Have you heard of the story of King Midas? Everything he touched turned to gold. Alas, all the wealth in the world and he couldn’t enjoy one of the greatest joys of life…Eating! (and of course the company of his loved one).

I have had many clients who walked in the same painful shoes.

Leena (let’s call her that), successful serial entrepreneur and well-known page 3 socialite called in requesting a confidential consultation. We met at the Detox Clinic, on a Sunday morning when all our staff were off. She began, “It troubles me that I seem to know exactly where the cleanest and usable restrooms are located in the city. Instead of focusing on the event, I seem to focus on the most comfortable outfit that I can carry to rush to the restroom when nature calls, quite unannounced. I avoid eating out. I am completely off gluten and dairy, and I avoid eating out, it helped for a bit, and then the symptoms flared up. Can you help me?” I suggested a course of action ahead which involved both Detox and Diet at the epicenter of therapy. As they walked out fixing the appointment for their procedures, her daughter pulled me aside and added, “Amma has become very unpleasant to be with. She has become impatient, grumpy and very irritable. Can you fix that too?”

One year later Leena’s testimony: “I have had it all, colonoscopy to probiotics to vegan diets; multiple tests to probe for Celiac and finally it was IBS. I have finally healed and I am free from the nagging worry about whether to eat, what to eat and when to eat. Today I have a lot of regard for my gut and appreciate my body’s ability to digest, absorb and nourish me. I feel light and a lot more enthusiastic.”

Krishna (alias) went through 30 prime years of his life with such intense gastritis and acid reflux that he hasn’t dared to savor anything other than curd rice in 30 years. It took him six months of fanatically following a diet that worked for him, one week of physical detox and another three months of diligently changing his view to life to begin appreciating what other food actually tastes like.

Rashmi (alias) at 30 battled psoriasis, arthritis and PCOD. Despite being blessed with a fantastic family, a dream job, financial stability and everything she every wished for, her pain or an undefined anxiety always kept her company through the night. Her case was a much quicker bounce back, one week of physical detox, six months of diet and supplementation made her believe in miracles.

I have even had many clients who are physically in perfect shape…or as you would label them – FIT! They can effortlessly run 10kms perhaps even uphill and not pant. However two meals at a holiday weekend and they are seen popping pills to stop the loosies from both ends.

I have had many Leenas’, Rashmis’ and Krishnas’ in their 20s and in their 80s who have come in battling with digestive disorders ranging from constipation to IBS, skin problems from acne to psoriasis, fatigues and even arthritis. Every single Leena blustered their discomfort with the exact same words: tried it all and nothing has worked. What every single one of them was battling with was at its very root – undiagnosed – Malabsorption and Faulty Digestion.

I noticed a pattern among most patients with digestive disorders who figure out (or google up) and tag a name to their digestive disorder; they almost instantly shift to a salad and soup diet and drop all gluten and all dairy.

Firstly, a salad diet filled with commercially prepared salad dressing defeats the purpose. All raw vegetables and fruits have a laxative property which needs to be introduced into your diet with care. When raw fruits are introduced into the diet of those with an inflamed and quite irritated gut, they should be ripe, peeled and cooked. Ripe mashed banana with no trace of green at the tip and its skin well speckled with brown can be one of the few uncooked fruits that are introduced in the diet first.

Many go on a no-grain diet as well. While no grain takes a whole lot of load off the intestinal tract, new grain substitutes such as amaranth or quinoa and even millets should be completely avoided and gently reintroduced with great caution.
The idea of introducing yogurt in the diet to include a probiotic aspect is good provided the milk used to prepare the yogurt has to be fresh milk (not pasteurised or homogenised milk). Ensure the fresh milk is boiled until it condenses to 3/4it its quantity and then cooled to room temperature before adding the yogurt culture. This is to ensure the bacteria and other valuable enzymes are not killed. Ensure you consume the yogurt after 24 hours of fermentation so that all the lactose in the milk is used up to convert it to yogurt.

Honey should be the only sweetener of choice…and it should be raw filtered unrefined honey which is almost clear or slightly murky when held up in sunlight. Honey has amazing anti-inflammatory properties which aid in gut healing.

Most people who suffer from malabsorption are consequently malnourished. Hence it is important to include vitamin supplementation. Most of them are deficient in Vit D3 and Vit B12 and are unable to bring raise the levels up to even a point of sufficiency, despite months and sometimes years of supplementation. This is a classic indicator of malabsorption. Especially those with inflammatory bowel disease quite often require injections to bring B12 and D3 levels to high normal for optimal gut health.

Minerals are almost synonymously mentioned with Vitamins, however minerals unlike vitamins are lost in the process of cooking. Those with digestive disorders should periodically track their levels of iodine, potassium, iron and calcium. In order to correct malabsorption, it is vital to maintain optimum levels of vitamins and minerals.
The toxins from ‘so called food’ and toxic thoughts clog up the gut lining, which then becomes the breeding ground for bacteria – the unwanted kind. If not flushed out in time the bacteria create havoc in your gut and poison the blood.
As Irritable bowel begins to heal, it is almost concurrently a lot of mental health challenges begin to get resolved. We have had clients who have been on antianxiety medication and antidepressants and as their gut began to heal, the need for medications ceased to exist.

They walked out happier, healthier and in fact much more pleasant to hang around with. (a testimonial acknowledged by their spouses…must be true).

If you want to join the league of Leenas’ who have experienced the pleasure of a lasting robust healthy digestion, apart from a specific and highly customised diet, a thorough physical, emotional and mental detox is imperative. Digestion isn’t just about eating the right food and excreting it the next day. It is about your body’s ability to break it down and absorbing the right stuff.

The body’s ability to absorb nutrition is enhanced greatly by the food you eat, the mood you are in and the health of your Gut.

You are not just what you eat…you are in fact what you absorb!

– Dr. Ashmita Boopathy Moturi
M.D Alternative Medicine
M.S Medical Engineering
MSc. Clinical Psychology