THIS MONTH'S FEATURED ARTICLE
If You Want Your Bugs to Grow, You Have to Feed Them!
Happy Fall to Everyone!
In the spirit of Harvest Season, I hope everyone's enjoying whatever your local climate offers. Up here in Alaska, we have a wealth of salad greens, luxuriant chives, carrots, beets, peas, kale, chard, herbs…We also raised a lot of potatoes and onions, rutabagas, cauliflower, broccoli. These latter, as well as the kale and chard for many people, often (always in the case of the spuds!) work much better cooked than raw. After all the years I lived in CA and HI, when 'harvest time' meant raw fresh produce--tomatoes, tomatillos, zucchini, corn and of course, all the wonderful fruit, I still find it strange to be cooking my harvest. But straight out of the ground and into the steamer, with minimal seasoning, it's delicious food, as fresh as it gets. And we've been enjoying some delightfully tart wild-harvested blueberries too.
(A dinner of steamed rutabaga, broccoli, onion and chard with some fresh ginger, a little herbamere seasoning, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and olive oil…Fresh and good!)
When you grow food, you're going to get competition for it--other critters will want to eat it! We have to defend against slugs, bugs and various rodents, and if we're really unlucky, a moose (now they can destroy a garden in a hurry)! But attack can also come from bacteria and, conversely, one of the best lines of defense to ensure healthy plants is to make sure that the soil in which they're grown is populated with 'good bacteria.' From conception to harvest, plants are in symbiosis with bacteria in the soil. And we are, too! It's well known nowadays that the bacterial colonies in our bodies, especially in our large intestines, are crucial to our health and digestion: having thriving colonies of the 'right kinds of bacteria' is the best line of defense against E. Coli, H. Pylori, Salmonella and other undesirable bacteria.
The 'right kinds of bacteria' notably include bifidobacteria and lactobacillus bacteria. Absence of these is associated with ailments such as Candida overgrowth, viral infections and systemic problems such as Irritable Bowel Disorder and more serious gut disorders like Crohns and Colitis. Further down the line, autoimmune diseases and even cancer can result.
When a baby is breastfed, not only is their gut colonized from the mother's milk: the milk also contains certain long-chain sugars that are not broken down in the small intestine but pass intact to the colon: to feed the good bacteria and make them stay! Unfortunately, all kinds of of things are harmful to these good bugs, from not nursing in the first place so they never get established, to chlorine in the water supply, to antibiotics and birth control pills, as well as overly restricted diets or diets that make the gut too alkaline (yes, too alkaline can be a problem, especially in parts of the body that are supposed to be acidic: yeast thrives in an acidic environment and it's not for nothing that one of the important lactobacillus species is called acidophilus, meaning 'acid loving'). Toxic metals in the system, such as mercury, can contribute to this alkalization also. Even health-promoting practices can be harmful if misapplied: incorrect use of colonics can wash out the good bacteria and overuse of antibacterial herbs can kill good bugs as well as bad.
I have some personal interest in all this, because, as a result of a combination of some of the above issues, I ended up with bad bacteria, candida overgrowth and no good bugs. At this point, 'the bad stuff' is taken care of and my goal is to recolonize with good bugs.
I've learned that recolonizing is not a simple matter of taking probiotic capsules and powders, although that's definitely a good start. Going back to the soil organisms and the nursing baby, we have to feed the bacteria if we want them to flourish and multiply!
I mentioned long-chain sugars in mother's milk that make it past the small intestine and into the colon: there are various components of food we eat that pass to the colon also. We used to be taught that 'fiber' was simply indigestible, along for the ride, helping to move things through: it's now known that 'fiber' and some of these long chain sugars, or polysaccharides, feed the gut bacteria. They ferment these sugars to obtain food from them, and actually produce some short-chain saturated fatty acids as a by-product.
The inulin from jerusalem artichoke and chicory root can be found in health food stores as a source of these polysaccharides. It has a pleasant, sweet taste and smooth texture, and can even be used as a sweetener. However, eating plenty of vegetables, raw and cooked, is a good way to get various forms of this same 'good bacteria food' without supplementation or refining. Onions, leeks, garlic, chicory are particularly good sources.The long-chain sugars raffinose and stachyose contained in beans are also good for that--and everyone associates beans with gut fermentation already!
Irish moss has become a very popular ingredient in the raw food world of late because of its wonderful gelling ability. Have you noticed how kelp granules also congeal if you sprinkle them on food? Sea veggies in general are full of polysaccharides, and this gelling property is a signature of that particular kind of polysaccharide (okra is another source).
I want to mention three more specific foods, more condiment-like, that have been shown to feed good gut bacteria. One is spirulina. This is a great one to include, especially for the high--and highly absorbable--protein it offers. Another is raw (unpasteurized) sauerkraut and a third is raw (unpasteurized) miso. These last two are particularly good because they combine the live cultures that you want colonizing your gut with stuff that feeds them, both in a single food. Sauerkraut has lots of inulin and miso has the long-chain sugars fermented from the beans.
I'm especially enjoying all the fibrous veggies from my garden with this in mind, and it's time to make another batch of kraut!
If you know of any other food sources that feed 'good bacteria,' I'd love it if you'd share them!
BIO
Ela Harrison Gordon is a Classical scholar, linguist and poet who has chosen to devote her life to healing and spiritual growth. She has worked as a raw food chef, beekeeper and farmer as well asa translator, writer and editor. Of English and Israeli heritage and raised in London, she has lived inthe USA since 2000 and has explored cultivated and wild land whilst living in California,
Hawaii and now Alaska.She regards her body's intolerance of grains and most modern foods, as well as her journey back
from near-death from anorexia, as blessings that have led her to a greater reverence for the body and its place in our
spiritual development, a more holistic understanding of health, and a deep interest in nutrition both of person and of planet. These blessings first led her to raw foods in 2003, and she is excited to share the breadth of what she has learned from pursuing the lifestyle in a variety of climates whilst integrating with local customs and growth patterns.
ARTICLE ARCHIVE
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