Heal your Digestive System- A Look into the Past

Many people who I see  are suffering from digestive disturbances which manifest in a number of ways; burning sensations, gas, bloating, heaviness after meals, tired after eating ,low energy, bad complexion, poor resistance to disease and poor circulation. Some other common complaints are constipation, loose stools and hemorrhoids, to name just a few!! 

 Wow, is this what’s happened over the last hundred years from our food and lifestyle?  It’s true , it’s real and it needs to be faced.

Let’s travel back in time just a bit to my grandmother’s house. Every Sunday when our family would visit her apartment in Brooklyn she would have fresh cooked fruit made in jars that she would send us home with; strawberries, peaches, prunes, apples and some fruit combinations. She would also have fresh gefilte fish made (which comes from pike, whitefish) and the broth is made from fish heads and bones. Bubbee, as we called her lovingly also had roast chicken made, chicken soup for us to take home with matzo balls and fresh vegetables like carrots, celery, turnip, and parsnip all cooked into the broth. She told us of her bone marrow soup that she made during the week from meat bones and lamb that she cooked.  Now do you think Bubbee had digestive problems???  Did she eat food from a pantry or box? No ofcourse not. Are you getting the message?  Her probiotic was eating fresh yogurt she made at home and sauerkraut she had on her meat. She had no complaints she would say and lived to a ripe age of 95 . I never remember hearing she was sick. Her physical body was small but very strongboned. She walked up over twenty steps to her apartment every day and you would never imagine a woman looking like this to have osteoporosis or frail bones. Every once in awhile she would forget things but what she forgot was best forgotten as she would say.

Back to healing our digestive sytem..ofcourse we need to replace the flora but try to get fermented foods like organic plain yogurt in your diet, kefir, olives, mochi, amasake as well as a pickled vegetable . Avoid chlorine and fluoride as they attack the good flora. Birth control pills, antibiotics and drugs are like nuclear bombs in the gut. Add a therapeutic dose of 6-10billion of a probitotic as they can prevent recurring urinary tract infections gum and vaginal infections as well.Eat bitter herbs like dandelion, artichoke leaves and gentian to better absorb the food in the large intestine. this will prevent gas from happening. And adapt some of your grandmother’s best habits into your daily lifestyle.

Please share  some things your grandmother did to stay healthy!We can all learn from the wisdom of the past. It’s time to return back to what works for our bodies so we have a sustainable society that can evolve with strength  and vigor!  Please send in your ideas.