Over the last year I've come to the conclusion that the only way to really help the grandparents in any lasting way is to go through the GAPS diet with them. Both have had extensive courses of antibiotics in the past and though they are rather resilient and eat only home cooked food, there are still signs that their digestion is not functioning optimally. As Hippocrates said, "all disease begins in the gut," so that is what I'm targeting.
The first step in instituting this diet at home is simply explaining it and convincing the fam that it is necessary. Over the last few years, I've at least instilled some ideas about the value of organic food and the dangers of too much sugar, but this is an overhaul on a much bigger scale. One of the biggest challenges is that there are extremely few resources that explain the role of bacteria in gut and overall health in Russian. I've translated certain articles on Google Translate, which is a godsend, but some of them are awkward/hard to read, or simply too technical.
One article in Russian that gives a good overview is Вновь открытый орган, translated as "An Organ Rediscovered," which refers to the gut, or perhaps the human microbiome, which is gaining organ status in the literature recently. The website I got it from, miloserdie.ru, is some sort of Orthodox Christian non-profit and has tabs that lead to articles on/for alcoholics, homeless people, orphans, and, the tab I got my article from - "the sick, the invalids, and the elderly." My grandma got a kick out of that subtitle. What's cool about the article is that it makes direct mention of the GAPS diet and its creator, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. I've also printed out a stack of 30+ pages from the Russian-language version of the full GAPS diet. One factor that works in favor of them adopting this therapeutic diet is that it's very close to standard recommendations any Russian will give you, diet wise, if you're having upset stomach: eat more boiled, lightly cooked foods, drink tea, etc. Here's to hoping that with some interesting background info and some convincing, we could give this a shot.
The first step in instituting this diet at home is simply explaining it and convincing the fam that it is necessary. Over the last few years, I've at least instilled some ideas about the value of organic food and the dangers of too much sugar, but this is an overhaul on a much bigger scale. One of the biggest challenges is that there are extremely few resources that explain the role of bacteria in gut and overall health in Russian. I've translated certain articles on Google Translate, which is a godsend, but some of them are awkward/hard to read, or simply too technical.
One article in Russian that gives a good overview is Вновь открытый орган, translated as "An Organ Rediscovered," which refers to the gut, or perhaps the human microbiome, which is gaining organ status in the literature recently. The website I got it from, miloserdie.ru, is some sort of Orthodox Christian non-profit and has tabs that lead to articles on/for alcoholics, homeless people, orphans, and, the tab I got my article from - "the sick, the invalids, and the elderly." My grandma got a kick out of that subtitle. What's cool about the article is that it makes direct mention of the GAPS diet and its creator, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. I've also printed out a stack of 30+ pages from the Russian-language version of the full GAPS diet. One factor that works in favor of them adopting this therapeutic diet is that it's very close to standard recommendations any Russian will give you, diet wise, if you're having upset stomach: eat more boiled, lightly cooked foods, drink tea, etc. Here's to hoping that with some interesting background info and some convincing, we could give this a shot.
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