Some Truth About Diet
More than two thousand years after his death, Hippocrates’ most quoted words, “All disease begins in the gut,” has been making rounds on the internet. He is often regarded as the father of western medicine due to his pioneering observational technique. The science of gut health and our body’s bacteria biome has never been as popular in the past two millennia as it is today. We have plenty of modern scientific evidence to substantiate Hippocrates’ claim. He may have been slightly off the mark as many pioneers are, but even if it’s not exactly true “all disease begins in the gut” it is looking to be more and more the case that all health begins in the gut.
Many people have woken up to the fact that the government approved recommendations of what we should eat are manipulated and can not be trusted. It’s up to us as individuals to figure out what we should be eating. Nobody gave you an owners manual for the meat and bones system that holds your brain and if they did I would urge you to throw it away because it’s probably full of lies. However, a basic understanding of your physical body and how it works can go a long way in helping to figure out what foods you respond to best.
Taking for granted that what you eat is a cornerstone aspect of how you feel is the beginning of this practice. From there I urge you to do your own research into the importance of the gut biome. I have found a couple of scientific articles that aren’t horribly full of fallacies here and here. There are even claims coming from new scientific publications that the same bacteria in your gut can be found in your brain! After accepting that a healthy gut biome is vital for a healthy mind and body, we can start to look into what makes a gut biome healthy. Essentially it comes down to three main aspects: eating natural whole foods, a healthy amount of probiotics, and prebiotics.
To decide what whole foods you should be eating I urge you to partake in a thought experiment. Ask yourself “what did we humans eat back in the day that brought us to our current level of awesomeness?” To me, “back in the day” is when we were hunters and gatherers, there’s not much evidence to suggest our physiology has changed much since then. Whole foods like animal protein and healthy fats are what fuels your meat and bone machinery.
If you own a computer or television, probiotics shouldn’t be new to you. Most common fermented foods are probiotic. Foods like yogurt, kimchi, and miso are all probiotic. These are the foods that implant new healthy bacteria into your gut so you can digest and absorb the vast variety of food that we consume.
Prebiotics are foods like onions, asparagus, bananas, apples, and leafy greens. These are the foods that healthy bacteria in your gut want to eat, they thrive on the natural fibers of plants. Just like we have to eat certain foods to replenish your muscles (made of proteins) and certain foods to build a healthy brain (healthy fats like omega 3’s and 6’s), we have to fuel the bacteria in your gut. Otherwise, all the probiotics in the world will not help you. An easy to read article on prebiotics and their relationship with probiotics can be found here.
Now I feel as if I have done my part. It is up to you to decide if you like what you read. Sticking to true individualist values I again urge you to do your own research on the topic. Please, for the love of God and man, do not take anything anyone says about what you should or shouldn’t be doing at face value.
-Harrison Huijskens
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