My name's Kenny Honnas and I'm going to prove to you that severe Ulcerative
Colitis can be completely healed by showing you my before and after colonoscopies and
showing you exactly what I ate to get better.
In 2014 I was diagnosed with severe Ulcerative Colitis.
I experienced a flare that was so bad I was filling toilet bowls with pure blood.
After weeks of constant bloody diarrhea throughout the day and night, I was eventually hospitalized.
I lost 30lbs in two weeks, had four blood transfusions, and was just barely able to
avoid having my colon surgically removed.
The pain, embarrassment, and fear of going
out in public was life altering. But I refused to accept living like that for the rest of
my life. So I spent the next two years studying, learning, and experimenting with different
dietary approaches. I didn't want remission, I wanted to be healed. And my definition of
healing is this: to be able to consume a full range of foods without bleeding, mucus, urgency
or diarrhea; to have well-formed, solid bowel movements; and to be on no medication. To
be healthy. I wanted to be able to go out and eat with my friends and family without
fear of soiling myself. And my answer was the gut microbiome. A compromised gut microbiome
is something that's been touched on in research studies for years as a possible cause
of inflammatory bowel disease. But for some reason it's never been confirmed. So I
dove deeper. As I read study after study, I realized that a compromised gut microbiome
is something that we all IBD patients seem to have in common. So I wondered what would
happen if I optimized my gut microbiome and reversed the dysbiosis. So that's exactly
what I did by following a few basic nutritional principles and concepts, that I'm going
to show you, and the results speak for themselves.
I'm in clinical and endoscopic remission,
but it's so much more than that. Absolutely no intestinal inflammation, no ulcers, no
mucus, no bleeding, and no medication. My goal and definition of complete healing has
been achieved. And this is how. I stopped drinking tap water. I swapped it out for reverse
osmosis purified water because I don't want any chlorine or chemicals in my water
that could kill off the good bacteria in my gut microbiome.
I do intermittent fasting
to give the digestive system plenty of rest. I only eat two meals per day, and my first
meal is always a massive smoothie.
Probiotic bacteria is essential for an optimized gut
microbiome. So I make sure to consume large amounts of prebiotic soluble fiber from fruits
because probiotic bacteria feed off of prebiotics.
My favorite prebiotics are specifically blueberries
because they've been shown to help alleviate and protect against Ulcerative Colitis. I
eat at least two cups every single day, maybe more. And I love chocolate. Cacao powder is
another one of my favorite ingredients because it's a prebiotic as well as an awesome
anti-inflammatory that's been shown to alleviate Ulcerative Colitis.
And then the most important ingredient, raw unpasteurized milk kefir.
Kefir is a type of sour milk that has been around since the biblical times
and has been shown to heal ulcers in modern research.
The fermentation process makes it suitable for people with lactose intolerance and makes
it extremely high in probiotic bacteria.
One of the best foods for the microbiome,
God designs things pretty cool.
In my studies to further analyze and look for similarities
between patients with IBD, I discovered that IBD patients can often have a stagnant and
clogged lymphatic system causing inflammation to be trapped inside the intestines. The incredibly
simple solution to this is to exercise because the lymphatic system is powered by musculoskeletal
movement. So lifting gets the lymphatic system flowing and helps dissipate that inflammation
by allowing a functional trafficking of immune cells.
I eat my second and final meal about
6-7 hours after my first meal. This is where I'm really flexible, it's my favorite
meal of the day. It usually contains some sort of meat and potatoes, and this is my
favorite variation of it. Steak, potato wedges, and guac. The goal of each meal is to have
a high content of prebiotic and probiotic foods. Grassfed beef is extremely nutritious,
but the specific microbiome enhancing foods in this meal are the potatoes, guac, fermented
veggies, and raw milk. Potatoes and avocados are fantastic prebiotics since they are both
full of prebiotic soluble fiber. The probiotic foods are fermented vegetables and raw milk.
Fermented foods have been shown to be high in live probiotic bacteria and have a very
extensive list of health benefits that include being an antimicrobial, and an antifungal,
as well as reducing inflammation, and stopping diarrhea. Homemade fermented vegetables and
raw kefir are my two fermented food powerhouses that are huge microbiome optimizers.
That's it, it can be that simple. These are the nutritional concepts and principles that I used to heal
myself. And if you look at other people who are healing, because it's becoming more
and more common, you'll see that they optimized their gut microbiome in one way or another.
It doesn't have to be my way because there are several routes to optimizing the microbiome.
I just like my way best. I know what it's like to hurt from IBD, I know what it's
like to be sick, I understand the suffering, I understand that broken feeling. I also know
what it's like to get better. It's a very difficult process, but it's very very
possible. Getting healed is hard, staying healed is easy. But I really believe with
all of my heart that the majority of people can heal from IBD the same way I did,
by optimizing the gut microbiome.