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The health of our body is supported by trillions of beneficial microorganisms that comprise our intestinal flora. These are invaluable, since in our body's digestive and nutritive process these are what breaks down the nutrients from our food to nurish our cells, organs and systems. When our intestinal flora thrive, we can, too. But when it is impaired or imbalanced, we become more prone to acute health problems, including IBS and other digestive problems, allergies and asthma, urinary tract and yeast infections, hormonal imbalance, obesity, and many others illnesses due to improper nutrition. 
Many people suffer from serious intestinal flora imbalances. Western medicine, for the most part, remains astonishingly ignorant about the importance of intestinal flora to overall health, but those who study more holistic medicine understand the important role that these "inner bacteria" play in your health. 

To use a gardener's analogy, when we are preparing our soil for food production, we rely on microbes in the soil that break down the minerals, making them available for use in the up and coming plants.  

The same is true for our bodies. It is no wonder since the God who created the biology for the soil and plants is the same God who made our bodies.  

Probiotics, or "good bacteria" in essence, transform the minerals and vitamins from our food into nutrients needed for our health. That's why people who take antibiotics (meaning "against life") often suffer serious digestive side effects in the days that follow, literally wiping out all the friendly intestinal bacteria that were providing essential nutrients!  

Intestinal microbes can die off by the millions with illness, stress, medication use, and poor diet and lifestyle, but what we eat is the most important factor in keeping the gut healthy. Good bacteria feast on fiber. Given a ready supply of vegetables, legumes, and whole grains, good bacteria live long and prosper.  

By the way, if you want healthy intestinal flora, it's very important to reduce your consumption of dietary sugars. When you consume more sugars, you alter the bacterial population in your gut, causing a shift toward bacteria that feed on sugars. The bad bacteria love refined sugar and animal fat. As you alter your diet to exclude refined sugars, the population of bacteria in your gut follows suit, shifting towards a non-sugar bacterial population.  

Polyphenols, found in foods like grapes/grape juice, apples, sweet potatoes and other brightly colored produce, are also helpful in fostering friendly microbes. Polyphenols are a group of antioxidants from plant foods, apart from vitamins A, C, and E and the mineral selenium, that work in the body to enhance a healthy body. 

Certain foods contain nutrients called prebiotics that set the stage for probiotic survival. Prebiotics help probiotics survive passage through the acidity of the stomach and small intestine, and foster their growth in the intestines and colon. They may also lower cholesterol levels and stabilize blood sugar, and are associated with decreased risk for osteoporosis. Prebiotics include fructooligosaccharides (FOS), and inulin, which are natural sugars found in bananas, raw chicory root, raw onions and leeks, raw fruit, soybeans, sweet potatoes, raw asparagus, and some whole grains. 

For many of us, however, diet alone is inadequate when we need to reestablish healthy gut flora. Remember, we are talking trillions of bacteria here! And age, poor diet, stress, disease, and drugs all take their toll on our intestines’ little helpers. If you’re entirely free of intestinal distress or other symptoms, your diet is probably keeping you balanced.  

It's easy to remedy this imbalance: Include a mostly raw whole foods diet, comprised of lots of raw vegetable juices, raw fruits and vegetables, grains, nuts and legumes and take probiotic supplements on a regular basis. This will feed your digestive tract the friendly bacteria you need. Soon you will find your health will start to flourish.

Be careful of using store-bought yogurt to supplement your diet, since most of these are pasteurized, and pasteurization kills the friendly bacteria.  

When used alongside a healthy diet and nutritional supplements, probiotics can make a real, sustained difference in your long-term preventive health.
 


Comments

Tress

02/07/2010 05:25:40

Hey, Flo's ibs is way worse than me and she bought probiotic pills in the vitamin aisle. Said they did nothing for her. ????

 



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