Each of us has a distinctive blend of microbes in our gut that is as unique as a fingerprint. These microbes metabolize, resulting in a biochemical transformation of our food. This biochemical transformation can cause inflammation or reduce inflammation.
Healthy food manifests healthy gut microbes! These healthy “probiotic” bacteria convert healthy food into health-promoting compounds called “postbiotics.” Postbiotics reduce inflammation!
Unhealthy food manifests unhealthy microbes! These unhealthy bacteria convert unhealthy food into harmful compounds like TMAO (trimethylamine N-oxide). Harmful compounds like TMAO cause inflammation!
So what foods manifest unhealthy inflammatory microbes, and what foods manifest healthy anti-inflammatory microbes?
Plant Protein vs. Animal Protein
Where will I get my protein from if I change to a plant-based whole food diet? This has to be the most asked question of all. At present, most countries are experiencing a type of protein frenzy, with many people being totally obsessed with getting enough protein in their diet, resulting in extremely high quantities of meat being consumed worldwide, because a large majority of the world's population believe that you can only get an adequate amount of protein in your diet by eating animals. This is another prime example of how misguided most of us are when it comes to nutrition. Protein is made from amino acids, and almost everything in nature has amino acids. The largest animals on the planet don’t eat meat. How do they build all that muscle? What do elephants, rhinoceros, buffalo, cows, and horses eat? They are vegetarians, so they eat plants. If there were no protein in plants, these animals would not exist. All animals are transformed plants. The body of the deer is made from plants, and the body of the tiger is also made of plants because it preys on the deer and other plant-eating animals. Pound for pound, molecule for molecule, there is more nutrition, more protein, more healing power, and life force in whole plant foods—leaves, vegetables, fruits, berries and melons, nuts and seeds, whole grains, and herbs.
For your body to use “flesh type proteins” such as beef, pork, chicken, fish, etc., your body needs to first break down the animal flesh into simple amino acids. This is a complex process that robs your body of vital energy, and in the end, is merely supplying your body with secondhand building material. Plant proteins, on the other hand, are simple structures of amino acids that require significantly less energy to break down to simple amino acids. Plants counterbalance this energy requirement by their higher amounts of electromagnetic energy. Diets rich in nuts and seeds, whole grains, vegetables, and fruits, supply plenty of protein (amino acids) and build a very strong and healthy body.
The body makes approximately 400,000 different types of proteins. These proteins are made from twenty two different types of amino acids which are the building blocks of proteins. Eight out of these twenty two amino acids are essential amino acids; meaning they can only be derived from our diet. Contrary to what most people think, these essential amino acids do not come from meat proteins; they are entirely coming from the bacteria and fungi (microbes) in the animal's gut. Likewise, we humans derive our essential amino acids from the bacteria and fungi in our gut and from the soil systems that produce our food as they are ultimately delivered through the plants that grow in the soil. Therefore animal protein is not the delivery source for amino acids that go on to make the body. In fact, astonishingly, protein comes from sugar; glucose is the source for amino acid production throughout the body. We take glucose and turn it into the building blocks of life (400,000 different proteins) through the process known as the citric acid cycle.
The type of protein you choose to consume is of extreme importance because whether you choose a plant source or an animal source of protein, both will impact your gut microbiome in a completely different way. So your choice of protein is extremely important to your gut health. Animal protein consumption increases the growth and population of inflammatory gut microbes, contributing towards an unhealthy gut microbiome (dysbiosis) that results in increased intestinal permeability (leaky gut) and inflammation. These inflammatory gut microbes also produce a harmful compound called TMAO, which is associated with increased risk of heart disease, stroke, peripheral artery disease, congestive heart failure, atrial fibrillation, Alzheimer’s, type 2 diabetes, and chronic kidney disease—and there is more.
Unhealthy Food = Unhealthy Microbes = Unhealthy Compounds = DISEASE
Looking to the brighter side, plant protein consumption increases the growth of anti-inflammatory gut microbes, helping to maintain a healthy gut microbiome by suppressing the population of harmful microbes. In addition to this, a plant-based whole food diet encourages the production of healthy microbes that don’t produce harmful compounds like TMAO. Instead, these healthy microbes produce postbiotics called SCFAs (Short Chain fatty Acids) that combat disease and, in many instances, reverse it. An example of the implementation of a plant-based whole food diet reversing disease is the heart disease study facilitated by Dr. Dean Ornish. His study concluded that through a low-fat vegetarian diet, smoking cessation, stress management, and moderate exercise, patients actually reversed coronary artery disease. Meanwhile, the control group got worse and worse.
Healthy Food = Healthy Microbes = Healthy Postbiotics = HEALTH
Contact me (Jay) today to learn more about the profound health-enhancing benefits of a plant-based whole food diet or schedule your 1-on-1 private consultation by clicking on the bookings button below.
jay.eyears@gmail.com
