Focus:
Compassion for ourselves and our bodies and approaching communications from the body with curiosity and neutrality.
Repetition:
I do not have the entire picture of what my body is doing, I only have my perception which is not always correct.
I have immense compassion for what my body is doing with the tools it has been given.
Preparing for Intensive Gut Healing
Make sure you have a stainless steel pot big enough for our upcoming Intensive Gut Healing Phase of the protocol. You will be having soup and stock only for a while. Make sure you are doing your limbic and somatic work, we want to go into this portion of the protocol with curiosity and neutrality.
This portion of the protocol can be challenging and it is incredibly rewarding! You may find it cozy and delicious, you may find it boring and tedious or maybe even not that different from what you have been doing! No matter what, we want to walk into it with confidence and gratitude.
This period of education is a great time to make sure your routine is solid, you are connecting with your body and you are prepared for die-off and to be present with the communications from your body.
Dairy
This week we will learn about dairy and why it is a beautiful addition to your healing journey. An important place to start is discussing dairy intolerance. A dairy allergy means you are going to experience a very serious or anaphylactic response to dairy. A dairy intolerance means you will have less severe symptoms but certainly strong enough to make you want to avoid dairy!
You may want to introduce Rhamnosus GG at this time if you experience a dairy intolerance; 1/4 capsule per day is great. Try the tiniest amount, and if you notice a reaction, wait until you have done the mucosa rebuild outlined later in this article for a couple of months, then reintroduce. If you have strong reactions to supplements or probiotics, you can wait to introduce dairy as well. But the great news is all dairy is NOT created equal.
Pasteurised vs. Real Dairy
Dairy found in the store can cause inflammatory responses and/or digestive symptoms but that certainly does not mean real dairy would cause these reactions. Pasteurised and homogenized A1 dairy products from the grocery store like milk, cream, cheese and butter are problematic for everyone even if they do not notice immediate reactions. Pasteurising dairy removes important and beneficial microbes that not only benefit us but also are the “immune system” of the milk that keeps pathogens out. Homogenized milk is made so through a process of heating the milk and forcing the milk through a small valve, causing the melted fat globules to break down into smaller sizes, which is an unnatural process.
A2 Dairy and Heritage Breeds
The breed and type of animal matters when it comes to dairy consumption and we want only to consume A2/A2 dairy. A2 dairy refers to the type of protein, beta-casein, found in the dairy. Other livestock that are commonly kept for dairy will produce A2 milk, these are goat, sheep, donkey, camel, alpaca, water buffalo, yaks and horses.
Non-heritage breeds of cows will produce A1 milk which will contain lectins, the sticky protein that adheres to the gut lining and pierces holes. This A1 protein (BCM-7) is passed down through breeding and not from what they eat. So a cow with the A1 gene will produce milk with lectins even if it is only ever fed grass. Lectins are inflammatory and why we avoid some vegetables as well, it is very important that we avoid lectins while rebuilding the gut lining and to not have them very often in the future.
We have already discussed that the large, black and white dairy Holstein used by industrialized dairy farms is a cow bred from 3 sick bulls with an overactive pituitary gland, making them much bigger and therefore producing more milk. These cows are fed silage, candy and spills from big box stores which makes their milk even more problematic. It is a good idea to ask if a cow is fed any corn, as no mammal should have corn without it being properly prepared and we do not want even second-hand lectins in this healing process. Some cows are fed a type of feed while milking and it is best to avoid those who are being fed corn if possible.
Heritage breeds, if properly bred include: Jersey, Guernsey, Brown Swiss, Ayrshire, Dexter, Milking Shorthorn, Normande, Montbeliarde and Simmental. If a cow carrying the A2 gene is bred to a cow having the A1 gene, it is best to avoid the milk that would result from that breeding. You can ask the farm you wish to purchase milk from if they have A2/A2 cows, they will happily tell you.
If you cannot find a raw milk source from realmilk.com, reaching out to your local Weston A. Price Facebook Page or chapter leader or asking around in your community via other types of farmers or farmers’ markets, you may use store-bought goat, sheep or A2 cow dairy even if it is pasteurised. Some folks can move from store bought to raw or cow to goat and find they tolerate dairy just fine! As you can see, this removes a lot of possible problems!
Fermentation and Tradition
But of course, we take it even further and ferment the dairy in a traditional fashion, for 24 hours or more to remove lactose and convert the casein into paracasein. Traditional societies consume very little milk straight from the animal. Our villi in our gut will appreciate the break from attempting to digest the protein which can, through leaky gut, create a morphine effect in the brain after the digestion of casein produces opioid peptides. The villi will also enjoy the break from lactose which can also feed the microbial overgrowth and we do avoid it for two years.
Dairy, especially when fermented, is an ancestral food that provides incredible nutrition. Viking, Greek, Roman, Celtic, Asian and Eastern Asian, Russian, African, Middle Eastern, Egyptian and Native Americans all have used milk in their diets. The Mongolians have over 2,000 different types of ferments and primarily have only dairy through the summer. If you are questioning if dairy is right for you, it is good to consider the health benefits and how people have thrived on it throughout history.
Nutrition in Dairy
Dairy is nutrient dense, including A, D & K, calcium, phosphorus and magnesium. The probiotics in fermented dairy are incredible and include species from Lactobacillus and Lactococcus. Enzymes are found in raw dairy which assist in digestion. Additionally, dairy will bind to oxalates which will help you tremendously as you release them from your body but also in the future if you want to consume higher oxalate foods, just have your beet salad with a glass of kefir!
In our household, dairy is a food. We consume around 3 plus gallons per week in the form of cultured cream, yoghurt, butter, cheese and kefir. Fermented dairy will help your health journey tremendously.
As stated in the article “Reversing Food Intolerances,” you learn how to introduce things you have had prior issues with. Let me make clear that having a food intolerance to a healthy and ancestral food is simply a communication that the body needs support, not that the food is not good for us. There is a lot of misunderstanding about dairy and it is good to erase all you have learned and meet it anew. Dairy is a beautiful tool in this journey and I hope you will invite it to come along! As with any food here, you may leave it out until some healing has occurred.
Rebuilding the Mucosa
This is also where the fermented dairy you just learned about becomes a tool for something bigger: rebuilding the mucosa, the protective mucous layer that lines your gut and houses your microbiome, before we move into the deep gut healing phase. Please begin the mucosa rebuild as soon as you have sourced the supplements below.
Before and during this work, make sure you have:
- Zinc plus copper — daily, in adequate dose of 30 mg zinc plus the copper included.
- MSM — working slowly up to 1 tsp per day.
- Electrolytes — potassium and magnesium daily. (If you experience high blood pressure, you can work your way up to 4,000 mg potassium in divided doses and the magnesium to bowel tolerance, meaning, find the amount that causes a BM and reduce a bit.)
- Generous mineral salt — the body needs adequate sodium.
- Lots of minerals overall.
Step 1 — Begin the Three Mucosa Microbes Together
Start with all three of these daily; they will continue together throughout the mucosa rebuild and into the future.
- Lactobacillus fermentum CECT5716 — the foundational mucosa-rebuild strain. (Lactabiotic is a good brand)
- HMOs — the food the CECT5716 strain eats. (Layer Origins is a good brand)
- Bacillus subtilis HU58 — the second foundational strain. (Microbiome Labs is a good brand)
- Plantarum 299V, Ideal Bowel Support by Jarrow is a good brand.
Starting Doses
- 1/4 capsule of each microbe daily.
- A pinch of HMOs daily.
- If even this is too much, begin with a speck of the microbes and build up over weeks as the body welcomes it.
If you are particularly sensitive to supplements, begin with the Plantarum 299V for two weeks and then you can bring in the rest of the supplements.
Important Notes
- Fermentum CECT5716 will not be stopped — it continues throughout the protocol.
- It is especially important not to run out of HU58; its absence during this process can make you feel unwell, so do not go more than a day without it.
Making the Yoghurt
If you tolerate dairy, make yoghurt from the Plantarum 299V and Fermentum CEC separately, then add the HU58 to the Plantarum 299V jar once it has fully fermented.
If you are using raw milk for this, pasteurise it gently at home first: heat it to 161°F, hold it there for 15 seconds while stirring, then cool to about 100°F. If you are starting from store-bought pasteurised A2 milk, simply warm it to 100°F — no additional pasteurising needed. Pour the milk into a quart jar and add 2 capsules of your probiotic once it has cooled to around 100°F. Leave the jar out on the counter until the milk thickens into a yoghurt; a yoghurt maker works well for this step too. It is perfectly fine if the yoghurt separates — we want the microbes, so texture is not important.
Once your Plantarum 299V yoghurt has fully fermented, stir in the HU58 and from that point on keep all your jars in the fridge. Take a spoonful per day and do not skip more than one day. Use your finished yoghurt to start each new batch for three generations before adding a fresh capsule; on the fourth batch, add just 1 new capsule to keep the culture going. You will continue this for at least the rest of the protocol, and I personally plan to keep these in for life.
We will add a pathogen protocol in a month to remove the most common pathogens, and I will give you the tools to research any additional microbes you may need in the future.
Take your time and remember we are not rushing or feeling behind, we are taking small and gentle steps! I am so proud of you!!