Food choices can lead to serious health problems. These serious health problems often are indicators of digestive problems. It is important that your digestive tract is working properly if you expect to stay healthy or overcome most all health problems.
I find it very frustrating when people (and many in the medical field) only seek relief from the discomfort of their illness rather than seeking the underlying cause of their health problem. Covering up symptoms is big business in the medical business world. A problem with only covering up symptoms is that often it only makes the problem worse.
Let's take a deeper look into the causes of many health problems.
What are some of the most obvious indicators of digestive problems?
繚 Use of Tums or antacids
繚 Heartburn, belching, burping, and GERD disease
繚 Bloating and/or gas
繚 Constipation
繚 Diarrhea
繚 Obesity
繚 Celiac disease
繚 Food allergies
繚 Arthritis
繚 Skin problems
繚 Frequent colds, flu, & other poor immune functions
Certain food choices can complicate digestive problems. These food choices may react differently for different people depending on the health of the food and the health of the person. Let's take a look at some of these foods.
Cow's Milk
Cow's milk is a common food not tolerated by many people. My background of growing up on a ranch and drinking raw cow's milk protected me from lactose intolerance for a good part of my life. However as I have grown younger (late 60's now), I have noticed some symptoms of lactose intolerance. Unfortunately most people today do not have the opportunity to have access to safe raw cow's milk especially in their youth.
What is wrong with homogenized, pasteurized cow's milk? Raw cow's milk has natural enzymes which help digest the sugar and lactose in milk. However these enzymes are destroyed during the homogenization and pasteurization process mainly because of high heat processing.
Lactase is an enzyme naturally produced in the digestive tract of a healthy person that helps us digest the sugar or lactose in milk. However as we grow older our bodies ability to naturally produce enzymes decrease.
Symptoms of lactose deficiency are bloating, diarrhea, stomach or intestinal cramps, gas, and the potential of bacterial overgrowth as a result of food not digesting. Bacterial overgrowth can set up our bodies for a risk of bacterial toxins and serious illness.
What can we do?
Milk products are the foundation of an important food group. In addition, dieticians and government agencies tell us the only way to obtain sufficient calcium is by the consumption of generous amounts of dairy products on a daily basis. This can cause problems even when we are only slightly lactose intolerant.
The enzyme lactase from a natural source of beet stems and roots which will improve the digestion of dairy products.
Damage to the surface of the digestive tract can cause the loss of important natural enzymes necessary for proper breakdown of food. Damage to the digestive tract may be caused by bacterial toxins, food allergies, or gluten intolerance. Other causes of damage to the digestive system can be excessive alcohol, hot drinks, iced drinks, and carbonated beverages. I cringe when children and teens have a regular habit of drinking soft drinks. These carbonated beverages not only have an abundance of sugar but also cause long term damage to their young digestive systems. They are being set up for illness later in life.
Bacteria in the digestive system hinders the breakdown of food as well as slowing down the repair and healing process. Undigested carbohydrates encourage bacteria growth.
Gluten intolerance is a frequent source of serious damage to the digestive tract and is known as Celiac disease.
Sensitivity to gluten has increased dramatically over the last few years. This may be because of the treatment of gluten with acid at high temperatures or with enzymes to make the gluten easier to mix with other food products like milk. This process called deamidation may be a factor in the increase of allergies to gluten.
Wheat gluten is found in foods such as soy sauce, modified food starch, the coating materials of many drugs and vitamins, vinegar, beer, wine coolers, tea, ketchup, flavored chips, ice-cream, and processed cereals.
Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine that can lead to a severe inflammatory reaction. This inflammatory reaction interferes with the use of nutrients and the breakdown of carbohydrates. The only known medical treatment for Celiac disease is life time avoidance of gluten. An interesting note: frequent canker sores can possibly be an indicator of gluten intolerance.
Supplemental enzymes may provide the enzymes necessary to break down gluten. These enzymes are often missing or are deficient in people with a damaged small intestine.
Listen to your body as you take charge of your food choices.
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