How To Soothe An Inflamed Stomach

If you connect with those who encourage a 100% raw food diet for optimal health, I hope that you'll read this post with an open mind.

In my experience, eating plenty of fresh, nutrient-rich raw foods is a huge plus for most people. But where there is a long history of gastrointestinal distress, I have consistently found that during the initial phases of healing and recovery, it's actually better to eat more cooked foods than raw.

Please note that this opinion isn't based on theory - it's based on working intimately with people with a wide range of GI conditions, from those with ulcerative colitis who have suffered with bloody diarrhea dozens of times daily, to those with more manageable conditions like mild gastritis or a peptic ulcer.

If your GI tract - specifically, the muscles that govern its contractile waves and the mucosal lining that regulates processing of the foods that you eat - has been damaged by many years of inflammation, eating large quantities of plant fibers can actually further stress weakened areas.

When you cook plant foods, you soften their fibers, making it easier for your GI tract to break down these foods and extract nutrients from within.

Where there is pain from inflammation and ulcerations, I find that potato soup is a reliable soothing remedy. I routinely advise clients to blend steamed Yukon gold potatoes with mineral rich broth (vegetable, chicken, or beef broth work equally well), and to have nothing but this soup until their pain abates.

As chronic GI inflammation subsides, you can use a blend of potatoes and other cooked vegetables in soups as preventive tonics to protect against further irritation of a sensitive GI mucosal lining. A good example of this type of soup can be found here:

Roasted Cauliflower and Potato Soup

In the above example, we combine potatoes with well cooked cauliflower and shallots or onions, but you can blend broccoli, spinach, or any other vegetables along with the potatoes, provided that they are first softened by cooking.

Please consider sharing this information with those in yourlife who have chronic digestive trouble.