« Take care of your body, so that your soul wants to stay into. »
Chinese proverb.
YOUR INTESTINE IS A KEY TO YOUR HEALTH.
Hello, young Padawan
So now, do you buy your groceries being sure they are an anti-inflammatory food, as we saw in this article?
Well, I suppose that all you have learned from this article is the little ginger story, but you know what, it’s already a good start.
Without noticed it you have therefore already started to take care of yourself and your intestine, because ginger is not only for Kamasutra, it is also excellent for the intestine, we will see it below (in this article… stay focused please! ed).
Our intestine is our second brain, a health crucial pillar; it sends a whole bunch of capital messages to our head. It is responsible for the production of certain vital hormones. In other words, you will have more success in life if you are stupid with a healthy intestine than the opposite. Indeed, if the smartest guy in the world’s intestine is tired, he will not secrete the right hormones and will not be able to think intellectually and emotionally better than a guy from a reality show. Or, almost.
But there is more: 85% of serotonin is produced by our intestines, for example. However, serotonin is a chemical messenger of the central nervous system involved in several physiological functions such as sleep, aggressivity, eating, and sexual behavior, as well as in depression. It is the barometer of our moods: when its rate is high, we are in a good mood; when it is low, we are depressed.
You guessed it: D. Trump and Kim Jong Un have badly damaged intestines. (ba-dum tsss!)
Do you need a drawing to understand that your moods, your happiness, and your libido have a lot to do with the health of your intestines? Often it is more relevant to focus on the cause rather than the symptoms, so let’s go back to the cause…
How to take care of your intestines? By taking care of your intestinal flora, dear Padawan
The intestinal flora plays an essential role in the organism (20 bucks that you first read orgasm. Nope?! me neither.) But it is a fragile balance between good and bad bacteria, and it can tip over like “poof!”, I mean suddenly.
Good intestine bacteria play three main roles in the human body:
– They block the arrival of foreign substances (pathogens, toxins, allergens), which reduces the risk of infection and disease.
– They help digestion of food by transforming them and producing new molecules (vitamins, enzymes, short-chain fatty acids).
– They protect the digestive tract and the organism against the implantation and multiplication of potentially dangerous bacteria; they participate in the synthesis of specific vitamins such as vitamin B5, B8, and B12 and vitamin K, for example.
– They help the development of the immune system and the intestinal mucosa, which provides better protection and many other things. Ok, I see that you are starting to have a headache (yes, that was four main roles instead of three, lol, ed).
So what do we avoid? We just pay attention to a few little things
– The products to avoid are acidifying foods (see my article on the anti-inflammatory diet) so I won’t go back to it too much, except on gluten.
– It’s fashionable to stop eating gluten, but few people really know why a handful of scientists scratched their … heads about it.
If you are not celiac, meaning allergic to gluten, no risk of eating it, a priori. Except that sometimes the “a priori” forget some data, such as the fact that most of our cereals containing gluten in general and wheat, in particular, are today genetically modified and look nothing like the wheat that was eaten by your grandpa.
Modern wheat is a bulldozer for the guts, resistant to certain bacteria or insects, stuffed with pesticides, and above all with a gluten content much higher than natural wheat that the previous generations had known until then. Why? To facilitate bread making. The more sticky and the more it rises (lol, I’m talking about the dough), and the easier the brioches and pieces of bread are to make and look great in stores …
And this new “Frankenwheat” as I call it, is not good for our intestine which has not been genetically modified to digest it. So clearly, yes, modern gluten is to be consumed with moderation if you do not want your intestines to become porous.
– Managing stress, doing yoga, avoiding antibiotics when they are not absolutely necessary, are among the essentials to take care of it (as the name suggests, an antibiotic is literally the serial killer of the intestinal flora, as bad as good, then self-medication is to be avoided at all costs).
– Stop the meat. In fact, animals from the food industry are generally stuffed with genetically modified foods (GMOs), antibiotics and hormones. And so when you eat meat you eat your small dose of antibiotics and etc.
– Beware of sugary and starchy foods, especially pasta and bread, which feed the “bad bacteria” with a little too much generosity.
What do we eat ?? Are there magic foods for the intestine?
– Probiotics are good bacteria that provide beneficial effects to our digestive and immune systems.
Foods containing it: sauerkraut, pickles, tempeh, spirulina or other microalgae, miso (we will talk about this again below), fruit kefir (fermented beverage with kefir grains, also sometimes called “water kefir”), kombucha (a sort of fermented tea) :
– lactic acid fermented products like fruit kefir, for example, are excellent, filled with enzymes and bacteria, beneficial for our intestinal flora.
But beware, it will be technical: a lactic acid fermented product has nothing to do with a dairy product.
Dairy product, to use Pr. Henri Joyeux’s expression: “is to be eaten the day before departure into the afterlife” (translation for those who fall asleep at the back of the room, near the radiator: it’s not good 💩, very inflammatory).
It is acidifying for our organism in particular because we no longer produce enough lactase, for most of us, to digest it in adulthood. Indeed, the only milk we need is mom’s milk until weaning. No other animal species on Earth has this irrational behavior of eating the milk of others, with all the hormones and growth factors specific to the species they contain. Unless, of course, you want a huge calf prostate to get cancer, or type II diabetes, otherwise, consume with moderation.
To come back to the definition of lactic acid fermented products, here is the simplest that I found, a small loan from our Wikipedia friend because I agree with it and it will be clearer and more concise than I would have been :
“Acid lactic fermentation, or lacto-fermentation, is a mode of fermentation (production of anaerobic energy) which, in the presence of carbohydrates and specific bacteria (lactic ferments), induces the formation of lactic acid. The production of lactic acid causes acidification of the environment, which allows the elimination of other bacteria, possibly pathogenic. It is therefore used for food preservation. The lactic fermentation produced by bacteria in food is to be distinguished from the anaerobic production of lactic acid by the muscle during intense effort”. (Source: Wikipedia).
– Miso. (But what is that thing? lol) It is a fermented food from soybeans. This fermentation produces enzymes that increase the bioavailability of nutrients.
Fermented foods like miso also contain probiotics. Buy it organic, and not pasteurized.
– Cinnamon. The antiseptic and anti-infectious properties of cinnamon are accompanied by the protection and a positive modification of the intestinal flora. Cinnamon soothes gastrointestinal cramps, fights bloating and flatulence, and treats diarrhea. Not glamorous, I agree but good to know.
And last but not least, four little ones that we also talked about in my article of anti-inflammatory food:
– Garlic. Natural antibiotic and anti-inflammatory. He is also a great friend of the intestine.
-The lemon. It boosts the immune system and is an excellent companion of the intestine. Lemon juice helps digestion by facilitating the elimination of toxins in the digestive tract, reducing digestion problems such as heartburn, burping and bloating.
– Parsley. It treats intestinal disorders and has an antiparasitic effect. Useful in case of bloating, indigestion, constipation.
– Ginger. Yes again. It is good for digestion and fights against spasm and gastric disorders of all kinds.
Here is the shortest and brief summary that I could do with my little brain swarming in all directions. Soon, you will have a small review of a book that I loved and that I advise you: “The discreet charm of the intestine” by Giulia Enders, to learn a little more about this key organ. It is excellent, I recommend it to you!
Xo 🍋
