Your gut is your first brain. Yep, we said it. If your gut is out of balance, so is your mood and ability to think clearly. The evidence of this has never been stronger in light of all the research on the Human Microbiome but the truth of it is as old as mankind.
Hippocrates (460 BC – 370 BC) of Kos was a Greek physician and is considered “The Father of Modern Medicine.” Here is a collection of his quotes – which of these resonate with you?
“LET FOOD BE THY MEDICINE AND MEDICINE BE THY FOOD.”
What a novel concept! Remember how we mentioned that if you give an organism what it needs to thrive it will? The same is true for us humans! But what exactly do we need to thrive? This is a hotly debated topic and with an overwhelming amount of contradictory information regarding carbs, fat, protein and the like, it is easy to be confused about what to eat.
As mentioned in the Introduction, the processed foods diet of the modern Western world is unfortunately not designed to keep us healthy but rather to make profits for those who produce them. There is no doubt that some processed food companies DO care but in an economic system focused solely on unlimited growth and concentrating profits into the hands of the few coupled with subsidies for the most pesticide laden products (corn, soybeans and wheat) it’s a perfect storm for a slew of “foods” to create illness rather than support a healthy body.
So what does a healthy body crave? Diversity! That’s right, look out your front door and what do you see? One type of grass, one type of tree, one type of bird? No! You see DIVERSITY because that IS nature. Nature has it all figured out for us and since we’ve been living on this planet for a long time, it makes sense that we have adapted to the cycles of what foods are available when. Now add spices This is why foods are only available at certain times of the year, to create diversity in our diet.
“All disease begins in the gut.”
“Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease.”
Our immune system LIVES in our gut. Our Human Microbiome as it is now called consists of all of the different organisms that live in our enteric system. The enteric system starts at the mouth and ends at the anus and is full of neurotransmitters, more than the brain. In fact, it is made up of the very same tissue as the brain! Our digestive system is designed to extract any potential nutrition from anything we put in our mouth. And remember, what we are feeding are microbes.
So why do we eat in the first place? For social reasons? Because it “tastes good”? In fact, we eat because our bodies are not capable of photosynthesis – rather we are not able to create all of the vitamins and nutrients that our giant symbiotic organism needs in order to thrive, so we eat to provide nutrition for the microorganisms that then synthesize vitamins; create dopamine, serotonin and other “happy drugs”; create immunoglobins; secrete toxins and waste; and a host of vital functions.
Essentially our bodies are giant filters that take in nutrients and excrete waste. But if what we are eating is toxic in and of itself or doesn’t contain a variety of nutrients, our biomes change. Sometimes bacteria or yeast will get out of balance especially if we’ve been treated or exposed to antibiotics. When that happens, it can be a long and difficult journey back to health but starting with fermented foods and drinks is an important first step to populating your gut with the “good guys.”
“Everything in excess is opposed to nature.”
We’ve all heard the phrase “everything in moderation, including moderation.” This means sometimes you feast and sometimes you famine. The fact that our bodies sometimes need to take a break and allow our organs to do a “self-cleaning” (kind of like an oven!) is also encoded in every major world religion which sets aside specific times of the year to engage in fasting as a means of communing with the divine. Our holidays and cultural traditions also reflect times of feasting together and enjoying the bounty of the season.
But what happens if we treat every day like Thanksgiving? We might quickly feel bloated, overfed and tired. Conversely, if we only eat like a sparrow every day we might feel light headed, weak and tired. Same with breaking food habits – it’s okay to have a soda or donut every once in a while; it’s when those patterns of consumption become regular habits that problems occur. Another example is candida overgrowth. Studies seem to indicate that nearly everyone has at least a small amount of candida yeast in their guts and, when in balance, it serves a positive function. However, when conditions permit it to OVERgrow, that’s when it creates negative health outcomes in our bodies. As Pasteur famously recanted on his deathbed, “C’est ne pas le microbe, c’est le terroir.” It’s not the microbe, it’s the environment. What we consume creates the environment that allows certain organisms to flourish whereas others are held in check by our bacteria buddies.
In studying the microbiome, especially in African tribes like the Hadza that still adhere to a traditional hunter-gather lifestyle, numerous parasites and pathogens have been discovered in their guts. Yet the people themselves are perfectly healthy – how can that be? For the same reason as the candida overgrowth, it’s about a system being in BALANCE not just which specific microbes might be in the mix.
