OUR GUT HEALTH AND NUTRIENT ABSORPTION

OUR GUT HEALTH AND NUTRIENT ABSORPTION

 “Imbalances in the bacterial environment of the intestine can cause a decline in nutrients absorption.”

Our digestive system is complex yet unique. It is essential for our daily digestion and absorption of nutrients. Interestingly, apart from our own physiological and biological digestive mechanisms, there is another mechanism is involved, the enterobacterial activity. From the Greek word “enteron” for intestine, related to the Greek “enteros” meaning within. This means, the activity of the bacteria in our intestine is within our body. This activity is vital as it optimised our day to day digestion and nutrients absorption from foods.

Probiotic and Our health

As we age, our body physiological and biological functions start to slow down including our digestive system. Thus, food should be properly cooked and chewed to avoid burdening our digestive system. In return, we could allow our digestive system to focus on enhancing the absorption and assimilation of nutrients from food. Unfortunately, depending on what you chose to eat also influenced our nutrient absorption. Processed foods with its multitudinous food additives greatly influence the delicate balance of beneficial bacteria in the gut, by suppressing or inhibiting enterobacterial activity.  As a result, our human body is introduced with the possibility of imbalances in the bacterial environment in the intestine which leads to poor nutrient absorption. Overall, we are at risk of being nutrient deficiency as we grow older.

Recently, a book by Dr. Fred Pescatore and Karolyn A. Gazella, titled “Boost Your Health with Bacteria”, has taken the topic of bacteria to a new level of awareness, understanding, and therapeutic application. In this book, it stressed that beneficial bacterial not only intimately associated with digestive system, but also profoundly influence immunity, inflammation and insulin resistance. From the book, scientific research is confirming that bacteria may even be linked to depression, anxiety, weight loss, insomnia, fatigue and other health issues. Moreover, the change in the bacteria in our environment has become one of the basic factors triggering diverse physical disorders, including allergic diseases and possibly cancer. This clearly shows that lacking in probiotics supplementation could lead to the degeneration in the physical condition of modern people.

The Benefits of Probiotics

Do we need Probiotic?

Significantly, I believe people always ask, “Do I need probiotics?” What I can advise is, as long as you are alive, you need probiotics. This hinted us that probiotics are meant for everyone, from infant to older adults. For parents who are worried, probiotics are safe for children of any age. It is especially recommended for a child who has been on an antibiotic as it could help re-establish proper bacterial balance. When taken daily, probiotics can help a child to have a strong digestive system and immune function. On the other hand, beneficial bacteria have been shown to help prevent some of the most serious illnesses of our time including cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

Gut bacteria also:

• help synthesize B and K vitamins
• enhance gastrointestinal motility and function
• enhance digestion and nutrient absorption
• obstruct the growth of “bad bacteria” and other pathogens
• help metabolize other plant compounds/drugs
• produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and polyamines
• produce coagulation and growth factors
• produce cytokines (cell signaling molecules)
• help regulate intestinal mucus secretion and ultilization
• help regulate blood flow to the viscera

In brief, probiotic bacteria used in commercial products today are largely Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. For example, on food label it is often showed as "Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG".

The first name that appears is the genus (Lactobacillus).
The second name designates the species within the genus (rhamnosus).
The third name or number that appears is the specific strain within the species (GG).

What makes probiotics?
Most often, probiotics are created via fermentation. Fermentation simply collects them and gives them a nice place to grow. Fermentation organisms produce alcohol, lactic acid, and acetic acid, preservatives that retain nutrients and prevent spoilage. In addition, fermentation allows the food to be more digestible, better nutrients absorption and more proteins.

Source of Probiotics
Getting probiotics from food:

• If you are healthy, aim for 1-2 servings of probiotic rich foods each day (yogurt, cheese, kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut, tempeh, soy sauce and wine).

Probiotic with prebiotics

Getting probiotics from supplements:

• Supplemental doses are typically expressed in billions of live organisms. Between 3 and 5 billion would be a starting dose. This could be increased to 10 billion if you are hoping to alleviate a specific health concern. Take with food/drink and use a reputable brand.

It is highly encouraged to supplement prebiotics together with probiotics. Common prebiotics used is arabinogalactan, FOS (fructo-oligosaccharides), and inulin. From food will usually be fruits and vegetables

Why do we need to Juicing?

We are all well informed about eating breakfast as it is the most important meal. But how many people that you know do it all the time? Or do you yourself commit to have breakfast everyday? Most importantly, what is the definition of a healthy breakfast? I would like to defined "healthy breakfast" here, healthy is by means foods that nourishes the starved body cells when it has undergone an overnight fast.

When we fast, it allows our cells to rebuild and repair and excreting the toxins and dead cells. If we failed to eat food that would nourish these cells, and at the same time failed to cleanse the body of accumulated waste, we have not only starved them, but we have also afflicted them with poisons which the body absorbs from the accumulated debris in the system. 

This is when juicing plays a vital role. Vegetable juices are the builders of the body, while the fruit juices are the cleansers. All these juices must be raw in order to be vital and of constructive value. Food that is not vital and live such as meat or starches (especially processed) due to heating will not nourish the body, yet acting as a filler, forming excessive volumes of uncomfortable gas. On the other hand, with juicing, we are providing our body cells with all the needed essential components which are - the vitamins, minerals, chlorophyll, amino acids, enzymes. All these components ease digestions, nourishes the body  giving lasting strength and energy. You don't even will feel hungry by afternoon nor sleepy.   

Juicing also allows us to increase our servings of fruits and vegetables. In the previous post, which i have touched on Super green foods. Super green foods cleanse, balance, and nourish the cells are more towards therapeutic purposes when uses at higher dosage. When for optimum health, a little of 5-10grams a day will be sufficient and beneficial. 

However, thing to be noted when juicing, it contains calories, and when you add sugars to it, it will have more calories. But we do highly encourage people to drink without adding sugar as sugars serve no purpose in nourishing but a nutrients robber. Furthermore, juicing eliminate all of the fibers which is essential for digestive health. Lacking of fibers increase the risk of getting constipation. What we can do is by adding some of the pulp back, taking oats, consuming vegetables and whole grains to obtain the required fibers. Ginger is also being used in juicing recipes as it good for the digestive system.

Juicing is part of life. A great way to make sure to get the recommended daily servings of vegetables and fruits. What you will notice in the long run is that you'll feel better, you look better. Your skin looks better.

We have to be proactive towards our health, taking charge of it but not depending on people.

The Super Green Foods

 

What you should know

Among all these superfoods, each have their own key features which I will keep it for another times. What I would like to focus is on the four main factors:

• High alkalinity
• High amount of natural chlorophyll
• Rich source of live enzymes
• Wholesome food
• Highly concentrated with macro and micronutrients and fully assimilated

The superfoods are the most powerful nutrients-dense foods on this planet, and they virtually have no calories, no bad fats or nasty substances. thus, they are power houses for any transformation to a slender and more healthy you. They typically contain an assortment of nutrient rich foods like barley grass, wheat grass, alfalfa grass, wild blue-green algae, spirulina, chlorella, herbs, vegetables, legumes, and fruits.

Let's be straight here, how many people have more than 10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day? Plus, we are consuming more sugars, coffee, dairies, meat and other food groups which are mainly acidic. Adding with all the stresses and pollution from the environment, our body has to work hard to balance it. Also, exercises increase the acid production in the body. Ideally, our body condition should be lean more towards alkaline of around 7.35 to 7.45. When this balance become out of balance, illnesses will start to manifest in the body.

Second point, what is live enzymes? Live enzymes are proteins used by our body for cell metabolism. It assists our body by reducing the body burden in producing enzymes for digestion and assimilation. Unfortunately, when we cook our foods, most of the enzymes are destroyed. The worst offender will be processed food where labelled as "dead food". Consuming food that is not alive is a burden, it decreases the body live energy which we can utilize it to allow us to work, play and enjoy life. This mean we are using most our live energy in digesting, detoxifying and elimination of waste. Heard of this, I am tired even though I slept more than 8 hours. This indicates that the body is overloaded with toxins. For understanding,  you can imagine that a live food is a plant, because it can grow and sprout when given the suitable environments (sunlight, water, growing grounds).

Another thing is that superfoods are highly concentrated with nutrients. It can contains more calcium than milk, more vitamin C than any citrus fruits and more complete protein (more than 60%) than meat (about 25%). With this, it is super packed with nutrients over others. What made it more special is that is a wholesome food. The "whole" means complete. It contains complete nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids and live enzyme. 

Summary and recommendations

Superfoods have the best concentration of easily digestible nutrients, fat burning compounds, vitamins and minerals to protect and heal your body. they also contain a range of other substances including essential fatty acids and healthy bacteria which help your digestive system function more effectively, and protect you against disease and illness. Nevertheless, slowing down aging.

Greens supplements can function as a serving of fruits and vegetables, and contain vitamins, minerals, fibre, and phytonutrients. It is highly recommended that everyone to use green supplements in addition to real foods and when you don't have access to real foods.

Do take note, it is highly encouraged that you take green supplements for additional health benefits with the recommended daily intake. For therapeutic purposes, please get the guidance of practitioner.  

Reflection to Vision

Reflecting back, after graduating from The University of Queensland in 2010 as a nutritionist. I have decided to come back to Malaysia. I still hardly grasp what made me come back but all I know it is worth it
Been passionate in nutrition and fitness since my university years. I am in the work field for almost 2 years now, searching for my dream job doing what truly a nutritionist should do. Sad to say, it wasn't. In fact, I have tried and changed quite a few jobs, hopping around, and banged some walls because all the jobs failed to meet my expectation. People said, don't expect too much, work hard for it. But in my point of view, if you don't know what you want, don't expect people to give you what you want, because it never will. We are the Creator to our life. We become who we want to be.
Just saying, getting what you are passionate about and doing what you love to do is not there until you have decided to create it and make it happens. I found out this is the best and hardest path.

As I finally visioned out that I wanted to change people life in their health and fitness. For health, decided to establish my freelance nutritional consultation. For fitness, unexpectedly, I made a call to my friend, CEO of Gorgeous Fitness, Calvin Hee and proposed him to having a nutritional services in his fitness centre. Not knowing that he is actually into that. Guess what I got hired.

Hard and glad to say that working life is an uphill battle. How exciting and interesting, how positive or how negative it be, all lies in your hand. 

Coffee and your Health: Friend of Foe?

Mmm, coffee... almost everybody drinks it... almost every outlets selling it... one of the most traded commodity... even so, people don't drink it once, but up to 3-4 cups per day or more. 

But most people don't think of it as a "health drink".  First, you may have seen debate in the past about how coffee has some compounds in it that could have negative health effects such as some tars or other possibly inflammatory compounds in brewed coffee.  But, the good news is that coffee has such high concentrations of beneficial antioxidants, phenolic nutrients, chlorogenic acids, and other healthy compounds, that it more than counteracts any bad compounds. The video below explained by Dr Walsh how can coffee help to control your blood sugar.
 

In fact, coffee provides the biggest source of antioxidants for most Americans.  Although a lot of that has to do with the fact that many Americans don't get enough antioxidants from fruits and veggies, so coffee ends up being their biggest source.  You should try to diversify your sources of antioxidants from fruits, veggies, spices, berries, beans, unsweetened organic cocoa, teas, and yes, even coffee if you like it.


So what's the available option to get your cup of healthier coffee? I'll share with you an alternative coffee.I believe everyone heard about Ling Zhi (other common names: Ganoderma, Lingzhi, Youngzhi Ling Chih, Mannentake, Red Reishi, Ganoderma Lucidum). It has been a part of Chinese traditional medicine for over 4,000 years, commonly used to treat hypertension, liver disorders, arthritis as well as other medical conditions. Packed with over 150 all natural antioxidants, support and build the immune system, increase blood circulation and metabolism and more (to name a few). It is considered the oldest mushroom to be utilized in medicine, and is among the most respected of its kind.

When added to the coffee you are drinking daily, you are indirectly adding more values and life to your health.

If you love coffee, feel free to share this article below with your coffee-loving friends and family. You can also contact me for more information and sample, at 013-2631618 / raymondtst@gmail.com