Prime Diet - dietary principles for our whole brain.

Book summary and other resources for improving our gut-brain-heart interactions. Can you think from your gut? Can you breathe from your heart? Can you relax into both?

The ‘whole brain’ view of the connections between the brain in our skull and the nervous cells throughout the intestinal tract. The skull brain is our Central Nervous System (CNS) along with the spine, and the gut brain is called our Enteric Nervous System (ENS). The spine and the ENS have about the same number of nerve cells (called neurons in the brain). We also have a Cardiac Nervous System with its own set of nerve cells which help regulate the heart rhythm.

The ENS is connected with the smooth muscles of the intestinal tract and is critical for controlling the peristalsis, wave-like, contractions of the intestinal tube. Unlike blood vessels, the intestinal tract does move the food mixture along - when it is working correctly - and we have some gut microbes to stimulate the immune cells which support the nerve cells of the ENS. It is more complex than just eating would seem.

Nerve cells provide sensory communication to the main brain and receive control messages about conscious action or unconscious body messages. The Fear response is coordinated through the Sympathetic Nervous system. The Autonomic Nervous System includes the ENS and the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems and involves involuntary actions. The Somatic Nervous System involves our voluntary actions like walking or catching a ball. They are all part of the Peripheral Nervous System which includes the nerve cells throughout the body. The Parasympathetic Nervous system kicks in when the Fear response calms down, and then messaging redirects energy from muscles primed to run, to the intestines instead to digest and absorb, or elsewhere to repair.

Peripheral Nervous System, (simplypsychology.org)

The later part of this post summarizes some of the main dietary principles and strategies from the book The Prime - Prepare and Repair Your Body for Spontaneous Weight Loss by Kulreet Chaudhary, MD. (Amazon) It is not a typical diet book. The focus is on healing the gut and she encourages people to pay more attention and change their food choices as they desire. What she has observed is that most people voluntarily start swapping healthier foods for less healthy choices as they start feeling better. The “Prime Diet” is “priming” our bodies to be ready for health and priming our bodies to want to make healthy choices. To be in the ‘prime health’ of our lifetime is a goal to aim for every day.

Before I get into the diet strategies, two mental/spiritual examples came to my attention which seem to help us live more from our ‘whole brain’ rather than staying exclusively in our rational skull brain or verbal brain. Our ‘gut instincts’ or decisions made ‘from the heart’ tend to be nonverbal - and yet ‘feel’ like the right decision.

These approaches support the idea of a ‘whole brain’ - that our gut brain is a more important part of our thinking and physical being than our Western view suggests.

‘Soft belly’ - Koshin Paley Ellison, Buddhist educator in the field of integrative medicine

Koshin Paley Ellison shares techniques from Buddhism about breathing and thinking from a ‘soft belly’ in his book Untangled - Walking the Eightfold Path to Clarity, Courage, and Compassion, 2022. (*I highly recommend this book.) When we are tense or just busy, we tend to hold our breathe, and our pupils narrow - literally limiting our viewpoint, and our abdomen may tighten especially if fear is present too. If you know a punch is coming you will make your abdomen muscles tighten, and the punch won’t hurt much or knock you over. Unwarned, with a relaxed belly, when caught off guard, a gut punch will do more damage and will be more likely to knock you off your feet.

Practicing awareness of our body tension and our vision, can teach the body habits that might help in a difficult situation. Pausing to breathe, feeling for a soft belly, holding that center area, and widening our eyes, may help us also to widen our view to see more of a situation and then to react with more wisdom and less anger. The tense body is expecting problems, the Fear Response is ‘on alert’ and the brain then is also more likely to see things as problems instead of looking for more detail - or giving the person time for questions.

Having been trained as a Lifeguard, I found that practicing rescue procedures helps to make them a habit that flows when an emergency is happening. Thinking is less likely to shut down or turn to panic when a plan is already in place.

Thinking from our belly - Paul McKenna, hypnotherapist

Example two of our ‘whole brain’ - the hypnotherapist Paul McKenna demonstrates on stage how someone thinking and reacting typically, conversing normally, can be easily knocked off balance when shoved a bit on one shoulder. He then instructs them to think from their belly - shift their consciousness to their belly. He gives them a moment or two to adjust to that idea, and then does the shoulder shove again and they aren’t knocked off balance. I saw two videos with different people showing that happen. He described it afterwards ~ being up in our heads is too rational, too off-balance while the thinking from our gut or heart grounds us more. I should relisten though.

I included the following videos with Paul McKenna in a recent post about improving our energy flow by … Decalcifying the pineal gland with iron rich Burdock root and gallic acid rich Amla fruit extract - a CIA formula allegedly; the formula includes Potassium iodide, Burdock root, Chaga powder, Chlorella powder, Turmeric root, Amla fruit extract (India's gooseberry), Schisandra powder, many of which are functional foods and might be helpful simply added to the diet.

• Mindvalley Coach - Instant Confidence Boost: Paul McKenna's Hypnosis Secrets, (Youtube) *Live event with an audience gathered for improving business success. the talk includes a few topics and an audience participation to show the possibilities of change with our mind when we look at changing our behavior in the present more than talking about our past. Some interesting physical examples showed that we are less stable/strong in our stance when we are thinking from our normal brain mindset. When instructed to think from their gut, their stomach or heart area, and maybe place a hand there, the person isn’t knocked off their balance as easily when pushed from the side. That reminded me of the ‘whole brain’ discussed in two recent posts.

• Paul McKenna Official | Instant Confidence Guided Hypnosis, (Youtube)

The Prime diet was included in one of two posts in which the concept of ‘whole brain’ was introduced.

1. Goitrogens, Hashimoto's, DAMPS damage signaling, gut dysbiosis and down regulation of the thyroid. Dr. Kellman and his book The Whole Brain; and grammar gaffes. (substack) May 13, 2023

2. The whole brain includes the gut enteric nervous system; Book review - The Prime by Dr. Kulreet Chaudhary, MD, and Integrative Neurologist with training and childhood experience in Ayurveda. (substack) June 3, 2024

The ‘whole brain’ is much vaster in length than the skull brain as the Enteric Nervous system extends the whole length of the intestinal tract, and the heart also has nerve cells. Our brain’s thoughts and memories may be more diffuse in origin than realized. Certain functions are found specifically within the skull brain but heart transplant surgeries have revealed that personality traits and memories seem to be transferrable along with the transplanted heart.

We don’t know what we don’t know. We can’t possibly know what we don’t know, but we may start to suspect that there is more to learn.

Dietary principles, based on the book The Prime by Dr. Kulreet Chaudhary, MD.

1. Avoid processed foods and ultra-processed foods. (pp 44-45)

2. Avoid toxic food additives or agricultural chemicals. (pp 44-45)

   1. artificial sweeteners including excitotoxin aspartic acid in Neotame and Aspartame

   2. high fructose corn syrup

   3. emulsifiers such as carrageenan and xanthum gum

   4. trans fats

   5. MSG and glutamate rich seasonings which are excitotoxic and likely addictive

   6. preservatives - sulfites, nitrates, nitrites, BHA and BHT - look for Rosemary oil as a natural preservative on a food label.

   7. plasticized food packaging, canned good liners, microwave popcorn, chicken roasting bags

   8. household cleansers, air fresheners, and lawn chemicals including Round-Up

   9. agricultural chemicals like Round-up/glyphosate and atrazine

3. Avoid inflammation and toxic exposures from internal or external sources. ( p 41)

   1. Excess weight - being heavy was only associated with diabetes when GGT was also elevated. GGT is an indirect biomarker for toxin exposure. (Lim, et al., 2007) Ch. 2, ref 7.

4. Recognize that foods can be addictive and that our gut dysbiosis may drive cravings for negative foods and/or over-eating those foods.

   1. The unhealthy species of microbes can signal our brain - “Eat more carbs!”.

   2. Or gluten containing grains, casein containing dairy products and soy may convert into a calming morphine like chemical which can lead to addictively eating more of it.

   3. Excitotoxins like glutamate seasonings and aspartic acid sweeteners can lead to overeating or daily addictive use (like diet sodas or artificially spicy tortilla chips).

   4. Oxalate, phenols, or other personally sensitized or allergy causing substances may cause cravings for those substances because an endorphin pain response might be stimulating prior to being painful.

5. Understand neuroadaptation to a stimulating substance - it can lead to craving more and more of a stimulant in order to keep getting an excitatory/rewarding dopamine response. (pp 57-73)

   1. We develop a tolerance to the substance and then need more to get the same dopamine lift that we had been getting because when chronically over stimulated, our brain will respond by reducing expression of dopamine receptors. With fewer dopamine receptors, even more stimulant will then be needed. The healthier solution is to back off the stimulant for quite a while and that will let the brain’s number of dopamine receptors gradually return to a more typical number.

6. Chew food thoroughly - savor food and eat slowly. Especially grains/starches as our saliva includes enzymes that start the process of breaking down carbohydrates. (Ch. 4)

7. Bad breath and a coating on the tongue may indicate dysbiosis of the oral microbiome. Color and coating on the tongue may reveal nutrient deficiencies or toxins. (p 76)

   1. Yeast overgrowth can cause a thick white coating and may feel uncomfortable, painful or itchy. *Yeast in the gut can add to oxalate production and negative symptoms.

   2. **WIC dietitian tip - Gentian violet works so much faster and more efficiently than nystatin or other standard yeast treatments currently being used. Pomegranate peel/fruit is also very effective against Candida yeast infections.

8. Don’t overeat - leave the stomach some room to slosh the food around. Ayurveda recommends only eating until about 80-85% full. You have room for a second helping or dessert? Say “No thanks, my stomach likes to slosh easily.” (p 77)

9. Eat in a good mood. Bad moods can reduce digestion. *Digestively it does make sense to limit dinner conversation to milder topics and prayer before a meal may be setting up a positive energy and attitude for aiding digestion.

10. Older people may need to use an acidic substance with meals or take Betaine HCl supplements with a meal to replenish stomach acid. (p 78)

    1. We don’t absorb B vitamins or digest protein as well with low stomach acidity. Apple cider vinegar, lime or lemon juice have the similar acidity as our stomach acid. One or two spoonsful with a meal is enough for my own digestive comfort.

A brief review of our digestive tract:

» The small intestine does a lot of our digestive work.

» The colon microbiome is closely linked to the skull brain. Bad dysbiosis in the colon can negatively affect our mood and mental state. (p 80)

» The liver removes toxins from blood and forms bile in the gall bladder which helps with digestion in the intestines. If the liver is overwhelmed with a toxin load, excess can be returned to the gut within the bile where gut microbes might be able to break down the toxin if given a second chance at it. Good species help us by breaking down things like oxalate and can also metabolize some other toxins. (p 81)

• Guggul is one of the recommended herbal supplements on The Prime Diet (p 84-85). It may help up-regulate expression of cytochrome P450 enzymes. The CYP450 enzymes help with the detox/breakdown of alcohol and many drugs, medications, and other substances. Taking guggul as a supplement for a while may help a person struggling to give up an addiction.

» The pancreas helps with digestion of carbs, fats and protein. (p 83)

• Amylase deficiency will cause an excess of undigested carbs in your colon which leads to gas and flatulence that doesn’t have a bad smell.

• Lipase deficiency may cause an oily sheen with bowel movements.

• Protease deficiency can lead to undigested protein reaching the colon and gassy flatulence can occur that is quite stinky.

» The lymphatic system and GALT - the gut-associated lymphatic tissue, helps move toxins out of our tissues to be excreted in the urine after first being filtered through lymph nodes and then the kidneys. “Fake fat” is Dr. Chaudhary’s term for retained water - edema or lymphedema. Edema looks like a person is overweight and clothes suddenly don’t fit as it is a 5ish pound fluid gain, but the skin is stretched and taut and the extra internal pressure is kind of painful. When the feet swell, walking can hurt, and shoes don’t fit - comfy slipper time. (pp 86-87) See the Fake Fat quiz on page 88 to evaluate your own symptoms.

• Movement on a large or gentle scale helps fluid move through the lymphatic system instead of pooling into puffy “fake fat” or lumpy cellulite.

• Jump! jump rope or mini trampolines ("*if your spine is young - I can’t trampoline like I used to).

• Lymphatic massage - the Young Living ‘Rain drop technique’ uses motions that are very similar to this gentle style of surface massage - lightly stroking the body surface in directions that promote flow toward the direction of lymphatic drainage.

» “Leaky Gut Syndrome” - when the intestinal lining isn’t healthy or the diet has too many substances that signal to the Tight Junctions between cells to ‘open’, then undigested food particles, heavy metals and maybe even pathogens can get through the intestinal lining to the blood stream. In the blood stream allergy or autoimmune reactions might be set up. Some of the dietary substances may also harm red blood cells or damage other tissues and maybe even cross through the blood brain barrier and damage brain tissue. Gluten, dairy, soy, other grains and bean lectins may be causing us harm. That is not covered intensively in this book, so I will move on for now.

• Lipopolysaccharide, an endotoxin produced by negative microbiome species, can cross through a leaky gut and cause inflammation within the body and brain. It has been linked to brain dysfunction and conditions including depression, schizophrenia, and Parkinson’s Disease. (p 90)

• The malfunctioning ‘leaky gut’ also isn’t absorbing nutrients as well and malnutrition or specific nutrient deficiencies may occur

Total healing time for reversing a ‘leaky gut’ and gut dysbiosis may be 1-2 years. Leaky Gut Syndrome: (pp 92-93) Within that time, negative mood and energy symptoms might improve within a few weeks to months, while food sensitivities or Multiple Chemical Sensitivity might be improved at the 1-2 year mark. Inflammation causes the body to add more receptors and TRP channels which can greatly increase sensitivity to pain or dietary substances that once had been tolerated. Reducing inflammation for the year or two can give the body enough time to stop over-expressing the sensory receptors and ion channels. Some sensitivities may remain though, and autoimmune conditions require strict avoidance for the rest of life to prevent a relapse.

The Prime Diet has four stages, each with three or four strategies.

The stages are designed to help move a person gradually into better digestion and a functional gut lining instead of a leaky gut and to rebalance the gut microbiome. (p 91)

1. Reverse Inflammation - toxins need to be removed too, and the immune system calmed down, for chronic inflammation to stop feeding itself (think of my positive feedback hyperinflammation graphic).

2. Repair the Leaky Gut lining

3. Clean the Blood - enhance liver function

4. Rebalance Gut Bacteria.

5. Increase the Rate of Toxin Removal - strategies being recommended: Prime Tea (longer steeped tea made with three seeds including fennel seeds), use of psyllium husk and ground flaxseed in water at night, and guggul.

6. Increase Detox through the Lymphatic System - strategies being recommended: Prime Tea, guggul, Dry brushing of the skin before showers.

7. Nourish the Organs of Detox - strategies being recommended: Prime broth (bone/meat broth - glutamine rich is healing for the gut lining - lots of the Special diets use a bone broth) and Prime Juice, (fresh blended green juices).

8. Calm the Brain - strategies being recommended: ashwagandha and Brahmi supplement

9. Process the Emotions - strategies being recommended: meditation and journaling. Background: Anger can add up to liver dysfunction or bile and gallbladder issues, as excess toxins are being created and clog up the works. (p 82) We need to clear our mental ‘ama’ - a term from Ayurveda referring to our toxic burden or backlog of crud and bad energy within the body. (p 40-53)

Stages of the Prime Diet

The strategies being recommended are additive - introduced a few at a time, and each are meant to be continued long-term or intermittently, if they worked out well for the person. Some of the dosing would gradually be increased as time advances and tolerance grows as health improves. Go as slow as needed for comfort. As we clean out old toxins, then we can feel worse temporarily, even headachy, irritable, joint pain and other negative symptoms. Drink plenty of water, do gentle stretching and walking rather than vigorous workouts. Consider Epsom salt baths once a week and/or a sauna.

The later part of the book has other lifestyle or diet changes that can help but ‘priming’ the body with these first stages is the initial goal. An unsavory tip - the Body Ecology Diet book and this Prime diet book both mention that enemas are very helpful for clearing out old, impacted crud in the intestines. They had been much more commonly used for health purposes than currently.

Stage One: Activate a Biochemical Shift

1. Prime tea - cumin, coriander and fennel seeds, steep a batch and drink all day.

2. Psyllium husk and flax seeds, ground - take one teaspoon of each in a glass of water at night - but every other night. It helps keep things moving in the bowels and will bind with toxins. *Drink extra water and start with 1/2 teaspoon each or just the ground flax seed at first.

3. Triphala functional food supplement - take at night. It is a mix of three berries (amlaki.amla - Indian gooseberry, bibhitaki, and haritaki) that are dried and ground. (banyanbotanicals.com/triphala) Dose ~ 2000 mg and increase to 3000 or 4000 mg as needed for good bowel movements. Extra can help with constipation. (p 171)

4. Dry-brush your skin every day, raw silk gloves are recommended, prior to a shower for about 5 minutes, stroking with gentle lymphatic massage motions.

Stage Two: Crush Cravings (No Willpower Required) & Readjust Gut Bacteria

1. Ashwagandha herbal supplement - helps curb sugar cravings and is an adaptogen which helps reduce the stress response.

2. Brahmi herbal supplement - helps reverse addictive pathways within the brain (helps adjust neuroadaptation back to normal function).

3. Add Prime Juice and Prime Broth (learn to make them for yourself fresh) to your daily routine, in addition to or between meals (*rather than being a low-calorie substitute as seen in some of the other special diets or ‘detox’ protocols).

4. Start a Cravings Journal - this really helps clarify your own patterns for you and can help you better understand whether your ‘hunger’ is for nutrients or for affection or excitement or some other non-nutrient need. (Don’t forget water too - we often eat in response to thirst signals as those can be misinterpreted easily.)

Stage Three: Ignite Energy and Fat burning

1. Guggul is an herb made from the gum of the myrrh tree and is a powerful detoxifier. ~ 500 mg 1-2 times per day, caution for people with high blood pressure/hypertension. (p163-164)

2. Curry powder is a fat burning spice blend - learn to make your own mix and add it to meals.

   1. Recipe: 8 teaspoons each of ground ginger, cumin, coriander and fennel seed powders and 4 teaspoons each of turmeric and amla powder. Mix together and store in an airtight container. Add ~ 1/2 teaspoon per serving to an entree. Increasing to twice a day and a teaspoon per serving, as tolerated. This batch lasts Dr. Chaudhary about a month. (pp 165-166)

   2. *I would not be able to tolerate a curry blend anymore - TRP channel activators set off colitis symptoms for me when I was severe and I am still a little sensitive, and some of the spices are also salicylate rich - anti-cancer and healthy if you can detox it well.

3. Ginger Gut Flush is a combination of ginger, lemon juice and sea salt which helps stimulate digestion. Other gentler options are included in the book.

   1. Skip Ginger Gut Flush when it is hot outside and there is no way to cool down.

   2. Skip it if you have a lot of stomach acid.

   3. Skip it if you are feeling particularly irritable, angry or hot-headed. (p 169)

   4. Recipe: 1 fresh lemon or enough to make 1/2 cup of juice; 1 inch peeled fresh ginger root; 1/2 teaspoon natural salt (preferably Himalayan or sea salt). Cut the ginger into thin one-inch strips, soak it in the lemon juice salt mixture. Store it in the refrigerator and have one strip before your largest meal of the day. (p 168)

Stage Four: Biohack Your Lifestyle Habits

1. Shift the timing of your meals - make your largest meal at your lunchtime rather than dinner.

2. Skip raw vegetables and cold drinks - it can help your gut heal and you can add them back later. Also use room-temperature or warm beverages rather than ice water or a cold lemonade. The gut works better with a body temperature mixture.

3. Learn meditation - whatever method works for you. This has been found to help reduce stress, cravings, and improve life.

4. Go to bed by ten pm! This is about our hormonal balance over the course of the 24-hour circadian cycle. Our hormones are geared to do best with us sleeping during the dark hours of the daily cycle. If we stay up a bit later, then a second wind/ new burst of energy and alertness occurs and then sleepiness will be unlikely until after midnight or later.

Dr. Kulreet Chaudhary - Benefits of Prajna Ayurveda’s Guggul (Youtube)

Addition - a research collation from GreenMedInfo’s database on the topic of Guggul (sync pdf) and another much longer, 79 pages, on Ashwagandha (sync pdf). And since that is a lot of fun, here is a 538-page collation of research on Pomegranate (Substance) (sync pdf).

• Dr. Josh Axe - Ashwagandha, the Complete Herbal Guide, video, (Youtube).

The book and dietary principle “Eat Dirt,” by Dr. Axe, was the topic of an earlier post in which I discussed the concept of ‘dietary principles’. (denutrients.substack)

When grandma says eat your vegetables or have chicken soup for a cold, she was basing that guidance on collected wisdom of many mothers and grandmothers. I noticed that around the world, many varied cuisines include some sort of acidic side dish or vinegar seasoning which could supply older diners with the extra stomach acid boost they may need. Salsa, Indian chutney or cucumber riata, kefir, yogurt, buttermilk, many types of pickles, vinegar and oil salad dressings, — all might provide an acidic and maybe a probiotic addition to a meal. Eating traditionally, has the value of ancient wisdom.

Disclaimer: This information is being provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use and is not intended to provide individual health guidance.