Nutrition and Our Guts

Garey Simmons, CHC Dedicated to Whole Food, Happiness, Joy & Service

“No guts no Glory!”

We all know the three Macronutrient food groups: What are they? Pop Quiz!

Macronutrients: Protein, Fats, Carbohydrates

The Mediterranean Diet is recommended as being heart healthy and brain healthy. Why? Because you get a good balance of these three groups.

Every meal should include protein approximately the size of the palm of your hand.

Fats about the size of your thumb. (a teaspoon or so)

(Think avocado or olive oil)

And Carbohydrates? Here’s where it gets difficult. In the Med Diet we should be getting our carbs from vegetables mainly and a little bit of fruit. Broccoli, asparagus, cabbage, carrots, sweet potatoes, small apple or some grapes. How much?

Take both hands and make a bowl.

In others about two cups of veggies.

You can cross potato chips off your list of good carbohydrates. Most carbs we think of are processed and chemicalized and packaged. If you can get your carbs from real food such as veggies, you are going to be healthier and lose weight if you need to or maintain a healthy weight and maintain good health altogether. Worth repeating, “If you can shop the perimeter of the supermarket and stay away from the aisles, you will be healthier”

Micronutrients: Vitamins, Minerals, Polyphenols

If you eat real food, you will more than likely get a lot of vitamins and minerals. Due to the food industry’s goals of making food shelf stable and cheap, they tend to deprive food of its inherent goodness and add sugars or salts to enhance flavor. So a plant based multi-vitamin would not hurt. True Vitality Plant Based Multivitamin will be back in stock soon!

Polyphenols are just now getting some stage time. These are the materials that add color to the foods you eat. Polyphenols are micronutrients that we get through certain plant-based foods. They’re packed with antioxidants and potential health benefits. It is thought that polyphenols can improve or help treat digestion issues, weight management difficulties, diabetes, neurodegenerative disease, and cardiovascular diseases. The key is to get enough.

The Missing Link: Fiber

Here’s what I really wanted to talk about: Fiber… It’s a long story but there are somewhere between 40 Trillion and 100 Trillion gut bacteria living in your gut. It’s Trillion with a “T” and yes, there are more of them than there are of you. Your estimated cell count is about 37 Trillion. And I have to tell you that every cell in your body is like a small city. There are several organelles that are working and expending energy day and night to hold your body and soul together. Power consumption of a single cell corresponds to about 10⁷ chemical reactions per second. These numbers get crazy but let’s be conservative and say there are about one million chemical transactions happening in a single cell any given moment. So if you multiply a million by 37 million, you break the calculator. Let’s just say you are busy. Very busy. This is why you really need to make sure you are getting good sleep!

But here’s the kicker: those bacteria that you host in your gut are just as busy and diligently working for you or against you. I think you know what I mean. There are good gut bacteria that assist your digestion and help your immune system to stay vibrant, alert and on guard. The bad bacteria do just about the opposite. They rob your body of nutrients, expose your blood stream to microbes that should never leave your gut by damaging the thin endothelial lining of the gut. That’s now called Leaky Gut Syndrome.

Every coin has two sides. So it is with gut bacteria. The way to ensure gut health is to eat “clean” and get plenty of fiber. In his book, “Eat to Beat Disease” Dr. William Li relates the story of his mother being diagnosed with cancer and with 4 weeks of pomegranates added to her diet, the cancer reversed and left her body without chemo or radiation. How is this possible? Watch Dr. Mark Hyman interview Dr. William Li.

Hippocrates said, “Let your food be your medicine.” No, daily lunch at McDonald’s will not save you from disease. But there are foods that will protect your body and there are foods that will harm your body. Sugar is a sweet thing and most of us have a “sweet tooth” in other words, it is a pleasure thing to eat birthday cake and even more amazing when you add a scoop of ice cream. However, it’s also good to know that fermentable fiber feeds your good gut bacteria and sugar feeds the bad guys. There are also soluble fibers and insoluble fibers. In my book, all fiber is good, however the fermentable fibers, beans and legumes, will cause gas. Two cups of garbanzo beans, or white beans, or lentils will help the good bacteria win the day. (You can add beano or gas x to help with the excess gas.) But be proud that you are supporting the good guys.

Soluble fiber like psyllium husks powder will gel and aid in having regular bowel movements. I add about two table spoons a day to my smoothie. It also helps satiety. I will eat less which may help if you are wanting to shed a few pounds. Insoluble fiber does not digest and also acts like a bulking agent to help things move along. Dietary fiber is the best way to get fiber.

Junk food, crap food, over processed and chemicalized food leads to deterioration of health over the long haul.

Using the Traffic Light Systems: Complete Your Green Foods, Yellow Foods and Red Foods Check list.

Red-Yellow-Green-Foods-form-fillable-V4-2019

Offer for Review: I am going to link to a document you can use to figure out what are your good foods you like (green), the iffy foods that may or may not be very healthful (yellow) and the foods you know are junk, overly sugared, or having detrimental effects like gluten for the intolerant, dairy for the lactose intolerant, etc.

If you want me to check your list, I’d be happy to do that and possibly help you find healthy alternatives if needed. Email your list back to me using Service@Ohb3.com.