Probiotics 101: Part 2

Last week, the blog was about probiotics; what they are and how they affect your body. If you missed that post, you may want to read back and get up to speed because this week I am highlighting some of the reasons why MOST people in North America no longer have a healthy balance of bacteria in their gut.

Reason #1 – Modern Birthing Techniques

About 1 in 4 children born in Canada miss out on the benefits of having good gut bacteria right from birth. The Canadian Cesarean Section rate is approximately 26%, which is an increase of 45% since 1998.

When a baby is born via cesarean section, they are missing out! There are lots of good bacteria in the vagina. I know it sounds gross, but it is important that babies get some of these bugs on their way into the world because they protect them from infections.

When the digestive tract and respiratory system remain sterile, opportunistic infections in the gut, ears, nose and throat are more common.

Another early factor is formula feeding. Children who are formula fed miss out on bifidus bacteria. This bacteria is present in the mother’s nipples and helps to colonize the baby’s gut.

Reason #2 – Over Sanitization.

Antibacterial dish soap, surface spray and hand jelly that kill 99.9% of bacteria are devastating your inner environment.

You need dirt in your life. More dirt means more bacteria.

We are still members of the animal kingdom, designed to live where dirt and bacteria are abundant. Eliminating constant exposure to bacterial life is incongruent with the natural state for your body and prevents proper development of your microflora.

Reason #3 – Little or No Fermented Food.

Prior to refrigerators, which were only developed for home and domestic use in 1913, fermentation was a standard process for preserving food.  

Fermentation is a process where bacteria eat the sugars in a food and enables the food to ‘go bad’ in a controlled way. This keeps it from rotting and allows it to be stored longer than would otherwise be possible.

In order to have meat between hunts, hunter-gatherer societies buried animal carcasses in grass-lined holes, allowing the meat to ferment. This preserved the game.

Traditional cuisines across the globe include fermented foods. Pickled fruit and vegetables, cured meats, unpasteurized cheeses and yogurts contributed greatly to most people’s diets until the last few decades.

In our society most of the fermented foods we do still eat, like pickles and sauerkraut, are pasteurized and then loaded with preservatives so that they can sit on shelves in your grocery store for weeks or months.

Pasteurizing kills bacteria. Unfortunately, having NO bacteria in your food is more likely to make you sick than the rare event of food contamination.

Just a couple of generations ago, we were exposed to bacteria regularly. Humans evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to be in a harmonious relationship with bacteria.

Ironically, we now eliminate bacteria from our environments thinking we are less likely to get sick. We do not realize that living in a sterile environment devastates our immune systems.

If you want a healthy body and a properly functioning digestive tract and immune system, you will need to take steps to restore and maintain your gut bacteria. Next week, I will give you a few strategies for getting your probiotics.