Diet Friendly Fast Food

The year 2014 began with my posts on damage to the gut microbiota caused by antibiotics, processed foods and excess hygiene.  I lamented the inadequacy of information from the media on damage/repair of the gut bacteria and highlighted medical myths with a post on some of Dr. Oz’s own ills that are self-inflicted by his diet and hygiene recommendations.  I also started to discuss how to cure autoimmune diseases by repairing damaged gut flora and by avoiding the antibiotic activity present in many common drugs.

I illustrated the relationships among diet, inflammation and diseases mediated by gut flora that I have discussed, since I started my blog in 2008.  Now after a couple of hundred articles and more than two million visits to my blog, I think that I am starting to grasp some of the major issues that cause inflammatory diseases.  The cures also now seem obvious.

Some species of gut bacteria are needed for the development of the aggressive half of the immune system and other species are needed for the suppressive half.  Thus, starving or poisoning gut flora leads to immune system problems and diseases.  Antibiotics are a quick way of crippling the immune system.  It seems that the aggressive part of the immune system is less fragile, because in most cases antibiotic treatments produce autoimmune disease due to loss of bacteria that are needed for development of immune cells that block the aggressive half of the immune system from attacking innocuous cells of the body or environment, i.e. antibiotics usually trigger deficient tolerance, and autoimmunity.

Diet provides food for the body and flora.  Protein and fat are the macronutrients needed for the body, while the gut microbiota lives off of plant polysaccharides (except starch) that pass through the small intestines undigested into the colon.  The hundreds of plant polysaccharides are hydrolyzed by hundreds of enzymes made by gut flora and produce short chain fatty acids, e.g. acetate and butyrate, that feed colon cells.  Food processing systematically removes polysaccharides that feed gut flora and compromises the components of the immune system dependent on those bacteria.

It is easier to see that eating a diet that lacks food for the gut microbiota will be a problem, than it is to figure out where to find replacements for lost species of gut bacteria.  The only way that bacteria get into the gut is down the throat.  To repair a damaged gut microbiota requires both changing diet and introducing the missing types of bacteria by eating them.  Eating dairy probiotics and fermented vegetables can provide a quick, but only temporary fix.  Most of the needed bacteria are more common in soil than in food.

I was shocked that my background in phytochemicals didn’t lead more directly to a major culprit causing modern diseases.  The gut microbiota is clearly a major factor in health and sickness.  Antibiotics that kill bacteria, damage the gut microbiota.  It is also unsurprising that processing food to reduce soluble fiber, damages gut flora, by systematically depriving gut bacteria of their major source of food.  The proliferation of antimicrobial products also damages the gut flora.  What I missed in this onslaught of modern lifestyles on the gut microbiota, was the major player in antibiotic resistance — phytochemicals are natural antibiotics. 

I studied phytochemicals and wrote research articles on their toxic, antibiotic activities, but everyone else was merchandizing phytochemicals as antioxidants, essential oils and superfoods.  This is a major conceptual problem.  Our bodies expend a significant fraction of our energy resources to detoxicify phytochemicals and human cultures have elaborate rituals to avoid phytochemicals and domesticate plants by breeding for the least toxic.  What I missed was the implication that the pharmaceutical industry was repurposing toxic, antibiotic phytochemicals as medicines and then skipping the "antibiotic" label.

Overuse of antibiotics is a problem, because it damages the gut microbiome and contributes to the modern increase in autoimmunity.  Food processing is another culprit and so is the mania for hyperhygiene and the demonization of bacteria.  Unfortunately, the major culprit in the development of multiple antibiotic resistant superbugs is the tons of commonly used pharmaceuticals that systematically attack gut bacteria, but are not labelled as antibiotics.  Most modern drugs were developed from phytochemicals and were initially used in plants to kill bacteria and fungi, i.e. phytoalexins.  Pharmaceutical companies acknowledge the antibiotic activities of common drugs, by sponsoring research conferences to develop existing drugs as new classes of antibiotics for treatment of superbugs.

new patch Pes 2014: download patch pes 2014 here http://freepatchpes2014.blogspot.com/2013/12/patchpes2014.html Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for quot;fair use quot; for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute th

It's March, and personally I couldn't be happier about it.  Not that I should be complaining because at my house it only snowed a couple of times in February, and the last few days we've been having temperatures in the 60s!  Everyone in Utah doesn't know whether to celebrate or worry, because usually when it gets warm early like this, we end up getting dumped on with snow in late April or early May, when everyone has their garden planted and we really want it to be warm.  So for now we're kind of holding our breath and sending condolences to people on the east coast who seem to be getting all the snow.  Of course the new month means it's time for me to round up all the South Beach Diet Phase One Recipes I posted or spotted on other blogs during the past month and add it to our archives of Phase One Round-ups.  And once again there are a lot of good ones, enjoy!

In December I promised to start sharing things I'm thinking about, and then in January I got distracted by Daily Phase One Recipes and now it's been two months since I've shared one of these posts.   Happily it was a good two months with lots of holiday celebrating at Chez Kalyn, and the best present ever arrived on December 31 when I got my new Mini Cooper!  I've never cared much about cars, and for years I loved my Toyotas, but when I moved I needed a car that could get up the hill in the snow.  I picked the AWD Mini Cooper Countryman that's slightly bigger than the regular Mini (and thankfully not quite so low to the ground), and this is hands-down the most fun car I've ever owned!  And I've had the personal license plate for a while, but I think it looks even better on this car.  (If you live in Utah and are considering a Mini I had great service from Tyson Call at Mini of Murray.  And I'm sure some of you are wondering, so just for the record, Tyson and Mini of Murray have no idea that I'm giving them a little shout-out here.)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Seeing wildlife conservation in action just gained even more appeal. Americas national wildlife refuges will offer free admission to visitors on these days in 2014:
· January 20: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
· February 15-17: Presidents Day weekend
· September 27: National Public Lands Day
· October 12: The first day of National Wildlife Refuge Week
· November 11: Veterans Day

The fee holiday is an annual inducement to visit public lands. National wildlife refuges are managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, part of the Department of the Interior.

National wildlife refuges protect many iconic species, such as alligators and bison, whooping cranes, moose and puffins. And they do it on awe-inducing landscapes that range from Oregons rocky cliffs to Texas lagoons, from Maine wilderness to woods and fields inside the city of Philadelphia. Theres at least one national wildlife refuge in every state and one within an hours drive of most major metropolitan areas. 

You can plan a refuge visit around a bird festival, wildlife tour or other special event listed on individual refuge websites or on a master event calendar. Or plan your own outing by hiking a refuge trail or taking a drive along a wildlife viewing route. Experience seasonal wonders, such as the arrival of monarch butterflies or great flocks of migratory birds. Hear elk bugle for a mate or endangered red wolves howl in the night. Many refuges also offer great recreational opportunities such as fishing, hiking and paddling.

National wildlife refuges also help support local communities, pumping $2.4 billion into the national economy and supporting more than 35,000 jobs, according to a recent federal report. More than 45 million people visit refuges every year.

Of the nations 562 national wildlife refuges, 460 are open to the public. Of those, only 35 refuges charge an entrance fee, generally ranging from $3 to $5. Admission to the others is free. The entrance fee waiver does not cover concessionaire or license fees for some activities such as hunting, fishing or special tours.

Other federal land management agencies that will offer fee-free days in 2014 are: the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Forest Service and the Army Corps of Engineers. Please contact each for details.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Forest Service also participate in the America the Beautiful National Parks Pass and Federal Recreational Lands Pass programs. These passes provide access to more than 2,000 national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, grasslands and other federal lands.

Four passes are available:
· free annual pass to current military members and their dependents
· free lifetime pass for people with permanent disabilities
· $10 lifetime senior pass for those aged 62 and over
· $80 annual pass for the general public.