Purely Nourished

Healthy Gut

Your over­all health is directly cor­re­lated to the health of your gut. It’s the bar­rier that sep­a­rates your insides from the out­side and fil­ters what is poten­tially harm­ful to your body. Fuel your body with the right foods and your diges­tive sys­tem will use them to replen­ish your body and keep you func­tion­ing well; Fill your body with “tox­ins” and your body will work to fight off those “invaders”.

 

Tox­ins and invaders come in the form of preser­v­a­tives, alco­hol, sugar, salt, antibi­otics. When the body has to con­tin­u­ally fight off empty calo­ries, it spends less time fuel­ing your bod­ies nec­es­sary processes. Plus these tox­ins kill ben­e­fi­cial intesti­nal flora, your immu­nity to colds and bugs, and replace it with chem­i­cals and side effects in the form of  inflam­ma­tion, cramps, gas, heart burn, and IBS. These symp­toms are only the begin­ning. Con­tinue to fill your body with crap and even­tu­ally more harm­ful symp­toms appear, dis­ease poten­tially fol­low­ing. At that point symp­toms aren’t always noticed in the mid-section of the body; They can man­i­fest in other areas of your body due to defi­cien­cies caused by those toxins.

Main­tain a healthy gut by eat­ing a wide vari­ety of fruits and veg­eta­bles . They con­tain roughage for your gut in the form of fiber.  Fuel your body with foods that make it happy. If you know you have a sen­si­tiv­ity to a food, avoid it. It’s not worth the dis­tress it causes your body.

 

  • Fiber aids with diges­tion. There are two types of fiber both sol­u­ble and unsol­u­ble fiber. Try t get a healthy serv­ing of this roughage daily to keep your gut in tip top shape. Sol­u­ble fiber binds with tox­ins and helps elim­i­nate them. Bonus: Sol­u­ble fiber gives you a sense of full­ness, sta­bi­lizes blood sugar and reduces crav­ings. Insol­u­ble fiber is the street cleaner; it keeps you regular.
  • Indi­vid­u­als who con­sume a healthy serv­ing of fiber daily (for men at least 29g and women at least 26g) are more likely to main­tain a healthy weight  and are less likely to suf­fer from dis­ease. Researchers sug­gest that’s accu­rate because any poten­tially harm­ful “toxin” is elim­i­nated quickly there­fore, it doesn’t have a chance to wreak havoc.
  • Other ben­e­fi­cial options are fer­mented foods. Fer­mented foods work to keep the diges­tive system’s bac­te­ria in check. Try to incor­po­rate at least one a day to improve digestibil­ity of foods.
  • Lastly, stay hydrated. Water also plays a role in flush­ing out unwanted “toxins.”
Twitt
Posted by admin On September - 26 - 2011 Blog Post carousel Healthy Gut Uncategorized

The Benefits of Fermentation

Fer­men­ta­tion is the uti­liza­tion of nat­u­rally occur­ring micro­scopic bac­te­ria and fungi in foods to trans­form pro­teins and starches into acetic and lac­tic acid as well as alco­hol. This process is nec­es­sary for numer­ous ben­e­fits including:

  • Improved nutri­tional con­tent of the food
  • Improved digestibil­ity of foods
  • Removal of tox­ins and anti-nutrients
  • preser­va­tion and cre­ation of impor­tant enzymes

Com­mon fer­mented food:

  1. kim­chi
  2. sauer­kraut
  3. yogurt
  4. kefir
  5. kom­bucha
  6. wine
  7. sour­dough bread
  8. cheese
Out of all the preser­va­tion and prepa­ra­tion tech­niques, fer­men­ta­tion is the only type that does not destroy some nutri­ents, can cre­ate more, and enhance oth­ers. Omega 3 fatty acids, detox­i­fy­ing agents and many B vit­a­mins includ­ing folic acid, riboflavin, niacin, thi­amin, and biotin are pre­served through fermentation.

The improved digestibil­ity of foods caused by fer­men­ta­tion allows for proper nutri­ent absorp­tion. For exam­ple, the process trans­forms the sugar in dairy into lac­tic acid, a more tol­er­a­ble form of lac­tose, allow­ing per­sons with an intol­er­ance to stand fer­mented forms of dairy.

Fer­men­ta­tion Removes tox­ins and harm­ful bac­te­ria found in many foods to resist poten­tial infec­tion and illness.

The most widely rec­og­nized ben­e­fits of fer­men­ta­tion are in the preser­va­tion and cre­ation of enzymes,  impor­tant for all chem­i­cal reac­tions in the body, and the preser­va­tion and pro­lif­er­a­tion of Pro­bi­otic organ­isms, known to pro­tect the body against intesti­nal infec­tion and diges­tive disorders.

  • Diges­tive dis­or­ders can be the cause for poor nutri­ent absorp­tion inevitably lead­ing to issues in other areas of the body such as rashes, brain fog, and chronic fatigue. These prob­lems are the bod­ies way of telling the brain that some­thing is not work­ing correctly.
  • Ben­e­fi­cial Pro­bi­otics crowd out harm­ful bac­te­ria pro­tect­ing the intesti­nal lin­ing from infec­tion and inflammation

Incor­po­rat­ing fer­mented foods into your diet is a great way to keep your diges­tive tract and immune sys­tem in tip top shape. Start slowly and notice the role that each fer­mented food plays in your body. You may feel the ben­e­fits of some and not of oth­ers. To learn more about fer­men­ta­tion and its ben­e­fits, check out the Jour­nal of Ben­e­fi­cial Microbes or one of the many cook­books (Wild Fer­men­ta­tion by San­dor Katz) that also teach you how to home-ferment. Happy Fermenting!

Twitt
Posted by admin On April - 15 - 2010 carousel The Benefits of Fermentation Uncategorized