Sunday

Colon Cleansing Works: Agree, Disagree, or Qualify

If You ever took an AP test in high school, then you are familiar with this kind of prompt. Do you a agree with the position, do you disagree with the position, or is the position partially correct, or only correct in certain situation.

I this blog entry I will qualify the statement, "colon cleansing works."

So what is colon cleansing? I'm sure you've probably heard something about it these days. There are ads for colon cleansing products everywhere. There's even some funny looking guy on TV that drones on about his baby girl's massive tree trunk like bowel movements. Well good for her.

The main idea behind these colon cleansing products is that as you digest food, especially red meat and processed food, a layer of undigested food builds up along the walls of you colon. To keep your guts lubricated, The body secretes mucus which forms a layer over this supposedly undigested red meat and whatnot, but more undigested food sticks to it, causing the buildup of a 'mucoid plaque.' This 'mucoid plaque' is supposed to harbor putrefaction and release all manner of terrible things into the body.

"OH NO! run for your life! The mucoid plaques of Bowelzia Ten have landed!!!"

But seriously.

People use colon cleansing products, and pass these giant ropes of black, almost tar like, looking gunk. This is supposedly the mucoid plaque that the colon cleansing product removed from their intestines. Now their bowels are squeaky clean and working in tip top shape.

The strange thing is, no one has ever passed this stuff while evacuating for a colonoscopy, nor has any Doctor ever found this stuff during a colonoscopy. Also, no Pathologist has ever cut open someones colon and found pounds and pounds of this stuff, as some claim happened to John Wayne after his death.

This whole 'mucoid plaque' thing is crap. (haha get it?) What people are passing is the colon cleansing product itself. It's making this stuff. Most colon cleansing products contain psyllium, among other things, and psyllium forms a gelatinous blob in the intestines. It makes a great laxative, you might know it by the brand name "Metamucil."

Despite mucoid plaque basically being a bad hoax, colon cleansing has worked wonders for many people. It has cured their allergies. It has cured their acne. It has cured their 'masculine issues' in a way Viagra never could. Okay I made that last one up), but te thing is colon cleansing really does help people. Why?

To answer that we have to look at detoxification. Colon cleansing really does detoxify you, just not why 'they' say it does. T undestand this we have o understand detoxification.

Detoxification is your body getting rid of bad chemicals. So how does you body do this?

One of the major ways we detoxify is through breathing. Carbon dioxide is a toxin. If too much of it builds up, we die. Try not breathing for twenty minutes and see how you feel. You'll probably feel very dead. Breathing also gets rid of several other toxins and even excess chemicals that might not be bad. Think garlic breath.

The next form of detoxification is one people often forget: sweating. All sots of bad chemicals flow out into our sweat, along with some good ones like potassium and sodium. (It's got 'lectrolytes. It's what plants crave!). Yet another reason to get that occasional super intense workout in.

Another way, probably the most well known form of detoxification, is urinating. The old yellow river is full of wastes. The kidneys are basically a super efficient reverse osmosis filter. The best thing to do for them is to drink plenty of water. That will keep the toxins moving out.

There is actually a theory, that the reason women live a little longer than men is because they cry more. The idea is that there are toxins that are only effectively removed by crying, and since women cry more, they are more detoxed.

It is well known that the livers main job is to destroy toxins. Most detoxified byproducts are sent to the kidneys for elimination, and some are present in bile.

So now this leave us to the colon. The colon is a method of detoxification. Basically anything that leaves the body will take unwanted substances with it.

So what do all of these detox paths have in common? An interface with the blood. The lungs have alveolae, little sacks with capillaries to exchange Carbon Dioxide and xygen with the air. The kidneys have nephrons, which are little tufts of capillaries surrounded by the Bowman's capsule. The liver is full of capillaries, and even stores blood.

The inside of the colon is covered with capillaries. One of its main functions is to pull water out of whats left of our food. When fiber is present in the colon, it holds on to some water, and toxins pass from the blood into the stool, and are bound up in the fiber.

Go back and read that last sentence again. THAT is why colon cleansing works. Not because colon cleansing products clean out the colon, but because they have ingredients that absorb toxins from the blood. There are two main ingredients that do this, psyllium, and bentonite clay.

Bentonite clay is a type of clay known as a smectite. On the microscopic level, it made mad up of little tiny plate like particles. On the thin outer edge, the particles are positively charged, but the wide faces of the plates are negatively charged and attract positively charged toxins. (The majority,but not all, of toxins are positively charged) Internally taken clay is a powerful healer. I've used it myself, and highly reccomend it.

I already mentioned psyllium. This is the mucilaginous seed of the psyllium plant. When mixed with water it quickly forms a slimy goo. This goo is fiber, and it will not give up all its water when passing through the gut. It will absorb toxins and the fiber will bind them.

So you see colon cleansing really does work, but it doesn work the way 'they' say it does.

For more reading on healing clays, I suggest you check out Eyton's Earth. Geophagy is something we used to pracice often. Anyone who follows a paleodiet type diet will understand that clay is a surprising missing element of our diet.

Don't forget the power of fiber either. Make sure to get plenty of fiber in your diet. That means lots of greens, another thing paleo diet people will understand.

Now go and cleanse already!!!!


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Saturday

My Poor Yogurt

I killed my yogurt. I got it too hot. I saw many sites on the 'net that say to use a heating pad set to warm. Mine was set to low and it was still too hot. When I checked the temp it was 115. 12 hours later and the yogurt had barely set. It didn't taste sour at all.

The thing is, the cream was at 85 degrees. It didn't get sour either. I've heard that ultra-pasteurized cream doesn't ferment well, and this might be the problem.

I also checked the brand of yogurt I used to make sure I didn't misread the label. It has live active cultures alright. It even says that it can be used as a starter for home yogurt making. I'm going to try again tomorrow night. This time no heating pad. Hopefully things will be a little more favorable for the buggies.

This was such a bust. I spent extra $$$ on the good milk too.


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Yogurt:.... finally

So here it is, the long awaited entry on my yogurt.

I've never made yogurt by myself before. I made it once when I was kid, but I had lots of help from my father, so I can't really say I made it.

So I went out the other day and got some supplies. milk cream and yogurt
I got yogurt, milk and cream. I've heard conflicting reports on whether ultra-pasteurized cream is worse than regular pasteurized (raw is ideal), but ultra pasteurized was my only option and I really want to make some cultured cream, and maybe make some cultured butter out of it. Also, I've read that ultra-pasteurized cream doesn't ferment well. We shall see.

I chose the yogurt that I did because it was made quasi-locally (Austin) and contained four cultures. L. acidophilus, L. bulgaricus, S. thermophilus, and Bifidobacterium longum. As you might already know. I strive for diversity in my gut flora.

So I got a pot and Put The milk in it. Then I slowly heated the milk until it reached 185 degrees. This seems redundant to me. Why should I repasteurize pasteurized milk? Won't I just be doing more damage to the milk. It seems to me I should just let it come to room temp then add the yogurt. I don't know how it could get contaminated, its already been killed. Oh, I forgot to tell you this took for-freaking-ever.

So I cleaned my fermentation vessel, a one gallon pitcher, and put the now double pasteurized (for that double cancer flavor) milk in there. I placed that in the sink with some water to let it cool. This also took forever. I tried stirring the milk and the water to make the milk cool faster. It didn't seem to help much.


So in the meantime I decided to get the cream started. I took a one literish storage container and put about a cup of yogurt in it, then I beat the yogurt to thin it out, as if I were making doogh or lassi. Next I started adding in the cream, doing my best to emulsify it, without whipping it too much. The cream did start to whip up pretty fast, but I got it all emulsified with the yogurt. Notice I did not bother to repasteurize the cream like I did the milk. I figured I'd live life on the edge. I mean this stuff is ULTRA-pasteurized. there better not be anything alive in there.


Eventually the milk cooled down to 110 degrees and I added some yogurt to it. I whipped this yogurt in the same way to thin it out before I added it. Then as logic would dictate, I mixed it in with my double cancerized... I mean pasteurized, milk.


Well where do we go from here? Should I stick it in a closet? No, I'm home for part of the summer, and my father keeps the AC nice and cool. I got a heating pad and some rubber bands and then wrapped it around the pitcher with some rubber bands.


As you can see if you look closely at the pitcher, the cream is sitting beneath the pitcher of yogurt, also being wrapped in the life giving warmth of the heating pad. I put this whole thing in a small laundry basket, and wrapped everything with dirty laundry. Just kidding, I used two clean towels. I didn't take a picture of this because I was already late to go over to my friends place and watch Star Trek: The Next Generation. I'm pretty sure you would do the same in my position. (And before we go any further; yes I'm a trekker, no, I won't tell you what I thought about that piece of crap backdoor reboot special effects orgy that just came out.)

So now my milk and cream are fermenting away in the corner. Tomorrow I will teach you how to make doogh, a traditional drink made from yogurt.


This post if part of Fight Back Fridays.



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Friday

The Best Laid Plans Of Mice and Men...

Well I'm bummed.

Went dandelion foraging this morning. I only found two tiny little dandelion plants. They were so tiny, it wasn't worth pulling them. They seemed so small and innocent, it just didn't seem right. This all coming from a man that likes lamb. Chew on that vegetarians.

The yogurt is postponed for a few hours. I couldn't find the heating pad to keep the yogurt warm. I'm staying at my father's right now, so when he wakes up I'll ask him where it is.

So the dandelions were a bust, but the yogurt is coming, I promise. Oh, It'll have pictures too!



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Thursday

Upcoming events!!!!

So you've been keeping up with my blog and noticed that I didn't post today. Weell now I have.

Look for some good posts coming up.

Tomorrow morning I'll be foraging for dandelions with my best bro at his mom's place.

But before that (like at 3 A.M.) I'm going to make some yogurt!!!!

Both of these events will have pictures!I'm sure you're as excited as I am. I've been wanting to chronicle several recipes and experiments with photography, so I went out and bought a little twenty dollar digital camera. I know, not exactly the best quality pics, but its all I can afford. So let it go.

Don't touch that browser, more of Zeke's Awesome Eats is only a matter of hours away.





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Tuesday

Eat your weed

WARNING: Forage at your own risk. It's not my fault if you mess up and get yourself killed or maimed.

In addition to the previous post on pig farm pictures. I had a request for edible local plants. One specifically came to mind,

Dandelion


Delicious Dandelions


"What?" you ask, "That weed?"

Yes, that 'weed.' In fact I was inspired by a weed killer commercial to write this post. Why douse your lawn with toxic herbicides when you could eat the weed?

Yes dandelion is one hundred percent edible from root to flower.

The English word "dandelion" is a bastardization of the French "dent de lion" wich refers to the deeply lobed and and tooth like shape of the leaves.

I think most people know what a dandelion looks like, as it now grows all over the world. Dandelion does have a few look a likes. Unlike mushroom hunting, where a tiny difference in one characteristic makes the difference between a tasty meal and painful organ melting terminal agony, dandelion's look a likes are closely related to it. The way to tell if you have a true dandelion or not, is whether the flower stalk is branched or not. Tue dandelion does NOT have have a branched stalk. It is one stalk one flower. Also, true dandelion does not have hairy leaves.

Don't worry too much though. Its relatives like catsears are edible. They are all related to chicory. Another look alike is young wild lettuce. It is very bitter, but also edible.

How to gather Dandelions



Find dandelions, grab the base of the plant, and pull it out of the ground. A decent sized taproot should come out with it. You now hold food in your hands. Go home and rinse the dirt off.

Now to the heart of the matter...

How to eat Dandelions



Greens


Dandelions taste best when they are young and tender. They are not very bitter then. At the time of this post, its a little late for tender spring dandelions, but if you do happen to find some little youngins', they go great in a salad. They have an endive like flavor, and a mild pleasant bitterness.

It is possible to eat more mature dandelion greens, but as the summer goes on they will become more and more bitter, until the first frost of autumn, which will render them mild again.

For these mature bitter greens it is best to saute them in oil, and maybe some garlic, onion, and red pepper flakes, if any of those are your thing. The oil helps make the Vitamin A more absorbable and helps cut the bitterness. Seasoning with raw unpasteurized vinegar also helps cut the bitterness further, which you likely need if eating the mature leaves.

Greens are high in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Calcium.

Dandelion Root



The root can be steamed or boiled and eaten, or you can get a little adventurous, and make a coffee like drink with it.

Take the roots and clean them very well. Then cut them into pieces a little less than an inch long. Use a food processor to grin them coarsely. Put them on a baking sheet and roast in a 250 degree oven stirring often. IT should take about two hours for the roots to dry and roast to a nice dark brown. be careful not to burn them.

This coffee/tea is a excellent diuretic and great at tonifying the kidneys.
The greens are diuretic too, but not as much. In modern French, the word for dandelion is "pissenlit," which means "piss the bed." So be aware that drinking this stuff will make you want to pee.

Dandelion flowers



Dandelion flowers can be put in with your salad, or you can make dandelion flower wine. I won't go into details here, as if you want to make dandelion flower wine, you probably already know the basics of vinting.

Basically you remove the bracts (green parts) from the flowers, mix with water and sugar and pitch your yeast. I've never had it. If you have please leave a comment and let me know how it was.


Well thats all I have to say about dandelions. Have fun foraging!





This blog is also part of the HartkeIsOnline blog Carnival. Click the picture below.





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Swine Flu Farms

Well, I had a request for pictures of the pig farms I was talking about in my last post. So here are some.

Here's a multi level cage packed with pigs.This pigs appear to still have their tales. I beleive they may be a British factory farm. I don't know.


This is supposedly a pic of a Mexican factory farm similar to the one where the swim flu outbreak started. Notice the nipped tails.


This one is kinda cute and depressing at the same time. Notice how extremely cramped these piglets are? If you were in a barn with a thousand other people,all standing pressed up against each other, don't you think it would be easy for diseases to spread, and mutate, and spread some more? Its the same way with pigs, and the reason I would never ride a Tokyo subway without an N95 face mask.


Here we see a worker at a Chinese factory farm hosing down pigs with antiseptic in an effort to control the swine flu. While these sows have some breathing room, they still can't get away from the disease, and are all breathing the same air.


Pregnant pigs, possibly in south Carolina. Does this look safe to you? These sows are lying there pregnant, covered in their own shit. How could disease NOT be spread?

And do you notice the slatted floor in almost all these pictures? The swine have no place to take a shit, so they just dump and piss on the floor, and once a day, water is flushed over the floor to wash it all down the slats. At the factory farm in Mexico, where this whole swine flu thing started, this feces/water slurry was pump into "fecal lagoons." Ah the art of spin. It almost sounds peaceful. "Ahhh. I'm tired darling. It's been such a rough day. Let us go relax by the lagoon and forget all our troubles." WRONG. Its a giant pond of pig shit, and anyone who has been near pigs knows that there feces is some of the most foul smelling in the world (except for maybe my friend Hanz's.)

Want to see some happy pigs? Check out this CSA in New York state.


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Monday

Swine flu and the factory farm connection.

Wow. I just read a very interesting article over at the blog "Kelly the Kitchen Kop" It is an interview with Michael Pollan talking about the swine flu, and how it was basically created by factory farming.

If you've even glanced at the "About me" section of this blog, then you know I'm a raw food omnivore. Most raw foodists are vegan, and won't even eat raw dairy or eggs. As a raw food omnivore. I eat not only raw dairy and eggs, but raw meat. I mostly eat raw beef, and raw beef liver. I cannot find a source of raw chicken I feel safe eating, and I do not eat pork in any form for both religious and health reasons. (more to come on that)

But to get back on topic. Michael Pollan talks about how the swine flu is a product of factory farming. Hundred of pig live in one space. The barely have room to move. Pigs are intelligent, and these living conditions make them very neurotic. Since the pigs are weaned so early, they still have a urge to suckle so they nip at the tails of the pig in front of them.

To counter this, they just nip off the pig's tail, not so that there is nothing to bite, but to make it that much more painful to have a bloody dtump bitten, so the pig will do anything to avoid a bite.

The pigs are also given tons of antibiotics to keep them from getting sick. Antibiotics that are passed on to us when we eat them, so if we do need antibiotics and some point, we've already built up a resistance.

Diseases like swine flu almost always come out of places like this. It is so easy for the disease to move from animal to animal, mutating rapidly. This places are breeding ground for new virulent diseases and strains thereof.

I can easily understand my so many people have become vegetarian and vegan. This is atrocious. Its cruel to the pigs and bad for us. The solution however is not to stop eating meat. It just isn't healthy. Humans are omnivores, not carnivores or herbivores. We require both plant and animal foods for proper health. The solution is to return to proper farming techniques, where the animal roam free, and eat a proper diet. Most animals, including chickens, cow, and pigs, that live on factory farms are fed byproducts of other animals. Chickens are often fed the feathers and feces of their brothers and sisters.


Do yourself a favor. When you buy meat, whether it be pork, chicken, or good old beef, try to buy it from an outfit that you know treats them right, kills them humanely, and feeds them well.



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Sunday

What do you want out of this blog?

Well my stepmom is home and she has the camera! HAHA! Now is my time to strike!

It's also a chance for me to ask you, "What do you want to see on this blog?"


Leave a comment and let me know what you want to know about. Is there a recipe you aren't sure how to make? IS there a general topic you'd like to know more about. Just want me to make a fool of myself? Let me know!!!!



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Cool Reuteri Straws



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So I was surfing the old net, and came across this page. Turns out Nestle is including probiotic straws in one of they're horrible "childrens" beverages... last year. I'm sure it full of HFCS and other nasty crap,but it comes with probiotic straws!

These straws administer 100 million CFU's (colony forming units) of Lactobacillus Reuteri when used. I wish someone would have told me about these along time ago!.The best part is, you can just buy the straws and not have to drink Nestle's foul concoction.

They're called BioGaia straws. I plan on getting some soon. Its a simple no brainer way to get a dose of probiotic bacteria. Seems like it would be great for kids and those that don't like pills.

L. reuteri is a great little bug too. It is one of very few probiotics to colonize the entire digestive tract, from your mouth to your anus. Most probiotics only live in the large intestine. Reuteri is also great at fighting off other bacteria like E. coli and Salmonella, keeping them from overgrowing and getting out of control. If you were taking this it would probably help you fight off tainted beef from the recent beef recall.

By the way, I'm not getting any money from BioGaia. I just think this is a truly cool product. I plan on getting some ASAP.

You can buy the probiotic straws by following the link, but they are a bit pricey at a buck a pop.


Update: Found a site that says BioGaia's L. reuteri was extracted from the breast milk of a Peruvian woman. How random!

Friday

Who's Afraid of Beef? or: Why the recall should be pointless


DropJack!




So my first blog post was about probiotics. Remember them? The friendly bugs?

Well if people ate a more proper diet Including probiotics, this beef recall would be a non-issue. Bacteria like E. Coli exist in the colon naturally. They help digest our food,. In fact, E. Coli is known for its ability to "clean house" in the intestines.

Some people, especially those on a diet called "The Primal Diet" actually make it a point to eat spoiled meat. If your intestinal flora are already in fine shape and diverse, then a little E. Coli will only help, not hurt.

So if you take your probiotics, eat probiotic food like yogurt and sauerkraut, and avoid chlorinated water and preservatives (both of which slaughter your intestinal flora,) you would see why this beef recall is really a joke.

Instead we have people running around with weak, sparse intestinal flora, who aren't eating right. Its no surprise that their bodies can't handle it. Thee is so much 'house cleaning' to do , that the E. Coli overloads their systems and makes them sick.

So if you keep your body in tune, and your intestinal flora healthy and happy, you should be able to enjoy your beef this Memorial Day, no matter how 'contaminated' the beef is.

This same thing goes for salmonella and eggs. Many healthy people have had salmonella living in their gut and never gotten sick, as long as the 'good' bacteria are there to keep it in check, you may have a single case of diarrhea when you first catch. You probably wouldn't even notice it. Many people with healthier intestinal flora don't.

So if you use probiotics regularly and care for your internal bug garden, have a piece of beef and some homemade eggnog for me.


Yeah I know eggnog isn't a memorial day drink. Just go with me on this one.

Kidney Health


DropJack!


Since my step mother is out of town with the digital camera, my blogs for the next few weeks will be lacking in pictures and mostly informative. When she gets back from her trip I'm going to dive into some recipes...

but for now, lets talk about kidneys!

The Like most organs, the kidneys are vital to survival. The main purpose of the kidney's is to filter blood into something called "plasma ultrafiltrate," more commonly known as urine. Yes, "plasma ultrafiltrate" is a long winded technical term for pee. The kidneys are also essential in maintaining acid-base balance and blood pressure.

So what are the kidneys?

The kidneys are two well.... kidney shaped organs in the lower abdomen that lie on either side of the spine. They are fed by the renal arteries and are drain by the renal veins. (renal means kidneys)

The kidneys have two main parts, the renal cortex on the outside and the renal medulla on the inside. The renal cortex is where ultrafiltration takes place. Ultrafiltration is not unlike a reverse osmosis drinking water system. In a reverse osmosis drinking water system water is forced through a semi permeable membrane, and what makes it through is just pure water. The kidneys work on the same method.

Nephrons are the main filter of the kidneys. They do the filtering, reabsorb anything that can still be used, regulate blood volume, and regulate blood pressure.

In the Nephron, very tiny blood vessels run up against something called the Bowman's Capsule. This is a sack filled with fluids from the blood are collected. The Bowman's Capsule allows the passage of water, ions and small molecules into the sack. The Bowman's Capsule The Bowman's Capsule doesn't allow large proteins through however. If it did, we would be in poor shape, as we would be peeing out our platelets! The ultrafiltrate leaving the Bowman's Capsule is very much like plasma and it travels on to become urine.


So what can you do to keep your kidneys healthy?

It is generally accepted that they key to good kidney health is drinking lots of water. I drink almost a gallon a day. Lay off the damn soft drinks. They are so bad for you. I don't believe people still drink them. Even diet is not ok. You need good clean water. Look into buying a water filter. There is a company called "Berkey" out there that make fabulous water filters. I hope to get one soon myself.

Acidic fruits also help the kidneys, especially is you are prone to kidney stones. Unsweetened cranberry juice, lemon juice, and apple juice all have been said to help the kidneys. A great way to drink water is with a squirt of FRESH SQUEZZED lemon or lime juice.

Asparagus is believed to tone the kidneys. I recommend juicing it and drinking it.

As far as specific vitamins go, if your kidneys aren't already compromised, you should be be getting them all. Vitamins A,C,D,E,and K are important, as are the B vitamins. There is evidenc e that Thiamine can restore kidney function in diabetics.


I hope you learned a little something about our filtering friends, the kidneys.

If you want to know more about kidney's and blood pressure I suggest this : This is me and my life as a Midwife, Mum and Wife: Review of blood pressure Part 2

Thursday

Introduction to Probiotics


DropJack!


There seems to be a lot of talk about probiotics lately, at least a lot more than there used to be. I hope to explain in today's post what probiotics are, how they work, and what you can do to get more of them in your diet.

A probiotic is what's often referred to as a "friendly bacteria." FAO/WHO defines them as "Live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host." Notice that any microorganism can be probiotic, and not just bacteria.

The most common types of probiotics are lactic acid bacteria. This includes the Genuses of Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, Pediococcus, Lactococcus, and Streptococcus. The most common Lactic acid bacteria in proiotic foods and supplements is Lactobacillus acidophilus. Lactic acid bacteria eat lactose and other sugars and turn them into lactic acid. This is the bacteria that makes milk into yogurt. The bacteria eat the lactose and the resulting acid causes the proteins in the milk to coagulate and make it into the delectable gel

Probiotics work by pushing out the bad microorganisms. They compete with bad microorganisms and usually win.

Here is just a small list of the potential benefits of using probiotic supplements and probiotic foods:

  1. Managing Lactose Intolerance- Lactic acid bacteria eat lactose, not only in foods like yogurt, but in your intestines too. They may increase lactose tolerance in those that lack it.
  2. Preventing colon cancer - In lab tests, some strains of lactic acid bacteria seem to inhibit the occurrence of colon cancer.
  3. Lowering cholesterol - Many lactic acid are believed to lower cholesterol by their ability to break down bile in the intestines.
  4. Lower Blood Pressure - Studies have shown that milk fermented with various lactic acid bacteria may lower cholesterol.
  5. Improve Immune Function- There is much research showing that lactic acid bacteria boost the immune system not only by out competing pathogenic bacteria, but by actually stimulating the immune system.
  6. Helicobacter pylori- This is the bacteria that causes peptic ulcers. more studies are required however.
  7. Reducing inflammation- most likely due to cytokine regulation
  8. Improve mineral absorption - they breakdown mineral blocking phytates in the intestines, as well as in foods fermented with them.
Should I buy Probiotic Supplements?

This is a question I am often asked when I tell people about probiotics. While many foods are probiotic, like sauerkraut and yogurt with live active cultures, I think getting a good probiotic supplement is a smart move. You want to find a probiotic supplement with as many different species of microorganisms as possible. You can use this supplement to make homemade yogurt with more than just one or two species of bacteria, and you can make sauerkraut with more bacteria than normal just to name a few things you can do with. Of course there is no harm in just taking the supplement plain either.

I'll be back with more on probiotics soon!