What possible benefit is there to adding a lot more fiber to our meals and/or using a colon cleanse product?
First, let's cover some basics, just so that we're on the same page. The gut is basically everything from our throat all the way to the other end. In between we have the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and the colon.
Each section is intended to do a specific function in the digestion of food and processing of waste. Digestion starts with the chewing of the food, continues in the stomach, and then finishes with the enzymes and bacteria in the small and large intestines.
Muscles within the walls of the gut act to push things along and help the digestion process by churning the food as it travels along that path. At the far end the colon takes care of absorbing water, the last of the available nutrients, and final packaging. After the colon is finished you make a trip to the bathroom and...
People originally evolved to handle a diet similar to what bears eat, i.e. being pretty much whatever we could acquire. Foods were along the lines of roots, nuts, berries, the occasional fruit, and whatever critter we could catch. These raw, rough foods were what our guts evolved to handle. That diet typically had lots of fiber and roughage and things moved right along.
Compare that to the modern diet of the burger, fries, and a shake (or diet coke.) No roughage, no fiber, and little that resembles what we grew up with over the last couple million years. Sugar, flour, various preservatives and chemicals, and all sorts of things that our bodies weren't quite designed to handle well.
In addition to evolving to handle certain foods (and that mocha latte isn't one of those foods) our guts developed to handle certain forms of bacteria and other microorganism. Some people estimate that there might be as many as a thousand different species of these micro-organisms in our guts and they outnumber all of the other cells in our bodies.
What's cool about this is that these critters generally run from being harmless to very helpful. It's called symbiosis and the helpful ones actually assist in digestion and create certain vitamins that our bodies don't normally create, such as Biotin and Vitamin K.
This symbiotic relationship between us and these micro-organisms works very well for the most part. Where it breaks down is when our diets wander well off the nutritious path and onto the "no food contained within this product" path. This aberrant diet allows unwanted micro-organisms to develop and it's thought that some of these may be responsible for certain diseases and illnesses, as well as making the gut run much less efficiently than normal.
In addition, a poor diet is believed to contribute to the build up of, for want of a better term, "sludge" in the gut. Chemicals and waste products accumulate and the system doesn't work as well as it should.
A cleanse is designed to fix these problems. At its lowest level, a cleanse is a very high fiber diet that helps to move things along and push out all of the crud. Higher end products will adds herbs, nutrients, and other things that will help soothe the gut, detoxify the crud, restore micro-organism balance, and so on.
In short, a cleanse is designed to give your intestinal system a refreshing clean out of the accumulated glop. This will help with digestion, reduce or eliminate bloating, and help to reduce or eliminate health issues that might be arising from the glop, badly balanced diet, and unhappy micro-organisms.
Taking care of the insides is part of taking care of the whole body. The right diet, the right exercise routine, and the right mindset all help to make sure everything is one the right track. Health and fitness is for life, and you don't need to be a high level athlete or have the perfect diet. Learn more here: http://www.gems4friends.com/12-week-program.html
First, let's cover some basics, just so that we're on the same page. The gut is basically everything from our throat all the way to the other end. In between we have the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and the colon.
Each section is intended to do a specific function in the digestion of food and processing of waste. Digestion starts with the chewing of the food, continues in the stomach, and then finishes with the enzymes and bacteria in the small and large intestines.
Muscles within the walls of the gut act to push things along and help the digestion process by churning the food as it travels along that path. At the far end the colon takes care of absorbing water, the last of the available nutrients, and final packaging. After the colon is finished you make a trip to the bathroom and...
People originally evolved to handle a diet similar to what bears eat, i.e. being pretty much whatever we could acquire. Foods were along the lines of roots, nuts, berries, the occasional fruit, and whatever critter we could catch. These raw, rough foods were what our guts evolved to handle. That diet typically had lots of fiber and roughage and things moved right along.
Compare that to the modern diet of the burger, fries, and a shake (or diet coke.) No roughage, no fiber, and little that resembles what we grew up with over the last couple million years. Sugar, flour, various preservatives and chemicals, and all sorts of things that our bodies weren't quite designed to handle well.
In addition to evolving to handle certain foods (and that mocha latte isn't one of those foods) our guts developed to handle certain forms of bacteria and other microorganism. Some people estimate that there might be as many as a thousand different species of these micro-organisms in our guts and they outnumber all of the other cells in our bodies.
What's cool about this is that these critters generally run from being harmless to very helpful. It's called symbiosis and the helpful ones actually assist in digestion and create certain vitamins that our bodies don't normally create, such as Biotin and Vitamin K.
This symbiotic relationship between us and these micro-organisms works very well for the most part. Where it breaks down is when our diets wander well off the nutritious path and onto the "no food contained within this product" path. This aberrant diet allows unwanted micro-organisms to develop and it's thought that some of these may be responsible for certain diseases and illnesses, as well as making the gut run much less efficiently than normal.
In addition, a poor diet is believed to contribute to the build up of, for want of a better term, "sludge" in the gut. Chemicals and waste products accumulate and the system doesn't work as well as it should.
A cleanse is designed to fix these problems. At its lowest level, a cleanse is a very high fiber diet that helps to move things along and push out all of the crud. Higher end products will adds herbs, nutrients, and other things that will help soothe the gut, detoxify the crud, restore micro-organism balance, and so on.
In short, a cleanse is designed to give your intestinal system a refreshing clean out of the accumulated glop. This will help with digestion, reduce or eliminate bloating, and help to reduce or eliminate health issues that might be arising from the glop, badly balanced diet, and unhappy micro-organisms.
Taking care of the insides is part of taking care of the whole body. The right diet, the right exercise routine, and the right mindset all help to make sure everything is one the right track. Health and fitness is for life, and you don't need to be a high level athlete or have the perfect diet. Learn more here: http://www.gems4friends.com/12-week-program.html
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