These
foods can dramatically improve not only your digestion, but your immune
system as well, helping to keep you from getting sick!
In addition, poor gut health is one of the main causes of autoimmune
diseases (including Thyroid problems), and some researchers think that
one of the required conditions for an autoimmune disease to exist is
leaky gut.
Some of the main causes of gut problems are:
- Chronic stress (VERY important to control your stress)
- bacterial imbalances (we'll discuss more below)
- Poor diet
- Excess toxins and gut-harming lectins
Please note:
if you have food intolerances to foods such as gluten, dairy, or
various grains, you'll still need to find out about those intolerances
and get rid of those foods in your plan if you're going to completely
fix your digestion issues.
It should also be noted that grains and legumes have the highest
concentrations of any foods of gut-harming lectins. While some people
may be able to get away with eating a lot of grains and legumes without
any noticeable harm to their gut, many people need to minimize or
eliminate grains and legumes in order to heal a damaged gut.
But aside from food intolerances and removal of gut-harming foods, I
think you'll be amazed to see how rapidly your digestion and bowel
movements improve once you start incorporating a LOT of these 7 foods
we'll discuss below!
This is important... even if you're
already eating 1 or 2 of these foods below, it's MUCH more powerful to
include as MANY as possible to dramatically improve your digestion.
So what exactly are we talking about... well, we're talking about probiotics from fermented foods, and also prebiotics to help FEED your gut bugs.
Unfortunately,
today’s modern diets are processed, pasteurized and basically ‘dead’
foods most of the time. What happens when people eat a diet heavy in
processed, ‘dead’ foods, is that harmful bacteria can take over in the
digestive systems, causing many problems—not only with the digestive
system, but the body as a whole.
Many diseases start in an unhealthy environment in our guts.
And this becomes even worse from taking antibiotics. While antibiotics
can kill dangerous pathogens, they also kill off the healthy and
beneficial bacteria in our bodies as well.
Probiotic actually
means "for life," and probiotics like lactobacillus, plantarum and
bifidis help immune cells fight disease, prevent diarrhea and
constipation, protect the mucous lining of the intestine, assist
digestion and provide the proper nutrients for healthy blood cells.
Probiotics are also responsible for the manufacture of B vitamins and
vitamin K right in the intestines where are immediately absorbed.
Eating too much unhealthy, processed, starchy or sugary foods can cause
bad bacteria
to grow out of control, making our immune systems weak, and affecting
our ability to metabolize and synthesize vitamins and nutrients.
The
intestines also function as one of the body’s most important immune
defenses. In fact, 70-80% or so of the body’s immune cells are present
in the intestines. Of course our immune systems protect us from
dangerous viruses, bacteria, and parasites, but they also control
responses to foods and food allergies as well.
Negative changes
in our intestinal flora can be associated with inflammatory bowel
disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome. It is
now thought that many allergic reactions, asthma, and even obesity are
tied to bacterial imbalances in the gut.
The good news though,
is that adding the right types of probiotics and good bacteria will
maintain or restore a healthy balance in your intestinal tract and
improve overall health in the entire body, and fight aging.
Although
we typically think of probiotics benefiting just the intestines, they
actually benefit the entire digestive system, including the mouth,
throat, stomach, etc.
Some of the other ways probiotics can benefit your body:
•
Probiotics can help prevent wrinkles and give you a glowing complexion
by eliminating the toxins and fighting free radicals that can damage
skin and cause early signs of wrinkling and sagging. And probiotics help
you digest your food better, so you get more nutrients in your body.
•
Probiotics can help you burn fat better by reducing cravings for
carbohydrates, sugar and alcohol and help you have more energy to be
more active.
• Probiotics help to protect your liver which is
reflected in your skin and eyes. When you keep toxins from building up
in the liver, you have younger looking skin with less liver spots, moles
and skin tags, and you have bright, clear eyes.
• Probiotics
help your hair and fingernails grow faster and stronger by keeping the
blood vessels surrounding your hair follicles nourished. Healthy blood
nourishes hair, skin and nails. Probiotics also help to break down
proteins in the diet that benefit hair and nails.
So what are the best sources of probiotics?
Kimchi
(pronounced Kim Chee) -This traditional spicy Korean
condiment is made of fermented cabbage and other vegetables and seasoned with
salt, garlic, ginger and chili peppers. Fermented vegetables make them
easier to digest as well as increasing the vitamin levels. I like to
have some Kimchi with my morning eggs for an extra daily probiotic
boost...mmm, tasty!
The types of beneficial bacteria in Kimchi are quite different
than the organisms in yogurt and other fermented foods, and variety
works best when it comes to probiotics!
Kombucha Tea
- This tea is made from a culture of symbiotic beneficial bacteria and
yeasts that has been popular in China for thousands of years. Kombucha
contains many important amino acids, B vitamins, and powerful substances
that can enhance your immune system. It’s also thought in health circles to help prevent cancer.
It may not be the "cure all" that many people make it out to be, but it's very healthy for your gut for sure!
Yogurt - Avoid the sweetened, heavily
processed yogurts, and instead go for unsweetened, plain, organic types
of yogurt. A good plain full-fat greek yogurt can be amazing with
berries, nuts, and a little stevia! And be sure the label says, “Live
cultures” to be sure that it's not pasteurized after culturing.
Kefir
- A cultured milk product and is generally helpful to those with
lactose intolerance. Kefir contains different types of beneficial
bacteria than yogurt does, as well as beneficial yeasts. Kefir contains
more bacterial strains that remain viable in the digestive system,
increasing the likelihood of intestinal colonization. As with yogurt,
try to avoid the sweetened varieties and get plain full-fat kefir and then add
your own stevia and/or vanilla if you need it a little sweeter. Kefir is great to use
in smoothies!
Remember, it is well known that in the Caucasus Mountains of eastern
Europe, that natives to that area drink kefir daily throughout their
lives and routinely live to over 100 years old. Just remember THAT when
some "guru" out there on the internet tells you that that all dairy is
bad for you.
Sauerkraut - This cabbage dish
has been salted and lacto-fermented over a period of weeks. The healthy
bacteria in sauerkraut produce beneficial enzymes as well as having
anti-carcinogenic substances. Make sure it’s fresh and not canned
sauerkraut which is likely to be “dead” from the heating during canning.
Tempeh
- A healthier form of fermented soybeans (generally soybeans are not a
healthy food-unless they are fermented). This soy food is easier to
digest and provides many valuable vitamins and nutrients, as well as
protein, calcium and iron, but without the antinutrients that non-fermented soy contains. The mold that is produced from the
fermentation produces a natural antibiotic that strengthens the immune
system.
Fermented drinks - Besides kombucha and
kefir, there are beginning to be many fermented fruit and vegetable
drinks showing up on the shelves of many healthy grocery stores and
health food stores. One of my favorites is called, “Inner Eco”, which is
a fermented coconut water, and can be found at Whole Foods and other
health food stores or specialty stores. This product contains one of the
highest concentrations of beneficial bacteria that I've seen with over
100 billion probiotics per Tablespoon, and at least a dozen strains!
I've also found a beet kvaas (fermented beet drink) at a local health
food store that I really enjoyed.
Some people don’t enjoy
the taste of fermented drinks like kombucha tea, so what I often suggest
for them is to mix kombucha tea with regular iced tea to balance the
taste. Personally, I love the taste of most brands of kombucha tea, and
some of the newer flavors brewed with ginger (or other flavors) in them
too are really delicious in my opinion.
In addition to the
naturally fermented foods we’ve talked about here, considering that we
consume a lot less bacteria in our food compared to our natural
ancestral diet, I think one of the smartest supplements you can take to
FIX your digestion problems and boost your immune system is a probiotic…
Something that I personally use, and is fairly new on the market is called:
Pro-X10
It's one of the
most powerful probiotic
supplements that I've seen yet to date… it also uses a patented
technology called micro-encapsulation which prevents most of the
probiotics from dying in your stomach and making it to where they need
to be... this gives Pro-X10 the equivalent of 50 Billion CFU compared to
other probiotic supplements since much more survive through to your
intestines.
But perhaps most interesting ingredient in Pro-X10 is
something called Actazin™ ... this unique substance
supports the
regeneration of gut-lining cells, as well as enhanced gut lining
protection. This means that even if the gut lining has been damaged by
exposure to harmful compounds, including dangerous wheat fragments like
gluten and gliadin (which most people’s guts have been damaged by), Actazin™ shows strong promise in
being able to help heal the damage and return the gut to normal
function.
So if you want to
fix your digestion, heal gluten damage, reduce GI inflammation, and improve your bowel movements,
definitely try out Pro-X10 ... I'm very excited about this product.
Don't forget about Prebiotics:
With all this talk about probiotics, please realize that it's quite
possible that prebiotics are just as important for gut health.
Prebiotics are basically fibers and resistant starch from various plant
foods that FEED your gut bugs and help the GOOD bugs multiply. On the
other hand, sugar in your diet tends to feed the BAD bugs, while fiber
feeds the good bugs.
Without getting into excess detail on the topic of prebiotics, just
realize that if you're getting a good variety of fruits, vegetables, and
nuts, you probably get plenty of prebiotics daily. It's also important
to pay attention to your ratio of sugar to prebiotics. Basically if
you eat more sugar (from candy, sweetened drinks, ice cream, cakes, etc)
and not enough fiber, you're probably feeding your BAD bugs more than
you're feeding your GOOD bugs, and therefore, you're setting yourself up
for gut imbalances and poor health.
In addition to prebiotics feeding your good gut bugs, there are certain
polyphenols and other antioxidants that feed your good bugs too... such
as certain phytochemicals found in coffee, red wine, pistachios,
cocoa, dark chocolate, and other superfoods.
Here is an article I wrote on the gut benefits of
red wine. And here is another interesting article on the gut benefits of
pistachios. And here's an article on the gut benefits of
dark chocolate and cocoa.
