Hi Friends,
The Gut effects every other part of the body, as we have been learning. What we choose to eat makes a huge difference to our physical health. What goes into us, changes us, then leaves us either healthier or not. Listen to the words of Jesus:
“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body?” Mt 15:17 NIV
What goes in must come out…but it leaves a lasting effect, for good or bad. Jesus, of course, is not talking only about food here. He wants His listeners, including you and me, to understand that our heart’s attitude is really what matters. Food does come in and out of us, but if we truly want to honor His sacrifice, then we are going to want to be as healthy as we possibly can be. This requires His constant presence to help us make life choices. Thankfully, God has created our Gut to be resilient. That means, the better choices we make, the more our microbiome will correct itself and become beneficial to our health. Below are some things we can do to help our Gut Health so that we can achieve optimal health for them and us.
I got these first five from a doctor who has been treating dysbiosis and the health problems it brings for many, many years, but I have added my own insights. He calls it The 5R’s: Remove, Repair, Replace, Repopulate, Restore.
1- Remove: The first thing we must do seems obvious, we must get rid of any toxic foods that are causing us health problems. The point is to change our eating habits to be as healthy as possible, so the things that often cause problems must be taken out of our system. Known as the Elimination Diet, we remove all processed, gluten, dairy, alcohol, and sugar-rich foods. If we have any sensitivities or allergies to foods, these are often the culprits, as many have either been corrupted from what God created, or He never intended for us to overeat them. Take them out for a while, see how you feel, then you can start adding one at a time back into your diet, again paying attention to how you feel. As always, consult your doctor.
2- Repair: The second thing follows the first, you take out the bad, but then you add in the good nutrients. We want to feed ourselves the best foods possible. Think organic, non-GMO, free range meats, wild caught fish, and antibiotic and steroid free is what we are looking for. And if you think this is an expensive way to eat, as many people will often object, please understand that it is much more “expensive” to be sick. Not only to our wallet with future medical expenses, but to our peace and joy, as well as our witness as Christians. Change your diet and you can change your future health, and maybe someone else’s eternity too!
3- Replace: Next we want to enhance the enzymes in our bodies so that they can create the chemical reactions required to help support a healthy life. Enzymes are involved in everything from building muscle, to destroying toxins, and breaking down food particles during digestion. If we want to be able to process the good foods we are now taking in, we must eat foods with natural enzymes like: pineapples, papayas, mangoes, honey, bananas, avocados, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, kiwifruit and ginger. There are supplements available, but opt for God’s ingredients whenever possible. In addition to enzymes, we have to make sure our stomach acid is at its optimal level too. I can write a whole article about the devastating effects of all the antacids we consume, but the problem with them, especially the PPI (Proton Pump Inhibitors), is that they work… too well. They eliminate about 90 to 95% of our stomach acid, which leads to not being able to absorb all the good nutrients we think we are taking in! Remember: we are what we absorb! Understand we were meant to have acid in our stomach, so we must “replace” this too. If you happen to be on any of these, whether OTC or RX, please seek to fix the issue and get off of them as soon as you can. NOTE: If you have been on these medications for over a year or two, this requires a slow weaning off process, as we can quickly get rebound acid if we just stop, which can cause damage to our esophagus. Comment below if you need more information on this because it is one of my missions to eliminate antacids from common use in everyone I meet. Another way to help our stomach acid is to use Apple Cider Vinegar, as well as drink lemon water. So the point is: we must make sure both our enzymes and stomach acid are on board to be able to reach excellent health, so replace them.
4- Repopulate: There are so many probiotics on the market now, it can get very confusing which one to take. The issue is that many supplements do not even make it past the acid in our stomach to be able to do us any good. If you have to use them, make sure they are refrigerated as they are supposed to be live cultures, so they need to be kept alive by controlling their environmental temperature. But again, opt for what God has created instead. Any fermented foods should be filled with healthy strains. Foods like: fermented veggies (think sauerkraut, tempeh, kimchi, even pickles), dairy products (like traditional buttermilk, kefir, yogurt that lists live cultures), seasonings like miso, or drinks like the popular kombucha tea can give us plenty of good bacteria. Adding these to our diets might take some getting used to, but once you do, you will wonder how you lived without them. They really do make us feel that much healthier.
5-Restore: Because our microbiome is affected by everything, we cannot forget about destressing by growing in our spiritual relationship with our Lord. So we have to restore our spirit. Learning to control our mood and stress does wonders for our microbiome and our health. More on that below….
Here are some more to consider:
6. Feed your microbiome. Not only do we need probiotics, which are the actual bacteria, but we need prebiotics which are food to feed them. These are found in your fiber-rich foods like: greens (think kale, spinach and chard), garlic, onions, leeks, asparagus and exotic ingredients like chicory root, dandelion greens, Jerusalem artichokes, as well as some more common fruits like bananas and apples too. The interesting thing about prebiotics is that we humans cannot digest them! The fiber stays undigested until it gets into our lower intestines where it feeds the good microbes, but we get all the nutritional and health benefits.
7- Get dirty: Humans were created to be outdoors in the soil, planting and harvesting God’s foods. Sadly for too many of us, we have come a long way from God’s original plan. But we can learn to get back into nature as we were intended. Whether this means starting your own garden or joining a community one, walking barefoot on grass or sand, or even just petting animals, the more we can get involved with nature, the more good bacteria we can be exposed to. Just 30 minutes outside can serve as an “ultimate probiotic” bringing all sorts of health benefits to us. Here’s an interesting fact: 1tsp of dirt has as many organisms as there are people on our planet!! So go on a picnic or hike and reap the benefits.
8- Intermittent Fasting (IF): Here’s another topic that can take up several articles! This is where “WHEN” you eat can make a huge difference to your microbiome’s diversity, and so improve our health too. To simplify IF just think about limiting the hours in a day that you eat. Instead of eating for a 12 hour period or more, try lowering it to 6-8 hour range instead. I have never been the type of person to eat in the morning, so eliminating the traditional breakfast makes this easy for me. Instead I eat from 12pm to about 8…or sometimes even 2pm to 7. I am still “breaking my fast” just at a later time than others. There are literally dozens of benefits to eating this way, including saving on your grocery budget! As always, I am trying to stimulate your appetite to do your own research so please check out the hundreds of articles and videos available…I highly recommend looking up Dr Eric Berg on YouTube. The point I want to emphasize is that we need periods of rest from eating, so our microbiome can actually get through metabolizing one meal before it starts on another. Much like us, they need a break. Could this be why God designed us to sleep a good 8 hours at night? IF can help our microbiome grow and diversify instead of constantly having to work on digesting foods we eat. Check with your doctor, but consider this type of diet and see the results, then come back and comment below.
9- Antibacterial and water filters: These are repeats from last week, but I wanted to add them in for completion. Click on the link below for more information, but please limit the anti-bacterials and antibiotics, as they not only kill off bad bacteria we do not want, but also good bacteria that we do want. Use water filters whenever possible so that chlorine is not killing off your microbiome on your skin. Remember our skin is our largest organ and the means through which many microbes will enter into our bodies via our hands to nose and mouth. If our skin is toxic to good microbes, we cannot get them into our bodies.
10- Pray: I will mention this one again: DE-stressing is one of the biggest ways we can create a healthy environment for our microbiome, as well as for us. We will get more into this with the Pillar called Relaxation…but please learn to pray without ceasing because it is our number one defense against any and all attacks to our health.
I cannot say enough how vital the health of our microbiome is to our physical health. Please implement as many of these strategies as you can and let me know how you feel. I know I always feel so much more energetic and just generally healthy when I do. I know we all want that, so won’t you join me?
Until we meet again, keep lifting your eyes to God, He’s closer than you think.
<>< Peace, Diane
Click this link for more microbiome information:
