EAT FOR YOUR MICROBIOME
Take care of your microbe community and it will take care of you!
When we start to think about food, we are talking about a relationship with mother nature.
It starts with Photosynthesis which is a process that takes place in the chloroplasts of green leaves - carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air and water (H2O) from the soil, are combined to capture light energy and transform it to biochemical energy in the form of simple sugars. These simple sugars are the building blocks for life above and below the ground.
Plants also transform sugar into a great diversity of other carbon compounds, including starches, proteins, organic acids, cellulose, lignin, waxes and oils. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and grains are ‘packaged sunlight’ derived from photosynthesis. The oxygen our cells and the cells of other living things utilize during aerobic respiration is also derived from photosynthesis. We have a lot to thank green plants for!!
As we bring the food into our body, we are in relationship with the microbiome (all the bacteria, fungi and beyond) that exist in our body as it digests all of our food. The microbiome is the life-giving garden within us and feed us a different nutrients than is on our plate.
The diverse microbiome is smart to know what we need today whether it's neurotransmitters we need to produce or it's nutrient delivery that we need. For example, it's going to extract vitamin c during the day you need a lot more vitamin c, it will interact with the gut membrane to induce serotonin and dopamine during the day you did not get enough sleep. We should be humbled by the fact that we have these nurse maids to take care of us every day.
Now we understand how the microbiome is critical to human biology. Scientists can trace cancer, autoimmune disease, autism, Alzheimer's, all back to changes within the gut flora. They may all be triggered by collapses of complexity of microbiome before the disease emerges. To begin the journey into a healthy human body, we need to start thinking more about what the gut microbiome needs and less about what the human body needs.
Be closer to the garden
The best way to experience medicinal quality in the plant or the fruit is right at the source. The further from its source, the more the reduction in medicinal quality and the more concentration of the sugar as it is ripens. In the grocery store, imported fruits and vegetables typically will come through extremely long supply chains with aid of chemicals. They have to be picked unripe and then ripened often under ethylene gas in the cargo containers to get them to ripen on the way to the store so that they look like they're ready to consume. They're long detached from soil and their biophotonic capacity therefore losing medicinal quality, the biophenols and natural scent.
Eat variety and colorful
The gut microbiome needs a massive variety of nutrients and in that variety create a diversification of the microbiome. Pick the most colorful plate of fresh produce you can. Use your sensory organs to find the right fruits and vegetables. Start with color, go to scent and then finally the tongue. Your tongue is an extraordinary analytical assay as it can measure thousands of chemicals in a split second and in so doing it's going to know whether you've got a really medicinal fruit or vegetable or an empty one. The more micronutrients you get the more opportunity you have for an explosion of micronutrient or microbiome diversity to support small and large ecosystems within the gut and gut lining.
In all of our arguments over carbohydrates protein and fat, we forgot to talk about the most important macronutrient within food which is of course fiber. Fiber has many different varieties (soluble and insoluble types as general concepts) of shapes and purposes which demands many different types of microbiome to interact with. The more variety and fiber the better for composting process of your gut.
Eat seasonal
As we get seasonal infections and aliments, it's mother nature who produces seasonal fruit and vegetable so as to consume as food as well as a substitute to medicine. For example, Oranges are available in winter. While eating oranges provides instant energy, it also helps to keep the skin from drying up and cracking. Mangoes are available in summer, it keeps the stomach cool and does not allow indigestion due to excessive summer heat.
When you buy seasonal fruits, you know that the nutrition level is high and fresh as they are closer to the source. When plants are grown off season, they can't follow their normal developing and maturing rhythms. When produce is harvested in season it is packed with more nutrients and simpler on your wallet compared to produce that is grown off season with the aid of possibly harmful chemicals, less nutrients and more expensive.
Reference -- Christine Jones PhD., Zach Bush MD.
