ZeeKitchen

Why BROTH ?

Here’s my story… @Superzeekitchen is passion driven. But how can someone develop passion for a drink made from simmered bones? Interesting right?

Well I am a mother to 2 boys, 13 and 10 years old. 2 years ago, my older son was suffering from severe abdominal pains and woke up in the middle of the night throwing up everything he had inside him. I ended up at the hospital several times between 4am and 6am. The doctors sent us back home after a few hours with pain killers. I went to bed every night not sure I would have a full night and his condition affected the whole family. After insisting with his paediatrician, he later referred us to a Gastroenterology Specialist. I explained all the symptoms my son suffered from and he immediately suggested to do an endoscopy which is a procedure used to visually examine your upper digestive system with a tiny camera on the end of a long, flexible tube. The result was immediate, and it turned out that my son suffered from what is known as Eosinophilic esophagitis. What a term and what the f… is this? He explained this is a chronic immune system disease in which a type of white blood cell (eosinophil) builds up in the lining of the tube that connects your mouth to your stomach (oesophagus). This build-up, which is a reaction to foods, allergens or acid reflux, can inflame or injure the oesophageal tissue. Damaged oesophageal tissue can lead to difficulty swallowing or cause food to get stuck when you swallow. The eosinophils multiply in your oesophagus and produce a protein that causes inflammation. This made perfect sense and then I understood why all the pains, difficulty swallowing & vomiting for over a year. He was then prescribed a treatment which included a corticosteroid drug Axotide® and we were referred to an Allergist. His treatment gave him relief and we started having a normal life. However, I was hoping his allergy results would help exclude foods from his diet, so he would not be dependent on corticosteroids. He was on this drug for a year and I started seeing other changes in my son (mood swings, memory & behaviour) and the worse for me was fatigue, loss of appetite and muscle weakness. My son is a football addict and plays in the local club in my area. I noticed a drop in his performance which affected him a lot as he used to be a very good player.

This is when I started self-educating myself around his illness and read a lot around Gut Health and how to maintain a health gut with foods. I am not a fan of medical drugs as I believe healthy foods and a healthy lifestyle are essential to protect our bodies and boost our immune system. I read books and watched videos by famous doctors, dieticians and nutritionists. One common advice from most of them was around the benefits of Home-made BROTHand FERMENTED FOODS. I further on got interested to know more around FODMAPS etc. At started implementing this and changed the whole family’s diet and fed my son with BROTH every single day. I encouraged him to eat home-made fermented vegetables and I also started making my own fermented drink KOMBUCHA. I slowly reduced his medication from 2 times a day to just once (at night)! I spoke to his doctor who was really open to his diet change and we agreed to stop his medication and see if this was helping.

The process is on-going and in a few months his doctor will perform another endoscopy to see what his gut looks like. So, watch this space as I am also eager to know the results.

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