Wisdom of Healing

Food safety has been in the news, some would say, far too much recently. Although most of the thousands of strains of E. coli are harmless to the human body, the one found recently in hamburgers, spinach and lettuce or scallions, E coli. # O157:H7 can indeed be quite uncomfortable, even life threatening. How can we protect ourselves and our families from this serious intestinal infection?

When a family has visited a fast food (I use ‘food’ loosely here!) restaurant, why is it that some family members will become ill while others do not, even when they’ve all consumed the contaminated ingredient? Why is it that animals have been eliminating in the fields where our food is grown forever, yet we’re becoming increasingly sick from these potentially dangerous microorganisms?

Just as hospitals and nursing homes are finding it increasingly difficult to kill germs entirely, leading to the creation of dangerous ‘super bugs’, it is likely that this harmful strain of E. coli has mutated into a tough guy with greater influence than it previously held. But, more likely the greater culprit is our reduced immune function because of our vulnerability to being swayed by media campaigns produced by and for big business. Let me explain…

Our immune systems have been dangerously compromised by the overuse of antibiotics, steroids, several other medications, sugar, chlorinated water, etc that harm our beneficial bacteria, or probiotics, that live in our intestinal tract. This good bacteria is, quite literally, our life and health support team. It has become better known in recent years that probiotics are necessary for digestion, absorption and assimilation of nutrients, but we are now beginning to understand how important probiotics are to our immune system, as well.

Probiotics are our first line of defense against pathogens that enter the body through food and water. Without these powerful protectors, we become very vulnerable to food and water borne microorganisms including, but certainly not limited to, this potentially dangerous strain of E. coli.

For thousands of years, the human body has contained many strains of beneficial bacteria in the gut, but in the past one hundred years or so, we have been on a misguided attack campaign against bacteria as if they are the great enemy. In reality, it is estimated that, of the bacteria that live within the body and on the skin, only one in every one thousand is actually harmful and 999 are good, valuable and now believed to be quite necessary for life and good health.

Probiotic foods were the primary source for replenishing the probiotics throughout history. In every region of the world, people had their favorite cultured (fermented) foods that were eaten by most members of society each and every day, and in many regions these fermented foods were eaten with every meal. Through Eastern Europe and parts of Asia, there were cultured milk foods, prepared almost daily, such as yogurt and kefir. Eastern Asia prepared miso, tempeh, tamari and many delicious fermented rice dishes. When someone felt any digestive upset, a cup of yogurt or miso soup would have them feeling better in no time.

Today, we have adopted the mistaken idea that fermentation was strictly used for food preservation. With the invention of refrigeration, we’ve gotten away from the healthy habit of consuming cultured foods each day. Their sour taste has fallen out of favor, and simultaneously we have adopted habits that seriously damage the beneficial probiotics that inhabit our gut. We are becoming weaker as a result.

Antibiotics are taken for hundreds of minor ailments, often when the underlying issue is not even bacterial. Factory farming practices include the use of antibiotics for the animals, often daily, which is passed on to us through commercial dairy foods and meats.

When we overuse antibiotics and consume them regularly through foods, we become over run with the potentially harmful overgrowth of parasites and fungus, particularly several strains of candida. A person with a candida overgrowth will often crave excessive amounts of sugar and flour, eating fewer healthy foods that support our intestinal probiotics, particularly vegetables and sour foods.

People who use probiotic supplements prior to travel in third world countries have significantly fewer bouts of dysentery, traveler’s diarrhea and malaria. This would support the belief that those more prone to suffering the ill effects of a harmful strain of E. coli would be the members of the family (and community) with lower numbers of beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract, and therefore a more vulnerable immune system.

To protect yourself from these potential pathogens, and to increase immune and digestive health, try to include organic cultured foods in your diet every day. If you are more prone to intestinal infections, colds, the flu or have digestive issues, you may want to include probiotics in your health program.

The unfortunate thing is that most of the probiotics on the US market are junk. A research study conducted at a naturopathy school by four medical students showed that, of the top selling 20 probiotic products on the market, 11 of them (including the two top sellers) had less than 10% of the live beneficial bacteria that the label stated were in each capsule, and 2 more had less than 30%! These companies should do us all a favor and put more money into the product they’re producing and less into marketing!

To choose an excellent product, visit your local health food store and purchase any probiotics produced by Natren, New Chapter or Bio K Plus. These three companies provide superb quality products that will likely offer superior results.

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