Digestive Wellness: Strengthen the Immune System and Prevent Disease Through Healthy Digestion, Fourth Edition (58 page)

Eat wild-caught fish that is sustainably harvested. Personally, I buy only wild-caught fish from the United States and Canada. I never eat salmon unless it’s wild caught. At a restaurant, I always ask what type of salmon it is and whether it is wild caught or farmed. If it’s wild caught, the chef will give a specific type of salmon, such as sockeye, king, or Chinook. Most farm-raised fish has less healthful omega-3 fatty acid and more polychlorinated bromines than wild-caught fish.

Coldwater fish are also an excellent source of the omega-3 fatty acids that are essential to our good health and promote neurological development in babies and children—hence the old saying, “Fish is brain food.” The fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), found in all of our cells, are especially critical for the eyes, brain, nervous system, heart, and glands. Although many of us can manufacture DHA in our bodies from other fats, like flaxseeds, others lack the enzymes and nutrients (zinc, magnesium, B
₆
) necessary for this conversion and must obtain DHA through diet. The fish richest in EPA and DHA are salmon, halibut, tuna, mackerel, trout, sardines, eel, and herring. Lower-fat fish or fish from tropical waters are still healthful to eat, but they do not contain significant levels of EPA and DHA. Eating low-mercury and low-toxin fish such as sardines is also beneficial. To get more information on which fish are healthiest, go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for their Seafood Watch Guides:
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx
.

Studies show that people who eat coldwater fish twice a week have a reduced risk of heart disease and stroke. Other studies have found fish oils to be protective against, or therapeutic for, allergy, Alzheimer’s disease, angina, asthma, attention deficit disorder, cancer, depression, eczema, high blood pressure, high serum cholesterol, hyperactivity, inflammatory disorders, kidney disease, lupus, migraine, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and schizophrenia. Although supplementation with fish-oil capsules is beneficial, the best way to get these oils is to eat the fish itself.

If you like them, eat organically raised or pastured eggs. Eggs got a bad rap when they were linked to high cholesterol levels, but many researchers now believe that eating eggs has little or no effect on normal serum cholesterol. Recent studies show no significant change in the cholesterol of healthy people after six weeks of consuming two hard-boiled eggs daily, and other studies show that eating eggs can actually raise levels of “good” cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein, or HDL; “bad” cholesterol is low-density lipoprotein, or LDL). Eggs also contain high amounts
of phospholipids that are integral to our cell membranes and are a precursor to the important neurotransmitter acetylcholine.

10. Eat More High-Fiber Foods

Researcher Dennis Burkitt, M.D., noticed in the 1970s that rural Africans eating a traditional diet had almost no colon cancer, constipation, diabetes, diverticular disease, heart disease, or irritable bowel syndrome, whereas Africans consuming a Western diet had a heightened incidence of these problems. In a hospital in India, he found that the incidence of appendicitis was only 2 percent of that in a similar American hospital and that there was virtually no hiatal hernia, which affects nearly 30 percent of Americans over 50 years old. After examining many factors, Dr. Burkitt concluded that the large amount of fiber in traditional diets was crucial for health maintenance.

We have since learned much more about fiber and its contributions to health:

Diets high in soluble fiber help with Crohn’s disease, hiatal hernia, irritable bowel syndrome, and peptic ulcer.

High-fiber diets reduce the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and certain types of cancer, including colon cancer.

Fiber has been shown to normalize serum cholesterol levels.

High-fiber diets reduce the incidence of colon polyps and bowel disease.

Dietary fiber helps prevent obesity by slowing digestion and the release of insulin and stored glucose into the bloodstream.

Improving bowel function can help prevent diverticulosis, appendicitis, hemorrhoids, and varicose veins.

We also know that low-fiber diets lead to the digestive disorders suffered by one out of four Americans. We eat an average of 14 to 15 grams of fiber per day when adults should actually eat 25 to 30 grams of fiber daily (the same amount that Americans ate in 1850).

The richest food sources of fiber are also the four food groups that make up the bulk of a healthful eating plan: whole grains, legumes (all beans except string beans), vegetables, and fruits. (See
Table 12.2
.) Soluble and insoluble fibers, which work differently inside the body, are mixed in foods, so if you eat a wide variety of high-fiber foods you will get both types of fiber. As a group, beans and legumes have the highest fiber content.

Eating whole-grain products is an excellent way to increase your fiber intake. (See
Table 12.3
.) Think of using non-gluten-containing grains (and grainlike seeds)
such as quinoa, millet, rice, wild rice, amaranth, sorghum, tapioca, corn, risotto, teff, and buckwheat. Unfortunately, many people with dysbiosis cannot tolerate gluten-containing grains (wheat, barley, rye, spelt, kamut, triticale), and some people with digestive issues cannot tolerate
any
grains. Soaking grains and beans before cooking will release minerals and make them more digestible.

11. Drink Lots of Clean Water

Our bodies are 70 percent water. If we don’t adequately hydrate our cells, they cannot function properly. Moreover, the water we drink and consume in food is an essential carrier, bringing in nutrients and taking away wastes. In
Your Body’s Many Cries for Water
, Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, M.D., described the numerous, even fantastic roles that water plays in the body. Good hydration can help prevent many health problems, from gout to asthma; for example, Dr. Batmanghelidj believed water is the best cure for ulcers. Drinking plenty of clean, pure water every day is one of the most promising routes to digestive wellness.

Table 12.2
Amount of Fiber in Selected Foods

Table 12.3
Nutritional Differences Between Refined Grains and Whole Grains