Death Begins in the Gut

Talking about our colon may not be the most entertaining subject of them all, but it is one that could change your health forever, and even save your life. The colon plays an important role in our digestion, and in the absorption of nutrients. So we cannot underestimate it, and we must pay attention on taking good care of it. Death begins in the guts!! 

Most people’s eating habits, are very acidic, and leave a lot of residues in our colon. Residues that can stay there for days, weeks, and even months! These residues produce fermentation, mold and bacteria that give birth to all sorts of diseases. An Alkaline Diet pays great attention to the way we combine our foods. The right combination of foods, with a majority of alkalizing foods ingested in every meal, protects our colon health. This kind of eating and food combination allows the colon to stay clean and healthy. It increases nutrient absorption, and promotes the proper discharge of waste before it literally rots inside of us and causes damage.

You’re only as good as your gut

Eating right–that is, with the right combinations of food–can restore health to your colon, and balance to your life

By:Anne A. Jambora
Philippine Daily Inquirer

You’ve heard it before: Death begins in the colon. Your gut is home to millions and millions of bacteria, good and bad. Keep it healthy and you’ll create a balanced environment that will boost your immune system and help you fight off diseases.

 Approximately 30 feet long, it is that tube that runs from your mouth to your anus and plays a vital role to the health of your mind, body, and spirit, said Dr. Teresa Bitanga Valeros, NMD and PhD.

Your colon has been working hard to keep you in good condition since you were born. When you eat meat, for instance, it takes three days for your stomach to digest. That’s three days of meat sitting in your gut, fermenting and rotting away…

…When you’re healthy, that means the bacteria population in your stomach is balanced—there are more “good” than “bad” bacteria. If you easily contract diseases, then balance must be restored.

“Eat a princely breakfast, a kingly—or queenly, as the case may be—lunch, and a meager or pauper’s supper,” said Dr. Valeros…

Finding the balance

…The stomach has often been referred to as the body’s “second brain” by medical practitioners and professors. Ever felt queasy before a big interview? That, they say, is your stomach listening to your brain.

“Only 10-20 percent understand how the mind-body connection is very important. What you eat can make you irritable or happy. There are even some foods that can make you feel suicidal. And this is proven by science. This is all about the immune system. My job is to strengthen it,” Valeros said.

Every person has a unique biochemical individuality; not even twins are the same, she said. Valeros said a four- or seven-day nutrition diet can help strengthen your immune system…

…“Negative emotion can bring about uric acid so we need to heal the spirit, mind and body. When you talk about complementary medicine, the simple layman’s term would be therapy. That includes music or art therapy. In fact, the principles of art have to be there,” Valeros said.

Like music, she continued, the music of digestion is a waltz. Everything has a rhythm and a cycle. The goal is to achieve balance.

“Whether it’s Traditional Chinese Medicine or Ayurvedic medicine, the goal is always balance—restoring balance in your being,” she said.

Too rigid

A monotrophic diet, or eating only one food at a meal, can help restore a healthy gut environment, but it is far too rigid for many to follow. Valeros has come up with a diet program/chart that allows one to combine some food without disturbing the restoration of balance in your gut.

Carbs, she said, are digested with an alkaline condition in the stomach; protein is digested with an acid condition. Combining both starches and proteins at a meal is not good because it “confuses the stomach,” she said.

So carbs such as potatoes, whole grain cereals, chestnuts, etc. are better off paired with greens and veggies. Proteins such as nuts, dairy products, seafood and “flesh” food (meat) are better paired with greens and veggies. Fruits should be eaten on their own, preferably 30 minutes before mealtime.

“Fruits should be eaten alone. It will be digested in 30 minutes. Never take fruit after a meal, except papaya, because this has digestive enzymes. Never take overripe fruits either because of the molds and fungus there,” she said.

While fruits may be good, some fruits are not to be combined with other fruits. Rule of thumb is to never eat sweet fruits with sub-acid or acid fruits. Valeros said it is better to stick to one classification of fruit.

For instance, you can eat acid fruits like citrus with pineapples or strawberries or sour plums. Just don’t eat them together with sub-acid fruits like apples, apricots, or grapes. Or with sweet fruits like bananas, dates, or prunes.

“Just focus on your good partners. A good mix is two or three types. If you overdo things, your stomach will get confused. One leads to wellness while another leads to illness. Heavy meals should already be eaten by lunchtime to give your body the chance to do its homework. The human digestive system is like sunrise and sunset,” she said.

Eat six meals a day, with merienda in between. Valeros also recommends the Formula 8 for maximum energy: eight hours of sleep, eight hours of relaxation, and eight hours of work.

“The body can heal itself, but then again it’s very subjective. It depends on how your body responds to the modification. Without a doubt it will get better, but probably not as good as your friend’s. Nobody has the perfect colon.”

Dr. Valeros agrees with many doctors that talk about food combination. And, even though some go into very rigid detail, the general guidelines are basically the same. Protein and starch should not be combined. Each of those should be eaten separately, in combination with bigger portions of vegetables. And fruits should be eaten separately from any other kind of food. Dr. Young talks about this too in his book The pH Miracle.

Another part of taking care of our colon is cleansing it. There are many cleansing diets around, and even cleansing methods using enemas. If you would like to look into this, I recommend Dr. Mitra Ray’s book Do You Have The Guts To Be Beautiful, a very interesting and easy to comply approach to beauty from the inside out.