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A Biodiverse Gut Microbiome Can Provide More Energy Than Coffee

A Biodiverse Gut Microbiome Can Provide More Energy Than Coffee

August 7, 2019 Posted by WellnessWiz Jack Tips, Ph.D., C.C.N. 18 Comments
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A Biodiverse Gut Microbiome Can Provide More Energy Than Coffee

If you’re not feeling your oats and lack robust energy, it’s a sign to tune up your gut-microbiome for balance and biodiversity of species.

You already voted!

Your intestinal microbiome is your ‘capacitator’ for extracting calories (energy) from your food. It’s directly responsible for creating ATP-energy through the prominent “tricarboxylic acid cycle.”

Your cells’ mitochondria (organelles that produce energy) rely on the molecules that your gut microbiome processes.

Today, it seems that everyone’s gut-microbiome is ailing. There are easy solutions. Pundits cite many reasons for the ailing gut-microbiome.

  • Antibiotic / Steroid / NSAID Use – Ever! Not just recently. You might have lost an integral species many years ago if you used an antibiotic without simultaneously providing pre and probiotics. It’s complex prebiotics (soluble and insoluble fibers) that help develop a wide variety of species. Worse yet, there are antibiotics in commercial (CAFO) beef, chicken, and fish. So, if you buy meat at the grocery store, you are getting antibiotics that disturb your gut microbiome. Other prescriptives (Rx’s) damage the gut microbiome including, many steroids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID’s).

A Biodiverse Gut Microbiome: EZ-Solutions:

EZ-Solution. 

Avoid commercial meat. Buy organic. Check with your natural health professional about “correcting the cause.”

  • Chlorinated/fluoridated water. Municipal water is responsible for providing sanitized water to prevent microbial epidemics. But today’s municipal water also sends measurable amounts of pesticides, hormones (from people’s urine, and from throwing drugs down the drain), chemicals, deadly Triclosan antibiotic from Colgate Total toothpaste, and chloramines (linked to cancer, from using chlorine). Your gut microbiome does not appreciate tap water.

EZ-Solution.

Get a good water purifier. Avoid sources of tap water (restaurant soup and water, store-bought coffee, water fountains, etc.

  • Toothpaste & Mouthwash. Your oral microbiome “seeds” your gut microbiome. It also provides nitric oxide to support proper blood pressure. Toothpaste and mouthwash with anti-microbials, Xylitol, tea tree oil, fluoride, etc. damage the oral microbiome.

EZ-Solution.

Use a prebiotic toothpaste such as Revitin, or a non-offensive toothpaste such as Dr. Bronner’s. (Amazon has both, maybe others.)

  • Too Much Sugar and/or Alcohol. Eating refined sugar supports “sugar burner” microbial species, most of which are pathogenic. Sugar and alcohol can unbalance your gut microbiome.

EZ-Solution.

Use whole foods, not processed foods. Just say “no” to boxed breakfast cereals and desserts (97% of the time). Avoid products that list sugar on the label. Use berries, melons, and fruit to satisfy a sweet tooth. You’ll gain potent anti-inflammatory compounds and gut-friendly fibers.)

  • Lack A Wide Variety Of Vegetables. Eating the same few foods limits your microbiome’s food supply to support only a few species. A variable diet (see Nourishment category blog) provides a better array of fibers to support biodiversity of species.

EZ-Solution.

Eat a Variable Diet. Include new, strange, odd, neglected vegetables.

  • Lack Fermented Foods In Diet. The lactobacilli and other transient probiotic species in ferments do good deeds as they meander through your G.I. Tract. They support beneficial species, fight pathogens, and provide energy molecules to your colonocyte cells for smooth moves.

EZ-Solution.

Have a couple of tablespoons of raw, organic sauerkraut daily. [Not Eden Organic which is pasteurized to kill the species you need. Go figure.] And use other ferments: olives, pickles, water kefir. Make fermented vegetables—carrots, celery, jicama.) [Watch out for pasteurized Kombucha products with sugar.]

  • Stress. Stress hormones alter your gut microbiome. The stress response is all part of Nature’s plan. Your cells have different performance metrics when stressed—when cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine are busy saving your life.

Today, you’ll probably not get chased by a saber tooth tiger. But darn those other stressors such as cell phone radiation, processed foods, pesticides/herbicides, T.V. news, and all the distraught emotional we feel What? You did not “like” my Facebook pix of my little doggie roller-skating over the edge of the Grand Canyon? That person must hate me.” Or “What? You did not comment on this blog?

EZ-Solution. 

Regular stress relief is no longer a luxury. It’s a requirement. An Epsom Salt & Baking Soda bath (2 lbs. of each in a warm tub of non-chlorine water) with your favorite essential oil, some inspirational music, and a really-terrific blog is a lovely, inexpensive way to nurture your inner being.

The amount of energy your cells receive from your gut microbiome is commensurate with your gut microbiome’s efficiency. Some species, such as Firmicutes, are super-efficient and need to be balanced by Bacteroides. Too many Firmicutes can contribute to obesity when they run wild on sugar.

Catch-22. If your mitochondria (energy-producing organelles in your cells) are tooled up to be sugar burners (as opposed to fat burners), and your gut microbiome is unable to metabolize glucose (sugar) from your food efficiently, then your body will store your food as fat. Saves it for a rainy day (which never comes.)

Healthy mitochondria can burn either fat or glucose based on availability. Exercise helps to increase healthy mitochondria via mitochondrial biogenesis.

A Biodiverse Gut Microbiome: The Geeky Story. If your gut microbiome produces too many calories from food, it can lead to metabolic syndrome (obesity, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s, etc.) If your gut microbiome produces too many lipopolysaccharides (cause metabolic endotoxemia), then toll-like receptors become activated (inflammation). So does insulin resistance (part of metabolic syndrome).

Love Bugs. Your gut microbiome is an essential and integral part of your body’s life processes. For this reason, many people today use supplemental probiotics, make fermented foods, and use combination prebiotic fiber supplements.

When you love your gut microbes, they, in turn, love you. They reward your cells with healthy life factors that keep you young, smart, vital, svelte, and to the eye of the beholder, absolutely gorgeous.

Do something good for your gut microbiome today. Your gut microbiome loves a variety of foods, including protein, healthy fats, and vegetables. As we say, it’s not what you eat; it’s what your gut microbiome eats, that sets the level of your nutrition.

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18 Comments

Leave your reply.
  • Karri
    · Reply

    August 29, 2019 at 5:18 AM

    Great solutions! Thanks for the tips Jack! The microbiome is SO important!

  • WellnessWiz Jack
    · Reply

    Author
    August 31, 2019 at 12:11 PM

    Thanks, Karri.

  • Julie
    · Reply

    October 21, 2019 at 1:08 PM

    However, an obvious lack of editing under “Too much sugar &/or alcohol”, where the “E-Z” solution is listed twice.

    • WellnessWiz Jack Tips, Ph.D., C.C.N.
      · Reply

      Author
      October 22, 2019 at 2:03 PM

      Thanks, Julie: Appreciate your eagle-eye. Will get that redundancy corrected. Jack

  • Sheila
    · Reply

    October 21, 2019 at 5:04 PM

    Thank you for this well explained information regarding the gut. For a while now I have been trying to find out the causes of various gut symptoms etc, , now you have put it all together in an easy to understand way. I feel confident that I am making healthier choices when it comes to shopping for and making nuitritious meals plus nutricious drinks.

    • WellnessWiz Jack Tips, Ph.D., C.C.N.
      · Reply

      Author
      October 22, 2019 at 2:16 PM

      Hi Sheila: Thank you. A variety of vegetable fibers supports a biodiverse gut microbiome. The new quest is to find and try new vegetables … today, a kohlrabi leaf from the backyard garden. Best wishes. Jack

  • Ginny Martin
    · Reply

    October 21, 2019 at 5:55 PM

    Hi Jack,
    Did I miss seeing your footnotes? You made many assertions, but where is the evidence?

    • WellnessWiz Jack Tips, Ph.D., C.C.N.
      · Reply

      Author
      October 22, 2019 at 2:08 PM

      Thank you, Ginny: Each fact or claim is indeed backed up with reference studies. Plus editorial fact-check. I got a bit lazy and did not include them thinking that people don’t look at them or take time to check out the scientific studies. So glad you are interested. I’ll resume adding them to articles. It can be a cumbersome process and I write so much … I appreciate knowing you like to check the citations. If there’s a particular troubling fact stated, please let me know and I’ll send you the link to the study. Again, I appreciate your wake-up call. Jack

  • erwin morris
    · Reply

    November 10, 2019 at 1:27 AM

    Great information! Not so easy to do. Never thought about water in coffee or tea in restaurnts and such. Guess you gotta watch everything to keep your health.

    • WellnessWiz Jack Tips, Ph.D., C.C.N.
      · Reply

      Author
      November 10, 2019 at 9:00 PM

      Howdy Bridgett: There are many solutions to chlorine in the bath water. They are worthy of pursuit. Chlorine in bath water reacts with many organic compounds — body dirt and oils, other compounds in the water and pipes — and forms a dangerous chemical called Trihalomethane. There are big moves and small moves to remove chlorine. On the big move side is a whole house dechlorinator which involves installing equipment to filter all the water coming into your home. Then, on the small move side, there are 1) magnesium balls (bath balls) that hang over the faucet and you let the bath water flow through them — great for traveling if you’re going to soak in a hotel tub; 2) charcoal filters for bathtub faucets, 3) and to treat and improve the water itself you can use Epsom Salt (magnesium sulfate) — add 2 pounds to a tub-full of bathwater. Another easy one is to use 1 Teaspoon Sodium Ascorbate (Vitamin C). You can buy a jar of Sodium Ascorbate powder and routinely add to bathwater 3 minutes before popping the kiddos in. Make it easy and make it routine. Avoiding chlorine in bathwater is important for the Lungs that breath the outgassing and the skin microbiome and the exposure to carcinogens.

    • WellnessWiz Jack Tips, Ph.D., C.C.N.
      · Reply

      Author
      November 10, 2019 at 9:08 PM

      Hey Erwin: Great to hear from you. You can learn which coffee and tea shops take water purification seriously. Here in Austin, we have many restaurants that employ and maintain good filtration because the tap water influences the taste of coffee, soup, and sauces. Austin has chloramines in the municipal water (from chlorine) and it’s a known carcinogen. We’re trying to get rid of the toxic fluoride but so far the city council won’t hear the issues citing other social issues as more important. We much have some really tough social issues here if avoiding retarding the future generations is not a high priority. [Research: Fluoride is linked with lower IQ scores.] Fortunately there are simple measures — home purified water in glass bottles (like the Voss water glass bottle) fit in the pocket or purse. But find a coffee shop that filters the water and cleans the filter often — that way you’ll avoid getting a crappachino when you order a cappuccino. Take care.

  • Bridgett
    · Reply

    November 10, 2019 at 11:34 AM

    I’m wondering how do we get non clorinated bath water? I know there are shower head attachmen’s that I think do that but what about the lower faucet? Or do we just fill the tub with jugs?

  • Craig Downer
    · Reply

    November 24, 2019 at 9:37 PM

    Sounds great and very important! Will look into this. Want my diet also to not be destroying and poisoning life on Earth, plants, animals, microorganisms, algae, soils, waters air, all the “things” that make our human life possible here!

    • WellnessWiz Jack Tips, Ph.D., C.C.N.
      · Reply

      Author
      November 25, 2019 at 3:10 PM

      Thank you, Craig. So true. The art of living a successful life without taking more than we give. Humanity is struggling with feeding the global population when the majority of people live in urban environments, estranged from the art of growing and raising food. The big disconnect is that the food (agriculture) industry is not focused on health, and the health industry (modern drug-medicine) is not focused on food as the source of health. It’s time everyone had a small garden, even if only a plant on a balcony or a vertical garden with lettuce and herbs. Humanity is learning new rules (the importance of the microbiomes and the body’s connection with the earth and each other.) It seems that right now, Science is determined to trick Nature and find ways around Nature’s laws under the banner of “advancement” instead of understanding that humanity can best advance with strong minds and bodies in cooperation with Nature’s principles. So much to learn. Best wishes. Jack

  • Carlos
    · Reply

    November 25, 2019 at 12:06 PM

    Hello

    It is true that new information about our microbiome appears every day.
    Unfortunately, our food and life habits have become our worst enemy.

    Thanks for the information greetings from Europe

    • WellnessWiz Jack Tips, Ph.D., C.C.N.
      · Reply

      Author
      November 25, 2019 at 3:27 PM

      So right, Carlos. We’re all having to incorporate the new scientific findings and lay ignorance aside. Humanity has been on a 300 year war against all bacteria ever since Robert Hooke and Anton van Leeuwenhoek put a microscope to their eyes and discovered wee beasties swimming in the water. Note: I discuss this much further in a fee-based article, “The Perils of Benefactors, The Blessings of Parasites. The APOE4 Risk Allele Does Not Cause Alzheimer’s available a http://www.appleadaypress.com (Just in case you are interested.) We, as individuals, can act much quicker than the plodding of humanity and can help lead the way by applying Scientific knowledge as self-knowledge and making fundamental changes in our lives based on respect for our symbiotic and synergistic relationship with our microbiomes. Best wishes.

  • Sam
    · Reply

    November 25, 2019 at 10:43 PM

    Perfect.very very true all from first hand experience. Gut 1st brain of all the body.

    • WellnessWiz Jack Tips, Ph.D., C.C.N.
      · Reply

      Author
      November 25, 2019 at 11:06 PM

      Cheerio Sam: So true. It’s so fascinating how the mobile human being harnessed bacteria for energy (or did bacteria harness humans for mobility?) Either way, it’s a lesson for the whole shebang to work together. Just read the latest article on depression and the gut microbiome … the science keeps pouring in. Take care of the gut microbiome … fermented vegetables, pre-biotic fibers … i’m about to write a blogpost on cacao as a pre-biotic for excellent health. Looking forward to your comments.

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