Happy Healthy Gut (16 page)

Well, there is.

Only a hundred years ago, humans were dying for much different reasons. Things like bacterial infections, substandard hygiene, lack of antibiotics, childbirth complications, and diseases that are now preventable due to routine immunizations, were a few common ways to bite the dust. In present-day USA, none of these reasons are common anymore. The leading cause of death today is heart disease, something that can easily be traced back to our dietary choices. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity are all strong indicators of imminent heart disease. What do we do to lower those numbers? Eat less animal products (less saturated fat), and more vegetables. This super simple tweak would make huge strides in the direction of better health.

Back in the day (I’m still talking a hundred years ago; circa 1914), people grew their own vegetables, raised and slaughtered their own pigs, milked their own cows, and collected eggs from their own hens. The food was local, fresh, and free of today’s
antibiotics, hormones, GMOs, pesticides and herbicides. In other words, the chemical cocktail of today’s food was non-existent, and so the quality was comparatively outstanding. The portions were also much smaller. These people had diets that were not primarily composed of processed foods, soda, fast food, bleached flour, or foods heavily laden with refined sugar and table salt. Of course they were healthier!

Today, our food rarely originates from the same cities we reside in, and an apple infused with pesticides and harvested two seasons ago is made far more available to us than an organic one, grown in our neighbourhoods, and harvested last week. That’s messed up!

In the past, people used to work long, hard days on their own land, or land that was at least very close by. They used to do an incredible amount of manual labour, walk a lot more, and spend way more time outdoors. In comparison, in 2009, Americans commuted an average of fifty minutes a day.
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We currently watch an average of four hours of television a day.
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That amounts to about five hours a day sitting on our butts, not to mention those who sit for their forty-hour-a-week jobs, or actually take time to sit and eat dinner.

The quality of our food and the amount of activity we do is diminishing, and so is our health. We need to remember that although food keeps us alive, it’s the
quality
of our food that determines for how long. It’s not the current interest in health that is responsible for the record-breaking amount of disease that Americans and Canadians are enduring; it’s the terrible quality of our food. Inadequate nutrition is the absolute largest factor in digestive disease and despair.

Did you know that under the current national food guidelines, a growing adolescent could meet all the recommended standards for healthy food intake, and still get away with eating sugary cereals, fast food, sodas, fried chicken, and potato chips every day? No wonder there is such a need for change in today’s school cafeterias! We are feeding our kids terrible quality food, with almost no nutritional
value. Eating like this on a regular basis means that our children will grow up obese, and continue this horrendous cycle with their own children. Our nation’s wee ones are now being diagnosed on a regular basis with adult-onset diabetes.
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In Michael Pollan’s book,
In Defense of Food
, he recommends that if your great-grandmother can’t identify what something is at the grocery store, then leave it there.
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If she gets a confused look on her face while staring at gelatinous treats, processed fruit snacks or canned meat, we need to take that as a sign. We have really only been experimenting with this type of food for a few decades, and so far, the results don’t look good.

It’s food that directly affects the state of our digestion. If you are experiencing digestive unease, you need to examine the type of fuel that your body is being expected to run on, and adjust the quality of that fuel accordingly. Putting sugary cereals, fast food, sodas, fried chicken, and potato chips into our body and expecting it to perform, is like diluting your gasoline with a higher and higher percentage of water every time you fill up. You might not see the effects right away, but eventually, your vehicle’s going to stop working, and it might be too late to simply replace a few parts.

Question:
What percentage of your pantry, refrigerator and freezer hold processed, sugary, nutritionally dead foods? What is the ratio of these items to real, whole foods that you think would be acceptable? If your kitchen does not reflect your ideal ratio, then tweak, baby,
tweak
!

Y
ou’ve made it to part two; the heavy part is over. (Whew!) Learning the awful truths about your favorite foods can be disheartening, to say the least. Well, the lecture is done; time to move on. In the second half of the book, we’ll focus on resolution instead of problems, so grab a highlighter or a pen and paper, and get ready to make some happy healthy notes. You’ll discover some pretty fabulous solutions for greatly improving digestion as well as your overall health, including all things food. (And I’m talking about
good
food . . .)

pH
stands for “potential of hydrogen,” and its scale measures from pH 1 (very acidic), to pH 14 (very alkaline). In order to maintain homeostasis in the body, the pH of our blood is strictly regulated by a complex system that is always trying to maintain a pH range of approximately 7.15 to 7.25, which is slightly alkaline. The pH levels of our internal fluids affect every living cell in our bodies. If our bodies are too acidic (a pH level of less than 7), it can lead to devastating effects on our health, and therefore hinder disease prevention. An acidic pH level can create a breeding ground for which certain diseases (like cancer) can thrive.
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It’s just not possible to be healthy when the body is in a chronic state of acidosis. Therefore, if we want to maintain total body health, we need to make certain that our bodies stay slightly alkaline. The University of Tennessee sums this process up nicely:

“. . . because water is the universal solvent for all life, it is important to know how its chemical properties can affect cells. One of the most important characterizations of a biological fluid is its pH. The concentration of hydrogen and hydroxide ions in an aqueous solution can greatly affect both the structure and chemical reactivity of cellular molecules. Cells . . . must maintain an appropriate pH in
order to function optimally. Additionally, dramatic shifts in pH can play a role in controlling cellular activities such as egg division after fertilization. Consequently, cells must work constantly to maintain an acid-base balance. At the appropriate pH and concentration, buffers can be highly important in maintaining pH by preventing drastic changes.”
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Most of the water that comes out of our taps here in North America is slightly acidic, usually somewhere around 6.5–7, and contains chlorine with the good intention to kill harmful bacteria. The pH of bottled water typically ranges from 3–8,
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and is usually equivalent to most North American tap waters. (More on this in a minute . . .) In fact, almost all of the water we drink is acidic, when we need it to actually be slightly alkaline (as well as chlorine free and mineral rich) in order to hydrate our bodies to have optimal cell functioning.

The very best solution is to filter your own water. You can do this with a commercial filter, by owning a refrigerator with its own filtration system, or by installing a filtration system directly into your kitchen faucet.

It’s also very important to recognize that what we eat directly affects our body’s pH level. Essentially, foods that are acidic include all animal proteins and fats, alcohol, caffeine, refined sugars, and synthetic chemicals that are added to our food. Foods that promote alkalinity within the body are plant-based foods; mainly green, leafy vegetables. Remember, the idea is not to eat only alkaline foods, it is to make sure that there is a balance, and that the scales are tipped slightly in the direction of alkalinity. That means consuming mostly plant-based foods, and only eating acidic-forming foods in moderation.

“We have become too full of acid and, as a result, are experiencing a wide range of diseases that flourish in the acid medium.”
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—Dr. Mary Ruth Swope, advocate for nutrition
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Another great way to balance your pH is to cut down on items that provide you no nutritional value, since most of these things are acidic. This list includes such items as sugar and processed food.
Kick these nasties to the curb! (To find out your pH level, contact your local naturopath or purchase a kit from a health-food store.)

We can last weeks without food, but mere days without water. Water is vital for forming the foundation for blood, urine, digestive juices, and perspiration. The water content of your body is broken down the following way in these examples:

• Approximately 83% of blood is made up of water
  
• Approximately 75% of lean muscle (including brain tissue) is made up of water
  
• Approximately 10% of fat is water
  
• Approximately 22% of bone content is water
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Since your body is not capable of storing water for very long, it needs a fresh, new supply every day to account for losses, and needs to be replaced through what we eat and drink. The quality of our decisions affects how well this process works. Since foods provide only about one litre of fluid and the remainder must be obtained from what you drink, your choices in this matter are crucial. Some drinks are far more hydrating than others, so try and choose wisely.

Aside from water, coconut water is definitely my very favorite hydrating bevy. It possesses very few calories, and contains five different electrolytes for efficient hydration, making it the best-ever sports drink. My favorite brand of coconut water is O.N.E. This is not to imply that if you drink coconut water, that you don’t need conventional water; regular, no-frills water is incredibly important to healing and rejuvenation of the entire body, and is absolutely required for proper digestion.