Healthy Gut, Healthy Immune System
Often, gut health is overlooked as a critical factor in overall health. The Covid pandemic has underlined the need for a healthy immune system, and most people don’t understand the relationship between gut health and their immune system. The gut plays an integral part in helping your immune system stay strong.
Understanding how to improve your gut health with gut probiotics is a simple way to enhance your immune system.
What Is the Gut and What Does It Do?
The gut is commonly understood to be the stomach and intestines. It is also called the digestive or gastrointestinal (GI) tract and plays a crucial role in digestion and metabolism. Digestion is how we take in, break down, and absorb nutrients in the food we eat or drink. Metabolism is the process of how we then use these nutrients for energy, growth, and cell repair.
Besides controlling our digestion and metabolism, the gut is intimately connected to multiple systems within the body, including the immune system and central nervous system. The gut houses over 70-80% of our immune cells and is considered by some to be the body’s largest immune organ.
Your gut also makes 90-95% of the body’s serotonin, affecting your mood and stress levels, and directly communicates with the brain via a nerve pathway called the vagus nerve or the gut-brain axis. The gut is therefore integral to good physical and cognitive health overall.
What Is the Microbiome?
The gut does not operate in this network of systems alone. Bacteria and other microorganisms in the gut play a pivotal role in the function and regulation of our digestive, metabolic, immune, and central nervous systems. These bacteria are called gut flora or microbiota and are part of the human microbiome, the total of all the microorganisms living within and on the human body.
Those microbes in our bodies are estimated to outnumber our body cells by up to 10 times. It turns out that our bodies have coevolved with these microbes, and our gut health is best when we are in balance with them.
What Is Gut Health and Why Is It Important?
Gut health refers to the physical state and function of the gut and the balance of microorganisms in it.
We have good gut health when our digestive tract functions well and has a healthy balance and diversity of microorganisms. This encourages good digestion, metabolism, immunity, and mood. When we have good gut health, we can enjoy eating, defend ourselves well against harmful pathogens, and replenish our bodies, all of which lead to optimal physical and mental health.
On the other hand, poor gut health can happen when gut microbes are out of balance, and their diversity is reduced through things like a poor diet of highly refined foods, infection, overuse of antibiotics, and exposure to environmental toxins or chemotherapy. This can lead to an imbalance and impoverishment of gut microbes that disrupts the symbiotic balance we’ve co-evolved to need.
Poor gut health or dysbiosis may be linked to a myriad of diseases like:
- COVID
- Obesity
- Digestive problems like abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, bloating, acid reflux, heartburn, and nausea/vomiting
- Food allergies/intolerances
- Leaky gut
- Inflammation of the brain, which can lead to cognitive decline, dementia, stroke, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease
- Depression and anxiety
- Diabetes
- Liver disease
- Cancer
- Cardiovascular disease
- Asthma
- Autoimmune diseases like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) (including Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis), celiac disease, and rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
In short, poor gut health is associated with a wide array of chronic degenerative diseases of the brain and body that may be linked to premature aging and cognitive decline.
What Does the Gut Have to Do With the Immune System?
As stated earlier, the gut contains 70-80% of our immune cells and is one of the largest immune organs in the body. It is a significant pathway for how we come into contact with our surroundings through the air we breathe or the foods we eat. It functions as an essential barrier to protect against pathogens like disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and parasites.
When they are in balance, the gut microbes work in alliance with the immune system by teaching it to distinguish between what is safe and unsafe, which helps keep the body healthy in a protective way.
Gut microbes have been shown to activate and regulate critical components of the immune system throughout the body, even as far as the lungs. But this protective mechanism can go awry if gut balance is off, reducing immunity and contributing to disease.
Gut Health, COVID, and Fermented Foods
When our gut health is balanced and functioning well, so does our immune system. This increases our resistance to infection and disease. Conversely, poor gut health increases our vulnerability to illness and disease.
Researchers are even uncovering the link between the gut and lungs, where oral ingestion of probiotics may help reduce disease incidence, severity, and duration in the lungs. And in the age of COVID, we need all the defenses against infection that we can get.
Additional research now indicates that gut imbalance is associated with more severe cases of COVID, especially those complicated by a secondary infection like pneumonia. It may also influence your susceptibility to long COVID symptoms.
While the research isn’t yet clear about whether gut imbalance causes or is caused by COVID, scientists are finding more evidence of how gut health, immunity, and COVID are inextricably intertwined.
This is why there is a greater emphasis on the importance of a diet rich in plant-based fiber and fermented foods to maintain a healthy gut balance. Fermented foods are high in probiotics or beneficial microbes, and fiber is their preferred food source on which they thrive as they travel through the gut.
Researchers at Stanford School of Medicine have found that a diet high in fermented foods may strengthen gut health and diversity and can lower inflammation in as little as ten weeks. They discovered that fermented foods had a more positive impact on gut health faster than a diet high in fiber did alone.
What Can I Do?
The simple answer is to add fermented food to your diet. Fermented foods can be an easy way to alter your gut health and immunity for the better. Simply drinking milk kefir or water kefir sodas which are rich in probiotics, or eating other fermented foods like pickles, sauerkraut, or kimchi may help you achieve better gut health. Fermented teas like Kombucha and Jun Tea are rich in organic acids, which may also help with gut motility and health.
The key is to add fermented foods to your diet regularly. Simply eating them once or twice won’t have as much impact; they should become a regular part of your diet. It’s important to note that there are other ways of improving gut health, but adding fermented foods may be one of the easiest ways to help you achieve your goal.
Improve your gut health and immunity by improving your diet with fermented foods. Your gut will thank you, and so will your immune system.
Announcing The Bunny Turtle – Lifestyle Probiotic Weight Loss Fast
The New Year is here, and new resolutions and goals come with that. If your goal is to lose weight in the new year, we are here to help. We’re announcing the Bunny Turtle – Lifestyle Probiotic Weight Loss Fast. In partnership with Lifestyle Juicery, we’ve put together a juice fast that is easy to comply with, is healthy, and can aid in weight loss.
This is the only juice fast in Bangkok that marries an effective weight-loss program with a proven system for advanced gut health. This system is easy to work into your daily routine.
This probiotic weight loss fast will help you start the new year with a plan that will:
· reset your system
· promote better gut health
· help you lose weight
How Does It Work?
The package we’ve put together provides you with 14 days of juice, supplemented with 14 fermented probiotic drinks to help improve health and lose weight.
The plan for this weight loss fast is a combination of intermittent fasting and meal replacement:
The Weight Loss Fast
The following steps walk you through our recommended juice fast plan.
- Start the day with fasting, not having eaten since your last meal the day prior. Drinking water and lemon juice is a great way to start the day. You can also enjoy a sugar-free beverage like coffee or tea.
- Start the juice fast, drinking your juice approximately five hours before your regular dinner meal. A recommended juice portion would be about 150-200 ml an hour. Again, be sure to drink plenty of water.
- Have a regular, complete meal for dinner. (Be sure to watch portion size!)
- During the day, enjoy the Bunny Turtle Ferments drinks as you like. Our drinks aid in weight loss, cleansing and will reseed your gut with probiotics to improve your gut health.
As you start the fast, we recommend drinking either our Bangkok Kombucha or Jun Tea (both fermented teas) for the first six days of the fast. After that initial period, we recommend switching to either our Ginger Water Kefir Soda or Strawberry Water Kefir Soda for the remaining eight days.
The fermented teas will help your body cleanse itself, while the water kefir will reseed your gut with healthy probiotics. When choosing your juices, we recommend selecting juices that are lower in sugar – Lifestyle’s green juices are ideal for this.
Keys to Success
The key to this weight loss fast is consistency! Ensure that your one daily meal is a normal portion of healthy food. Stick with the program even if you don’t see results right away. Some who have used this program have seen results quickly; others didn’t see results for a few weeks.
As with any weight loss program, sticking to the program is the key to success. One of the positive aspects of this program is that you can still eat a regular meal each day.
Our customers have experienced significant, relatively easy weight loss with this program.
The potent combination of our probiotic drinks, all-natural cold-pressed juice, and Lifestyle’s Juices will boost all-around health for you in 2022.
Sign up for the Bunny Turtle – Lifestyle Probiotic Weight Loss Fast today and start your healthy weight loss journey today! Order your package at Lifestyle Juicery on their website or their Facebook page. Feel free to contact us with any questions. Happy New Year!
Medical Disclaimer: The information presented is for informational or educational purposes only and is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. As with any weight loss program, be sure to consult with your physician to make sure it’s appropriate for you.
What is Kombucha?
Kombucha has become very popular in recent years, so much so that most people have at least heard about it. But most people don’t know precisely what Kombucha is or why it’s helpful for them to drink it. We are proud of our Bangkok Kombucha and want to share the health benefits of this beautiful, fermented tea.
The History of Kombucha
The exact origin of fermented tea known as kombucha is unknown. However, it likely emerged in China, around 220 B.C., spreading to Japan in 414 A.D. Kombucha was introduced to Korea, Russia, and worldwide, especially the United States in the late 20th century.
Kombucha has been traditionally used as a health tonic that anecdotally has been claimed to lower cholesterol and blood pressure, improve arthritis, reduce cancer, alleviate hangovers, reduce hair loss and even greying hair, etc. However, few formal clinical trials have been conducted to verify those claims.
What is Fermentation?
Fermentation is the transformative process of microorganisms to preserve food, increase nutrient absorption, improve food safety, and enhance flavor.
Microorganisms are living beings that are too small to be seen by the naked eye, such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi (like yeast). Humans and their ancestors have co-evolved with microorganisms over millions of years. They surround us and are within us, on almost everything we touch, the soil, the air we breathe; they are in every bodily niche such as our eyes, mouth, nose, skin, and especially our gut.
The human microbiome, or collection of microorganisms in the body, is comprised of microbiota specific to each area. While modern food production and science have made a practice of essentially eliminating microorganisms, the Art of Fermentation has long been used since at least 7000 B.C. to stimulate the growth of beneficial bacteria and yeasts while suppressing detrimental or pathogenic ones.
It is one of the oldest methods of food preservation and has been practiced by every known culture and civilization for millennia. These advantageous microbes that benefit human health and wellbeing are called probiotics, which come from the Greek meaning “pro-” (enhancing ) “biota” (life).
For our purposes, there are two basic types of fermentation using beneficial microbes or probiotics: one uses a starter culture of a prepared population of bacteria and yeasts, vs. wild fermentation by bacteria and yeasts that are native to the food being fermented.
Bunny Turtle Ferments Bangkok Kombucha uses starter cultures for its fermented teas, which are Symbiotic Cultures of Bacteria and Yeast (or SCOBY) unique to each kind of drink.
These starter cultures imbue each drink with a probiotic profile of live, active microbes that digest sugars while making more of themselves and creating healthy secondary byproducts like enzymes, antioxidants, organic acids, and vitamins B’s and K.
Fermentation Process
Our Bangkok Kombucha is made by fermenting sweetened tea with a starter culture called a Kombucha SCOBY, or Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast. Kombucha, in general, is typically made with white, green, or black tea sweetened by sugar. We use black Assam tea and sugar to make our Bangkok Kombucha.
Kombucha SCOBY is present in two ways: throughout the fermented tea itself and the pellicle, a cellulose biofilm made by bacteria that acts as a protective layer on the surface of the fermenting tea.
Kombucha is typically sour and tart, although it can sometimes be vinegary and served as a sparkling beverage. Depending on the brewer, it can also be presented flat (uncarbonated).
Variation in the final product can occur due to differences in parameters such as location, temperature, ferment cycle length, ingredient types, ratios, individual differences in culture, and even the unique microbial fingerprint of the brewer.
You’ll find that our Bangkok Kombucha is sour and tart. We stop the fermentation process before it gets to a vinegary state, making it much more palatable to drink and enjoy with food.
Health Benefits of Kombucha
There is a growing body of literature on in vitro and animal studies about the potential health benefits of kombucha. However, human studies are still scarce, and further research needs to be conducted.
What exists, however, points to potential probiotic benefits due to possible antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, the antiviral, antimicrobial, anti-carcinogenic, and hepatoprotective activity of those microbes and their secondary byproducts.
Add Kombucha to Your Diet
Kombucha is a great aid to help with gut motility, improve your health, and help settle an upset stomach. The key is to drink some Kombucha regularly to get its health benefits consistently.
You’ll find our Bangkok Kombucha is great to drink alone or paired with a meal. You can also mix the Bangkok Kombucha with some soda water to create a refreshing sparkling drink. Try our Bangkok Kombucha today!