Paula Youmell, RN Registered Nurse, Natural Health Educator, Author
Healthy Gut Flora = Healthy Human
Promoting healthy gut flora is common knowledge among holistic healers and becoming more a part of mainstream thinking. The gut and the gut’s flora is the seat of nutrient synthesis, healthy immunity, healthy nervous system function, and ultimately healthy human bodies! A healthy gut is comprised of: 1. A well-functioning digestive tract with adequate levels of digestive enzymes and acids. 2. Healthy lining throughout the entire digestive tract. The digestive tract lining is the surface membrane on the interior walls of your digestive tract organs. 3. Balance of healthy micro-organisms throughout the entire digestive tract. 4. Daily, healthy bowel movements without strain or pain. Healthy gut micro-organisms help to create and maintain the bodies various immune cells and keeps the immune system balanced. 80-85% of our immunity is located in the gut wall. It just makes good sense to maintain healthy gut flora! Our gut flora helps to:
digest food so we can absorb and use nutrients, manufacture nutrients necessary for health and life, maintain healthy bowel function to avoid constipation or diarrhea, prevent digestive tract symptoms and illnesses, prevent invasion by pathogenic organisms, neutralize toxic substances, maintain a healthy nervous system (think about the saying “gut feeling”), and many, many more crucial functions in the human body. Healthy gut flora is essential to and synonymous with good health.
What Compromises Healthy Gut Flora? 1. Manufactured, processed 'foods' because they are:
devoid of nutrition, they lack beneficial microbial flora, they lack the fiber and nutrients that feed good gut microbes, they contain GMOs that destroy healthy gut microbes, they are high in sugar and refined grains that feed unhealthy gut bacteria. Unhealthy gut bacteria compete for space with and can destroy healthy gut bacteria. Manufactured 'foods' are also high in chemicals that destroy healthy gut bacteria: preservatives, artificial flavors and colors, and food 'enhancing' chemicals (MSG, etc.) to name but a few food additives. “I eat Whole Foods” is a great mantra OR “How will this effect my cellular health, my gut health?”
2. Antibiotics destroy gut bacteria. Antibiotics are the prescriptions you take as well as the antibiotics in the food you eat such as factory farm raised chicken, beef, pork, fish, eggs, and dairy. 3. Drinking chlorinated and fluoridated water.
4. Refined sugar. Corn syrup. Soda. 5. Aspartame and other artificial sweeteners. 6. Genetically modified (GMO) foods disrupt normal healthy gut flora. The human body does not recognize GMOs as nature made foods because they are not. 7. Birth control pills, hormonal methods of birth control, Hormone Replacement Therapy - HRT, prescription drugs, and over the counter medications. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications (Tylenol, ibuprofen, Midol, etc.). 8. Chemicals used to grow produce in non-organic farming methods:
herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, synthetic fertilizers, and chemicals used to kill off the top plants (Industrial potato production is an example; chemicals are used to kill the potato plant above ground for easier potato digging. Result: Commercial potatoes are very high in agricultural chemicals.)
9. Stress: real and perceived stress. Lack of sleep which raises stress hormones. 10. Antibacterial soaps, hand sanitizers, and lotions. Antibacterial laundry soaps, dish soaps, and household cleaners. 11. Environmental Pollution: we are the microcosm of the macrocosm. What pollutes the earth pollutes your body, your gut.
How Can I Maintain or Regain My Healthy Gut Flora? 1. Eat WHOLE foods! Get rid of anything that nature did not make or animal products that were not raised naturally. Chew your whole food well for release of nutrients and enzymes as well as the breakdown of the fiber. Organic veggies, root veggies, have soil microbes on them. Buy locally grown, organic produce and do not be disturbed by a little bit of dirt! Eat root veggies grown in organic soil. Gently wash the dirt off so you do not destroy all soil microbes and eat the peelings!
2. Do not use antibiotics unless it is a true life saving event. Learn to use natural methods of healing. If you must use an antibiotic make certain to follow the course of antibiotic therapy with vigorous methods to re-establish healthy gut flora. See below. 3. Take probiotics. A brand I recommend, only because I have had personal success with reestablishing healthy gut flora, is Pharmax. I advise using a whole food diet as your source of nutrients. However, after a round of antibiotics, a good probiotic supplement helps re-establish the normal gut flora to ensure good health. Take probiotics for several months. Use different brands to be exposed to different formulations and a variety of gut microbes. Continue to maintain healthy gut flora with whole food eating. 4. AVOID the above known gut microbial killers at all costs. Your gut health is your whole body health. 5. Avoid factory farmed meat and animal products as they use antibiotics in the animals feed. The animal feed is most likely GMO soy and grains creating GMO tainted meat, eggs, and dairy products. If the animals eat GMO organisms, the GMO organisms are part of the animal. The same is true for your body. If you eat GMO organisms, those GMO organisms are now part of your body cells. You are what you eat. 6. Eat organic produce to avoid the chemicals used in non-organic farming. 7. Avoid genetically modified foods. They are not whole or natural. Need I say more? 8. Drink water that is pure; no chlorine or fluoride added. 9. Avoid antibacterial soaps, lotions, and hand sanitizers. Learn natural ways to keep your immune system healthy. If you must use a hand sanitizer; make it out of natural ingredients and essential oils.
10. Learn natural and non-hormonal methods of birth control. Synthetic hormones disrupt healthy microflora and have a host of other dangerous side effects. 11. Eat fermented foods: yogurt, kefir, real sour cream and cultured butter/buttermilk, sauerkraut and kimchi. Fermented foods that have been heated after fermentation no longer contain the gut enhancing bacteria. Canned sauerkraut is an example of a fermented food that is heated for preservation. The canning process is heat and this destroys the good micro-organisms. Raw sauerkraut is not heated and this maintains the healthy gut enhancing organisms. 12. Raw apple cider vinegar contains the mother, the culture that ferments cider into vinegar. Use raw apple cider vinegar to make your own salad dressing, sprinkle over veggies, or use as a rejuvenating drink in water mixed with raw, local honey. 13. Make healthy lifestyle choices around stress, exercise, time outside, getting natural sunlight and fresh air. Avoid the news as it is negative and stresses your very being. Avoid negative people for the same reason.
(FYI: Sun exposure is not bad, we need it to thrive. Over doing sun and burning your skin is not a healthy choice. 15 minutes of naked, full sun everyday would benefit body, heart, mind, and soul!)
Fermenting Your Own Veggies
Fermenting veggies is a great way to get healthy microbes into your Gastro-Intestinal tract. Here are some general guidelines: http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2014/02/04/i-popped-the-cranberry-of-fermentation Culturing your own foods is rather easy, especially once you get into the swing of things. Some people just do not have the time or interest in home veggie fermentation. Learn to understand and appreciate the value of fermented foods. Several companies make delicious versions for you!! With the ever increasing realization that gut microbes are important for the health of every cell in our bodies, more and more brands of raw, fermented veggies will hit the market. This is how our culture functions‌ when there is a need; that need gets filled with the products needed! In the case of fermented veggies, this is a good thing!
Deep Root Organic fermented veggies Wild Brine: raw, cultured sauerkraut and pickles Rejuvenate Organic Kimchi, Sauerkraut, and Vegi-Delite Hawthorne Valley Have fun eating good gut food! Paula
Copyright © Paula Youmell, RN, Wise Woman Nurse
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