The human is made up of roughly
equal numbers of body cells and
microbes. Around 100 trillion good bacteria
live in and on our bodies. Because bacteria are so small, we usually ignore them unless we get an
infection, then we try to kill them.
If we think of bacteria at all it
is
usually negatively. In fact we are continually at war with bacteria and
it is a huge ongoing battle. Most of us are not even aware that we
started the fight and it harms us more than we know.
There are bacteria
that are good and necessary to keep us healthy, and they are also being
killed. Remarkably, scientists estimate that only 1-10% of total
bacteria have even been discovered. It is important to
understand the difference between good bacteria and bad bacteria.
“Good” bacteria, also known as beneficial bacteria, are defined as any
bacteria that are beneficial to the body and enhance health. Actually, most
bacteria are “good.” Comparatively speaking, there are only a
handful of “bad” bacteria out there.
Of the total bacteria in our bodies, a healthy
balance is 85% good bacteria and 15% bad bacteria. Good bacteria
in our gut help to protect us by crowding out some of their dangerous
relatives that can cause disease. One of the
most well known types of good bacteria are probiotics. Many of
these bacteria reside in our gut, helping our body break down food and
absorb nutrients. Not only do we live in harmony with these good
bacteria, but they are essential to our survival.
Exposure
to antibiotics can alter a person's bacteria, sometimes
upsetting the ability of the microbiome to protect us. There are
many other factors that can wear away at your stomach's protective
barrier and cause poor gut health such as stress, old age, tobacco or
alcohol, or regular use of common pain relievers. This may allow growth
of harmful bacteria which can interfere with your immune response and
cause multiple problems.
The digestive system is really very important for our well being, as it
is involved in so many processes. If our gut health is poor, we can end
up with impaired immune and nervous systems, and it can also wreak
havoc with our hormonal function throughout the body. This is because
our gastrointestinal tract is loaded with neurons that release the same
neurotransmitters found in the brain. This is why you have "gut
feelings" and any upset to this equilibrium can throw your body and
mood into chaos.
H.
pylori is a common type of bacteria that grows in the digestive tract
and has a tendency to attack the stomach lining. It infects the
stomachs of roughly 60 percent of the world’s adult population. H.
pylori infections are usually harmless, but they’re responsible for the
majority of ulcers in the stomach and small intestine.
The
second big issue here is to understand fairly recent changes in the
food supply. Factory farming is an unsustainable method of raising food
animals that concentrates large numbers of animals into confined
spaces. Antibiotics are added to the animal feed or drinking water of
cattle, hogs, poultry and other food-producing animals that are not
sick to help them gain weight faster or use less food to gain weight
and control diseases. Giving antibiotics to animals will kill many
bacteria, but resistant bacteria can survive and multiply. When food
animals are slaughtered and processed, these bacteria can contaminate
the meat or other animal products.
Also top soil depletion due
to soil and water erosion and intensive use of chemicals is a grave
threat to our continued ability to produce adequate food. Human
security at risk as depletion of soil accelerates. Steadily and
alarmingly, humans have been depleting Earth's soil resources faster
than the nutrients can be replenished. If this trajectory does not
change, soil erosion, combined with the effects of climate change, will
present a huge risk to global food security.
Modern intensive agricultural methods have stripped
increasing amounts of nutrients from the soil in which the food we eat and fruits and vegetables have become less nutritious.
Approximately 40 percent
of soil used for agriculture around the world is either degraded or
seriously degraded - meaning, among other things, that 70 percent of
the topsoil - the layer allowing plants to grow - is gone.
The majority of our food supply has been, devoid of adequate
amounts of vital nutrients for decades. Most
processed foods have chemical additives in them that are supposed to
make up for all those deficiencies, these substitutes usually flavor enhancers and sugar, etc. We are not keeping up
with the nutritional needs of the average individual. And the volume of fast food consumed every day is even more deficient in nutrients.
More and more, chemicals are used to increase the productivity of
vegetables that are grown on large commercial farms. Those chemicals
become part of fruits and vegetables as do all the chemicals and
hormones used to create bigger, more cost-effective animals used to
feed us.Those chemicals are not something that the body was
made to digest and are toxic, which leads to
disease. Add to that most foods lack adequate amounts of vitamins and
minerals and the causes of so many disorders like diabetes and heart
disease.
Some people just start taking pills, but the big pharmaceutical companies have become the most profitable industry in the world, and they would rather keep us on maintenance medications than cure us. It is
clear that it is time that we find natural methods of getting and
staying healthy. So your best bet may be adopting a diet rich in probiotics.
If
you don’t have enough probiotics, the side effects of this deficiency can include:
digestive disorders, skin issues, candida, autoimmune disease, and
frequent colds and flus. Historically, we had plenty of probiotics in
our diet from eating fresh foods from good soil and by fermenting our
foods to keep them from spoiling.
However, today because of
refrigeration and dangerous agricultural practices like soaking our
foods with chlorine, our food contains little to no probiotics and most
foods today actually contain antibiotics that kill off the good
bacteria in our bodies.
By adding more probiotic foods into your diet, you could see various health benefits. Possibly the most popular probiotic food is live cultured yogurt but the problem is there is a
large variation on the quality of yogurts on the market today. Some brands of yogurt actually contain live cultures and some do not and many of them have been cooked and have too much sugar.
Good
bacteria can be found in fermented foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut,
kimchi and pickles. Fermented foods are also high in enzymes, which can aid digestion. Fermenting cabbage transforms this humble vegetable
into a tangy, palate-pleasing side dish and also encourages the growth of gut-friendly
bacteria. Homemade fermented cabbage
is simple to make, it is healthy, and tastes yummy with a tangy and
crunchy texture. The fermented cabbage gets
ready in around 3 days, though you can continue fermenting it before refrigeration for more days if you like it more sour.
You’ll want to choose a large ceramic or glass jar where you can fit a cap or plate on top
to be able to press on the vegetables and keep them under the brine at
all times. Mold can make you sick. The important thing to keep in mind
is that the vegetables should stay submerged all along to prevent mold
from forming.
PROBIOTIC SMOOTHIE
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