Why is your microbiome important to your health?
Hippocrates states: disease starts in the gut- death begins in the colon.
Centuries ago people knew this to be true. Today we call it the microbiome. It helps our bodies do so much. Understanding how it works, what it takes part in, and how it can change your health.
A healthy gut works like this: extracting energy and nutrients from the food we eat, our gut builds up our immune system. produces dozens of hormones that influence everything from our appetite, and our instincts to our mood. A healthy gut doesn’t cause bad food cravings. It helps create a healthy mental frame of mind.
Scientists have learned just how closely our gut and thoughts are intertwined.
It has been proven that bad bacteria can send signals to the brain telling you to crave certain foods. They can influence our mood in good or bad ways, adding to or reducing anxiety.
Deep in our intestines are over 100 million neurons or cells spread out in a thin layer that extends all the way from our throat to our rectum – which help makeup what is now called the ‘gut-brain axis’
What causes our microbiome to become unhealthy?
Harmful Foods & Toxins
Unfiltered Tap water, most of our water supply has issues. Buy a good quality water filter to help clean up the quality of your water.
Things like Chlorine in your water help to reduce your gut bacteria. Not a good thing.
Enemy #1 is sugar
A major contributor to diabetes feeds bad bacteria that have no benefit in our bodies. These bad bacteria can cause cravings for sugar and refined carbs which can cause sugar blood levels to spike and fall.
Adds empty calories that can cause weight gain, scientists have linked refined sugar & artificial sweeteners to cancers. The body does not recognize these chemicals and therefore stores them as fat causing weight gain.
Antibiotics
As much good as they have done and continue to do, they do have a downside. It can destroy parts of your gut bacteria. Antibiotics can’t tell the difference between good and bad bacteria. After a round of antibiotics, you need to immediately start on a good quality multiple-strand probiotic from multiple types of fermented foods. This gives your gut the best natural assortment of probiotics to re-establishes as many good bacteria strands as possible.
Processed Foods
Foods prepared with chemical additives or processes that change the natural state of natural food or enhance flavor, increase natural shelf life, artificial colors, and protective agents against pathogens– are all damaging to your microbiome.
How are we to know which foods these are? Mostly, they come in a bag, bottle, or box, this is your first clue to carefully read the ingredients label.
if you have no idea what it is, maybe you shouldn’t eat it.
Preservatives & Emulsifiers
Preservatives are added to most packaged foods in order to slow or prevent the processes of oxidation and bacterial growth. This extends the shelf life and keeps you from getting a very bad pathogen, that can make you very ill. There are natural preservatives, salt, natural acids, oils, and vinegar which are easily digested and do no harm to your gut. These are used in certain foods such as salt-cured ham, barbecue sauces, and many of your fermented vegetables. Most other foods have artificial preservatives, most research indicates these preservatives can greatly reduce the variety, and numbers of your gut flora. Studies have shown they could be reducing our gut flora.
Emulsifiers are very common in packaged foods which helps to extend the shelf life of foods and keep ingredients from separating. Emulsifiers are common in many foods we eat daily from mayonnaise, salad dressing, biscuits, and yes even peanut butter. A number of research studies have shown how these ingredients negatively affect the makeup of our gut bacteria and damage the protective mucous layer that shields our intestinal tract, resulting in inflammation and can lead to bacterial infection. (Think of IBS, and Crohn’s disease.)
Artificial Food Coloring
Food coloring used today has been found to have antibacterial properties. Which stops the growth of pathogens or bad bacteria.
Alcohol is very effective at killing bacteria which is why it is used in sanitary wipes, mouth wash and for cleaning cuts and minor injuries. Consuming too much alcohol found in beer and other drinkable spirits can again reduce your good gut bacteria.
A little wine can be a benefit to your gut microbiome.
Cheap Meat & Dairy
Eating excessive cheap (red) meat is widely identified as a cause of heart disease, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure add alcohol and you get the perfect combination for gout and other diseases, artificial hormones, and GMOs.
Cheap commodity milk can contain GMOs & artificial hormones. Many people have low lactase enzymes and lack the enzymes to break down milk protein.
Real milk is not cheap, reduce how much you consume, and make it count with quality small local farmed organic milk. You will feel the difference.
Organic meat & dairy are key to better health. Organic A two-gene milk can help you get the minerals and vitamins you need.
Portion size here is important, more is not better. Quality over quantity. Most people have a hard time digesting meat as our bodies do not create a specific enzyme to break it down, therefore having enough good bacteria and digestive enzymes is crucial for proper food digestion of these two needed food groups.
The new plant-based highly processed meats are high in GMO soy and other ingredients that have been linked to cancer. Your body can not identify artificial ingredients, most of it will be stored as fat and can wreak havoc on your digestive system and microbiome.
Processed meats
Ham, bacon, sausage, and salami all have chemical additives, and preservatives and are highly processed.
These should be removed or reduced in use significantly.
What are we supposed to do to keep our microbiome healthy?
Maintaining good gut flora
Starts with having a regular food plan that includes natural foods high in probiotics these are Fermented foods.
Most people today are not getting enough meaningful fiber in their daily diet. Highly processed foods are very low in quality fiber regardless of how many grams they can claim to have.
Healthy fats and oils can be very difficult to get into our diet. Eating foods low in cane sugar and artificial sweeteners, reducing alcohol consumption, reducing refined carbs, and sodas including sugar-free. Reduce water consumption with chlorine. Use correct portion size of organic meat and small farm organic A two gene dairy.
Increase your daily intake of organic fruits & vegetables.
Exercise regularly!! Yes, exercise is crucial to your overall health and longevity, muscle tone, muscle function, bone health, and bone structure, but exercise is just as crucial.
Forgive others, a hard lesson to learn for some of us is that forgiveness is for you, not them it reduces tension in your body and stresses daily. This improves your mental health and mood creating a better quality of emotional health and environment. Practice empathy and listen more than you speak, and manage anger with loved ones. Breathe deeply.
How do we know what probiotics are best and which strands and numbers?
Let’s look at fermented vegetables. Harvard Health. Edu
State, “ Fermented foods are preserved using an age-old process not only boosts the food’s shelf life and nutritional value but can give your body a dose of healthy probiotics, which are live microorganisms crucial to healthy digestion, says Dr. David S. Ludwig, a professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.” Kelly Bilodeau states. Not all fermented foods are created equal.
The foods that give your body beneficial probiotics are those fermented using natural processes and containing probiotics. Live cultures are found in not only yogurt and a yogurt-like drink called kefir, but also in Korean pickled vegetables called kimchi, sauerkraut, and some pickles. The jars of pickles you can buy off the shelf at the supermarket are sometimes pickled using vinegar and not the natural fermentation process using live organisms, which means they don’t contain probiotics. Real fermented foods usually are bought online not at retail stores. Confirms Dr. Ludwig.
“Consuming these on regular bases can greatly increase your bacteria diversity and strengthen your immune system.”
The most researched probiotics come from fermented milk. Yes, that’s right fermented milk has more beneficial probiotics than any other group combined. Let’s look at the different fermented dairy. yogurt usually has two to five strands of bacteria; these strands are selected for the flavor and consistency of making good-tasting thick yogurt.
Curds, cottage cheese, and buttermilk are also fermented dairy products. The most researched of all fermented foods is called kefir, kefir is most researched more benefits than any other fermented food.
Kefir is said to come from the Cold climate areas in the North Caucasus, Eastern Europe, Russia, and Asian countries thousands of years ago. Our ancestors knew that drinking Kefir helped with teeth and gum health, kept the gut healthy, and had antibacterial, anti-fungal, anti-cancer properties, and excellent calcium absorption to help have healthy strong bones, phosphorus, magnesium, vitamin K, and many B vitamins. A peer review research paper clearly states” Many studies revealed that kefir acts on different cancers such as colorectal cancer, malignant T lymphocytes, breast cancer, and lung carcinoma. In this review, we have focused on the anticancer properties of kefir.” Kefir: a powerful probiotic with anticancer properties.
Researched peer-reviewed paper:
The Microbiota and Health-Promoting Characteristics of the Fermented Beverage Kefir
“kefir has been associated with a range of health benefits such as cholesterol metabolism and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition, antimicrobial activity, tumor suppression, increased speed of wound healing, and modulation of the immune system including the alleviation of allergy and asthma. “
Peer-reviewed research paper
Short-Term Effects of Kefir-Fermented Milk Consumption on Bone Mineral Density and Bone Metabolism in a Randomized Clinical Trial of Osteoporotic Patients
“With health-promoting effects, including anti-thrombotic, antimicrobial, and calcium-absorption enhancing bio-activities.”
Effect of Probiotic Fermented Milk (Kefir) on Glycemic Control and Lipid Profile In Type 2 Diabetic Patients: A Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial
“The comparison of fasting blood glucose between two groups after the intervention was statistically significant (P=0.01). After the intervention, reduced HbA1C compared with the baseline value in the probiotic fermented milk group was statistically significant (P=0.001), also the HbA1C level significantly decreased in the probiotic group in comparison with the control group.”
Kefir has many differences and significant benefits from all other fermented foods and one everyone should be taking as in today’s world we should be our own healthcare Advocates and taking personal responsibility for our health should be our primary focus. People who take care of their health by eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and releasing Anxiety and stress have a much higher quality of life in their golden retirement years.
Did you know that KePro is the only kefir-based product available that is made the same way the scientific peer-reviewed research reports on all these wonderful benefits?
Not only that, KePro has the real fiber your body needs to keep your intestines in good shape.
healthy fats and oils add cancer-fighting properties and intestinal health.
KePro is only made from the best-sourced quality A two Gene milk from a small dairy farm possible.
Non-GMO No preservatives
No added sugar No Artificial Hormones
No Gluten Calcium
Healthy fats & oils Electrolytes
Natural fiber 33B CFUs per Gram
KePro is truly an all-in-one Harmonizing Gut Bacteria & Digestion product that can help keep your microbiome and immune systems in excellent shape.
