Xanthan Gum and Leaky Gut
Unsolved mysteries
Still experiencing digestive symptoms, even AFTER limiting gluten, soy, and dairy?
Well, there may be a reason and you should listen to your body. It is a highly refined machine that does a miraculous job at compensating until it becomes overrun with indigestible nutrients.
Even though you may be starting to buy gluten-free products or soy-free products, Big Food is not dumb. In fact, they are comparable to evil geniuses.
See, in order to get the same desired taste effect in their foods by eliminating one thing, they substitute in another.
As you know, gluten is what makes a cake spongy, a cookie gooey, and bread hold their shape.
Without gluten, the product simply crumbles and does not bind well to the other ingredients, thus making the consumer very upset.
Xanthan gum to the rescue
Along came Xanthan gum to the market. Like I stated prior, Big Food is in the market to make a profit.
In order to make gluten-free and soy-free foods have a more desirable taste and act just as good as the original, they placed xanthan gum into the mix.
Much like any industrial oil or manufactured product, it has various uses in the food industry and becomes heavily toxic to our digestive tract and gut microbiota.
Xanthan gum is a polysaccharide that is used as a food additive and is especially used as a thickening agent or stabilizer to keep other ingredients from isolating.
Once again, my same thought process remains undisputed. If it has a nutritional label, don’t eat it!
We don't know the full effects of xanthan gum in long term studies and any other possible associations that can be detrimental to our health.
However, if you have a sensitive stomach, like me, I want to know what goes into my body and the possible negative outcomes as a result.
I do notice when I consume xanthan gum, I experience mild cases of bloating, an increase in gas, and mild diarrhea.
When I limit my consumption of products containing those items, my symptoms do significantly improve.
Leaky gut and the undesirable effects of industrial foods
This ties in nicely with leaky gut and a low fodmap diet. You see, low fodmap is essentially eliminating all common triggers of digestive symptoms.
Fodmap breaks down to Fermentable Oligo, Di, Mono-saccharides, And Polyols. That can be a mouthful, so the acronym will be used going forward.
Do you remember when I stated that xanthan gum is a polysaccharide that’s used as a food additive?
Well, this is why that little tiny thing everyone overlooks when looking at a nutritional label may be STILL causing your digestive symptoms.
It is a polysaccharide that is hard for our digestive tract to break down and metabolize.
Our digestive mucosa is only one cellular layer thick. If that doesn’t seem very thick, you are right. It is not!
Imagine painting a wall in your house with one coat of paint. Does that cover up the drywall that’s behind it and provide protection from stains, spills, dirt, and debris?
Heck no.
Your intestinal lining is the exact same! Without a properly enclosed intestinal tract, food particles can EASILY break through your gut mucosa and seep into the peritoneal cavity where it will get reabsorbed into the bloodstream and travel throughout your body.
My poop is where now?
Picture this, you eat your food, move on with your life, and don’t even realize that some of that partially undigested food and fecal material is ravaging around your blood and building a foundation inside your vascular and nervous system.
Do you ever wonder why you experience brain fog? Headaches? Shortness of breath? Fatigue? Joint pain or swelling?
Well, simply put, you have fecal material and food particles where they shouldn’t be.
As a result, your body creates an inflammatory response and sends lymphocytes to the area to try and destroy these little invaders our body recognizes as not a normal part of our body.
At a cellular level, picture WWII occurring in your vascular space, brain, and joints. Arthritis is not a symptom of old age. It is a symptom of lifelong poor dietary choices.
Inflammation wreaks havoc on our body and all it does is continue to try and fight our bad food choices.
Please. Think about what you are putting inside your body and the downstream effects it has on literally everything that occurs inside you.
I want the best for you. Our bodies want the best for us. Understand that many chronic illnesses are a DIRECT result of dietary choices and repeat inflammation to certain body systems and organs.
Continue to fight the good fight and stand up to Big Foods. We not only demand but need quality food products for all walks of life.
Be strong. Be brave.
