guys, but I do know how to heal from this digestive issues after restrictive eating. 

I hope that you like this article.

Until next time, I’ll see you in the next post!

Xx 

Kayla Rose

Holistic Nutritionist

P.S. I’m hosting a free masterclass specifically for people who want to stop feeling obsessed around food and truly heal their metabolism and you’re invited! Click here to sign up.