I talk a lot about brain chemistry when dealing with health issues. The thing is, a major part of our neurotransmitters are found in our gut. So if something is up with our digestion, our mental health + emotional stability will be affected to some degree.

Why is this important when dealing with nutrition in recovery?

Because leaky gut is something that almost everyone in recovery deals with. Drugs - whether doctor prescribed or not - damage gut integrity totally and completely.

It is simply impossible to get back to balance, if your gut is not repaired in the process.

It doesn't matter how clean or nutrient rich you are eating in order to feel healthy again, if your gut is compromised and simply cannot digest properly.

Foods that bypass the gut lining is toxic to your body - doesn't matter if it is brussels sprouts or a Big Mac. And let's be honest, if you are still eating Big Macs, you seriously have got to make the switch to InNOut for the sake of your taste buds. I mean come on, animal style anyone? Delicious. But... of course there is a but... you can not eat that stuff, while you have leaky gut. You gotta wait til you are back to balance before your body can tolerate it without harm done.

Yes, a body in balance can eat and digest a burger here and there without no damage done.

No one needs to be on a glutenfree, dairyfree, sugarfree, meatfree and whateverfree diet for life.

There might well be one or two foods you will need to avoid depending on your biochemical blueprint, but that's it. The borderline religious diets free of everything we are seeing popping up like pancakes these days, is because that the trigger of the health imbalance is not being addressed - leading to a chronic weak digestion.

What you eat when you are sick and what you eat to maintain health is completely different.

If you have been eating on a strict diet for years on end and still react hypersensitive to "normal foods", you have not healed your imbalance. You may still be doing something that is triggering it - when we are healthy, we have strong and resilient mind, bodies and digestions.

Many of us THINK that we are paying attention to our health by cutting out everything under then sun, drinking green smoothies and what not, yet if you are not REPAIRING your body, no amount of detoxing will do.

Let me give you an example. You don't continue to wash and scrub your car after it is clean. If you did, it would begin to sooner or later deteriorate. When its clean, it's clean - and then you add polish to it, not more soap. Same thing is going on with your body. That's why you need to pinpoint what is triggering leaky gut, eliminate that and anything aggravating to it - and then rebuild, repair and replenish. After that, you can slowly reintroduce wide range of foods again when ready.

Our body cannot deal with food that begins to leak out through the gut walls.

It is one of the main reasons why we see a lot of people in recovery dealing with chronic compromised health. Leaky gut is a disaster that needs immediate attention before you can expect any progress in any other area of your health.

Again, first step is to pin point what is causing this condition - because leaky gut is a symptom of something more profound going on that could be triggered by any of following:

Stress
Drugs (Street AND prescription - drugs don't care who the dealer is)
Pathogens
Organ malfunction
Toxins
Food particles

When this happens, we develop food intolerance - we think this is the issue. that we just can't eat 10-20 different foods. No, that's not the issue - that's a side effect. We get immune system issues and eventually autoimmune disorders, if this is not fixed in time.

Some of our biochemical processes tend to run in vicious circles once they get "activated", why it's important to clear up whether you have started a domino like effect in the body. Only then can we pin point the biochemistry imbalance that needs targeting to stop this cycle from repeating. I recommend this test which is clinically proven to be the single most comprehensive and accurate test in determining triggers involved in chronic diseases such as digestive disorders, for anyone who has struggled with digestive disorder for more than 2 years without being able to find relief. This is sure sign of a biochemical vicious cycle going on, and no practitioner can "hypothesize" what that is unless testing for it.

And no your doctor is not yet trained in it - only a handful of doctors and nutritionist have been trained in using this method, simply because it is the latest break-through in functional medicine. 100% scientifically proven, yet will take ages before it goes mainstream. You need to find someone committed to ongoing education, not stuck in the education they took 20 or 30 years ago. Everyone who is responsible for treating other people needs to commit to constantly evolving, learning and improving. Otherwise what's the point in taking care of people's health, if all we have is a certification from decades ago. Anyway - that's a tangent.

Read more about the 3 most clinically accurate test method to determine your biochemical blueprint here.