So let s talk about the difference and some of my tips when it comes to cooking, baking, and going either gluten-free, Paleo, or gut-friendly, which might be known as a leaky gut diet, or GAPS diet, or SCD, sort of that category over there. So first off, one of the most popular diets today is going gluten free, and going gluten free has lots of benefits. You know, gluten today is the number one food based cause of leaky gut. Now gluten is a protein that s found primarily in wheat products, but also found in things like barley and rye and certain strains of oats and in other foods today. And gluten can cause inflammation of the gut lining over time causes leaky gut, causes tears in your intestinal lining, then can leak into the bloodstream and cause inflammation throughout your entire body. So ultimately, gluten causes intestinal inflammation, leaky gut, and then can cause other health issues throughout the body such as inflammation throughout your entire body. So that s why going gluten free can work miracles for some people on their health. There are so many professional athletes today now going gluten free, as well as seeing great results. So gluten free is good. Now, I want to say gluten free doesn t mean it s the best. Gluten free still doesn t mean that the grains are sprouted which I believe is very important. Going gluten free might also not necessarily mean that it doesn t have other proteins that may cause inflammation as well. But again, gluten free for some people is going to be great, or especially gluten free if you re doing sprouted grains. Once somebody gets healthy and their gut is back till let s say 80, 90, 100%, they can definitely be incorporating healthy grains into their diet. But if somebody has severe inflammatory bowel disease or digestive issues, or just in general, don t do well with grains, let s say you know you ve got a gluten sensitivity. You don t do well with grains, then you d want to move over and follow more of a Paleo diet. And with the Paleo diet, that s where you re going to consume organic meat, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds on most occasions, and then possibly depending on what you consider Paleo, sometimes fermented dairy like Kefir or raw cheeses. But for the most part, you re still going to have nuts and seeds and things like that with Paleo. Now Paleo is definitely I would say a step towards being healthier even from gluten free. Typically people on a Paleo diet tend to be a little more strict. Now I do want to say this about Paleo diets, some people eat fried bacon and butter every meal and think that s healthy. That s not healthy either. But again, Paleo tends to be... basically, it s restricting 1
grains. They say no grains whatsoever even if they re sprouted, but they do a lot of nuts and seeds which really can be just as hard on the digestive system if they re not sprouted as grains. But again, Paleo is typically a step up, so I m going to teach you right now on how to go Paleo. And last but not least is what we call gut-friendly diet or a GAPS diet, or SCD, or the healing leaky gut diet. And this is where you re going to be consuming only those things that are easy to digest. And so imagine this, the more work your body has to do, the longer it takes to heal, the harder it is on your system. And this is why certain foods, let s say coconut oil is easier to digest than typically long chain fats that are found in olive oils. So coconut oil s faster to digest. Bone broth is fantastic for people with leaky gut or severe forms of leaky gut because they re already broken down amino acids, the body doesn t have to do much work. And then also a similar thing with grains, typically people on a GAPS diet or a gut-friendly diet do better with fruit and sugar, or things that are already broken down rather than complex carbohydrates, they do better with simple sugars, if somebody who s following a gut-friendly diet. So I m going to talk about baking and what flours and different products to use on all of those diets. Let s start off with gluten free. If you re going gluten-free one of your best options is to do a gluten free flours. This is one of my favorite, it s called Bob s Red Mill. You always want to read the label. You flip it over, check it out. This says, Garbanzo bean flour, potato flour, white sorghum flour. And that s really it. So very, very simple gluten free flour. Some people that have more mild leaky gut are going to do great with a glutenfree flour. Now what I prefer people do if you are going gluten free is not just go gluten free, but also do sprouted gluten free grains or sprouted grains. Now this is my favorite company for sprouted grains. It s called the Sprouted Flour Company. So again, To Your Health Sprouted Flour Company. This is a gluten-free sprouted corn flour. They also have gluten-free sprouted oat flour, sprouted spelt flour, millet flour. They have every flour that you can think of that is gluten-free and sprouted. Now here s what sprouting does. Sprouting basically kills off something called phytic acid which is what makes nuts and seeds and grains so hard to digest. It basically locks up the minerals. We ve heard the principals, You are what you eat. Really, you are what 2
you digest and if you re not eating something that s sprouted or fermented, then you re not necessarily digesting the minerals like zinc and magnesium and vitamin B12, so that s why sprouted is better. So if you re going gluten-free, then hey, this sort of powder works. But a step even better is doing a gluten-free sprouted flour, like a sprouted oat flour, or corn flour, spelt flour, but sprouted is definitely better. So these are some of the things you want to choose if you re going gluten-free. Also, if you re going gluten-free, you want to stay away from things like regular pasta or whole wheat pasta, and do things like gluten-free pasta. There s a lot of gluten-free options out there today. This is a brand I like called Bionaturae. It s made with rice flour and potato flour. Simple, rice and potatoes. These are things that are typically nonallergenic, easier to digest being gluten-free. And not the ultimate, but typically again still better. So if you have to have pasta, then again, this is a good option for those with mild to moderate leaky gut. Now again, if you have severe leaky gut, you actually want to stay away from typically grains definitely during your first phase in the beginning, and then later on, you could add things like this back into your diet. Now let s talk about going Paleo. Now when people go Paleo, one of the first flours that they will typically add in or replace things with are almond flour. This is one, a bag that my wife, Chelsea, had bought recently. You can tell that we sometimes use almond flour and this is a great brand she really likes here online. But again, you can see gluten-free, so it s just almonds. It s almond meal, almond flour. And so almonds are great because again, they re grain free. Also, almonds are packed with arginine which is great for your hormones and energy levels and blood flow. So almond flour, so you may start looking up or you can find this in all of my cookbooks I use almond flour. So if you look up Dr. Josh X cookbook online, you ll find that. You might already have part of my cookbooks or getting it as part of our program, but if you have any of our cookbooks or go into my website DrAxe.com, and just search almond flour recipes or do a Google search, you re going to find there are so many healthy recipes. You can make the best chocolate chip cookies with almond flour, and brownies and homemade food bars and just a number of things. 3
So almost anything where you typically use flour, white flour or wheat flour, you can use almond flour instead. Now it changes the texture slightly, but overall, once you start eating it, I mean, I ll tell you, I ll never go back. I like almond flour better than that white flour stuff that clogs up your arteries any day of the week. So again, this would be considered Paleo-friendly and a great option. Also, within the Paleo community often times chia seeds are used. If you don t want to use eggs, one tablespoon of chia with three tablespoons of water replaces one egg in a recipe. So again, chia seeds can be a fantastic thing that you re adding in as well in terms of some of your baking needs. And then if you re going to go gut-friendly, I recommend coconut flour number one. Because here s the thing I want to mention about almond flour. You don t want to go overboard with almond flour. I typically don t recommend more than a fourth of a cup at a time, because you may have noticed if you ve ever eaten just a few raw almonds, you can digest it. If you ve ever overeaten nuts or had more than a handful, they become really, really hard to digest. In fact, some people can develop ulcers if they re eating too many almonds and nuts and seeds. So I ve seen people who have made whole cookies and they ve eaten three cookies with almond flour. That s too many nuts in general. So again, you just need to be careful if you do have leaky gut, but you can use almond flour. But typically you don t want to just eat loads and loads of things with almond flour. That should just be on a treat on an occasion. But the best overall flour to be using in my mind is coconut flour. It s high in fiber. It s gluten-free. It can be easier to digest in many cases. And so again, coconut flour typically the best with those with more severe gut issues, and those wanting to repair their gut. And a lot of times one of the best things to do, my wife and I do this all the time, is we combine coconut flour with almond flour in the recipes and there s a lot of great recipes that way. But then coconut flour is my favorite flour of choice and also using coconut flakes. Now one little secret that I have, I make coconut chicken tenders at home. I do a mix of a sprouted gluten-free flour like a sprouted spelt flour, and then do it with coconut flakes. And I mix those together with some herbs, and the coconut flakes come out really crunchy if you cook it in the coconut oil. 4
So again, adding just a little bit of shredded coconut if you re going to bread something like making homemade chicken tenders at home, makes it taste fantastic. So you d add typically about a third or a half of the mix would be coconut flakes making those coconut chicken tenders. And so again, there re obviously differences between going gluten-free, Paleo or gutfriendly. Again, many of them can overlap, and if you re already fairly healthy, all of these flours are good. But if you tend to have gut issues, start with coconut flour, almond flour, and then this sprouted flour. Those are going to be your best options. Hey, I hope you ve enjoyed this video on how to go gluten-free, Paleo and gut-friendly. 5