 Our
digestive tract contains trillions of microbes. They help digest our
food by fermenting it. They produce vitamins, regulate the immune
system, produce
antibiotics and fight
infection. We are not born with these microbes. We have to get them
from our food or the environment, and if we don't, it can cause or
contribute to various
diseases.
Most
so-called food allergies, reflux diseases or leaky gut syndromes are
caused by an inability to digest food caused by a lack of the microbes
that digest that food. In the
wild, when an animal infant cannot digest its food, it will eat the feces of other members of its
species, the best source for all the enzymes and microbes needed to
digest
that food. I'm not suggesting
we do the same, but if we don't, we have to find some other way to
accomplish the same thing and get the microbes from the environment
into us.*
 These microbes are often
called
soil-based organisms because they originate from the soil. We can get
them from live (raw or raw fermented) foods or we can get them from
soil, but our dead-food and no-dirt culture often prevents us from
getting these essential microbes.
Leaky
gut, food
allergy, gluten intolerance, GERD and acid reflux disease are all
modern names for diseases
that used to be considered indigestion. Other digestive disorders such
as Crohn’s
disease, ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis, celiac
disease, IBS and candida are probably not solely
caused by indigestion but are at least partly caused or aggravated by
indigestion, so healing indigestion should be part of their treatment.
When treating disorders
of the
digestion, you need to stop eating foods
that are difficult to digest and/or you cannot digest and start taking
supplements to aid digestion and eating foods that are high in the
enzymes and microbes needed to digest those foods.
So-called "reflux disease" was mostly invented by drug
manufacturers to sell their antacid drugs after the AMA could no longer
deny that antibiotics cured the ulcers that antacids only masked the
symptoms of, about twenty years after the rest of the world's doctors
had begun treating ulcers with antibiotics. A large, glossy television
campaign convinced people to want this profitable drug worth millions
to its manufacturer after it would otherwise be worthless. Most people
who have been told they have reflux disease and are taking the standard
reflux antacids to ease the discomfort of heartburn would be better
served by stopping taking the antacid and adding more minerals,
digestive enzymes and pro-biotic organisms to their diet.
Eat
mostly
lacto-fermented vegetables and probiotics, take digestive enzymes and
trace mineral supplements and drink probiotic and/or lacto-fermented
beverages.
Listed
below are the food products that wil help restore the microbes and
enzymes to the digestive system, and those elements that will help
support the growth of those microbes.
Probiotics
For
any digestive problem, but especially with milk
allergy/intolerance, switch to raw milk and/or make your own cultured
dairy products such as yogurt, kefir or clabbered milk and
cream. Start with eating small amounts and work your way up to being
able
to digest larger amounts. Eat some cultured dairy every day, with or
without other foods.
Cod
Liver Oil will
aid the adrenal glands in functioning. In turn, healthy adrenals will
help make the compounds that digest casein and gluten.
Lacto-fermented
vegetables
For
any
digestive ailment and
for good health in general, you should make sauerkraut
or other lacto-fermented vegetables such as pickles,
and eat some with every meal, every
day for the rest of your life
Digestive enzyme
supplements
To
heal indigestion, you may need to add supplements to your diet until
your digestion restarts itself. Get a good quality multi-enzyme. Take
these supplements for as long
as they make you feel better and discontinue taking them when they are
no longer needed. You need hydrochloric
acid (betaine Hcl) and enzymes
(papaya papain, bromelain etc.). These can be bought at health food
stores or online. Papaya and pineapple contain these enzymes and can be
consumed with any food.
Trace
Minerals
Clay or clay
water -- drink at least a half a
cup a day
Bone broth
-- drink a cup of bone broth a day or use it as a base
in soups, rice or other foods or as the liquid in baked or cooked foods.
Tree leaf tea
-- gather leaves from tall, wild trees whose leaves are
allowed to fall to the ground and replenish the soil underneath. Use
them to make tea and fermented beverages.
Wood ash (white powder from a wood fire)
French green clay
Diatomaceous Earth (DE)
Kelp
Fermented Beverages
Kombucha
--
start off with an ounce a day. Cut
back if you experience detoxification reactions. Increase up to a quart
a day or as much as you like as you get used to drinking it.
Ale -- make
your own ale. You can use a kefir whey as your yeast
starter.
Sauerkraut juice -- when
you make
sauerkraut, drain the juice and
replace with salt water in a ratio of 1 pint water to 1 teaspoon
full-array
salt (Celtic sea salt or Himalayan crystal salt). Let sit
overnight and then you can start eating the sauerkraut.
Lacto fermented
beverages, those
femented with lactic acid bacteria -- make beverage such as kvass
that
use whey as the fermenting medium
E.M.
The
microbes we use to digest our food originally come from the soil, and
you may be able to find
supplements with soil-based microbes in them, such as Bio-kult , Primal
Defense or Swanson's Soil-Based Organisms . See EM for more
on
culturing your own soil-based micro-organisms.
For all
digestion-related ailments, try to
eat as much raw and
lacto-fermented foods as possible, and eliminate cooked foods as much
as possible.
*
*I cannot bring myself to recommend anyone eat poo, much less feed
it to their children, but, as it is my intention that this site should
provide information, regardless of how unpalatable or unlikely as that
information may sound, I present the following pieces of information to
you and you can make of it as you will:
Sheep dung tea was used
as a folk
remedy by American pioneers, Indians and slaves. By this I infer that
it is safe and effective.
In 1718 and 1776
respectively, Ireland
passed laws forbidding the adulteration of coffee and tea with sheep
dung, as practiced by unscrupulous tradespeople (repealed under the
Ahern government in 2005). From this I infer that it is rather bland
tasting. (This quality of unobjectionable taste probably being why it
was chosen as the poo of choice for medicinal purposes, rather than any
test to determine which poo was the most effective.)
A recipe for making sheep
dung tea is
as follows:
Put half a cup of
air-dried (not
heated or cooked) female (nanny) sheep dung in a gallon of water in a
glass jug. Cover and let set overnight. Strain through cotton flannel
or pillowcase. Dilute with more water if necessary so that it looks
like weak tea. Add sugar or honey to taste.
Update:
Fecal
Transplant or Fecal Bacteriotherapy, the procedure of taking bacteria
from the stool of a healthy person and transferring it to the
intestines of a person with food digestion-related illnesses, is
becoming more mainstream so I urge anyone with any kind of digestive
issue from so-called food allergies, colitis, failure to thrive
etc. to search more on the subject.
The
information on this site is provided for informational purposes
only and if followed is done so solely on the initiative of the reader.
Food
Enzymes for Health & Longevity by Dr.Edward
Howell
Truly
Cultured Rejuvenating
Taste, Health and Community With Naturally Fermented Foods by Nancy
Bentley
Cooking
with Coconut Flour by Bruce
Fife For those who believe they
are allergic to gluten, or who want to avoid grains
Fire
Your Doctor! How to Be Independently Healthy by Andrew W.
Saul
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