WHAT
NUTRIENTS DO PEOPLE NEED?
This webpage shares valuable
information about the helpful nutrients and the helpful bacteria that our bodies need in order to be healthy.
"Helpful nutrients"
refers to sunlight, air, water, vitamins, minerals, sugars, starches, fats,
oils, amino acids, digestive enzymes, and various other nutrients. You can think of helpful nutrients like tools
and building supplies for a carpenter.
Without a hammer, saw, wood, nails, and the various other tools and
supplies that a carpenter uses, a carpenter couldn't build anything, despite
that the carpenter knows how to build many things. The human body is the same way. Even though the body knows how to build
itself to be healthy and make repairs to keep itself healthy, if the body
doesn't have a good variety of nutrients to use (as tools and building
supplies), the body can't achieve and maintain good health.
"Helpful bacteria"
refers to the various types of bacteria that normally live in certain areas of
healthy people's bodies. These helpful
bacteria do a wide variety of good things for us, which help our bodies to be
especially healthy. I'll share more
about these special bacteria later on, in this section.
When we supply our bodies with
a variety of valuable nutrients and helpful bacteria, our bodies tend to quickly
heal and strengthen themselves in many exciting ways!
Now lets
explore which nutrients our bodies need in order for us to be healthy. Let's begin by taking a short look at how our
bodies digest food, and which foods our bodies are best at digesting.
HOW DO OUR
DIGESTIVE SYSTEMS WORK?
To understand what kinds of
foods our bodies are designed to eat, let's take a quick look at people's
digestive systems. The human digestive
system is an amazing masterpiece of design!
Here's how it works...
Food is placed in the mouth,
where it is mixed with saliva and chewed.
Digestive enzymes present in human saliva (known as ptyalin, or salivary
amylase) begin digesting some of the starches in the food.
The food is then swallowed, and
it travels down the esophagus, into the stomach, where the starch digesting
enzymes from the saliva continue to digest starches.
While in the stomach,
hydrochloric acid is secreted and mixed into the food. This acid kills many harmful living things that
might have been present on the food (like harmful bacteria, fungi, viruses,
protozoa, and parasitic worms). The
hydrochloric acid also helps to digest many of the nutrients in the food as
well. The stomach also produces the
digestive enzymes known as pepsin and cathepsin, which digest proteins down
into smaller amino acid chains. At this
point, some nutrients that have been digested are absorbed through the stomach
wall, directly into the blood stream.
The food in the stomach might
stay there from 15 minutes to eight or more hours before it is passed into the
small intestines. Generally speaking,
the harder the food is for the body to digest, the longer the food stays in the
stomach.
When the food eventually leaves
the stomach and enters the small intestines, the liver secretes bile and a
variety of digestive enzymes into the beginning of the small intestines. Bile is a chemical (similar to soap) that the
liver makes. Bile helps to digest fats,
oils, cholesterol, and other "lipid" molecules, that are in the foods
we eat. The pancreas secretes various
digestive aiding chemicals into the beginning of the small intestines as
well. For example, the pancreas secretes
a variety of digestive enzymes (known together as "pancreatin"). The pancreas also secretes
"bicarbonate", which is an alkaline chemical that neutralizes the
hydrochloric acid that was present in the food coming from the stomach. Additionally, all throughout the small
intestines, a wonderful variety of digestive enzymes are secreted into the
food, from the intestinal walls. Also,
various types of bacteria and fungi that are living in our small intestines
secrete a variety of digestive enzymes as well.
Certain types of helpful bacteria, known as "lactobacilli",
normally live in a healthy person's small intestines. They help digest the food, by secreting a
variety of types of digestive enzymes.
They also create vitamins and other nutrients (that our bodies can later
use). They also protect the small
intestines from certain types of harmful bacteria, fungi, viruses, protozoa,
and intestinal parasites. And so, in the
small intestines, proteins are digested down into individual amino acids and
small amino acid chains (of two or three amino acids bound together), lipids
(such as fats, oils, and cholesterol) are digested down into glycerol and fatty
acids, starches are digested into sugars, and many complex sugars are digested
into simple sugars. These amino acids,
glycerol, fatty acids, sugars, and other nutrients (like vitamins, minerals,
and certain enzymes) are absorbed through the small intestine walls, and into
the blood stream and lymphatic fluid (which carry these nutrients throughout
our bodies). Many of these nutrients are
then sent to the liver, where they are often modified further into other
nutrients. The food, bacteria, and fungi
that remain in the small intestines then pass into the large intestines
(which is also known as the "colon").
In the large intestines,
trillions of bacteria and fungi excrete a variety of digestive enzymes. Of course, some of these bacteria and fungi
moved into the large intestines from the small intestines, and others simply
live in the colon. Certain helpful
bacteria, known as "bifidobacteria", normally live in a healthy
person's colon. Like the
"lactobacilli" bacteria (previously mentioned), these bifidobacteria
help to digest certain foods, create certain nutrients, and protect the large
intestines from certain types of harmful bacteria, fungi, viruses, protozoa,
and parasitic worms. Large amounts of
water, some minerals, and other nutrients are absorbed through the large
intestine walls, and into the blood stream and lymphatic fluid. What remain in the large intestines are
mostly some living and some dead bacteria and fungi. There is also a little water, and some
unabsorbed nutrients present. This
mixture of bacteria, fungi, water, and some nutrients, is known as
"stool", and it remains in the colon until it is passed out the anus,
when the person goes to the bathroom.
The entire length of the digestive tract, from the mouth to the anus, is
about 26 feet (8 meters).
WHAT FOODS ARE PEOPLE DESIGNED TO EAT?
My exploration of this topic has
led me to believe that the human digestive system seems to be designed for
people to be neither herbivores (animals that generally eat only plants), nor
carnivores (animals that generally eat only other animals). Rather, in my opinion, people are designed to
be omnivores (animals that generally eat both plants and animals). This view may surprise some people who
believe that people are designed by nature to be strictly vegetarians. Let's look at why I've come to this
conclusion...
When you look at the herbivores
in nature, and compare the digestive system of people to them, it quickly
becomes apparent that people's digestive systems don't seem to have been
designed to get anywhere near as many nutrients from plants as pure herbivores
do. As a general rule, herbivores tend
to have very long digestive tracts. This
appears to be so the herbivores' bodies can spend a great deal of time
digesting and absorbing the various nutrients locked within the cells of each plant. In comparison to herbivores, people's
intestinal tracts are short.
Also, unlike an herbivore, a
person's digestive system is capable of digesting animals. For example, the human digestive system can
digest cholesterol down into smaller particles before it is absorbed into the
bloodstream. Cholesterol is found in
meats, but not in plants.
On the other hand, people also
don't appear to have been designed to be pure carnivores, either. One reason I feel this way is that carnivores
tend to have digestive tracts that are somewhat shorter than people's digestive
tracts. A goal of carnivores' digestive
systems appears to be to pass meat through them in short amounts of time.
To kill any dangerous bacteria,
fungi, viruses, protozoa, and parasitic worms, that might be living on a
freshly killed animal or growing on smelly, rotting meat (on an animal that was
killed hours or days ago), carnivores' stomachs produce an extremely high
concentration of hydrochloric acid when they eat meat. The higher the concentration of hydrochloric
acid that is produced in the stomach, the more harmful infections are killed in the freshly eaten food. While people do produce some hydrochloric
acid in their stomachs when they eat meat, carnivores tend to produce much
higher concentrations of it than people do.
And so
people don't seem to have been designed to be pure herbivores. And people don't seem to
have been designed to be pure carnivores either. What then are people designed to eat? It seems to me that people have been designed
to be omnivores. In other words,
although people's digestive systems are not very good at digesting plants and
animals, people's digestive systems are capable of getting some nutrition out
of both. The sacrifice the human body
has made to be capable of digesting plants is that it is only fair at digesting
meats. And the sacrifice that the human
body has made to be capable of digesting meats is that it is only fair at
digesting plants.
Some people disagree with this
view, and say that the human body is not designed to eat other animals as food,
because people don't have fangs or thick claws to use to catch their food. In my view, people don't need fangs and claws
to catch and eat animals as food. For example,
people do have the mental ability of "creativity" as their tool
for catching animals as food. Even
"primitive" people could have used their creativity to construct
various types of animal traps (such as ditches covered with sticks and leaves,
and nets made out of vines) and weapons (such as spears, bows and arrows, and
clubs). These animal traps and weapons
could have easily been used to kill and eat various types of wild animals. Furthermore, many people don't need to catch
wild animals, because they have developed the creative skill of raising captive
animals. Just like people have developed
the ability to grow and eat plants, the same skill has been used to grow and
eat animals (such as domesticated cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and
fish). Regarding the viewpoint that people
don't have fangs to eat animal foods, my opinion is that people don't need
fangs to eat animal foods. People often
cook animal foods to make them easier to chew.
Also, people have invented knives to help cut animal foods that are
difficult to chew. And so, my opinion is
that both "primitive" people and "modern-day" people have
been clearly capable of catching and eating animals for food, for thousands of
years.
In addition to eating plants
and animals, I personally believe people's digestive systems are also designed
to be able to get high amounts of nutrients from eating different types of bugs
and insects. Various types of indigenous
cultures around the world eat them as part of their daily meals. To people who live close to nature, certain
types of bugs and insects might be viewed as ideal foods, since many types of
them are easy to catch, easy to chew, and are high in many valuable nutrients
(such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and enzymes). Also, in most parts of the world, bugs and
insects are easily available in the spring, summer, fall, and winter.
People’s bodies are capable of
digesting plants, animals, and perhaps bugs and insects. We are omnivores. However, it’s also true that some foods are
easier for our bodies to digest than others.
I’ll be sharing which foods are the easiest to digest, and the hardest
to digest, throughout this webpage.
To better understand which
foods are healthiest for us to eat, let’s now take a look at which nutrients
our bodies need in order for us to be healthy!
WHAT NUTRIENTS DO WE NEED TO BE HEALTHY?
Imagine a plant growing in a
forest. What does it need to be
healthy? It needs a certain amount of
sunlight. It also needs adequate air, which
supplies the plant with enough nitrogen and oxygen to be healthy. It needs water. And finally the plant needs to be growing in
soil that contains a variety of minerals.
If the plant gets the proper amount of each of these nutrients
(sunlight, air, water, and minerals), it will likely be a very healthy plant!
People are similar! However, people need a greater variety of
nutrients each day than plants do. In
general, people need sunlight, oxygen, water, vitamins, minerals, amino acids,
fats, oils, sugars, digestive enzymes, and other phytonutrients (nutrients found
in plants), in order to be healthy.
Let’s now discuss each of these nutrients, and ways people can ensure
they get enough of them in their day-to-day lives.
SUPPLYING OUR BODIES WITH SUNLIGHT!
Many people might be surprised
to think of sunlight as a nutrient, since we don't eat it! Sunlight is one of the easiest nutrients for
most people to get! The sun sends out
tiny bits of light that travel for millions of miles before entering into your
body. These little pieces of light are
nutrients, like any other, and they offer you an exciting opportunity to
improve your health.
One reason it's important to
get some sun each day is that our bodies make a type of vitamin D from
combining sunlight and certain nutrients that are already present in our bodies. In areas of the world near the north pole,
(such as Alaska, and the northern areas of Canada and Greenland), there are a
number of people who become very depressed in the winter months, when there is
almost no sunlight at all throughout the day.
This health imbalance, that seems to be caused in part by too little
sunlight, is called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). When people suffering from SAD sit for two or
three hours each day in front of light bulbs that produce light rays that are
similar to sunlight, they feel much happier each day. Sunlight is clearly a necessary nutrient!
As a general rule, I encourage
anyone who wants to be healthy to spend at least thirty minutes each day
getting direct sunlight. Common sense
needs to be used here. Naturally it's
important to be careful that you don't get a sunburn. Also, keep in mind that if you are wearing a
long sleeve shirt, long pants, and shoes, then the only parts of your body that
are receiving sunlight are your hands, and face. You may want to spend more time in the sun in
this case, than someone wearing a short sleeve shirt and shorts, or a
skirt. People with darker skin may want
to spend more time in the sun than people with lighter skin. This is because darker skin contains more of
the skin pigment that protects the skin from getting sunburned. This pigment also reduces the amount of
sunlight that passes through the person's skin.
Light bulbs that emit light
that is similar to sunlight are called "full-spectrum light
bulbs". I encourage people to use
them in their homes and where they work, as well as in schools, and any other
places where people spend fairly large amounts of time. Here is a list of companies that make
full-spectrum light products.
MAKERS OF FULL-SPECTRUM LIGHT PRODUCTS:
American Environmental Products – This is the best company I know in the
Full Spectrum Solutions – They make a variety of full spectrum light bulbs, light boxes,
and lights. (address:
Full Spectrum Solutions,
Lumiram – They make
a variety of full spectrum light bulbs, light boxes, and lights. (address: Lumiram,
SUPPLYING OUR BODIES WITH OXYGEN!
Oxygen is also an important
nutrient. To get an idea of how
important of a nutrient oxygen is to our bodies, try
holding your breath for as long as you can.
Within a minute or two you'll likely notice your body
"screaming" for you to breathe again.
And in fact, our bodies need so much oxygen, that if we were to stop
breathing oxygen for two or three minutes, many of us would die. So the cells in our bodies need lots of
oxygen to remain healthy.
The body also needs plenty of
oxygen to repair injuries. Injured
mountain climbers who are near the top of
Our eyes need plenty of oxygen
too! Eyes absorb a lot of the oxygen
they need directly from the air. This is
one reason why it's important for people who wear contact lenses, to keep them
very clean. If the contact lenses get clogged
(with dust, mucous, and bacteria), not enough oxygen can pass through them, and
the person's eyes may be severely damaged, due to oxygen starvation.
It's very easy for our bodies
to absorb various chemicals that are present in our lungs, right into our blood
streams. With this in mind, it becomes
clear how
It's very important to only
breathe healthy air, and avoid toxic air, whenever possible. Toxic air is not only found in highly
polluted cities, but also near harmful chemicals that may be found where you
work, or in your home. When we breathe
air that has toxins in it, many of those toxins are absorbed right through our
lungs into our blood. As a result, those
toxins poison our bodies. Generally
speaking, the air in the morning is the healthiest, since many of the toxins in
the air have had a chance to settle to the ground, and be removed from the air
by plants. By the end of the day, a lot
of toxins from car exhaust, factories, and other types of industrial pollutants
tend to be in the air. So the morning is
generally the healthiest time to breathe fresh air!
It's important that oxygen get
to each area of the body. Some areas of
the body (like the prostate gland in men) generally don't get much oxygen
unless the person does some form of exercise each day that increases blood
circulation to that part of the body.
Daily exercises such as aerobic walking, jogging, swimming, and cycling
can ensure that each area of the body gets enough oxygen to be healthy!
SUPPLYING OUR
BODIES WITH WATER!
Water
is a nutrient that seems to be found in every living thing on the planet
Earth. In fact, most of the human body
is made of water. Each day our bodies
even create some water. But we need a
lot more water each day than our bodies can create. Our bodies use water for hundreds of different
uses. An interesting book that shares
the many reasons our bodies need water, and what diseases people are especially
vulnerable to, if they don’t get enough water, is titled, Water: For Health, for Healing, for Life, by F. Batmanghelidj (copyright 2003; published by Warner Books, 1271 Avenue of the
Americas, New York City, New York, 10020, U.S.A.).
I encourage
most people to drink at least six full glasses of water, herbal tea, fruit
juice, or vegetable juice...but some people will need to drink more or less
than that. For example, if you exercise
or work hard in the sun each day, and you sweat a lot, you will probably need
more than six glasses of water each day, to be your healthiest!
Many water treatment facilities
put toxins in drinking water to try to kill harmful bacteria, viruses, and
protozoa. Sometimes pesticides and other
toxins, find their way into water supplies as well. With this in mind, I encourage people to find
a good source of drinking water if possible.
Here are some suggestions on how to do this.
HOW TO HAVE
HEALTHY DRINKING WATER
1) Install one or more water
filters or purifiers on one or more of your faucets and/or showerheads in your
home.
The difference between a water filter
and a water purifier is that water purifiers remove toxic chemicals, and water
purifiers generally kill or weaken harmful living things (such as bacteria,
molds, and protozoa) that might be present in the water.
2) Get your water from a well, or
a cold, fast moving stream that has no chemical toxins or potentially dangerous
infections in it.
3) Get your water from a friend or
family member who has easy access to clean water. Periodically you can fill up plastic or glass containers with the
water and bring it home for you, and others you live with, to use.
4) Buy bottled water. Bottled water is sold in glass and plastic containers. The healthiest type of container to buy
bottled water in is glass, because few, if any, toxins come out of the glass
container and into the water. So glass
containers keep water the purest and healthiest.
When buying bottled water in plastic containers, it's important to keep
in mind that there are two different kinds of plastics that are generally used
to make the containers. The healthier of
the two is the type of plastic that is perfectly clear (you can see through
it). They are the ones that look like
clear glass. They are made with a type
of plastic that's called "polyethylene terephthalate" (which is
abbreviated as "PET" or "PETE"). Very little of this type of plastic gets into
the water, so water that comes in this type of plastic bottle has very few
toxins in it.
The other type of plastic container is the one that is made from a
type of cloudy looking plastic, that's called "high-density
polyethylene" (which is abbreviated as "HDPE" or
"PE-HD"). I highly suggest avoiding
buying water, or any other type of drink, that is in this type of plastic
bottle or container. The reason is that
parts of the plastic come off into the water and contaminates it. People can usually taste the plastic in the
water when they drink water from this type of plastic bottle. There's no point in buying bottled
"healthy" water if it's contaminated with toxic plastic.
To tell which type of plastic a bottle of drinking water is made
from, you can often look on the bottom of the bottle. The abbreviation of the type of plastic is
often written there.
We've
just seen that there are mainly three different types of bottles that drinking
water is sold in. Now let’s look at some
of the different types of waters that are sold as "healthy" water. Generally speaking, you can buy drinking
water, distilled water, spring water, filtered water, or purified water.
"Drinking
water" is a meaningless term. It can refer to practically any kind of
water, even tap water, so I wouldn't buy any water called "drinking
water" without reading the label carefully, and making sure it's what I
want to drink.
"Distilled
water" refers to water that has been heated
to high temperatures to remove many chemical toxins, and kill all infections in
it. I discourage drinking distilled
water, for reasons that will be shared shortly.
"Spring water" usually
means it was taken from a spring, well, or creek, and sometimes it is also
filtered and/or purified as well. It
will generally say on the "spring water" bottle.
"Filtered
water" means that the water in the bottle
has had various chemical toxins "filtered" out of it.
"Purified
water" means that the water in the bottle
has had various types of infections (like certain bacteria, molds, and
protozoa) removed from it and/or killed.
Water
can be filtered and/or purified using one or more of the following techniques:
COMMON WAYS TO
FILTER AND PURIFY WATER
1) Carbon Filtration or Microfiltration - This generally means that the water was
run through some activated carbon and maybe some minerals that
"caught" (filtered) many toxins and some infections out of the
water. Some water filters, using this
technique are better than others. In
general this is a pretty good filtering technique, but it doesn't catch
everything, so you might prefer water that has been treated using this
technique, in addition to some of the other filtration and purification
methods listed below.
2) Membrane Filtration - This generally means that water was pushed through a type of
material that looks like saran wrap or cling wrap,
which acts like a filter. This membrane
filter allows only small molecules to pass through it, leaving most of the
chemical toxins (which are usually larger molecules) and harmful infections
stuck in the membrane filter.
"Reverse osmosis" is the name of the filtering technique that
uses a membrane with the smallest holes (approximately .5 nanometers). "Nanofiltration" is the name given
to the filtering technique that uses a membrane with slightly larger pores
(approximately 1 nanometer). And
"ultrafiltration" is the name given to the filtering technique that
uses a membrane with slightly larger pores than the previous two mentioned (approximately
1.5 nanometers). Membrane filtration is
an extremely effective filtration and purification technique. In particular, reverse osmosis and
nanofiltration will filter out nearly all chemical toxins and harmful living
things.
3) Ozonation - This
is the technique of adding large amounts of oxygen to water. The result is that many harmful living things
are killed (by the oxygen rupturing their cell walls), and many of the chemical
toxins combine with the oxygen, and then they are more easily filtered from the
water using one of the filtration techniques mentioned above. Combining ozonation with carbon filtration or
membrane filtration, results in very pure and healthy water.
4) Ultraviolet Radiation - This is the use of extremely high amounts of ultraviolet light to
either kill harmful living things, or injure them so much that they can't
reproduce. In nature, water and water
vapor (in the atmosphere) would never be subject to such a high amount of
ultraviolet light. Although I have no
scientific evidence to show that such incredibly high amounts of ultraviolet
radiation changes the water molecule in a negative way, I personally choose to
avoid drinking water that has been treated this way. Each person must make his or her own choice
though. Ultraviolet radiation is very
effective at killing and/or disabling most, or all, harmful infections that are
in the water. However, ultraviolet
radiation does not remove any harmful chemicals from water though, so if you
choose to drink water that has been exposed to ultraviolet radiation this way,
I suggest that the water also be treated using one or more of the other water
treatment methods listed above.
5) Distillation - When
water is distilled, it is put in a container and heated to high temperatures,
and so the water evaporates. Then the water
vapor (that evaporated) is caught in another container. Many of the toxins that were in the original
water were too heavy to evaporate with that water, and so most of those toxins
remained in the first container.
Whereas, the water that was collected in the second container (the
distilled water) contains few toxins, and all of the infections have been
killed (by the high heat). However,
distilled water molecules have undergone what is called "heat alteration". Imagine that a water molecule looks like the
letter "V". When a water molecule is heated to high
temperatures, the top of the "V" spreads apart, until the shape of the molecule looks more
like a horizontal line, like this "___". It's unclear how
long the water molecules stay this way, until eventually returning to their
original "V"
shape. As a result, I believe that at
least some distilled water that is sold, may be unhealthy to drink (if the
water molecules are still heat altered).
And so I suggest drinking other types of healthy drinking water, if you
have access to them.
I
understand that this information on water might seem a bit confusing at first,
but if you read the section above two or three times, I think you'll find it
sits much clearer in your mind.
If
you'd like to learn more about drinking water, I highly recommend reading a
great book on the subject, called The Drinking
Water Book: A Complete Guide to Safe Drinking Water, by Colin Ingram (copyright 2001;
published by Ten Speed Press, Post Office Box 7123, Berkeley, California,
94707, U.S.A.).
SUPPLYING OUR
BODIES WITH VITAMINS!
The human body uses various
helpful nutrients, called vitamins, in order to keep itself
healthy. There are some vitamins that
the body can create all it needs, so we don't need to try to get these vitamins
in our daily meals. However, there are
some vitamins that the body can't create at all, or the body can only create a
small amount of them. It's very
important that we get enough of these vitamins in our daily meals, in order for
us to be truly healthy.
There are mainly two types of
vitamins: fat-soluble vitamins, and water-soluble vitamins. Fat-soluble vitamins dissolve in oil. They include vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E,
and vitamin K. Water-soluble vitamins
dissolve in water, and they include vitamin C, vitamin B-1, vitamin B-2,
vitamin B-3, vitamin B-5, vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12, biotin, folic acid, choline,
inositol, and vitamin P. In most cases,
our bodies need to get some of all of these vitamins in our meals, in order for
us to be healthy. Here's a listing of
the various types of vitamins, and some interesting information about each of
them.
A LISTING OF VITAMINS
FAT-SOLUBLE
VITAMINS:
Vitamin A - (retinal) refers to a variety of alcohol-based molecules that
are used by the body for good vision, for cells to reproduce, and for the
immune system to work well. Certain
forms of vitamin A will also protect certain cells from toxins. We get various forms of vitamin A from both
animal foods (like chicken, fish, and eggs) and plant foods (like carrots,
spinach, and green peppers).
Vitamin D - (calciferol, calcitriol) is actually a hormone. Vitamin D helps our bodies to absorb calcium
from our meals, and also helps our bodies to use that calcium to build strong
bones. We get some vitamin D from our
daily meals. Our bodies also make a form
of vitamin D (vitamin D-3). Two of the
ingredients our bodies use to make vitamin D-3 are sunlight and
cholesterol. This is an example of how
sunlight and cholesterol, which are rarely thought of as nutrients, are
actually very valuable nutrients to the human body.
Vitamin E - (tocopherol, tocotrienol) gets absorbed into many of the body’s
cells, and certain types of molecules in our bodies, and helps to protect them
from various toxins. We get vitamin E
from our daily meals.
Vitamin K - (phylloquinone, menaquinone) helps build strong bones. It also helps our blood clot when we have an
injury, so we don’t bleed to death. We
get some vitamin K from our daily meals, and some from the helpful bacteria
that live in healthy people’s intestinal tracts.
WATER-SOLUBLE
VITAMINS:
Vitamin C - (ascorbic acid, ascorbate) One reason why this vitamin is
especially interesting is because nearly all animals on the earth can produce
their own vitamin C. However, people (as
well as most primates, all guinea pigs, and a species of fruit-eating bat)
can’t produce vitamin C. So we must get
all of our vitamin C from our daily meals.
Vitamin C is used by the body to help protect it from certain toxins, to
help the immune system function well, and it’s used by the body to form
connective tissue (which is called "collagen"). You can think of collagen as the “glue” that
holds our bodies together. While most
animal foods we eat have some vitamin C in them, we get most of our vitamin C
from plant foods (such as amla berries, broccoli, camu camu berries,
cauliflower, collard greens, guavas, jujube fruit, kiwifruit, oranges, manioc
root (also called cassava root), mangoes, papaya, and strawberries).
Vitamin
B-1 - (thiamine) This
vitamin is needed for proper mental functioning. It is also needed for cells in the body to use
sugar to create energy. We get biotin
from foods, like Brazil nuts, peanuts, pine nuts, and sunflower seeds.
Vitamin
B-2 - (riboflavin) This
vitamin is needed by the body for proper vision, and for cells in the body to
create energy. We get it from foods,
such as almonds, broccoli, and sunflower seeds.
Vitamin
B-3 - (niacin, niacinamide, nicotinic acid) This vitamin can be made by the body from
the amino acid tryptophan, so some people don’t consider it a vitamin we need
to get from food, as long as we get enough tryptophan in our daily meals. Amino acids are explained in more depth,
later in this webpage. Vitamin B-3 is
used by the body to create energy, and to make certain hormones. We get vitamin B-3 directly from foods like
brown rice, peanuts, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds, or our bodies can
create it if we eat foods that are high in tryptophan, such as peanuts, pumpkin
seeds, chicken, and turkey.
Vitamin
B-5 - (pantothenic acid) This vitamin is used by the body to create energy from fats
and sugar. It is also used by the body
to make red blood cells, and certain hormones.
We get this vitamin from foods, such as fish, chicken, turkey, peanuts,
sunflower seeds, and walnuts.
Vitamin
B-6 - (pyrodoxine) This
vitamin is needed by the body for proper brain function. It is also needed for cells to reproduce
properly. We get it from our foods, like
bananas, brown rice, potatoes, and spinach.
Vitamin
B-12 - (cobalamin) This vitamin is
required by the body to make red blood cells, and the myelin sheath, which is
the protective covering that surrounds nerve cells. It also is required for the liver to perform
certain functions properly. This vitamin
is mainly found in animal foods, like chicken, turkey, fish, scallops, eggs,
and cheese. Vegetarians are possibly at
risk of getting a vitamin B-12 deficiency.
However, there are some plants that have some vitamin B-12. For example, alfalfa, comfrey, the blue-green
algae spirulina, and the green algae chlorella, all have some vitamin B-12 in
them. Some people question if the human
body can use the plant form of vitamin B-12, since it is molecularly different
than the animal form. There is also some
belief that the helpful bacteria that live in people’s intestinal tracts
produce vitamin B-12, which may then be absorbed and used by our bodies. Some people claim that there are various
indigenous tribes and communities of vegetarian people throughout the world who
eat no animal foods, and who show no sign of a vitamin B-12 deficiency. And so, some people interpret this to imply
that people don’t necessarily need to eat animal foods for our bodies to have
enough vitamin B-12.
Biotin - This vitamin is needed by the body to use sugars, fats, and
amino acids properly. It is also needed by
the body for cells to grow and reproduce properly. We get biotin from certain types of helpful
bacteria that live in our intestinal tracts (like Bifidobacterium bifidum
for example). We also get biotin from
various foods, including almonds, brown rice, cauliflower, oats, and peanuts.
Choline - This vitamin can be made in the body from either the amino acid
methionine, or serine. However, some
people still consider it an important vitamin for people to get in their daily
meals. The body needs choline for proper
brain function, as well as to lubricate joint areas of the body (like the
elbows and the knees). The body also
needs choline for the liver to use fats properly, and for the liver to perform
other functions as well. We get choline
from various foods, like cauliflower, eggs, milk, oranges, peanuts, and
potatoes. To encourage our bodies to
make choline from the amino acids methionine and serine, we can eat foods that
are high in both of these amino acids, such as chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, milk,
cheese, peanuts, pecans, pistachios, and sunflower seeds.
Folic acid - This vitamin is needed by the body for the proper formation of
red blood cells. It is also required for
cells to reproduce properly. For this
reason, women who are pregnant should make sure they get plenty of folic acid,
since a deficiency can result in birth defects in the newborn baby. We get folic acid mainly from plant foods,
such as almonds, asparagus, broccoli, lima beans, peanuts, spinach, and
walnuts.
Inositol - This vitamin is used by the body for proper brain function,
nerve function, liver function, and muscle function. We get it from various foods, such as eggs.
Vitamin P - (bioflavonoids, hesperidin, quercetin, rutin) This vitamin is needed for the body to absorb and use
vitamin C properly. One of the best
sources of vitamin P is citrus fruits, such as grapefruits, lemons, limes,
oranges, and tangerines. However,
vitamin P is also found in some other types of plant foods as well, such as
tomatoes, blueberries, currants, cranberries, red grapes, raspberries,
strawberries, onions, parsley, rhubarb, sage, various types of beans, and
certain types of algae.
If
you would like to learn more about the various types of vitamins, and the
specifics about how our bodies use each one, I highly suggest reading the book
titled, Encyclopedia of Nutritional Supplements:
The Essential Guide for Improving Your Health Naturally, written by Michael Murray (copyright 1996; published by Three Rivers Press, New York
City, New York, U.S.A.).
I suggest most people
supplement their daily meals with a good multi-vitamin supplement. Multi-vitamin supplements are nutritional
supplements that contain a wide variety of vitamins in them. Here's a list of some of the best
multi-vitamin supplements that I know.
SUGGESTED MULTI-VITAMIN SUPPLEMENTS:
MegaFood “Maximum Foods” – This multi-vitamin supplement contains a variety of vitamins,
minerals, fruits, vegetables, and digestive enzymes. (address: MegaFood, Post Office
Nature’s Sunshine "Super
Supplemental" - This multi-vitamin
supplement contains a variety of vitamins, a variety of minerals, as well as a
small amount of added herbs. This
supplement is available in a version with iron, and a version without iron. (address: Nature’s
Sunshine Products, Spanish
Systemic Formulas “AZV” – This multi-vitamin supplement contains a variety of vitamins,
and a small amount of minerals. (address: Systemic
Formulas, Post Office
Wachters’ "Number 100 (Golden
100)" - This multi-vitamin supplement
contains a variety of vitamins, a variety of minerals, and a variety of types
of sea vegetables as well. This
supplement is made with no animal products, so it can be taken by vegetarians. It is also certified "Kosher-Parve",
so it can be taken by anyone following the Jewish tradition of eating only
"Kosher-Parve" foods. (address: Wachters’ Organic Sea Products,
SUGGESTED VITAMIN C SUPPLEMENTS:
The human body needs a good amount of vitamin C each day to stay
healthy! None of the multi-vitamin
supplements listed above contain enough vitamin C in them, to last a person a
full day. And so I suggest people take
extra vitamin C each day. In order for
the body to use vitamin C effectively, the body must also have some vitamin P
as well. The following vitamin C
supplements contain no synthetic vitamin C. Instead, the vitamin C supplements listed
below contain plants, which naturally have vitamin C and vitamin P in them.
MegaFood “Complex C” – This natural (non-synthetic) vitamin C supplement contains
acerola cherries, rose hips, green peppers, cranberries, orange peels, and
other plant foods that together contain a large amount of vitamin C and vitamin
P. Each tablet of this supplement contains
about 250 milligrams of natural vitamin C.
(address:
MegaFood, Post Office
Pure Planet “Amla-C Plus” - This vitamin C supplement is listed here because it is natural
(non-synthetic) vitamin C supplement that contains no citrus fruits, so people
who are allergic to citrus can take it.
This supplement contains only amla berries, and spirulina algae. Amla berries contain a large amount of
vitamin C, as well as some vitamin P.
This supplement is available in both a pill form and a powder form. Regarding the pill form, each small, round,
flat tablet contains about 27 milligrams of natural vitamin C. Since these pills are small, this supplement
can be taken by children, and adults who prefer to take small pills. The powder form of this supplement can be
taken by people who would like to mix the powder into a drink, as well as by
people who prefer taking a powder, instead of a pill. Since this vitamin C supplement is made only
with plant ingredients, it can be taken by vegetarians. (address:
Pure Planet Products, Post Office Box 32561, Long Beach,
California, 90832, U.S.A.; phone: (562)
951-1124; website: www.pureplanet.com)
The Synergy Company “Pure Radiance C” – This natural (non-synthetic) vitamin C supplement contains
acerola berries, camu camu berries, manioc root (also called "cassava
root") and amla berries. Together
these plant foods contain a large amount of vitamin C and vitamin P. This supplement also contains a wide variety
of plants (such as black pepper concentrate, organic blueberries, organic
buckwheat berry sprouts, organic cherries, organic cranberries, organic lemon peels,
organic raspberries, and organic rose hips), which together contain a wide
variety of types of Vitamin P. This
supplement is available in both a pill form and a powder form. Each capsule of this supplement contains
about 120 milligrams of natural vitamin C.
Each quarter of a teaspoon (650 milligrams) of the powder contains about
129 milligrams of natural vitamin C. The
powder form of this supplement can be taken by people who would like to mix the
powder into a drink, as well as by people who prefer taking a powder, instead
of a pill. Since this supplement is made
only with plant ingredients, it can be taken by vegetarians. (address:
The Synergy Company, 2279 South Resource Boulevard, Moab,
Utah, 84532, U.S.A.; phone: (800)
723-0277; website: www.synergy-co.com)
SUPPLYING OUR
BODIES WITH MINERALS!
Minerals are various types of elements,
rocks, or pieces of dirt that the human body uses to keep us healthy. Just like plants create their beautiful
bodies from sunlight, air, water, and minerals...our bodies need minerals too,
if we are to achieve and maintain excellent health! For example, our teeth and bones are made
with lots of the mineral, calcium. Our
bodies need the mineral, chromium, to use sugar properly. Sodium is needed by our bodies to make our
muscles move. And our bodies use
magnesium to do more than 200 different functions!
Normally people get a variety
of minerals from the foods we eat.
However, these days a lot of plant foods (like vegetables and grains)
are grown in soil that has few minerals in it.
As a result, those plant foods contain very few minerals in them. Also, a lot of farm-raised animals (like fish
and chicken) were fed various types of mineral-deficient plant foods. And so, many animal foods have very few
minerals in them as well. As a result,
much of the food we eat doesn't have enough minerals in it to keep each of each
of us healthy.
Before minerals that we eat can
be absorbed into the blood stream, certain nutrients, known as amino acids,
usually combine with the minerals, while the minerals are in the intestinal
tract. These amino acids help the
minerals to be absorbed into the blood stream and lymphatic fluid, at certain
places throughout the intestinal tract.
In other words, minerals that are combined with amino acids are
especially easy for the body to absorb and use effectively. The process of combining a mineral with
another nutrient is called "chelation". Minerals that are combined with amino acids
are referred to as "amino acid-chelated minerals".
With this in mind, to help you
make sure that you are getting enough minerals in your daily meals, below I
have recommended a number of mineral supplements that are made of minerals in
forms that people's bodies can effectively absorb and use.
SUGGESTED MULTI-MINERAL SUPPLEMENTS:
To help
you choose an effective multi-mineral supplement, here's a list of some mineral
supplements in which most, or all, of the minerals in them, are amino-acid
chelated minerals.
If you are presently taking no
multi-vitamin supplement, or you are taking one of the previously recommended
multi-vitamin supplements that only has "a small amount of minerals"
in it (such as the multi-vitamin supplements made by the companies, Garden of
Life, or Systemic Formulas), I suggest you take one of the multi-mineral supplements
listed below.
Bluebonnet
"High Potency Chelated Multi Minerals" – Most of the minerals in this multi-mineral supplement are amino acid-chelated minerals.
This supplement is available in a regular version and an “iron-free”
version. (address:
Bluebonnet Nutrition Corporation,
Wachters’ "Number 80
(Multi-Mineral Supplement)" – Most of
the minerals in this multi-mineral supplement are amino acid-chelated
minerals. This supplement is made with
no animal products, so it can be taken by vegetarians. It is also certified
"Kosher-Parve", so it can be taken by anyone following the Jewish
tradition of eating only "Kosher-Parve" foods. (address: Wachters’
Organic Sea Products,
SUGGESTED CALCIUM/MAGNESIUM SUPPLEMENTS:
The supplements listed below contain calcium and magnesium in
forms that the human body can effectively absorb and use.
If you are presently
taking one of the previously recommended multi-vitamin supplements that
contains "a variety of minerals" in it (such as the multi-vitamin
supplements made by the companies, MegaFood, Nature's Sunshine or Wachters'),
you are already getting a wide variety of minerals from your multi-vitamin
supplement (so there's no reason for you to take a multi-mineral supplement). However, in my opinion these multi-vitamin
supplements do not contain enough of the minerals, calcium and magnesium. To make sure you are getting enough calcium
and magnesium each day, I suggest you take one of the calcium/magnesium
supplements listed below.
Bluebonnet "Chelated Calcium
Magnesium" – The calcium and magnesium in this supplement are amino
acid-chelated.
(address: Bluebonnet Nutrition Corporation,
Nature’s Plus
“Source of
Nature’s Plus
“Source of Life Children's Chewable Calcium Supplement with Whole Food
Concentrates” - This is a
vegetarian, chewable calcium and magnesium supplement. The pills are shaped like different types of
animals, and they are vanilla flavored. The calcium and magnesium in this supplement are amino
acid-chelated. This
supplement also contains some figs, dates, hazelnuts, sesame seeds, broccoli,
and spinach.
This supplement can be especially valuable for children, and adults who
don’t want to swallow pills. (address: Nature’s Plus,
Suggested Trace Mineral Supplements:
Trace
minerals are minerals that people's bodies only need very small amounts
of. Our bodies use many different types of
trace minerals to keep our bodies healthy.
Perhaps the best source of trace minerals is sea vegetation (plants that
grow in ocean water). Ocean water
contains every trace mineral in it that the human body needs to be healthy, and
so seaweeds, and other forms of sea vegetation, contain a thorough variety of
all trace minerals our bodies need.
Also, the minerals in sea vegetables are easy for the body to absorb and
use effectively. If you would like to
ensure that you are getting enough trace minerals in your daily meals, you may
wish to take a trace mineral supplement.
Here is one that I highly recommend.
Wachters’ "Number 22 (Sea
Vegetation)" - This supplement contains a
variety of types of sea vegetables, put into one pill. This supplement is made with no animal
products, so it can be taken by vegetarians.
It is also certified "Kosher-Parve", so it can be taken by
anyone following the Jewish tradition of eating only "Kosher-Parve"
foods. (address:
Wachters’ Organic Sea Products,
SUPPLYING OUR BODIES WITH SUGARS AND STARCHES!
Sugars are also important to
our bodies! Lots of people know that our
bodies use small amounts of the sugar, glucose (also known as dextrose), to
create energy each day. But many people
are unaware that our bodies use a variety of types of sugars for our cells to
communicate effectively inside the body’s cells, as well as from one cell to
another. Some sugars that our bodies
need to be healthy are deoxyribose, fucose, galactose, glucose, mannose,
N-acetyl-galactosamine, N-acetyl-glucosamine, N-acetyl-neuraminic acid, ribose,
and xylose. Additionally, men need the
sugar, fructose, since this sugar is present in semen, and used by sperm for them
to be able to swim. And pregnant, or
nursing woman need the sugar, lactose, since mother's milk contains a lot of
it.
A healthy person's body can use
glucose to create any other sugar the person's body needs. This is mainly done in the liver, but many
cells throughout the body can do this as well.
Babies get both glucose and
galactose from the sugar, lactose, which is one of the various sugars found in
mother's milk. Lactose is a type of
sugar that is made of glucose and galactose joined together. So the human body, and the bacteria that live
in a healthy person's intestines, digest the sugar lactose into the sugars
glucose and galactose. The body can use
the glucose as it is, or change it into other types of sugars and sugar-like
nutrients. Regarding the galactose, the
body can use it as it is, or change it into glucose, or the body can use
galactose to make various other types of sugars and sugar-like nutrients (such
as N-acetyl-galactosamine).
In addition to mother's milk,
where else do people get glucose from?
People get the sugar, glucose, from practically every natural food or
drink we might have as part of our daily meals.
Glucose is found in plant foods (such as many fruits, vegetables, and
edible seeds), milk products (such as cow's milk, cheese, ice cream, and
yogurt), and meats (such as chicken and turkey).
When we eat foods that contain
sugars other than glucose, our bodies get the benefits of having these other
sugars without having to make them from glucose. This can be very valuable for our bodies for
a number of reasons. Let's look at three
of these reasons.
1) The first reason is that it saves our bodies unnecessary work.
For example, if a person eats a food with the sugar, mannose, in it,
then the person's body doesn't have to go through the effort to create mannose.
2) The second reason is that our bodies can make
certain nutrients from other sugars quicker than it can from glucose. For example, it is quicker for the body to
get some galactose in a meal, and then convert the galactose into the sugar,
N-acetyl-galactosamine, than it is for the body to convert glucose into
galactose, and then that galactose into the N-acetyl-galactosamine.
3) The third reason is that some people's bodies
might not be healthy enough to create all of the other sugars, and other
sugar-like nutrients, that our bodies need, from the sugar glucose. After all, it takes a lot of chemical
"work" for the body to make the other sugars and various other
sugar-like nutrients from glucose. If a
person's body can't do some of that "work" very well, and the
person's body can't make these various nutrients as quickly as the body needs
them, the person could become deficient in one or more sugars and other
nutrients that the body makes from them.
If this happens, the person's body will not be as healthy as it could
be. For example, if a person's body
doesn't have enough of the sugar, mannose, the person's immune system will work
poorly, and the person may get "sick" often, with bacteria and viral
infections. This is because the body’s
immune system is especially dependent on sugars, since the white blood cells
(the body’s “soldier” cells) use different types of sugars to communicate with
one another. White blood cells must
communicate effectively with one another if they are to effectively find and
kill infections. Imagine how much more
effective a military is when there is good communication between its
soldiers. And so the human body’s immune
system needs a variety of sugars, in order for it to effectively find
infections, and kill them quickly.
Many people
have been given the wrong impression that sugars are "bad" for the
body, and are best to be avoided. In
truth, eating meals that contain a variety of natural sugars (from healthy
foods) will encourage people's bodies to function at their best. People who have
health problems when they eat a lot of sugar, are not having health problems
because sugar is “bad”. Rather, they are
likely having health problems because one or more of their body organs (such as
the pancreas or adrenal glands), have weakened.
When certain body organs are weak, people's bodies can't digest and use
sugars properly. This can result in
various symptoms (like feeling tired, weak, or hyperactive), and various
diseases (like hypoglycemia and diabetes).
When these weak body organs are healed, these people once again can
digest and use sugars properly. (To
learn how to use nutrition to heal weak body organs, I suggest reading the
webpage titled "How to Heal and Strengthen Your Body Organs!" on this
www.AbundantHealth.ws website. Click here to
view that webpage.)
People use the word
"starches" all the time.
Starches are simply three or more molecules of glucose joined
together. Some starches (like amylose,
amlopectin, and cellulose) are found in plants, and some starches (like
glycogen) are found in animals. Our
bodies can't digest cellulose, but our bodies can digest the starches, amylose,
amlopectin and glycogen, into single molecules of glucose. This is done by digestive enzymes (such as
"amylase" and "maltase"), which together break the
individual glucose sugars off of the larger starch molecules. Then our bodies use the glucose to create
energy for our cells, or our bodies use the glucose to create other nutrients
(like other sugars or sugar-like nutrients).
Our bodies can also recombine these individual glucose molecules back
into starches again, and store them (as "glycogen") in our muscles,
and the liver.
Most seeds (such as beans,
grains, and nuts) contain high amounts of starch. Many root vegetables do also (such as
carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yams).
Most meats (except fish) contain plenty of starches too.
By having daily meals that
contain a variety of natural foods and drinks, we provide our bodies with a
wide variety of sugars and starches, which our bodies can then use to keep us
healthy in a variety of exciting ways!
Here's a listing of various
types of sugars and starches, along with some helpful information about each of
them.
Sugars
and Starches
Amlopectin – This is a type of starch that is found in plants. Amlopectin is made of hundreds, or thousands,
of glucose molecules that are joined together in long straight lines, with
additional straight lines branching off of them. People's bodies can digest amlopectin into
glucose.
Amylose – This is a type of starch that is found in plants. Amylose is made of hundreds, or thousands, of
glucose molecules that are joined together in long straight lines. People's bodies can digest amylose into
glucose.
Arabinose – This sugar is found in the aloe vera plant.
Arabinogalactins – These sugars are made of arabinose and galactose. They are found in carrots, coconut, corn,
leeks, pears, radishes, tomatoes, wheat, the herbs echinacea and curcumin, and
the larch tree.
Cellulose – This is starch that is similar to amylose. Cellulose is made of hundreds, or thousands,
of glucose molecules joined together in long straight lines. The human body can't digest cellulose. Cellulose is found in many fruits, and
vegetables (like carrots and celery).
Wood is made of about 50 percent cellulose, and cotton is about 90
percent cellulose.
Chitin – This sugar is made from N-acetyl-glucosamine. It is found in certain bacteria, insects,
mushrooms, yeast, and the shells of crabs, crayfish, krill, and shrimp.
Deoxyribose – People's bodies make this sugar from glucose. Deoxyribose is used by the body to make DNA
(deoxyribonucleic acid). The genes in
each of our body's cells are made of DNA molecules.
Dextrose – See "Glucuse" listing.
FOS – See "Fructo-oligosaccharides" listing.
Fructo-oligosaccharides – These sugars are also called "FOS" and
"oligofructose". People can't
digest these sugars properly. However various helpful bacteria that live in people's intestines
like to eat it. These helpful
intestinal bacteria (bifidobacteria and lactobacilli) help us to digest our
food, and help keep our intestines healthy.
Fructo-oligosaccharides are found in asparagus, bananas, chicory,
garlic,
Fructose – This sugar is also called "levulose". Fructose is considered to be the sweetest
tasting sugar of all sugars that occur in nature. A healthy person's liver can change fructose
into glucose. Fructose is used by men's
bodies to make sperm. Men's bodies can
make fructose from glucose. Fructose is
found in corn, many fruits, and honey.
Fructose is also a part of a sucrose molecule. So when we eat or drink sucrose, our bodies
digest the sucrose, and we get fructose (and glucose)
from it.
Fucose – This sugar appears to be needed by the brain and nerves, in
order for them to be healthy. This sugar
is found in mother's milk.
Galactose – This sugar can be used by people's bodies to speed up the
healing of injuries. It also improves
communication between cells. A healthy
person's liver can convert galactose into glucose. Galactose doesn't seem to occur as a single
sugar in nature, but rather it exists as parts of larger sugars. For example, our bodies can get galactose
from the sugar known as lactose. Lactose
is made of glucose and galactose.
Lactose is found in mother's milk, cow's milk, goat's milk, and other
types of milk. Our bodies can also get
galactose from the sugar known as stachyose.
Stachyose is made of two molecules of galactose, one molecule of
glucose, and one molecule of fructose.
Glucose – Glucose is also called "dextrose". People's bodies use more glucose, than any
other sugar. A healthy person's body can
create all of the other seven sugars that the body needs, from glucose. The body can also use glucose to make many
additional sugars and sugar-like nutrients, like deoxyribose, fructose,
galactosamine, glucosamine, lactose, and ribose. Glucose is used by the cells in our bodies to
"create" energy, so they can perform their jobs. The body can store glucose in muscle cells,
and in the liver. Then the muscles can
use this stored glucose when they need some extra glucose. The liver can release its stored glucose into
the bloodstream whenever the body in general would like more glucose. Corn, grapes, and honey contain glucose. Our bodies often get glucose from digesting
certain larger sugars. For example, the
sugar, sucrose, is made of glucose and fructose. Sucrose is found in many fruits, vegetables,
and edible seeds. Sucrose is also
referred to as "table sugar" and "white sugar". Lactose is another sugar that our bodies can
get glucose from. Lactose is made of
glucose and galactose. Lactose is found
in mother's milk, cow's milk, goat's milk, and other types of milk.
Glucuronic
acid – The liver combines glucuronic acid
with various toxins in the body. After
this has occurred, the person's kidneys are able to "catch" these
toxins, and put them in the person's urine.
Later, when the person urinates, the toxins leave the person's body.
Glycogen – This is a starch that is found only in animals. Glycogen is made of hundreds, or thousands,
of glucose molecules that are joined together in long straight lines, with
additional straight lines branching off of them. People's bodies make glycogen, when their
bodies have extra glucose. Glycogen is
stored in muscles and the liver. At a
later time, if a muscle wants some extra glucose, it can digest the glycogen
within it, and use it for energy in that muscle only. Muscle glycogen can be used only for the
muscle that it's stored it. Liver
glycogen, on the other hand, can be digested and the glucose can then be
released into the person's blood stream, so all of the cells in the person's
body can use it, if they would like.
Hemi-cellulose – Hemi-cellulose refers to a variety of different types of
starches, that are similar to cellulose (listed above), but they are made of
fewer molecules of glucose joined together.
The human body can't digest hemi-cellulose. It is found in most plants.
Inulin – This sugar breaks down into fructo-oligosaccharides.
Lactose – This sugar is made of one molecule of galactose, and one
molecule of glucose, joined together. It
is found in mother's milk, cow's milk, and other types of animal milks. Lactose is not found in plants.
Levulose – See "Fructose" listing.
Maltose – This sugar is made of two molecules of glucose joined
together. People's bodies can digest
this sugar into the two individual glucose molecules. People's bodies make maltose when digesting
starches. Maltose is found in certain
grain seed sprouts.
Mannose – Our bodies use this sugar to create a huge variety of chemicals
that our white blood cells use to communicate with each other. When white blood cells communicate
effectively with one another, they can kill infections in our bodies much
quicker and easier. So mannose is used
by our bodies to help keep our immune systems working especially well. Mannose is found in the aloe vera plant, as
well as various other plants.
N-acetyl-galactosamine – This sugar is used by the immune system's white blood cells to
communicate effectively with one another.
N-acetyl-glucosamine – This sugar is needed for the brain to function properly. The body uses the "glucosamine"
part of this sugar molecule to create cartilage in the body.
N-acetyl-neuraminic
acid – This sugar is used by the immune
system's white blood cells to communicate effectively with one another. This sugar is also needed for the brain to
function properly. This sugar is found
in mother's milk.
Oligofructose – See "Fructo-oligosaccharides" listing.
Pyranose – See "Xylose" listing.
Raffinose – This sugar is made of one molecule of fructose, one molecule of
galactose, and one molecule of glucose, all joined together. People's bodies can't digest this sugar, but
certain types of bacteria that live in our intestines can digest it. Raffinose is found in sugar beets, and
various types of beans (such as kidney beans, lentils, and navy beans).
Rhamnose – This sugar is found in the aloe vera plant, and various other
types of plants.
Ribose – People's bodies make this sugar from glucose. Ribose is used by the body to make RNA
(ribonucleic acid). In our bodies, RNA
molecules carry messages from the genes in a cell, to other parts of the same
cell, providing instructions on which types of protein molecules the rest of
the cell should create. In this way RNA
is involved in the production of antibodies, enzymes, certain hormones, as well
as other types of proteins. Ribose is
found in all natural foods, since it is found in the cells of all living
things.
Saccharose – See "Sucrose" listing.
Stachyose – This sugar is made of one molecule of fructose, two molecules
of galactose, and one molecule of glucose, all joined together. People's bodies can only partially digest
this sugar, getting some galactose from it.
However, bacteria that live in our intestines then can digest the rest
of the sugar. Stachyose is found in
various types of beans.
Sucrose – This sugar is also called "saccharose". Sucrose is made of one molecule of fructose,
and one molecule of glucose, joined together.
Sucrose is sometimes called "table sugar". Sucrose is the type of sugar that is
generally added to recipes, when the recipes require "sugar". Our bodies can easily digest sucrose into the
individual fructose and glucose molecules.
It is found in corn, grapes, maple syrup, molasses, sugar cane, sugar
beets, and many other plants.
Xylose – This sugar is also called "pyranose". Xylose is used for cells in the body to
communicate effectively.
If you would like to learn more
about the various types of sugars, and how the body uses them to keep itself
healthy, I suggest reading the book, Sugars That
Heal: The New Healing Science of Glyconutrients, by Emil I. Mondoa, and Mindy Kitei (copyright 2002; published by Ballantine Publishing Group,
1540 Broadway, New York City, New York,
10036, U.S.A.).
SUGGESTED SUGAR SUPPLEMENTS:
If
you'd like to make sure that you are getting a wide variety of types of sugars
in your daily meals, I suggest taking any of the following supplements.
Carrington Labs "Manapol”
- This vegetarian supplement is also marketed under the brand name
“AloeCeuticals” (which is a sub-division of Carrington Labs). Manapol is available in both a capsule form
and a powder form. It is made from organic aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis) powder. The organic aloe vera used for this
supplement was harvested and processed in a rare and special way that keeps
most of the valuable sugar and starch molecules from breaking down. This supplement contains a variety of
sugar-like molecules (such as acemannans and beta glucans) that help to improve
a person’s immune system. In other words,
Manapol provides nutrients that help the body’s white blood cells to detect and
kill harmful infections more quickly and more effectively. This supplement contains the following
sugars and sugar-like nutrients; acemannans, arabinose,
beta glucan, fucose, galactose, galacturonic
acid, glucose, glucuronic acid, mannose,
rhamnose, and xylose. This supplement
contains organic aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis) powder and rice
powder. (address:
Carrington Laboratories,
Mannatech "Advanced Ambrotose”
- This vegetarian supplement is available in both a capsule form and a powder
form. This supplement contains Carrington
Labs “Manapol” (listed above) plus some additional plant ingredients (including
brown microalgae and various plant gums), to increase the amounts of certain sugars
and sugar-like nutrients in this supplement (such as fucose). This supplement contains
the following sugars and sugar-like nutrients; acemannans, arabinose, beta glucan, fucose, galactose, galacturonic acid, glucose, glucuronic acid, mannose, rhamnose, and xylose. (address: Mannatech,
SUPPLYING OUR BODIES WITH FATS AND OILS!
Two other nutrients that we
absolutely need, if we want to be healthy, are fats and oils. As mentioned previously, our bodies use fat
as our main source of energy. Fats and
oils are also important for our bodies to keep our brains and nerves healthy,
as well as to keep our skin in great shape.
Some fats and oils will harm your health, and some will improve it.
Fats (which are "saturated
fat" molecules) are usually solid at room temperature (like butter, coco
butter, or lard). Oils (which are
"unsaturated fat" molecules) are usually liquid at room temperature
(like corn oil, olive oil, or sunflower oil).
Fat and oil molecules are generally shaped like the letter “E”. The left vertical side of the letter
represents a molecule of glycerol (also called glycerin), and the three
horizontal lines connected to it, represent the three fatty acid chains that
are connected to the glycerol molecule.
It's these fatty acid chains that we want to focus on here, because we
need to get certain types of them in our daily meals, if we want our bodies to
be healthy.
Basically there are four types
of fats we want to get each day. These
are Omega 3 polyunsaturated fat, Omega 6 polyunsaturated fat, Omega 9
monounsaturated fat, and saturated fat.
Getting enough of all four of these fats is very simple. All we have to do is make sure we get enough
of the first two types of fat. For if we
get enough of the first two (Omega 3 fats and Omega 6 fats), we automatically
will be getting enough of the second two (Omega 9 fats and saturated
fats). This is because most foods that
have lots of the first two types, also have plenty of
the second two types.
Polyunsaturated fatty acids
include two important types. One type is
called Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids, and this type is valuable for the body to
make certain kinds of hormone-like nutrients called type 3 prostaglandins. They are important for proper brain function,
vision, metabolism, and a healthy immune system. Type 3 prostaglandins also provide other
helpful roles in the body. This is
accomplished in the body by alpha-linolenic acid being converted to EPA
(eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid). EPA and DHA are then converted into type 3
prostaglandins. People mainly get the
alpha-linolenic acid form of Omega 3 fatty acids from plant oils. Flaxseed oil (also called linseed oil) and
perilla seed oil are two of the best sources of this oil. Other good plant oil sources include
butternuts, canola (also called rapeseed), chia seeds, hemp, kukui (also called
candlenut), soybean oil, walnuts, and wheat germ. Some pumpkin seeds have a lot of
alpha-linolenic acid and some do not have any.
The best sources of getting EPA and DHA in your daily meals would be
from certain types of seafoods (such as bluefish, conch, herring, mackerel,
mullet, oysters, sablefish, salmon, sardines, scallops, sprat, squid, and
tuna. People are more likely to be
deficient in Omega 3 fatty acids than any other type of fatty acid, so it's
especially important that people make sure that they get enough in their daily
meals.
The second type of
polyunsaturated fatty acid is called Omega 6 Essential Fatty Acids. This type is valuable for the body to make
type 1 prostaglandins, which do similar things as the previously mentioned type
3 prostaglandins, as well as some different things (like help regulate blood
sugar by helping the hormone insulin work better in the body). The body takes linoleic acid, and converts it
into GLA (gamma-linolenic acid), which is then converted into DGLA (di-homo
gamma linolenic acid), which is then converted into type 1 prostaglandins. Linoleic acid is fairly easy to get, as it
occurs naturally in most plant seed oils.
Three of the best sources of linoleic acid are borage oil, black currant
seed oil, and evening primrose oil.
Other good sources are butternuts, corn, cotton seed, grape seed, hemp
seed, hickory nuts, pumpkin seeds, safflower, sesame, soybean oil, sunflower
seeds, and walnuts. Chicken fat and duck
fat also contain high amounts of Omega 6 Essential Fatty Acids. The fat in chicken and duck meats are healthy
to eat, provided they are cooked by boiling.
Many people are deficient in
both the Omega 3 and Omega 6 essential fatty acids. Omega 3 fatty acids are fairly rare in
plants, and more common in fish oils, but lots of people don't eat much fish in
their daily meals. Omega 6 fatty acids
are present mainly in plant seeds. Both
Omega 3 and Omega 6 forms of polyunsaturated oils are easily destroyed by high
amounts of heat. In other words, when
they are cooked at high temperatures they usually combine with oxygen and form
toxins, commonly known as rancid fats and oils.
So many people don't get enough of the Omega 3 fatty acids in their
daily meals because they are rare, and the foods people eat with them in it are
usually cooked at high temperatures, so much of the Omega 3 fatty acids are
ruined. Most people don't get enough of
the Omega 6 fatty acids because even though they are common in most plant
seeds, these plant seeds and plant seed oils are usually cooked at high
temperatures, also ruining the Omega 6 fatty acids. Many oils that are high in Omega 3 and Omega
6 fatty acids will even go rancid if the oils are simply exposed to air for a
number of months.
The trick here is that if
people want to ensure that they get enough Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids in
their daily meals they need to both eat plenty of foods that have these oils,
and they also need to prepare these meals with little or no heat. Here's how to do this. One way to eat raw seeds is to soak them
overnight in a dark place, and then eat them the next morning for
breakfast. Or you can sprout the raw
seeds, by soaking them in water for a number of days. If you do this, you will want to pour out the
old water and add new water at least three times a day. This is to discourage any infections from
growing in the water (such as bacteria, mildew, or protozoa). If you prefer to cook raw seeds, the best
way to do it is to boil them. Most oils
go rancid at about 300 degrees Fahrenheit (149 degrees Celsius). The hottest temperature water can get to is
about 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius). This means that you can put a variety of
seeds in a pot of water and boil them for about 40 minutes. Then you will have a nice meal that is high
in essential fatty acids. To ensure that
you are getting enough of both Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids, I suggest
boiling a mixture of flax seeds along with a good variety of other seeds (such
as rice, lentils, spelt, rye, amaranth, quinoa, millet, buckwheat, sesame,
barley, shelled sunflower seeds, as well as plenty of other types of raw
seeds). So an example of a healthy
"seed" meal would be to boil flax seeds, rice, millet, and barley
seeds. If you'd like, you can add some
salt and/or some natural spices to this to make it taste different. If someone eats at least one meal a day like
this, most days of the week, the person should be getting enough of the Omega 3
and Omega 6 fatty acids.
Since the previously mentioned
seafoods are also excellent sources of Omega 3 fatty acids, you can also cook
them by boiling them, in order to keep the oils in them from going rancid. Usually seafoods don't have to be boiled as
long as seeds do. You can use your own
judgment. You simply want to make sure
that all of the meat in the seafood is thoroughly cooked, to kill any possible
infections that might be present in the seafood.
Another type of fatty acid is
called monounsaturated fatty acids. This
type is made up of Omega 9 fatty acids (oleic acid). This type of fatty acid is also valuable for
good health. It is generally found in
all plant seed oils. If someone is
getting enough of the Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids in their daily meals, they
certainly are also getting enough of the Omega 9 fatty acids. These Omega 9 fatty acids also combine with
oxygen easily, so it's important to treat raw seeds and plant oils high in this
type of fatty acid similar to the way the Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids are
treated. You don't want to expose the
raw oils to oxygen for long periods of time, and you don't want to expose the
raw plant seeds, or raw oils to high temperatures. When cooking foods, boiling is the best
method of keeping the oils healthy and nutritious. While basically all plant seeds have Omega 9
fatty acids, some of the seeds with the highest amounts are olives, avocados,
almonds, canola (also called rapeseed), shelled peanuts, and sesame seeds.
And finally, saturated fats are
also valuable to good health. They are
found in nearly all plant seeds and animal meats, so most people get all that
they need in their daily meals.
Saturated fats can be heated to higher temperatures than unsaturated fats,
before they become rancid. So, if you
cook your meals the way I suggested earlier, to keep the unsaturated fats from
going rancid, then any saturated fats in your food will also keep from going
rancid. Many people think that
saturated fats are bad for people's health.
I disagree. Human mother's milk
is very high in saturated fat. Also,
saturated fats are found in practically every type of living thing that people
might normally eat in nature (including plants and animals). I believe that saturated fat in people's
daily meals is perfectly fine. In my
opinion, what has been ruining people's health is not saturated fat, but rather
eating high amounts of rancid saturated fat! When people grill, bake, or fry foods, they
turn many of the fats and oils rancid.
Red meats contain a high amount of saturated fat. Most people grill, bake, or fry red
meats. As a result people are eating large
amounts of rancid saturated fats in their daily meals. It's important that people remember that
saturated fats and rancid saturated fats are two different things. Raw saturated fats are healthy
nutrients. The human body is composed
largely of saturated fats. On the other
hand, rancid saturated fats are poisons, and very little rancid saturated fats
are present in healthy living things.
And so I encourage you to be careful to avoid rancid saturated
fats. I also encourage you to feel
comfortable to eat plenty of nutritious saturated fats (either raw or cooked at
low temperatures) in your daily meals, as nature seems to have intended.
Remember, people need a good
variety of fats and oils in their daily meals to be at their best health! Eat plenty of fats and oils that are raw or
have been heated to low temperatures (such as by boiling), and avoid rancid
fats and oils whenever possible.
Remember that if you get enough Omega 3 and Omega 6 polyunsaturated
fatty acids, you will naturally also be getting enough Omega 9 monounsaturated
fatty acids, and saturated fat. This is
a simple rule to follow, and the health benefits that result from getting a
variety of nutritious fats and oils in our daily meals are exciting!
Now let's look at a couple of
misunderstandings about fats and oils, that are common
today.
Why Butter is Better Than Margarine!
Margarine
starts out as liquid vegetable oil (which is mostly unsaturated fat). Of course, few people are likely to buy
liquid vegetable oil as a butter substitute, so the food companies must
"do something" to the vegetable oil, to make it into a solid that
looks like butter. Here's how they
generally do it. The basic difference
between oil (which is liquid at room temperature) and fat (which is solid at
room temperature) is that an oil molecule has less hydrogen in its molecular
structure than a fat molecule. That's
how they get their names: Oils, or unsaturated fat molecules, are not saturated
with hydrogen atoms; whereas fat, or saturated fat molecules, are saturated
with hydrogen atoms. And so the food
industry, in order to change liquid oil into a solid, simply adds hydrogen to
it. If one reads the ingredients list on
margarine, oil that has been processed this way is called either
"partially hydrogenated oil" or "hydrogenated oil". What it really has been chemically turned
into however, is a combination of oil (unsaturated fat), saturated fat, and a
group of chemicals known as transfatty acids.
These transfatty acids are slightly different in their molecular
structures than saturated fats, and are rarely known to occur in nature. So far they appear to possibly be more
dangerous to the human body than high amounts of saturated fat!
The Big Cholesterol Misunderstanding!
Many
misunderstandings seem to be popular these days, regarding cholesterol. The first misunderstanding is the view that
cholesterol is an oil or a fat. Cholesterol is actually a solid alcohol. (Its chemical structure is C27H45OH.) This misunderstanding may have occurred
because the human body makes cholesterol, partly from a saturated fat
molecule. Another misunderstanding is
the view that cholesterol is a dangerous chemical to the human body. In fact, upon a closer look we find that
cholesterol is a necessary nutrient that the human body MUST have within it, in
order to be healthy. Let’s look a little
deeper at cholesterol, and we’ll see why it’s such a healthy nutrient for our
bodies.
When
a person eats cholesterol, it is generally digested down into smaller particles
(by a variety of digestive enzymes, known together as "lipase"). This occurs in the small intestines. And so cholesterol is a lipid that is
digested by the human body into smaller particles, AND THEN it is absorbed into
the bloodstream. In other words, a
person generally absorbs little or no cholesterol that he or she has eaten into
his or her bloodstream. So how then,
does cholesterol find its way into the blood stream of a person? The answer may surprise you!
Nearly
every cell in the human body produces cholesterol! Also, many hormones that the human body
produces are made from modified cholesterol molecules. Vitamin D (which is a hormone) is made in our
bodies from cholesterol. Bile (which is
used by our bodies to properly digest fats and oils) is made partly from
cholesterol. Cholesterol is one of the
most common nutrients found in a healthy person's brain. Does this sound like a nutrient that you
would want to avoid?
The
liver produces extra cholesterol, and sends some of it into the
bloodstream. These cholesterol molecules
are carried throughout the bloodstream by larger molecules known as
lipoproteins. This is one way that the
body makes cholesterol available when extra cholesterol is needed in a
particular area. For example, if a
person damages an artery, certain types of lipoproteins in the area will
release their cholesterol, and the cholesterol is then put on the damaged area
of the artery to protect it while the body heals that area. After that part of the artery is healed, the
body removes the cholesterol off of the artery wall.
If the body removes cholesterol from people's artery walls after their
arteries are healed, why do so many people continue to have cholesterol
deposits on their artery walls? One
reason is that these people have such weak artery walls that the body is
continually trying to cover them with cholesterol. In other words, there is never a time when
these people's bodies consider their arteries to be healthy. The bodies are ALWAYS trying to protect their
artery walls (by covering them with cholesterol, and
other nutrients). Perhaps these people's
artery walls are so weak because they have a deficiency of various nutrients
that our bodies need to keep our artery walls strong and healthy (such as
vitamin C, vitamin P, and the amino acid lysine). Another reason why people might have weak
artery walls is that they eat too many rancid fats and oils (which are believed
to damage artery walls by "oxidizing" them). People can also have weak artery walls if
they have infections in their arteries.
(To learn how to use nutrition to get these cholesterol deposits off of
the artery walls, and how to strengthen people's arteries in general, I suggest
reading the webpage titled "How to Rid Your Body of Excess Deposits!"
on this www.AbundantHealth.ws website. Click here to
view that webpage.)
One
of the results of this great cholesterol misunderstanding is that the egg, one
of the healthiest known foods, has recently gotten some of the worst
publicity. People have simply drawn the
wrong conclusion that because eggs have a high amount of cholesterol in them,
that they are bad food! Many carnivorous
and omnivorous animals in nature will risk their lives in order to get, and
eat, the eggs of other animals. Would
this make any sense if eggs were such an "unhealthy" food?
So,
if people don't experience higher blood cholesterol levels from eating
cholesterol, then why is it that when some people (but certainly not all
people) change their daily meals to "low cholesterol diets", their
blood cholesterol levels drop? Most likely,
they changed their daily meals in ways that are healthier for their
arteries. For example, a person who goes
on a "low cholesterol diet" probably eats foods that contain more
vitamin C, more vitamin P, and less rancid fats and oils, than they were eating
in their previous daily meals. As a
result their artery walls naturally become stronger. When a person's artery walls become stronger,
the person's body doesn't need to "patch" them with cholesterol, so
less cholesterol is needed in the person's blood. As a result, the person's liver puts less
cholesterol in the person's blood.
One way that the liver gets extra cholesterol out of the blood
stream is by sending it into the intestines.
The liver does this by putting cholesterol into bile. The bile is made in the liver, and it is
stored in the gall bladder. When someone
eats a meal that contains fats, oils, cholesterol, or protein, the gall bladder
squirts some of the bile into the person's intestines when the food is being
passed out of the stomach and into the intestines. While in the intestines, the cholesterol in
this bile is digested into smaller lipids.
Some of these smaller lipids are then reabsorbed into the body and used
as nutrients, and some of these smaller lipids remain in the person's
"feces" or "stool", and so they leave the person's body
when the person goes to the bathroom. So
another reason why a person may have too much cholesterol in his or her blood
may be that the person's gall bladder may be clogged with gall stones. If the gall bladder is clogged with gall
stones, less cholesterol can leave the person's body, through the gall
bladder. (An easy and inexpensive way to
use nutrition to rid your gall bladder and liver of stones that may be blocking
them, is shared in the webpage titled "How to Rid Your Body of Excess
Deposits!" on this www.AbundantHealth.ws website. Click here to
view that webpage.)
If
you would like to learn more about fats and oils, I suggest reading any of the
following books:
Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill: The Complete Guide to Fats, Oils,
Cholesterol and Human Health, by Udo
Erasmus (copyright 1999;
published by Alive Books,
Choosing the Right Fats, by Udo Erasmus
(copyright 2002;
published by Alive Books,
Healthy Fats for Life: Preventing and Treating Common Health
Problems With Essential Fatty Acids, by Lorna
R. Vanderhaeghe and Karlene Karst (copyright 2004; published by John Wiley and Sons
Canada,
Well, now that we've explored how
valuable fats and oils are, as part of our daily meals, here's some information
on buying bottled oils. Below that I've
listed some oil nutritional supplements you may wish to take each day, if you
feel you might not be getting enough healthy oils in your daily meals.
SUGGESTED BOTTLED OILS:
For
those who wish to use bottled oil as a source, extra virgin olive oil is an
especially healthy choice. When olive
oil is given the title "extra virgin", that
means it was processed using low heat, and it has met other requirements to
ensure that it is of higher quality than most other bottled oils. Some companies, however, will try to imply
that their oils are healthy, by putting the term "cold-pressed" on
the labels of their oils. This term only
means that the oils were extracted using low heat. However, sometimes these "cold
processed" oils are exposed to high levels of heat later on in their
processing. Hence, the term
"cold-pressed" can be a very misleading term. Here are the names of some companies that
make healthy oils, sold in glass bottles.
Flora - They make a variety of organic, high quality, vegetable oils,
that are in glass bottles. (address: Flora, Post Office Box 73,
Bragg - They make organic olive oil, that is
in a glass bottle. (address:
Live Food Products,
Newman’s Own Organics - They make organic, extra-virgin olive oil, that is in a glass
bottle. (address:
Newman’s Own Organics, Post Office
Rapunzel – They make a wide variety of
organic, high quality vegetable oils. (address: Rapunzel Organics, Route 203,
Spectrum Naturals - They make a wide variety of natural, vegetable oils, including
some organic oils. (address:
Spectrum Organic Products,
Tree of Life - They make a wide variety of natural, vegetable oils, including
organic coconut oil, and organic, extra virgin, olive oil. (address: Tree of Life, Post Office Box 9000,
Saint Augustine, Florida, 32085-9000, U.S.A.;
phone: (904) 940-2100; website: www.treeoflife.com)
SUGGESTED FATTY ACID SUPPLEMENTS:
Generally
speaking a healthy amount of oil for a person to ingest daily is about one or
two tablespoons worth (which is equal to about 28 grams,
or 30 milliliters). If someone is eating
healthy daily meals the person shouldn’t need to supplement his or her daily
meals with any fats or oils. However, if
a person is not sure if he or she is getting enough of them in his or her daily
meals, one can supplement his or her daily meals with Omega-3, Omega-6, and
Omega 9 Fatty Acids. Supplementing one's
daily meals with saturated fat is probably not necessary, since practically all
natural foods contain some saturated fat.
Suggested Fatty Acid Supplements
(liquid):
Most companies that sell liquid oils
as essential fatty acid supplements put the oils in plastic containers. Some of the plastic then gets into the oils,
and makes them less healthy. For this
reason I suggest people take only liquid essential fatty acid supplements that
are put into glass containers. Here is
the only good one I’m aware of that is packaged in a glass container.
Flora "Udo’s Choice Perfected Oil
Blend (liquid version)" – (In
Suggested Fatty Acid Supplements (in
capsules):
The essential fatty acid supplements
that are sold in pill form (softgel capsules) absorb very little (if any)
plastic into them (from the containers that they are in). All of the following supplements are in
softgel capsules. They each contain a
good variety of Omega 3, Omega 6, and Omega 9 Fatty Acids.
Flora "Udo’s Choice Perfected Oil
Blend (capsule version)" - (In
Canada this supplement is called “Udo’s
3-6-9 Oil Blend (capsule version)”.)
This supplement was formulated by Udo Erasmus, the author of the book, Fats
That Heal, Fats That Kill (mentioned above). This supplement contains organic flaxseed
oil, organic sunflower seed oil, and organic sesame seed oil, rice germ and
bran oil, evening primrose oil, organic oat germ and bran oil, along with some
other nutrients. (address:
Flora, Post Office Box 73,
Health From
the Sun "The Total EFA (capsule version)" - This supplement contains organic flax seed oil, borage seed
oil, and fish oil. (address:
Health From the Sun,
Health From
the Sun "The Total EFA Junior (capsule version)" - This supplement is similar to Health From the Sun "The
Total EFA" (listed above), but this supplement is put into smaller
capsules, which are easier to swallow.
And so this supplement can be especially valuable for children, as well
as adults who wish to take small pills.
(address: Health From the Sun,
ReNew Life "OilSmart" - This supplement contains organic flax seed oil, borage seed
oil, fish oil, and some of the digestive enzyme, lipase. (address: ReNew Life
Formulas,
SUPPLYING OUR
BODIES WITH AMINO ACIDS AND PROTEINS!
Amino acids are also important
for each person's body to remain healthy.
As a matter of fact, each cell in the human body is made partly with
amino acids! Our bodies get amino acids
mainly from the foods we eat. It’s
extremely important that we get enough amino acids in our daily meals, because
our body uses them to make thousands of nutrients that we need if we are to be
healthy!
Proteins are nutrients that are
made of amino acids. These amino acids
are connected together to form something that is like a chain. The chain itself is called a protein. Each link on the chain is called an amino
acid. When we eat something with protein
in it, our body digests the protein by breaking apart these links into
individual amino acids, or small chains of two or three amino acids joined
together. These are then absorbed from
the intestinal tract into the body’s blood stream and lymphatic fluid. Then the body uses these amino acids to
create a variety of nutrients, some which are proteins (such as enzymes and
muscle tissue), and some which are not (such as certain hormones).
There are many different types
of amino acids. The human body needs
about twenty different types of amino acids to keep itself
healthy. These twenty amino acids are
called “proteogenic amino acids”.
Some proteogenic amino acids can
be created by people’s bodies, and so people don’t need to get these specific
amino acids in their daily meals. They
are referred to as “nonessential amino acids”, and they include alanine,
aspartic acid, asparagines, GABA (gamma amino butyric acid), cysteine, glutamic
acid, glutamine, proline, serine, and tyrosine.
Some proteogenic amino acids can’t
be created by people's bodies, and so our bodies must get them from the daily
meals we eat. They are called “essential
amino acids” and include isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine,
tryptophan, and valine.
Then there are three more amino
acids that various “experts” in the nutrition field don’t seem to agree if the
human body can create enough of them or not.
I feel we are wise to include these three amino acids in our daily meals
as well. They are arginine, threonine,
and histidine.
One thing to remember here is
that the nonessential proteogenic amino acids that we just mentioned are
capable of being made by healthy people’s bodies. Some people who are unhealthy might not be
able to make enough of some of these amino acids. And so it may be important that they get
certain nonessential proteogenic amino acids in their daily meals as well.
With all of this in mind, I
encourage people to get a good variety of amino acids in their daily
meals. This way we don’t have to be
guessing which ones we need and which ones we don’t need. Instead, we can feel secure that we are
getting a good enough variety of amino acids that our bodies need to keep us
healthy!
Foods that have all of the
“essential amino acids” are referred to as “complete proteins”. All meats are complete proteins. They not only provide the essential amino
acids, but they also have a good variety of the other nonessential amino acids
as well. Cooked red meats are hard for
the human body to digest, so even though they are complete proteins, people
generally absorb just a little bit of amino acids from them. Cooked poultry (such as chicken, turkey, or
duck) is a much easier type of meat for the human body to digest, so people get
more amino acids from eating cooked poultry than cooked red meats. And finally, many sea foods are even easier
forms of meat for the body to digest, so people get even more amino acids from
eating fish and many other sea foods (such as conch, scallops, or squid).
Milk, cheese, yogurt, and eggs
are also complete proteins.
There are also some plants that
are complete proteins as well. For
example, barley grass, the blue-green algae known as spirulina, and the green
algae known as chlorella, are all complete proteins. Seeds (such as nuts and grains) tend to have
a lot of protein in them. Many seeds are
complete proteins (such as almonds, amaranth, Brazil nuts, brown rice, cashews,
hazelnuts, hickory nuts, lentils, millet, peanuts, pecans, pine nuts,
pistachios, pumpkin seeds, quinoa, sesame seeds, spelt, sunflower seeds, and
walnuts).
The previously suggested way of
boiling a variety of seeds together (to ensure getting enough of the Omega 3
and Omega 6 essential fatty acids) is also an effective way to ensure that a
person gets enough amino acids in his or her daily meals. Mixing together a good variety of seeds
almost always results in a meal that is a complete protein. The amino acids in plants are usually very
easy for the human body to absorb and use.
So eating a variety of seeds together (raw or boiled) is generally a
highly effective way for people to get all the amino acids that their bodies
need each day.
SUGGESTED AMINO ACID SUPPLEMENTS:
If people
are eating fairly healthy daily meals they shouldn’t need to supplement
their daily meals with amino acids. However, for those people who believe they
might not be getting enough amino acids in their daily meals, here is a list of
suggested amino acid supplements. Each
of these supplements has a good variety of amino acids in a form that is easily
absorbed and used by the body.
Now Foods "Whey Protein" - This is a protein powder, made from whey protein. It is available in both vanilla and chocolate
flavors. (address:
Now Foods,
Nutribiotic "Rice Protein" - This is a protein powder, made from organic brown rice
protein. The company removes most of the
sugar and starch from the rice, using purified water and digestive
enzymes. Rice protein is a
"complete" protein. This
protein powder is made with no animal products, so it can be taken by
vegetarians. It is available in plain,
vanilla, mixed berry, and chocolate flavors.
(address: Nutribiotic, Post Office
SUPPLYING OUR
BODIES WITH DIGESTIVE ENZYMES!
Enzymes are nutrients that are
made in the bodies of every living being!
People's bodies make many different types of enzymes, and we also get
many of them from any raw foods that we may eat. Enzymes are chemicals that do some sort of
work in the body. There are enzymes that
make it so our bodies can breathe, think, repair wounds, kill infections, and
do all sorts of other jobs.
Digestive enzymes are certain types of enzymes that make it so we
can digest the foods we eat. They break
foods down into smaller pieces (known as molecules and atoms). Without these enzymes, we could eat, but our
bodies couldn't digest and absorb that food at all, and we would starve to
death.
Our bodies get digestive enzymes from three different
sources. The first way is that our
bodies get digestive enzymes from most of the raw foods that we eat. The second way is that the bacteria and fungi
that live in people's intestinal tracts produce many digestive enzymes. Our bodies absorb many of them from the
intestines into the blood stream, and then our bodies can use them for many
different purposes. The third way is
that our bodies can create digestive enzymes from amino acids. These amino acids are combined by our bodies
into specific types of protein molecules.
Often other nutrients are added to these protein molecules as well, to
make the various kinds of digestive enzymes.
In addition to using digestive
enzymes to digest foods, our bodies also use them to digest damaged
tissue. For example, let’s imagine that
someone twisted his or her ankle, and so the person has damaged some of the
muscles in that part of the person's body.
The person's body will then use digestive enzymes to digest away the
damaged protein out of the injured muscle.
Then the person's body will use other types of enzymes to rebuild new
muscle tissue where the damaged muscle tissue used to be.
Another way the body uses
digestive enzymes is to help rid itself of various
types of toxins (such as infections and chemical toxins). For example, certain types of white blood
cells will use digestive enzymes to kill harmful infections (such as harmful
bacteria and viruses). Also, the liver,
as well as some white blood cells, will use digestive enzymes to digest certain
types of toxic chemicals into “non-toxic” chemicals.
Most, if not all, raw foods
contain digestive enzymes. For example,
raw ginger root, raw kiwi fruit, and raw pineapple each contain large amounts
of protein digesting enzymes. Raw papaya
not only contains large amounts of protein digesting enzymes, but also plenty
of starch digesting enzymes as well.
Most sprouts (such as alfalfa sprouts, or bean sprouts) contain a wide
variety of digestive enzymes.
Here is a list of various types of digestive enzymes, and what
they do.
Digestive Enzymes
Amylase - This is a collection of various types of starch-digesting
enzymes that are also referred to as “diastase”. They digest starches into oligosaccharides
and the sugar, maltose. Amylase is
produced in the saliva (in which case it is called salivary amylase, or
ptyalin), and by the pancreas (in which case it is called pancreatic
amylase). A form of amylase is found in
raw daikon radishes.
Beta-galactosidase - This is a form of lactase.
For more information, see the listing for “Lactase”.
Bile - This isn't an actual enzyme, but it is an important nutrient
that breaks large drops of fats and oils into smaller drops, so that fat and
oil digesting enzymes can reach each fat and oil molecule. Bile is produced by a healthy person's
liver. The body then stores extra bile
in a person's gall bladder.
Bromelain - This is a variety of digestive enzymes found in raw
pineapple. Bromelain is well known for
being very effective at digesting certain types of proteins very quickly and
effectively.
Carboxypeptidase - This is a protein-digesting enzyme that digests proteins into
peptides and amino acids.
Carboxypeptidase is produced in a person's pancreas.
Cathepsin - This is a protein-digesting enzyme
that digests proteins into peptides.
Cathepsin is made in a person's stomach.
Cathepsin is also found in most, if not all, raw meat.
Cellulase - This is a starch-digesting enzyme found in certain types of raw
plants. Cellulase partially digests the
starch cellulose into individual glucose molecules. The starch, cellulose, is found in certain
fruits, vegetables (like carrots and celery), and wood (from trees and bushes).
Chymotrypsin - This is a protein-digesting enzyme that digests proteins into
peptides. Chymotrypsin is produced in a
person's pancreas.
Diastase - See “Amylase” listing.
Erepsis - This is a protein-digesting enzyme found in raw cucumbers.
Invertase - See "Sucrase" listing.
Lactase - This sugar-digesting enzyme that digests the sugar, known as
lactose, into two smaller sugars (glucose and galactose). Lactose is the type of sugar that is found in
mother's milk, cow's milk, and other types of animal milks. The enzyme lactase is produced by healthy
people's intestinal tracts, as well as by the helpful bacteria (lactobacilli
and bifidobacteria) that normally live in healthy people's intestinal
tracts. The helpful intestinal bacteria
produce the form of lactase known as beta-galactosidase.
Lipase - This is a collection of various types of lipid-digesting enzymes
that digest fats, oils, and waxy alcohols (such as cholesterol) into glycerol
and fatty acids. Lipase is produced in a
person's pancreas, and excreted into a person's intestinal tract when the
person eats anything that contains fats, oils, cholesterol, or protein. Lipase is found in raw fats, and raw butter.
Maltase - This is a sugar-digesting enzyme that digests the sugar
maltose, into two molecules of the sugar glucose (also called dextrose). Maltase is produced in a person’s small
intestines.
Nuclease - This is a collection of digestive enzymes that digest RNA
(ribonucleic acid) and DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) into nucleotides. Nuclease is produced in a person's pancreas.
Pancreatin - This is a collection of digestive enzymes that are produced in
a person's pancreas. Pancreatin consists
of digestive enzymes that digest proteins, fats, oils, starches, and sugars.
Papain - This is a variety of digestive enzymes found in raw papaya
fruit, seeds, and leaves. The enzymes in
papain are extremely effective at digesting proteins and starches.
Pepsin - This is a protein-digesting enzyme that digests proteins into
peptides. Pepsin is made in a person’s
stomach.
Protease - This is a collection of various types of protein-digesting
enzymes that digest proteins into peptides and amino acids. Protease is produced in a healthy person's
pancreas.
Ptyalin - This is another name for salivary
amylase. See the “Amylase” listing for
more information.
Rennet - See "Rennin" listing.
Rennin - This enzyme is also called
rennet. It is a digestive enzyme that
helps digest milk. It is made in the
stomachs of human babies that are breastfeeding. It is also made in the stomachs of calves
(baby cattle) that are drinking milk from their mother cows. Rennin is used to make cheese.
Sucrase - This sugar-digesting enzyme is also
called invertase. It is an enzyme that
digests the sugar, known as sucrose, into the sugars glucose (also called
dextrose) and fructose. Sucrase is
produced in a person’s small intestines.
Tributyrinase - This is a digestive enzyme that
digests tributyrin (also called glyceryl tributyrate), which is a nutrient that
is found in butter.
Trypsin - This is a protein-digesting enzyme that digests proteins into
peptides. Trypsin is produced in a
person's pancreas.
Zingibain - This is a protein-digesting enzyme that is found in raw ginger
root.
As you can see, digestive
enzymes are amazingly valuable to our bodies!
They help our bodies to keep themselves at their best!
SUGGESTED DIGESTIVE ENZYME SUPPLEMENTS:
If someone thinks he or she might have one or more stomach or
intestinal ulcers, the person should heal the ulcers before supplementing his
or her meals with digestive enzyme supplements.
This is because ulcers are open wounds, and certain digestive enzymes
could make them worse by "digesting" the exposed tissue, which might
make the ulcers larger. Symptoms
of a stomach or intestinal ulcer include pain in the area of the stomach or
intestines, nausea, vomiting, or a large amount of gas in the stomach or
intestines. (Information on how to heal stomach and intestinal ulcers is shared
in the webpage titled "How to Heal or Improve Many Health
Challenges!" on this www.AbundantHealth.ws website. Click here to
view that webpage.)
Digestive enzyme supplements are usually sold in
"enteric-coated" tablets, regular tablets, and gelatin capsules. Enteric-coated tablets are pills that either
part or all of the pills open up in the intestines (instead of the
stomach). Companies do this because they
believe that certain digestive enzymes are destroyed in the stomach (by
hydrochloric acid). This has turned out
to not be true. What actually happens is
that certain digestive enzymes become temporarily "inactive" when in
the hydrochloric acid. But when these
enzymes are passed into the intestines, where they are mixed with alkaline
fluids, the enzymes work perfectly fine in the intestines. The problem with enteric-coated digestive
enzyme pills is that by the time they are released into the intestines, they
missed their chance to be mixed thoroughly with the food (while it was in the
stomach). Therefore, digestive enzyme
supplements that are in the form of enteric-coated tablets, do not generally
mix well with the food, so some of the food may never exposed to the enzymes,
and therefore it may not be digested by the enzymes. I suggest avoiding any digestive enzyme
supplements that are sold as enteric-coated tablets.
Regular tablets are fine ways to make digestive enzymes, because
the complete tablets can dissolve in the person's stomach. However, I feel that digestive enzyme
supplements that are sold in gelatin or cellulose capsules are the best form to
buy, because they release all of their enzymes in the stomach, and they
dissolve in the stomach much quicker than tablets do. So in my opinion digestive enzymes sold in
gelatin or cellulose capsules are the best.
Each of the digestive enzyme supplements listed below contain
enzymes that will digest the following: proteins into amino acids; lipids (such
as fats, oils, and cholesterol) into glycerol and fatty acids; starches into
sugars; and most will even digest certain complex sugars into simple sugars as
well. All of the digestive enzyme
supplements listed below are in the form of gelatin or
cellulose capsules. One pill of any of
the suggested digested enzyme supplements listed below is equal to about a
handful of pills of most other digestive enzyme supplements that are popular
today.
Enzymedica “Digest" - This vegetarian supplement contains a variety of digestive
enzymes, and some added helpful intestinal bacteria. The pills of
this supplement are small, so they can be taken by children, as well as adults
who prefer to take small pills. (address: Enzymedica,
ReNew Life "DigestMore" - This digestive enzyme supplement contains
a variety of digestive enzymes, some helpful intestinal bacteria, and a variety
of additional nutrients as well. This supplement should be kept in a
refrigerator, to keep the dormant intestinal bacteria in the supplement healthy
enough that they will be able to spring to life, when the supplement is
taken. (address: ReNew Life Formulas,
ReNew Life "KidZyme" - This digestive enzyme supplement contains the same ingredients
as RenewLife "DigestMore" (listed above), but it's put into smaller capsules, which are
easier to swallow. And so this
supplement can be especially valuable for children, as well as adults who wish
to take small pills. This supplement
should be kept in a refrigerator, to keep the dormant intestinal bacteria in
the supplement healthy enough that they will be able to spring to life, when
the supplement is taken. (address: ReNew Life Formulas,
Transformation Enzymes
“DigestZyme" - This supplement contains a
variety of digestive enzymes, and some added helpful intestinal bacteria. (address:
Transformation Enzyme Corporation,
Tyler “Similase” – This supplement contains a variety of digestive enzymes that
are taken from plants. One pill of this
supplement is equal to about a handful of pills of most other digestive enzyme
supplements. This supplement can be
taken by vegetarians. (address: Tyler, 2204 NW Birdsdale,
Tyler “Similase Junior” – This digestive enzyme supplement contains the same ingredients
as Tyler "Similase" (listed above), but it's put into smaller
capsules, which are easier to swallow.
And so this supplement can be especially valuable for children, as well
as adults who wish to take small pills.
This supplement can be taken by vegetarians. (address: Tyler,
2204 NW Birdsdale,
SUPPLYING OUR BODIES WITH ADDITIONAL PHYTONUTRIENTS!
"Phytonutrients"
(also called "phytochemicals") is a word that means nutrients that
are found in plants. Most of the
nutrients mentioned above are phytonutrients, such as vitamins, starches,
sugars, fats, oils, proteins, amino acids, and enzymes. There are at least thousands of other
phytonutrients as well!
Many of them do exciting things
to improve the health of our bodies.
Certain phytonutrients (known as procyanidolic oligimers, PCO’s,
oligomeric proanthocyanidins, or OPC’s) are found in grape seeds. This type of phytonutrient helps to protect
the brain from certain types of toxins that are common today. Some phytonutrients found in artichoke
leaves, and the seeds of the milk thistle plant, help our bodies to strengthen
our livers. Some phytonutrients found in
certain mushrooms, the venus fly trap plant, and
echinacea (coneflower plant) help our bodies' immune systems work better.
If you think that's
fascinating, keep in mind that many phytonutrients haven't even been discovered
yet by modern scientists! Who knows what
other valuable nutrients our bodies get from eating plants as part of our daily
meals?
To ensure that you get a huge
variety of phytonutrients each day, I encourage you to eat a variety of plants
each day, including fruits, vegetables, and seeds. Since certain phytonutrients are destroyed by
high temperatures, raw plants tend to have more phytonutrients in them than
cooked ones. Having a variety of plants
in your daily meals will supply your body with thousands and thousands of
exciting phytonutrients!
SUGGESTED PHYTONUTRIENT SUPPLEMENTS:
If
you don't get a variety of plants in your daily meals, I suggest taking a
phytonutrient supplement each day. In
fact, even if you do get a variety of plants in your daily meals, you might
wish to take a phytonutrient supplement each day to ensure that you get an even
wider variety of phytonutrients in your daily meals. Here are some phytonutrient supplements I
recommend. Each of them is made with
some, or all, organic plants.
Organic By
Nature "Best of Greens" - This is a
vegetarian phytonutrient supplement that is only available in a powder
form. It contains more than 14 different
kinds of plant ingredients (including organic alfalfa
concentrate, organic wheat grass concentrate, organic barley grass concentrate,
organic oat grass concentrate, spirulina, cracked cell chlorella, organic
dandelion greens, organic broccoli, organic spinach, organic kale, organic
parsley, organic cauliflower, organic broccoli sprouts, sea kelp, and other sea
vegetables. The plants in this supplement were dried at a low temperature, so
the enzymes in them are still present.
(address: Organic By Nature, Post Office Box 32561, Long Beach,
California, 90832, U.S.A.; phone: (562)
901-0119; website: www.organicbynaturetrading.com)
SUPPLYING OUR BODIES WITH HELPFUL BACTERIA!
Living within the intestines of
each person are trillions and trillions of bacteria! To put it another way, there are probably far
more bacteria living in your intestines right now, than the number of people
living on the planet Earth!! Some of
these bacteria can be harmful to a person's health, and some can be very
helpful. How did these bacteria get
there, and how are they affecting your health right now?
When a baby is born it has no
bacteria living inside its digestive system.
The baby begins breastfeeding, and mother's milk is designed in such a
way that it will only allow certain helpful bacteria (mainly a variety known as
Bifidobacteria, and a small amount of a variety known as Lactobacilli) to grow
and live in the digestive system of the newborn baby. Generally, the Lactobacilli bacteria tend to
live in the baby's small intestines, and the Bifidobacteria tend to live in the
baby's large intestines.
These helpful bacteria produce
a variety of valuable nutrients for the baby, such as certain vitamins, like
biotin and vitamin K. The helpful
intestinal bacteria also produce a variety of digestive enzymes. These enzymes are excreted outside of the
bacteria, where they help to digest the food in the baby's intestines. Then the bacteria reabsorb many of the
enzymes and the digested food. The
baby's body also absorbs some of the digestive enzymes and the digested food,
so as you can see, the helpful bacteria and the baby's body digest the food
together, and share the valuable nutrients.
One of the digestive enzymes
that the helpful intestinal bacteria produce is the beta-galactosidase form of
lactase. This digestive enzyme digests
the sugar, lactose, that's in mother's milk, into two smaller sugars known as
glucose (also called dextrose) and galactose.
The baby's body can then use these two sugars to create various other
sugars that are required for a person's body to be healthy. In other words, the helpful intestinal
bacteria help the baby's body to convert the sugar, lactose, into the other
sugars needed for the baby to be in especially good health.
The helpful intestinal bacteria
also produce certain types of natural antibiotics that get absorbed into the
blood stream and help protect the baby's whole body from various types of
bacterial, viral, and fungal infections.
Some of these helpful intestinal
bacteria are “implanting” bacteria. This
means that once there are some of these types of bacteria in the person’s
intestines, these types of bacteria tend to remain living there for years, even
if the person ingests no more of these types of bacteria in the future. You can think of implanting bacteria as ones
that make a permanent home in the area of the intestines where they prefer to
live.
“Non-implanting” bacteria are
types of intestinal bacteria that will only live in someone’s intestines for a
small number of days after the person has ingested them. So in order for a person to have
non-implanting bacteria in the person’s intestines for long periods of time,
the person must keep ingesting the non-implanting types of bacteria every few
days.
After a newborn baby has been
breastfeeding for about two weeks, the baby's stomach begins to produce
hydrochloric acid when it eats or drinks.
This hydrochloric acid is made in the stomach, and the stomach mixes it
with whatever the baby eats or drinks.
This powerful acid helps the baby's stomach to digest certain types of
nutrients, and it also kills most types of bacteria that are swallowed by the
baby. So the colony of helpful bacteria
that were established in the baby's intestines within the first two weeks of
breastfeeding, are now protected from most harmful bacteria. As a result, this also means that very few
helpful bacteria can get through the baby's stomach alive, and find their way
into the baby's intestines as well. So
the main sources of helpful bacteria in a baby's intestines is the helpful
bacteria that got into the baby's intestines within the first two weeks of
breastfeeding, and any new helpful bacteria that might get through the baby's
stomach without being killed by the hydrochloric acid.
In addition to the hydrochloric
acid killing most new helpful bacteria in the baby's stomach, there are plenty
of other day-to-day threats to the helpful bacteria that are already living in
the baby's intestines. For example, when
babies grow older, their daily meals start to vary from mother's milk to less
healthy types of nourishment (like baby formulas and other processed or
"junk" foods that are common today).
As a result of these less healthy foods, many of the helpful bacteria in
the intestines become weak and die. This
can result in harmful bacteria being able to flourish in the baby’s intestinal
tract. These harmful bacteria produce
toxins, which poison the baby’s body, and can cause all sorts of health
imbalances.
Ideally a person would continue
to have lots of helpful intestinal bacteria, and very few harmful ones,
throughout the person’s entire life. The
helpful intestinal bacteria are important for babies, children, and adults to
remain healthy on a daily basis.
The common yeast, known as Candida
albicans, is all around us, and we often eat, drink, and breathe it daily,
without even being aware of it. When
there are mostly helpful intestinal bacteria in our intestines, the Candida
albicans remains a harmless type of yeast, and it helps us to digest our
food.
On the other
hand, when the helpful intestinal bacteria have been weakened or killed, and
the harmful intestinal bacteria are thriving, Candida albicans is
sometimes able to change itself into a dangerous fungus-like variety, which can
reproduce very quickly in the intestinal tract, and can even leave the
intestines and spread throughout the body.
To make matters even more unpleasant, this fungus-like version of Candida
albicans is often hard for the person's immune system to kill. To put it in simple terms, the person has
fungus growing throughout the inside of his or her body. The fungus-like variety of Candida
albicans produces toxins that encourage all sorts of health imbalances in
the people it’s infecting. This can not
only occur from Candida albicans, but also from other types of candida
yeasts as well. (Information on how to
kill Candida albicans infections, and other types of fungal infections,
is shared in the webpage titled "How to Rid Your Body of Harmful Infections!"
on this www.AbundantHealth.ws website. Click here to
view that webpage.)
Perhaps the most common poison
that people ingest which weakens many of the helpful bacteria in the human body
is caffeine, which is found in chocolate, coffee, tea, iced tea, and various
sodas (like cola). Smoking cigarettes,
drinking large amounts of alcohol, and eating fried foods, will all weaken the
helpful intestinal bacteria.
Certain
types of the helpful bacteria also live in women's vaginas, protecting them
from dangerous types of bacterial and yeast infections that can occur in
women's vaginas, bladders, and kidneys.
Bacteria that are living in a woman's vagina are referred to as
"vaginal bacteria". It is
healthiest for a woman's vaginal bacteria to consist mainly of helpful
bacteria, and very few harmful bacteria.
(Information on how women can ensure that they have mainly the healthy
vaginal bacteria, can be found in the webpage titled "How to Rid Your Body
of Harmful Infections!" on this www.AbundantHealth.ws website. Click here to
view that webpage.)
Probably the most dangerous
types of toxins to both the helpful vaginal bacteria and the helpful intestinal
bacteria, are prescription antibiotics. Many of these prescription antibiotics kill
many types of the helpful bacteria in just a day or two. This is why two common side effects of taking
certain prescribed antibiotics are poor digestion, and diarrhea (due to an
absence of bacteria in the digestive system).
Children who take certain types
of prescription antibiotics often have chronic ear infections. When these children stop taking the
antibiotics, and begin taking a helpful intestinal bacteria supplement each
day, their ear infections often go away within a week.
This is also why it's fairly
common for women who have just finished taking certain prescription
antibiotics, to immediately get vaginal and bladder infections, since both the
helpful intestinal and the helpful vaginal bacteria have been weakened or
killed by the prescription antibiotics.
My common sense tells me that it's also likely that spermicides used to
prevent pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, probably
also weaken or kill the helpful vaginal bacteria.
Here are some other interesting
facts about the helpful and harmful bacteria....
The presence of harmful bacteria
in one's digestive system can result in strong, unpleasant odors in one's
breath, urine, stool (bowel movements), stomach gas, and intestinal gas. The helpful intestinal bacteria generally
smell more pleasant.
Both the helpful and harmful
intestinal bacteria produce nutrients for us and help us to digest our
food. The main difference is that the
helpful intestinal bacteria produce few toxins.
The harmful bacteria, however, produce lots of dangerous toxins. These toxins get absorbed into our bodies and
our bodies are poisoned by them, day after day.
Most of what one passes out of
one's body in the person's "stool", when going to the bathroom, is
not the original food that was eaten, but mostly bacteria (and certain yeast
and fungi too).
As long as a person gets enough
water in his or her daily meals, the presence of mostly helpful bacteria in
one's digestive system encourages a person to have regular
bowel movements - meaning that the person is neither constipated, nor
has diarrhea.
In addition to the helpful
bacteria producing natural antibiotics to kill harmful infections, the helpful
bacteria also adjust the pH level in people's intestines and women's vaginas,
to be too acidic for various types of harmful infections to thrive.
Here’s a list of some of the
more commonly known forms of helpful bacteria.
Helpful Bacteria
Genus: Bifidobacteria:
The bacteria from this genus tend to like to live in the human
large intestines.
Bifidobacterium adolescentis - This type of bacteria tends to like to live in the intestines
of infants.
Bifidobacterium bifidum -
This type of intestinal bacteria is probably the most well known of the
Bifidobacteria. It produces the vitamin
known as biotin. It also produces the natural
antibiotics; acetic acid, and lactic acid.
Bifidobacterium bifidum is an implanting type of bacteria.
Bifidobacterium breve - This type
of bacteria tends to like to live in the intestines of infants.
Bifidobacterium infantis -
This type of bacteria tends to like to live in the intestines of infants.