3 'Dirty' Ways to Recharge Your Gut Health
December 23, 2013
Story at-a-glance
-
The root ball of a plant acts as the “gut” or intestinal tract
of the plant, housing essential microbes, just like your gut
does, provided the soil system is healthy
-
The cooperation between soil microorganisms and the plants’
roots is responsible for allowing the plant to absorb nutrients
from the soil. Without proper soil biome, the food will lack
nutrients that are important for your health
-
Soil health connects to everything up the food chain, from plant
and insect health, all the way up to animal and human health
-
Health, therefore, truly begins in the soils in which our food
is grown
-
Scientists have discovered that gene swapping takes place
between your gut microbiome and the soil biome, as well as with
microorganisms from other places in your daily surroundings
-
One of the reasons for concern about genetically engineered
crops is a main characteristic of such plants is resistance to
the potent herbicide glyphosate, which decimates soil bacteria
By Dr. Mercola
Could healthy soils hold the key to your good health?
According to many experts in soil biology and biological
farming, the answer is a resounding Yes.
Daphne Miller, M.D., author of Farmacology: What
Innovative Family Farming Can Teach Us About Health and Healing,
recently penned an insightful article for YES Magazine1
on the importance of soil quality.
“I spend my days in a sterile 8x10 room practicing
family medicine and yet my mind is in the soil. This is
because I’m discovering just how much this rich, dark
substance influences the day-to-day health of my patients.
I’m even beginning to wonder whether Hippocrates was
wrong, or at least somewhat misguided, when he proclaimed,
‘Let food be thy medicine.’ Don’t get me wrong—food is
important to our health. But it might be the soil where our
food is grown, rather than the food itself, that offers us
the real medicine,” she writes.
Key to Improved Nutrition
Dr. Miller cites research in her article that all point in
the same direction—healthy “living” soils make for food with
better nutrient content. And by “living,” I mean soils that are
teeming with microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, protozoa,
and microscopic roundworms called nematodes.
Far from being scourges to be avoided at all cost,
microorganisms are an essential component of life. We now
understand that it is the cooperation between these
microorganisms, the soil’s biome, and the plants’ roots, called
rhizosphere that is ultimately responsible for allowing the
plant to absorb nutrients from the soil in which it’s grown.
Insects and weeds also have their place in this circle of
life. According to soil scientist Dr. Arden Andersen, insects
are nature’s garbage collectors. Thanks to their specialized
digestive systems, which differ from ours, they remove that
which is not fit for us to eat—things we cannot digest.
And weeds are nature’s way of evolving the soil—it’s an
intermediate plant that mobilizes nutrients in order to alter
the soil, making it more suitable for the next evolutionary
level of plants to grow in it.
Once you understand this natural cycle, it allows you to
address food quality, weeds, insects, and plant disease at its
point of origination, without ever resorting to chemical
herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, synthetic fertilizers, or
genetic engineering.
As explained by Agri-Dynamics founder
Jerry Brunetti in a recent
interview, the root ball (rhizosphere) of the plant is the
“gut” or intestinal tract of the plant. It houses microbes just
like the human gut does, provided the soil system is healthy.
Soil health then connects to everything up the food chain,
from plant and insect health, all the way up to animal and human
health. Health, therefore, truly begins in the soils in
which our food is grown.
Plant ‘Gut’ Health Is as Critical as Human Gut Health
Old-timers like Weston Price, William Albrecht, Louis
Bromfield, and Friend Sykes all found that there’s a strong
correlation between having good mineralized soils with robust
biological activity. According to the featured article:
“Given this nutrient flow from soil microbes to us,
how can we boost and diversify life in the soil? Studies
consistently show that ecological farming consistently
produces a greater microbial biomass and diversity than
conventional farming.
Ecological farming... includes many systems
(biodynamic, regenerative, permaculture, full-cycle, etc.)
that share core holistic tenets: protecting topsoil with
cover crops and minimal plowing, rotating crops, conserving
water, limiting the use of chemicals (synthetic or natural),
and recycling all animal and vegetable waste back into the
land.
Much of this research supports what traditional
farmers around the world have long known to be true: the
more ecologically we farm, the more nutrients we harvest.”
Researchers are increasingly starting to recognize gut
microbiota as one of your most unappreciated “organs.”2
It may even be more appropriate to view your body as a “super
organism” composed of symbiotic microorganisms. Probiotics are
even becoming widely accepted and adopted in the conventional
medical community to support health.
In soil, we have a very similar process. The health of the
plants, and those who eat those plants, all stand to benefit
from the optimization of soil microbiology.
Optimizing soil biology also strengthens plants against pest
infestations without having to resort to chemical warfare.
Research shows that there’s constant communication going on
between plants via the rhizosphere (root ball). Plants “talk” to
one another through aerial emissions—the volatile gasses they
emit—and also through the mycelial networks in the soil.
This is a major insight that deepens our understanding of the
importance of nurturing and maintaining healthy soil microbiome.
It also explains why you don’t really need synthetic chemicals
to grow large amounts of food. On the contrary, the chemicals
used in modern agriculture are killing the very
foundation of health—the microbiome in the soil. In short, if we
support and nurture the microbiome in soil, it in turn will
provide us with good nutrition and optimal health through the
food grown in it.
The ‘Farm Effect’
The featured article highlights another fascinating theory,
which suggests that your immune cells might actually be part of
a “backup” system to another long forgotten first line of
defense, namely your gut microbiome, which is strengthened
by—and in large part dependent on—the continuous exposure to
soil microorganisms.
Modern DNA sequencing techniques have led scientists to make
the surprising discovery that gene swapping takes place between
your gut microbiome and the soil biome, as well as with
microorganisms from other places in your daily surroundings.
As reported in the featured article, European researchers have
discovered that children raised on organic farms have far lower
incidence of allergy and asthma, compared to those raised on
conventional, industrialized farms or in the suburbs. They refer
to this as “the farm effect.”
“In one study, researchers cultured farm children’s
mattresses and found a potpourri of bacteria—most of which
are typically found in soil,” Dr. Miller writes.3
“How soil microbes and other farm microbes protect against
allergic diseases is still a matter of debate, but research
is increasingly pointing to a new idea which, for lack of a
better term, I will call the “microbiome exchange
hypothesis.”
This is a fascinating hypothesis, originating with French
research that found an identical sequence of DNA in two
different species of Bacteroidetes. One of these
species of bacteria lives on seaweed. The other is part of the
gut microbiome of Japanese people. The researchers concluded
that the bacteria had “hitchhiked their way into the human gut
via sushi and other seaweed dishes and passed their
seaweed-digesting DNA on to resident microbes of the human
host,” Dr. Miller writes.
What difference does it make, you may ask? Well, it appears
that people raised in areas where seaweed is a dietary staple
are given—via this DNA exchange from one bacteria to another—a
greater ability to extract nutrients from this particular food,
compared to someone who has never eaten it before. Understanding
this deep connection with local food staples gives a whole new
meaning to the value of eating foods that are native, local, and
in season...
Why GMOs Can Worsen Your Health
One of the reasons why so many of us are concerned about
genetically engineered crops is because a main characteristic of
such plants is resistance to the potent herbicide
glyphosate, which devastates the soil microbiome.
Killing microorganisms is in fact one of glyphosate’s primary
mechanisms of action, as it is patented as an
antibiotic. Besides that, glyphosate is a potent
chelator that sequesters valuable minerals, rendering them
inaccessible and unusable for the plant.
It ties up minerals like manganese, zinc, and iron, which are
essential for the plant’s immune system and growth. These
minerals are also important for human health. Another problem,
which applies to both genetically engineered (GE) and
conventional hybridized plants, is that when a plant is altered
it may lose its ability to emit the correct signals to warn its
neighbors about impending attacks. Hence, they become more
vulnerable to infestations.
On numerous occasions, I’ve stated that the differences
between industrial farming and organic farming, using
time-tested all-natural methods, are so vast that the foods
produced by the former cannot be equated to the foods produced
by the latter. Use of genetically engineered plants only deepens
the many problems associated with conventional, chemical-heavy
farming.
The environmental effects are also 180 degrees opposed, as
industrial farming contributes to every form of environmental
devastation, while organic farming methods restore the
environment and invigorate and support the ecosystem—of which
humans are an integral part, I might add. Many equate modern
techniques with “progress,” when in fact most of our
technological advancements are now threatening to destroy us
right along with the planet as a whole.
Three Basic Principles of Biological Gardening
“Life” in essence boils down to microbiology—their presence
in us and around us, and the benevolent symbiotic relationships
that exist between us. If you support the microbiology in your
gut, they will support your good health. The same principle
applies to the soil in which your food is grown. Take care of
it, and it will take care of you.
This is important information, as many nay-sayers will tell
you that buying organic produce is a waste of money. From my
perspective, understanding the impact soil quality has on the
final product, and how chemical fertilizers and pesticides used
in conventional farming decimate the microorganisms in the soil,
makes for a very strong argument that organic or biologically
farmed foods are indeed a healthier choice.
Below, I’ll list some helpful sources for finding such foods,
but you may also want to consider growing your own.
Homemade ferments are another excellent way to boost your
nutrition and promote healthy gut flora—and if made with
homegrown veggies, all the better! As Dr. Miller writes:4
“Eating fresh-grown food from healthy soil is not an
all-or-nothing proposition, and even a daily handful of
herbs from a container garden can have a positive impact on
our health. Whether it is homegrown or from a local farm, I
do mention to my patients that they should think
twice before peeling or scrubbing their farm bounty. After
all, who knows what beneficial bacteria might be coming
along for the ride? By the way, eating fermented farm-fresh
vegetables is a great way to get a mega-dose of soil
bacteria.” [Emphasis mine]
Three basic principles of biological gardening that will make
your soil hospitable for beneficial microorganisms, which in
turn will allow plants to flourish, are the following. I’ve
previously written about how to employ these principles in your
own garden, so for more information, please review the related
articles listed in the side bar.
- Correct nutrient balance in the soil
- Soil inoculation. This can be done by adding soil
probiotics or basic fermentation products such as compost
tea. This will generate and support the proliferation of
beneficial bacteria much in the same way you can boost the
probiotics in your fermented vegetables by using a starter
culture
- Proper food (fertilizer) for the microorganisms to
consume and thrive. Note that it’s the microbiome
that you need to feed, not the plant directly. The microbes
in turn will then feed the proper nutrients to the plants
grown in that soil.
Without these bioorganisms, your plants cannot get the
nutrients they need. So what you need is not more chemical
soil additives; what you need is the proper balance of
beneficial soil organisms. Hence, the better you’re able to
fertilize the microbes, the healthier your plants will be,
and the fewer plant diseases, pest infestations, and weed
problems you’ll have as well
Whet Your Appetite for Gardening by Growing Sprouts
While you can grow all manner of food, even in
small spaces, one of the easiest and least expensive is
sprouts. Best of all, sprouts can be grown year-round,
regardless of weather, and contain up to 30 times the nutrition
of organic vegetables grown in your own garden. They also allow
your body to extract more vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and
essential fats from the foods you eat, so in terms of growing
nutrient-dense food for your family at minimal expense, they’re
really hard to beat.
During sprouting, minerals, such as calcium and magnesium,
bind to protein, making them more bioavailable. Furthermore,
both the quality of the protein and the fiber content of beans,
nuts, seeds, and grains improve when sprouted. The content of
vitamins and essential fatty acids also increases dramatically
during the sprouting process.
Sunflower seed and pea sprouts tend to top the list of all
the seeds that you can sprout and are typically each about 30
times more nutritious than organic vegetables.
Helpful Resources
“Thinking of a healthy body as an extension of a
healthy farm, and vice versa, is a paradigm shift for many
of us. But when we consider that all of our cells get their
building blocks from plants and soil then, suddenly, it all
makes sense. In fact, it is not too much of a stretch to
say: We are soil,” Dr. Miller states.5
Indeed, the finding that your physical and mental health is
rooted in microscopic organisms in the soil and in the foods you
eat is thought-provoking, to say the least. On the upside, it
tells us how to fix countless problems—from poor health
to environmental issues that plague mankind across the globe.
For all of these reasons, I cannot encourage you to
support the small family farms in your local area strongly
enough. They, and by extension you, are part of the solution.
Here are some great
resources to obtain wholesome food that supports not only
you but also the environment:
-
Alternative Farming Systems Information Center,
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
-
Farmers' Markets -- A national listing
of farmers' markets.
- Local
Harvest -- This Web site will help you find
farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of
sustainably grown food in your area where you can buy
produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies.
- Eat Well
Guide: Wholesome Food from Healthy Animals --
The Eat Well Guide is a free online directory of sustainably
raised meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs from farms, stores,
restaurants, inns, and hotels, and online outlets in the
United States and Canada.
- Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture(CISA)
-- CISA is dedicated to sustaining agriculture and promoting
the products of small farms.
- FoodRoutes
-- The FoodRoutes “Find Good Food” map can help you connect
with local farmers to find the freshest, tastiest food
possible. On their interactive map, you can find a listing
for local farmers, CSA's, and markets near you.
© Copyright 1997-2013 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/12/23/soil-quality.aspx
|