Bugs!

Ok betcha thought I'd given up on gardening and food, since its been so long since I've blogged about it. Ha! This is the time for application...I've been gardening, mulching, digging, making a great mess of my feet and hands (as noted by many in the kwoon yesterday...:) )The research continues too, but at a slower pace as I shift more into doing rather than reading, but I do have some interesting things to share with you. One of the major things I've been reading in both arenas of health and gardening, is about bugs. Not the big bugs that you're swatting as we speak, but the bacteria level kind. Step away from the hand sanitizer! My blog will not harm you! Its interesting as I learn more about gardening--you'd think its all about location, right plants for right spot, water, fertilizer, all that kind of thing, and it is to some degree, but first its the soil. The soil is your base, if its not healthy, nothing else you do will continue to work, or have lasting good. What is healthy soil? Soil thats teeming with life--bacteria, bugs, worms, food. The soil provides food for your plants and to do that it needs all kinds of workers to break down things like dead plants, to provide the basic elements (like vitamens, minerals) in forms the plants can use. In short, it needs all the bacteria, fungus, worms, etc. Then we come along, rake up all the leaves (looks messy) and dump on artificial chemicals. What does this do? Well first we remove the really good food--leaves are great--and then we give the plant the shot of what we think it needs. So we starve the bugs we need and they die, leaving the plant without its support system and protection in some instances, and basically teach the plant to become chemically dependant. Yes we are making them junkies. And then we have to spray with nasty chemicals to keep away the weeds and bugs that are trying to eat these weak plants (put them out of their misery)...vicious circle. So what does that have to do with food? Well other than we're injesting weakened plants that cant give us the nutrition we need-I'm sure you've all read or heard about how our food doesnt pack the nutritional punch it once did. Now you know why! Plus we have all these chemicals now sprayed on our food or have food thats been genetically changed thats doing Lord knows what to us (Theres alot on GMO out there, I encourage you to do some research!) and we wonder why allergies, asthma, chrons, colitis, irritable bowel and many other things are on the rise. Well, just like the plant kingdom, we too have to go to our base, our soil, our gut.Back to where the bugs live. Now we're SUPPOSED to have things like bacteria in our gut--this isnt a bad thing! Just like with plants, they help break down our food, and protect us from things so long as they are in healthy balance. But if we dont give them what they need (food) and kill them with chemicals (such as antibiotics) things can get out of whack. The balance can be thrown off and bacteria that arent so helpful can do lots of things to our bodies. Some of the research I've looked at has suggested that things like allergies, eczema,etc are like an early warning; all the doctors tests come back normal, you're fine, just have this minor problem. But its not going to stay minor--its your body trying to tell you the balance is off. And if we continue to ignore the gut issue, treat the warning with allergy pills or whatever,then we end up with major things down the road like diabetes, arthritis, Chrons, bowel cancers; things that CAN be found with a medical test. Both the gardening and health research seems to follow the same trend, doesnt it? Ok, so what can we do? Face it, we've all been sick and had antibiotics before. They serve a purpose. But how do we re balance? Probiotics are a good start. (Good ones have to be stored in a fridge. DO NOT buy ones that are stored out on a shelf.) I've been having good luck with a mix of probiotics and digestive enzymes. But how can this be prevented and not be on pills? Lets look at food and how we get the vitamens and things we need. One thing we need is enzymes to break down our food--some we produce ourselves, some come from our food. What kind of food? Plants. Fruit. Meat. And apparently cooking destroys the enzymes we need, and our body has to work doubly hard to produce the enzymes needed. So I'm 40--I've been eating a mix of cooked food, processed food, some raw my whole life. Been on antibiotics a few times in my life, and I have ulcerative colitis that popped up in my 20's. Suddenly I have some food sensitivities and eczema that I've never had in my life. Whats up? Well I've been eating food that hasnt given me much of any enzymes (or great nutrition) for a long time now, and I'm sure my organs are getting tired of picking up the slack. I've had times where I've killed off my good bacteria because of illness and I'm exposed to more and more chemicals as my life goes on. Should I be surprised I only have these problems? So...just like mom said, I'm eating my veggies, my fruit raw as often as I can, supplementing with digestive enzymes to try and turn this thing around. And its working! I've been off my medication for ulcerative colitis for a while now, my eczema has settled down and food isnt bothering me nearly as much. A great resource for all of this --that finally got me understanding things--is Allergies; Disease in Disguise by Carolee Bateson-Koch. So what point am I trying to make? That just like our kungfu pyramid, where if your base isnt strong, you cant advance to the top, the same goes for our world, our bodies, our food. If we dont fix whats wrong at our base in our bodies, we arent going to do as well, and may even cause damage that wont be repairable. If we dont fix our soil, we arent going to be able to fix ourselves either. And it all depends on bugs. Ironic isn't it? Check these out:hello@yumuniverse.com> article on bacteria Dr Dahlmans site is a place to start, and he has a book called 'why doesnt my doctor know this?' thats a good start.