WHY DO YOU NEED TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR GUT DAILY?

In addressing  intestinal permeability—the leaky gut, one must ask himself:

What is the gut and what are its functions:

A human digestive tract is a long tube open to the outside world at its start and at its end. The whole length of the digestive tract is coated with a bacterial layer, much like a thick layer of turf on the surface of the gut epithelium, providing a natural barrier against invaders, undigested food, toxins and parasites.  Whatever harmful things there are in the outside world, our digestive system is a perfect entrance for them into our bodies. Apart from providing a physical barrier, they work against invasive pathogenic microorganisms by producing anti-biotic like substances, anti-fungal volatiles, anti-viral substances that dissolve membranes of viruses and bacteria; they engage the immune system to respond appropriately to invaders. In addition, by producing organic acids, the beneficial bacteria reduce the pH near the wall of the gut to 4,0-5.0, making a very uncomfortable acidic environment for growth and activity of pathogenic “bad” microbes, which require more alkaline surroundings.  Pathogenic microbes produce a lot of very potent toxins, not to mention all the toxic substances that we ingest with food and drink. Our healthy beneficial gut flora has a good ability to neutralize these toxic substances inactivate histamine and chelate heavy metals and other poisons. The cell wall of beneficial bacteria absorbs many carcinogenic substances, making them inactive. They also suppress hyperplastic processes in the gut which is the basis of all cancer formation.

 

How foods are absorbed in our human digestive tract:

The absorption of the digested food happens in the small intestines by tiny finger like protrusions called villi, that increase the absorptive surface of the intestines. These villi are lined with cells called enterocytes.  These are the cells which absorb our food and pass it into the blood stream to nourish our bodies. The importance of these cells to our health cannot be overestimated.  The beneficial bacteria in the gut flora ensure that the enterocytes are healthy and capable of performing their job. When the beneficial bacteria are not in control of the opportunistic bacteria, the absorptive surface of the intestines is populated by pathogenic microbes instead, making the enterocytes unhealthy and unable to perform their duties of digestion and absorption: the ability to digest proteins, ferment carbohydrates and break down lipids and fiber.  As a result, food substances get absorbed into the bloodstream unchanged and cause problems in the body where the immune system recognizes them as foreign and attacks them causing food intolerances and other issues.

 

What happens when you have an imbalance of good and bad bacteria in your gut:

In the absence or greatly reduced numbers of beneficial bacteria, the digestive system gets overtaken by opportunistic and pathogenic microbial flora continually producing a river of toxins from the gut to the brain.  Endotoxins are a by-product in an opportunistic gut flora which cause allergies, constant low blood pressure, excessive production of body fluids like saliva, dysfunction of the hypothalamus with hormonal changes (PMS),  emotional instability, sleep abnormalities, addiction, depression, autism, intellectual regression, behavioral and emotional abnormalities. This endotoxin is highly pervasive in being able to move up the Vagus nerve and lodge itself in the brainstem where it triggers an inflammatory response and it starts disrupting the signals from the brain to the gut and from the gut to the brain.  One of the things that it does is interfere with serotonin and dopamine binding that makes one feel anxious, less tolerant of stressors, and harder and harder to satisfy oneself. So people become obsessed. That also interferes with sleep cycling. The gut is responsible for helping the brain keep its energy demands in tip top shape,  but the disruption causes slower cognitive function.  When the endotoxins from the gut migrates to the hypothalamus, it causes inflammation,  disrupting the function of the hypothalamus, which  is to keep one’s body in a stable state called homeostasis by directly influencing the automatic nervous system and managing hormones. The disruption causes a slowing down with the metabolism and weight gain aside from constipation.  It takes longer for the stool to transit, and constipation becomes an issue. It results in neurodegeneration in the hypothalamus like tiredness, slower cognition, memory loss, but other more serious changes like Parkinsons and even the development of type 2 diabetes even if one’s pancreas is working fine as the brain can no longer read the blood sugar levels.  Loss of smell is another sign of the early stages of inflammation in the brain that’s been driven by the gut. These are symptoms that are very common clinically and people suffer with them subtle enough to where they don't get an official diagnosis so people just kind of get lost in the medical system because certainly allopathic medicine doesn't really focus on this aspect of it. 

 

The need to rebuild a healthy diverse microbiome: 

The first aspect of inflammation in the gut and the brain comes from the leak in the gut, and those endotoxins leaking in gets to the brain.

Leaky gut can occur throughout the entire GI tract, not just in the small intestine. It actually begins in the oral mucosal in your mouth. The digestive system starts in the mouth, and it goes all the way to the other end.  One teaspoon of poop has more bacteria in it, then all the stars in the known universe. There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of families of different bacteria in our digestive tract.  It's a large community.  There's 10 times more of them than of us, and they have 100 times more genes than the human genome. That means the variances of how they can function, the adaptation they can do is 100 times more than what humans can do. They've learned to survive over millions and millions of years and in general they live in harmony. But we don't live like our ancestors in harmony with nature anymore. We grew up on Coca Cola and chips and all the garbage that we’ve eaten. We've created a disoriented microbiome. 

 

What influences immunity and what damages immunity?

Fresh animal fats (from meats and dairy) and cholesterol-rich foods, particularly raw egg yolk.

Cold pressed oils; olive oil, coconut oil, fish oil, nut and seed oils.

Prebiotics: Onions, garlic and non-starch, low glycemic root vegetables. 

Freshly pressed vegetable and fruit juices.

Regular consumption of greens: parsley, dill, coriander, spring onions and garlic, etc.

Fermented Foods: probiotic and prebiotic or synbiotic.

Contact with animals: horses, dogs, etc.  Having a pet in the family can do a lot for children’s immune status. 

Swimming in unpolluted natural waters: lakes, rivers and the sea.

Physical activity in fresh air and meditation.

Exposure to sunlight and sensible sunbathing.

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Sugar and everything containing it: sweets, soft drink, confectionery, ice cream, etc. (Sugar, starches and lactose are food for opportunistic bacteria)

Processed carbohydrates: cakes, biscuits, crisps, snacks, breakfast cereals, white bread and pasta.

Chemically altered and artificial fats: margarines, butter replacement, cooking and vegetable oils, processed foods prepared with these fats.

Lack of high-quality protein in the diet from meats, fish, eggs, dairy products, nuts and seeds.

Exposure to manmade chemicals: cleaning and washing chemicals, personal care products, paints, fire retardants, petrochemicals, pesticides, etc.

Exposure to man-made radiation: electronic screens, mobile phones, high-power electricity lines, nuclear stations and nuclear waste.

Drugs, antibiotics, steroids, antidepressants, anticancer medication, anti-viral drugs, etc.

Stress and lack of fresh air and activity.

Lack of exposure to sunlight.

 

What are the right foods? What are the wrong foods? Especially for a person with a digestive disorder.

Especially for a persons with a digestive disorder, the following information are important:

 

Carbohydrates

If you have an unhealthy gut, you can’t just  take a supplement, you have to change the environment. When you feed the bad bacteria with bad fats from French fries and the like,  the bad bacteria gets stronger, meaning they reproduce, and it's a numbers game. They compete for docking stations on the lining of your intestines. The bad guys don't really have a chance, unless they can reproduce when you feed the wrong foods in your gut.

To turn a diseased gut to a healthy gut it is necessary to heal the digestive tract so it stops being the major source of toxicity in the body and becomes instead a source of nourishment. To do so requires care in what not to feed the abnormal gut flora to allow the villi  in the small intestines time to recover by shedding off sick enterocytes and building a layer of healthy ones. 

All carbohydrates are made of tiny molecules, most common ones are glucose, fructose and galactose. These mono sugars can easily penetrate the gut lining; they do not need digestion. Glucose and fructose are found in abundance in fruits and vegetables. Honey is made of fructose and glucose and does not require much digestion.  Galactose is found in sour milk products like yogurt.  These foods are the easiest to digest and should be the main form of carbohydrates in the diet of any person with a digestive disorder.

The next size carbohydrates are the double sugars. The most common ones are sucrose (table sugar) lactose (milk sugar) and maltose from digestion of starch.  All grain and some root vegetables  (potato, cassava, yams, sweet potato, are very rich in starch. These double sugars cannot be absorbed easily without much work by the enterocytes.  The  tiny hairs called villi on the surface of the enterocytes produce enzymes that breakdown the double sugars to mono sugars. But in people with digestive disease, the sick enterocytes lose their ability to produce the enzymes. As a result, double sugars like sucrose, milk sugar lactose, and products of starch cannot be broken down and therefore not absorbed.  They stay in the gut becoming major food for pathogenic bacteria, viruses, candida and other fungi, getting converted Into a river of toxic substances which damages the gut wall and poison the whole body and the gut wall even further. 

 

Proteins

Proteins are essential for us to have. The best sources of easy-to -digest  and very nourishing proteins are eggs, meats and fish.  The way we cook meats and fish has an effect on their digestibility: boiled, stewed and pouched meats and fish are much easier to digest than fried, roasted or grilled. Eggs are nature’s best quality protein – the  perfect food, rich in most B vitamins, zinc and other nutrients.

 

Fats

To be absorbed fats require bile.  The enterocytes do not have to do much work to absorb fats.  These is why people with digestive disorders tolerate fats well. However with those with abnormal gut flora, the gut lining which is a mucous membrane, when under attack from pathogens produces a lot more mucous to protect itself.  These large amounts of mucous interfere with digestion of food including fats. Mucus coats food particles and does not allow bile and digestive enzymes to get to them. As a result a lot of fat goes undigested and often comes out as a pale greasy  stools. This impaired absorption of fats also causes deficiencies in fat soluble vitamins A, D E, K.  Experience shows that when starch and double sugars are out of the diet for a long enuf period, the production of mucous normalizes, as a result the absorption of fats improve.

 

Processed Foods

Anything that's fresh that grows on planet Earth In general, is safe for you. However, it is when we start tampering with natural foods that we start getting into trouble.  Any processing that we subject the food to,  changes its chemical and biological structure.  Our bodies were not designed to have these changed foods! The more food is processed the more nutrient depleted and chemically altered it becomes. Apart from losing its nutritional value, processed foods loose its other properties: taste, flavor and color.  To compensate, various chemicals are added: flavor enhancers, colours, additives and preservatives. These natural foods are subjected to extreme  heat, pressure, enzymes, solvents, and various other chemicals.  Fats get hydrogenated and proteins get denatured. Natural foods get changed to various chemical concoctions, packaged nicely and presented as food. 

The bulk of processed foods are carbohydrates.  Nature provides us with plenty of carbohydrates which is generally absorbed slowly producing a gradual increase in blood glucose which our bodies are designed to handle.  Processed carbohydrates get absorbed very quickly, producing an unnaturally rapid increase in blood glucose. A rapid increase in blood glucose puts the body in a stake of shock, prompting to pump out lots of insulin very quickly to deal with the excessive glucose. As a result an hour later the person has very low blood glucose. Not only is  his up and down glucose  roller coaster  is extremely harmful to anyone but also processed carbohydrates feed pathogenic bacteria and fungi in the gut , promoting their growth and proliferation. Examples of processed carbohydrates to be avoided are breakfast cereals, crisps, chips, and other starchy snacks, sugar and anything made with it.

 

Dairy

People with gut problems can’t digest dairy and have to avoid them. They suffer from allergies and intolerances because it has a wide range of antigens. The mis-digestion of protein casein also is absorbed into the bloodstream thru the damaged gut lining, crossing the blood brain barrier into the brain affecting the functions of the brain. However, when milk is properly fermented, a larger percentage of proteins get digested, immunoglobins get broken down and lactose consumed by fermenting microbes.  Fermentation makes milk easier for humans to handle. Well fermented milk products such as yogurt, soured cream and natural cheeses are largely free of lactose because in the process of fermentation the fermenting bacteria consume the lactose as their food. On top of that, fermenting bacteria produces lactic acids, which has a healing and soothing influence in the gut lining, many vitamins  (B vitamins, biotin, vit K2, and others) and active enzymes.  

Commercially available fermented dairy products are not fermented long enough to make the milk suitable for diseased gut. On top of that they are often pasteurized after fermentation. which kills the probiotic microbes, destroys enzymes and many vitamins  and changes the structure of proteins, fat, and other nutrients in the product.

 

Soya

More than 90% of world soy production is genetically modified, which is rarely labeled as such. However, organically grown soya beans prepared in the traditional fermented process can be used: natto, miso and soy sauce. 

 

 

Healthy gut = healthy brain with FEELWELL

 

 

Fermented foods: Pro -, Pre -, and Synbiotics: 

Probiotics are live beneficial microorganisms, whereas prebiotics are insoluble fiber that are food for beneficial bacteria.  They  positively promote and support a healthy gut flora with an overall health benefit beyond the digestive tract. And synbiotics are a mixture of pre – and probiotics that can be complementary or synergistic. Feel well offers  a variety of  fermented milk products made from buffalo milk which is casein A2, and  non-inflammatory. Feelwell dairy products are full fat live culture  synbiotic yogurt drinks, liquid whey, regular yogurts, kefir milk, greek yogurts, cream cheese, yogurt dips, ghee, and natural cheeses  which contain little lactose. Safe for those who are  lactose intolerant and those who suffer from inflammation. Our bodies need these daily because our live culture dairy products provide live bacteria  in the gut to attack and  kill the pathogens there that release toxins.  

Brightly colored fruits and vegetables called polyphenols, are critical to building a good microbiome. The polyphenols feed the good bacteria in your gut making them stronger, causing them to control the terrain of the gut lining.  Our synbiotic drinks and 3 cs are packed with these polyphenols.

Our bodies need energy.  Most of that energy comes from sugar and fat metabolism.  Our dairy products are packed with good fat that turns to ketones to rebuild cells daily.  A large portion of our synbiotic drinks and 3 cs consists of fruits and vegetables  - glucose and fructose -  which are turned into lactic acid due to fermentation that energizes the cells in the body.  

Non soluble dietary fibers from root vegetables like yacon are used In our synbiotic drinks and yogurts because they feed the good bacteria.  They don’t feed the bad bacteria. Sugar, starches, and lactose feed the bad bacteria.  Every root fiber feeds different families. The root fiber from sweet potatoes feeds different families of good bacteria in your gut, then turnips do for example.

Intestinal alkaline phosphatase (IAP) is an enzyme in the gut that fights bad bacteria. arguably the most important enzyme to support your microbiome. It helps with the docking sugar levels, reduces need for insulin so you increase insulin sensitivity and 74% reduction in LPs that gets into your bloodstream.  Our dairy products- raw milk, cheese and live yogurt -  made of casein A 2 are good sources of calcium  which promote IAP.

 

No Grain, no gluten bites, bread, granola, & chips:

Feelwell offers a range of walnut based granolas and bread,  almond based bread,  and sweet potato chips, all soaked in whey to remove phytic acids and starches, giving  you no grain, no gluten breads and granola which are an excellent pair to the yogurts and cheeses. These breads are also packed with non soluble fiber to feed your good bacteria. 

 

Bone broth, soups, good fats and eggs:

Bone broth is high in gelatin tannates.  Gelatin tannate acts like a band aid over the leaky gut area. It  seals the leaky gut which allows the damaged gut to heal much faster. And it actually stimulates new cell growth at the same time while healing the damaged areas.

Feelwells’s chicken soup and  bone broth made from specially grown bamboo chickens that eat fermented food only apart from what they pick up from the range. Because of what they eat, our chickens are also packed with good fat to help seal and heal the gut.  Take a cup or two of chicken bone broth a day if you are dealing with a disease otherwise,  two or three times a week 

Our bambuorganic eggs are the best in town. Because the layers eat only fermented foods other than those they pick up on the range, the eggs have no fishy taste and are the perfect food. We encourage you to include an egg in every cup of  our chicken soup or broth. 

 

Vegetables Ferments

Unlike sauerkraut, kimchi and other ferments , our Feelwell vegetable ferments are soaked in our liquid whey.  

Have a forkful of Feelwell’s vegetable ferments daily and  increase your good bacteria in your diet to feed your gut microbiome  by 10,000 fold. We carry a variety of 3 flavors to pair with the different foods you eat daily.

 

FEEL WELL's mission is to provide you with the best nutrient- dense synbiotic food to heal and maintain your gut health. 

 

We start with the top soil where our fruits, vegetables  and grasses  grow and our animals range.  We put tons of bio-photonic energy into our humus-rich soil system through fermented juices packed with microorganisms that create micro-nutrients, bursting into an explosion of bacteria out of demand for all micronutrients, causing an electrical energy to flow, bringing a convergence of bio-photonic energy between the sun, the soil and the plants in between. Bio-photonic energy placed in the body in form of food brings electrical energy into the mitochondria increasing the potential for healing the body. 

The next step is focusing on the food that’s made for you with gentle hands using the simplest processes. The process is called Lactic Acid Fermentation and has been used since 5000 BC allowing you to enjoy all the nutritional benefits of well-fermented food bio-available for your gut microbiota. Well fermented bio-available food makes it easy for your enterocytes to absorb the essential nutrients  into your blood stream  to make you thrive.

Then,  we produce your food only upon your order and deliver it to your door step the day after, to give you only the fresh tasting synbiotic food that makes your gut happy.

Finally, we recycle all the packaging after you return it to us on your next delivery as we have a zero waste goal that reinforces our sustainability efforts and environment-friendly philosophy.