Sublime

Fiber and fat, key ingredients, are removed in the refining process: fiber, to change the texture and make food taste “better,” and natural fats, to extend shelf life, since fats tend to go rancid with time. And so we ingest the “poison” without the “antidote”—the protective effects of fiber is removed from much of our food.

The takeaway from this shocking data is that corn and other processed oils (and sugar) are likely much more damaging to your blood vessels than saturated fat.

However, by simply eating the right kinds of foods, you can leverage this bank account “savings and withdrawal” mechanism to your advantage—maintaining ideal body fat levels and stabilizing daily appetite and energy levels. Hint: it’s mostly about moderating the wildly excessive insulin production resulting from the Standard American Diet (SAD).

It turns out that avoiding five difficult to digest carbohydrates is the key to symptom relief. As I mentioned in previous chapters, they are fructose, lactose, resistant starch, fiber, and sugar alcohol (which is similar to a carbohydrate).

Probiotics can also reinforce the precious gut barrier, “plastering up” any leaks in the tight junctions between our gut epithelial cells. This can prevent compounds like endotoxin from leaking into circulation, a major instigator of systemic inflammation.