Today, I want to begin talking about how we absorb nutrients.   

Good nutrition is tied in closely with good digestion. Different parts of the digestive tract deal with the absorption of different nutrients. In my last post I mentioned the importance of chewing carbohydrate food well because the digestion of carbohydrates begins in the mouth with the action of saliva.  If you eat carbohydrates quickly they are never fully digested and you simply just don’t get the nutritional benefit in them.  As ‘Murphy’s Law’ would have it, you probably would still get most of the calories so eating fast, isn’t a ‘slimming’ option, just a loss of nutrition option.

Today I thought I’d talk about the absorption of nutrients through the colon and LOL, get that part of the body ‘over with’, as I guess, colon health, isn’t everyone’s idea of a fun blog reading. J.

 A healthy colon absorbs sodium, potassium, water, acids, gases, some short-chain fatty acids metabolized from plant fibres and undigested starch, and vitamins synthesized by bacteria (biotin and Vitamin K).     Vitamin K is of interest to me, as it too is tied in with calcium absorption and my readers will know, maintaining bone density, is one of my pet subjects.

Bad eating habits, over consumption of refined carbohydrates and lack of dietary fibre, can cause many digestive complaints and interfere with the absorption of nutrients in all areas of the gastro intestinal tract.  Perhaps because of the current increasingly poor diet in many countries, there has been a huge movement (pardon the pun J ), toward colon cleansing advertisements and marketing and it can be very confusing for many people, trying to find out if there is any benefit to using such products and what products might have merit, so I thought I would share, two information web sites and the opinion of myself, who does not use them and a good friend of mine, who does, and you can decide for yourself.

I thought the Mayo Clinic, as usual gives a good explanation of some pros and cons of such treatment and then gives positive precautions to consider if you are interested in this form of self treatment and colon cleanser review gives some interesting reviews and I found the information about what is in these products very interesting. 

My good friend, who does believe in the merits of colon cleansing, believes that nutrients are absorbed best if your bowel is clean.  She may have a point but many also believe the colon, in good nutrition and health is self cleansing and any variation from that is a matter to discuss with a medical practitioner.

I strive to keep my colon healthy through my choice of food; I follow a low-fat, high-fibre diet with added live culture, low fat, unsweetened yogurt. I try to stay adequately hydrated, I strive to drink 2 liters of water a day, more if I’m exercising a lot or if it is hot weather. 

I also try not to eat refined carbohydrates, remembering the healthy living message common in the 1970’s when white sugar and white flour rice and other refined grain food was referred to by those interested in unprocessed foods for good health, as ‘Pure white and deadly’. 

I consider processed meats, bacon and cured sausage meats, eaten to excess can cause colon cancer so I rarely eat them and if I do, I have a citrus food (Vit C), with them as that is supposed to assist the body break down the nitrates in processed meat.  I also avoid hydrolysed protein and it concerns me than many products marketed as health foods, vegetarian, meat replacement foods, protein shakes and bars, contain loads of hydrolyzed protein, there have been some alarming findings about hydrolyzed protein, and so my attitude is, why eat hydrolyzed anything? Why not eat natural, non processed protein?

I also avoid the most harmful form of fat, trans fatty acid, the kind commonly used in processed foods.  Well. That’s ‘it’, I avoid processed food ~ period.  Now I know that none of that’s a guarantee of good health, but that’s my approach to striving for good health and all of that is conducive to good colon care. 

I guess that sums it up, I am always for, prevention of health problems by following good nutrition and nutritional management of health problems if they do exist even if other options are required as well, nutrition will always remains my number one, priority for good health closely followed by other aspects of lifestyle.

In the past I have had some digestive problems, firstly chronic Candida as a result of a decade or more on antibiotics and then later IBS, both these conditions responded to following a diet designed to restore colon health.  I am always in awe of how well the body can restore its health when good nutrition is followed.  A lot of those colon cleansing products are as mild as simply choosing good and the right nutrition at the right time, to improve health, "Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food"–advice  by the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates(460-377 BC) ,I’d leave anything more radical than that to the experts.

I want to thank my friend for sharing her view with me, on this subject, as I am not an expert on this topic, I just stick to my rolled oats (not instant or fancy processed) and yogurt with a little fresh fruit, as my healthy colon cleansing and good nutrition start to my day  LOL, can you tell “I love my food”. J  
 


Comments

Germaine
09/09/2009 3:46am

Wonderful Kathy, you have looked into this and seems you have learnt some useful information about this subject and about yourself. On reading this I too have learnt some good things. Well done...thumbs up...Very interestingAAAA++++
Gemmy

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    _Happy New year :-)
    I am going to combine several seemingly contradicting eating and exercise programs and put together my own Artslim Naturally slimming and Gray-Nomad fitness program.  I plan to bring these out as a low cost EBook and small paperback. They will suit anyone interested in managing weight with son=me difficult health conditions such as metabolic syndrome and past injuries.

     I'll be showing you some of the books I am reading that have some excellent qualities, although they will not be exactly what I am putting together to suit me and my style of doing things.
    I will be focusing on eating and exercising for wellness, weight loss if obese, weight management and balanced fulfilling lifestyle..

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