Curious: Meds vs. Food adjustments

I am confused. I didn't think there were any clinically controlled research trials on any diet.

Sorry to be so scattered - there are a number of interacting possibilities. Food digestion happens all along the way from the mouth on down - but if digestion is impaired, food is not broken down into absorbable components. If the undigested food comes to the colon and the mucous membrane has been compromised due to environmental factors (gut infection, stress, NSAIDs, alcohol and others) and the gut is permeable as a result, food protein chains, which are not normally absorbable, pass through into the blood and provoke an immune response. That is why I said that enteral diets avoid that problem because they only have amino acids which will not provoke an immune response (I did not say it very well though). There is another aspect that might be happening - the undigested food may be supporting bacterial overgrowth - or the excessive growth of a few bacteria which adapt best to the undigested food that they now enjoy. In a similar way, if there is gut permeability, some bacteria - likely the ones flourishing on undigested food - can pass into the blood and provoke an immune response. This means that there are two mechanisms that could account for food-provoked inflammation: actual food allergy or immune reaction to bacteria being fed by the undigested food. Eliminating the indigestible foods MIGHT help to control inflammation from that source. This will not work if the bacteria are not controlled by restricting their food supply. From the food allergy perspective - other food allergies may be present and you could have allergies to ANY food that was eaten while digestion was impaired and the gut was permeable. These two possibilities are not mutually exclusive - they could both contribute to gut inflammation. The only certainty is that the bacterial immune reaction has been verified experimentally.