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Three easy steps to improve intestinal health to drastically improve overall wellness when following a years-long, strict gut healing diet is not an option.
For a number of reasons, the majority of people don’t seem to have very good intestinal health anymore.
Most of the food we eat is not only lacking in nutrients, it’s filled with additives, preservatives, and other chemicals.
From the air we breathe and the water we drink, to the thousands of chemicals we come into contact with each day…it all takes its toll on the colon and, ultimately, on our overall health.
The digestive process begins as soon as food enters the mouth. As we chew our food we increase the surface area of food particles making the food more susceptible to digestive enzymes.
Smaller food particles also travel more easily (and quickly) throughout the small and large intestines.
In the stomach, food is mixed with gastric juices containing digestive enzymes and hydrochloric acid. This mixture is known as chyme.
From the stomach, the chyme moves into the small intestine. There, more enzymes and bile are mixed with the chyme, and the breakdown of dietary proteins, fats, and carbs is complete.
Some carbs are not digested by human enzymes and they pass undigested into the colon.
Most nutrients are absorbed in the small intestine.
However, Vitamin K, niacin, and B vitamins are formed by beneficial bacteria in and absorbed by the colon. Vitamin K is necessary for blood clotting and niacin and the B vitamins affect energy levels, metabolism, feelings of fatigue, and the function of nerves.
Evidence suggests that serotonin is created in the colon as well.
The colon is also designed to eliminate toxins. When the colon is not working well, it begins to absorb toxins into the bloodstream rather than expelling them. You can see why having a healthy colon is important.
So how do you know if you have an unhealthy colon? First of all, if you’ve ever taken antibiotics there’s a pretty good chance that you colon health isn’t optimal.
Why? Because one of the determining factors of colon health is the composition of the microbes in your gut. Is it mostly friendly or is the majority unfriendly?
Antibiotics are designed to kill bacteria, and they don’t care whether they’re friendly or unfriendly.
Birth control pills, not enough dietary fiber, poor eating habits, alcoholic beverages, chlorine, sodium fluoride, and stress all contribute to intestinal flora imbalance too.
Our digestive system is home to more than 500 different bacterial species, and if 85% of the bacteria in our colon are friendly then the colon can handle the 15% of unfriendly bacteria.
The problem is most of us have this reversed. The result?
Diarrhea, constipation, excessive gas, bloating, allergies, eczema, irritable bowel, inflammatory bowel, kidney stones, ear infections, colds, vaginal yeast infections, Crohn’s disease, lactose intolerance, thrush, athlete’s foot, cancer, and on and on.
The big problem with these conditions is that more meds are used in most cases even when they were the cause of the intestinal problems in the first place. A common example is considering whether strep can go away on its own.
“Of course not” is the answer if you ask most people. The accepted conventional strep throat treatment is an immediate trip to the doctor for yet another prescription, which further destroys intestinal health!
And the rollercoaster to ever-increasing gut imbalance continues…
How Friendly Microbes Facilitate Health
Friendly bacteria (called probiotics – there are literally thousands of strains) prevent the overgrowth of yeast and fungus.
They help keep our intestines healthy in numerous ways including:
- Competition with candida in the intestine
- Suppression of the growth of potentially harmful bacteria
- Production of substances that optimize and balance cholesterol
- Enhancement of the protective barrier of the digestive tract
- Production of vitamin K1
- Stimulation of immune function
- Lowering of blood pressure in some people
- Aiding in the digestion of lactose
- Prevention of cavities and gum disease
- Decreasing the passage of bacteria or antigens from the intestines to the bloodstream
- Fighting pre-carcinogenic or mutagenic compounds
- Breakdown of oxalates (contributes to kidney stones)
- Detoxification of ingested carcinogens
- Production of compounds that inhibit the growth of tumor cells, and more!
So where do you get these probiotics?
Believe it or not, store-bought yogurt probably sometimes isn’t your best source. Neither is the probiotic pill that you buy at the health food store.
Why? Because the yogurt has been pasteurized which kills all the naturally occurring good bacteria in the raw milk!
Then, manufacturers only add back in a few strains of probiotics. On top of that, commercial yogurt isn’t fermented properly either!
With regard to probiotic supplements, they are dried into a powder which requires rehydration in the body before they can be effective.
In addition, probiotic manufacturers are increasingly using lab strains instead of wild ones, as Mother Nature intended.
What to do?
Well, probiotics can be found in homemade yogurt and kefir as well as naturally fermented sauerkraut and other naturally fermented foods.
When you ingest these foods, you’re actually putting friendly bacteria back into your gut!
So what does this have to do with the “perfect trifecta for intestinal health”? Well, probiotics is one part of it.
Let me tell you what we do in our family that works extremely well and is easy to do!
Fresh Garlic
First, every night before bed we take fresh garlic and chop it up fine – about a teaspoon full will do.
Then we let it sit for 14 minutes and swallow it like a pill.
The garlic kills the unfriendly bacteria in my gut and feeds the friendly bacteria; this is known as a prebiotic.
Amazingly, I don’t have garlic breath and I don’t smell like garlic when I sweat.
If you are one of those people who do stink from eating raw garlic, try fermented garlic instead.
It’s incredibly easy to make and pickled garlic cloves retain all the therapeutic value with the heat and odor potential significantly reduced or eliminated.
Clay
Second, every day we take a teaspoon of clay and mix it in a cup of water, let it sit for a few minutes, stir it again, and drink it.
Among other things, the clay is primarily negatively charged. By comparison, unfriendly bacteria, toxins, parasites, heavy metals, and radiation, are all positively charged.
As the clay travels through the digestive system, the unfriendly bacteria (and other things) are attracted to the clay and eliminated by the body.
Traditional peoples practiced the use of clay as well. For example, the Australian Aboriginal tribes would dip their food in water mixed with clay as they ate, presumably to protect them from whatever pathogens might be lurking.
Note that it is not a good idea to regularly use activated charcoal as a detox for these toxins instead.
Most people do not realize that AC takes nutrients out of the body too! Activated charcoal is for food poisoning and similar acute digestive issues only…it is not a substitute for clay.
Kefir
Third, throughout the day we drink kefir. Kefir is a better choice than yogurt as yogurt only contains a few strains of beneficial bacteria whereas kefir has 50 or even more!
Also, unlike yogurt, some of these are aggressive strains that recolonize the gut.
One word of caution.
Homemade kefir is better and more therapeutic than commercial brands, which have fewer strains and are likely fermented for shorter periods of time.
So, we’ve got the garlic killing the unfriendly and feeding the friendly; the clay pulling the unfriendly out of the system; and the kefir putting the friendly back into the system which the garlic then feeds.
See how that works?!
So, what have I noticed since I’ve been implementing the “perfect trifecta” for intestinal health in my life? Well, I’m more regular in my bowel movements (overshare, but it’s the truth).
Remember that your body is like a donut – round with a hole through the center. The top of the hole is your mouth and the bottom of the hole is your anus. Whenever the top hole opens it shouldn’t be too long before the bottom hole opens and if it isn’t, things need some improvement.
The other thing I noticed is that my sugar cravings stopped. I didn’t think too much of it until a friend of mine commented that she was having the same result! But it makes sense.
What do the unfriendly bacteria feed off of? Refined sugar, refined flour… So, when I have more friendly bacteria than unfriendly bacteria, my body isn’t going to crave the things that feed the unfriendly bacteria!
Third, I have an overall feeling of health and well-being and no “brain fog”!
Not too shabby for a few “home remedies”, huh?!
So, have you had any experiences using the Perfect Trifecta of garlic, clay, and kefir to improve intestinal health? If so, I’d like to hear about your experiences.
More Information
Food Poisoning Remedies that Work and Prevent Dehydration
Why Fermented Foods are Not Enough to Heal the Gut (and the Probiotic Boost they Need)
Are You a Tummy Bug Magnet? Fat Phobia May Be the Cause
Slippery Elm for Tummy Aches
Hello, I prefer to only post supportive comments and in no way want to be discouraging (only hoping to be informative). If you Google these three words: Raw Garlic Brain you will get some information to help you make an informed decision. I would LOVE to find something that fed the good bacteria and killed the bad that I could take on a daily basis, but garlic just doesn’t seem safe AS A ROUTINE practice. I really liked the first article that came up on that Google search – it seemed pretty balanced. I do believe that adding a raw garlic pre-bed time dose now and then might be something I’ll try! Thank you for your article Katherine – everyone should learn more about how to increase their intestinal health!
Thank you Lea Ann, I’ll take a look at the articles. Neither myself nor my husband have had any problems. I first learned of garlic from a fellow foot zone instructor and her entire family has been using garlic for YEARS without problems. I think no matter what you do, you’ll find someone somewhere who will say it’s not good (look at raw milk). 🙂 But I do appreciate the comment and will take a look at it. 🙂
Welcome back Sarah! You have had some wonderful guest writers and we learned a lot from them!
As for the garlic, Kefir and Redmond clay article ….I am doing the kefir , have been for quite a while , ordered the clay yesterday and am getting the garlic today. I am soooo NOT a garlic person so am curious to see how this goes ! And also the clay.
How do you compare the “Redmond Clay” to a product by the name of “TERRAMIN” Edible Clay?
Hi Peter, 🙂
It appears that Terramin is the brand name for another type of clay. I’ve looked at their website and can’t find a lot of information on the mineral composition of their clay or much information on the clay itself so I can’t tell how it compares to Redmond clay. The one thing that I do notice that they don’t mention that seems pretty important is Redmond aBsorbs and aDsorbs toxins.
If you’re already using Terramin and you’re happy with it, then I don’t think I would switch. If you’re not, then I would do some more research before making my decision.
It tastes like rain water. 🙂
Forgive me if I missed this question: for someone unable to tolerate either milk or coconut milk, can the third step be accomplished with something like fermented cabbage, for instance, or can kefir grains be used to ferment, say, rice milk?
A variety of fermented foods is best. So if you can’t use kefir, I would use as many home-made fermented foods as I could. I’ve heard of people using the kefir grains to ferment other things besides milk, but I’ve always heard that after a while the grians fail to thrive because they feed on milk protein and lactose.
katherine – great article! Would this protocal be worth a try to help with my teenage sons acne? If not, do have any other suggestions for us to combast acne? Thanks
I have a question about the garlic, garlic tends to really upset my tummy. Makes me so gassy I can hardly stand it! Is there something other than garlic I could use as my prebiotic? And does anyone have a good recipe for kefir made with raw milk?
Hi Shawna, 🙂
There are many foods that serve as a prebiotic. The purpose for the garlic was two-fold, a pre-biotic and to kill unfriendly bacteria. One of the other readers said they had the same problem and ate some banana after the garlic. You might want to try that, plus banana is also a pre-biotic. 🙂
The “recipe” for keir with raw milk is the same as with pasteurized milk. Obtain some kefir grains, cover them with milk, let sit for 24 hours, strain and drink the milk (which is now fermented and called kefir), place the kefir grains back in the jar, recover with milk, and repeat the process. 🙂
I have a question do zou alwazs suggest to drink kefir with some source of prebiotics? Does it mean that when I drink it only by itself I do not get the benefir of probiotic?
Thanks a lot
Hi Sam, 🙂
The purpose of the garlic is to kill the unfriendly bacteria but also feed the friendly bacteria. Other pre-biotics will feed friendly bacteria too. The reason I like to incorporate this step is that once we get the friendly bacteria in our body (through the kefir and other fermented foods) it would be nice to make the environment in the body as friendly for the probiotics as possible by making sure they have a good food suply. Since unfriendly bacteria feed off of refined white flour and sugar, by including unrefined grains and natural sweeteners we’ll be reducing the food supply for the unfriendly and increaseing the food supply for the friendly.
If you don’t include the pre-biotics, the pro-biotics still work, but I think they’ll work better if you include pre-biotics in your diet.
is azomite mineral powder similar to clay? I got this recommendation from the Nourishing Traditions.
Marie
As I’ve looked at the Azomite website, they state that it replaces minerals but that it does not aDsorb like clay. From my reading it does not have the pulling power and would not attract and aDorb the bacteria, toxin, parasites, radiation, and heavy metals. I would not use it as a replacement for the clay.
Sorry I had another question aslo. If I decide to do the garlic water, might be easier for my kids to do instead of swallowing chopped garlic, how much should we take per day?
I would use the water as a medium to help make it easier to swallow the garlic, not as a replacement for the chopped garlic. With young children, I would probably hold off on the garlic until they’re able to swallow it without chewing. Until then, you could continue with the clay water and kefir/fermented foods though.