Healthy by Nature radio show this week: The theme is fun with food. Susan Linke , RD, LD will help us understand food sensitivities. Food Network celebrity chef, Aarón Sanchez, discusses spices, Tex-Mex and quick meals. And we check in with attorney/farmer/activist, Judith McGeary who is founder of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance about the legal issues surrounding protection for small farms and raw milk. Be a part of the show by calling 1-800-281-8255. Click here to find podcasts, show archives and ways to listen nationwide .

Do you have the guts to be optimally healthy?

Who thinks about his or her digestive tract unless it calls attention to itself? It speaks up with the likes of heartburn; a “silent but deadly” accident in a packed elevator; motion sickness; traveler’s constipation or its evil twin traveler’s diarrhea. (Phew…in a weak moment there I almost told you a story about a particularly embarrassing ski class I endured wearing a white outfit.) If we think of our digestive tract at all, it is easy to think of it as just a pipe but it is a whole lot more. We should understand and therefore better appreciate our digestion because it can mean the difference between vibrant health and long term suffering followed by an untimely death. Huh? Yes indeed.

•  Eating good food or taking supplements isn’t much help if the intestinal system isn’t working to properly break them down and send them to the right places. We need to extract all the micronutrients we possibly can from our food (which is ever more nutrient-depleted). Those vitamins, minerals, fatty acids and plant antioxidants help us think more clearly and have more energy as well as repair tissues and protect us from cellular damage in every part of our bodies.

•  More than half of our immune system resides in the gut. When that system is impaired, we are more susceptible to all manner of diseases-from allergies and the flu to auto immune disease and cancer.

•  Our intestinal tract is known as our “second brain” because of the massive production and usage there of neurotransmitters like serotonin, the happy hormone.

•  Toxins from a poorly functioning gut get into the blood stream and can cause symptoms and degradation anywhere in the body. Unfortunately it is a rare physician who knows to look to the gut when the patient has a skin rash or depression. (The mainstream views those conditions as deficiencies of drugs.)

•  A “leaky gut” can allow pathogenic organisms into circulation. This condition can also permit incompletely digested food to enter the blood stream causing food sensitivities and perhaps even auto-immune disease.

Gut 101 – If you know the following, it won’t likely be because you were taught it in public school or by your doctor.

The mouth . Sure, it’s where we chew the food into a wad small enough to choke down. (Some people can swallow a White Castle burger whole. Heck, some can practically swallow a Whopper ® whole- think teenager .) But, we aren’t stuffing geese to make pâté and here is what is what those speed demons are missing:

•  The smaller the particles of food become, the more effectively all the digestive juices can work on it.

•  Some digestion, especially of carbohydrates, actually begins in the mouth. An enzyme, amylase, is present in saliva and is mixed into the food by chewing.

•  Feedback mechanisms in the mouth send signals to the rest of the digestive tract about what types of foods are coming. That allows for the correct digestive juices to be released at later points.

•  Because chewing slows us down, there is time for the stomach to signal the brain that we are full and so we eat less. Calm also improves digestion-saying Grace improves digestion.

•  You have to focus on the food to remember to chew thoroughly. That focus provides more enjoyment from the food, which in turn makes the meal more satisfying. Then maybe you won’t be asking yourself later as you approach the vending machine. “Did I eat lunch? I’m not sure”.

•  If food is better prepared for digestion by chewing, it won’t have to sit in the stomach as long. Food delayed in the stomach is one cause of heartburn.

What could be a simpler or cheaper weight loss or health improvement plan than to simply chew your food longer? If you are a fast eater like I used to be, you might have to actually count the number of chews on each bite (e.g. maybe 25?) until it becomes a habit. The goal is to make the solid food into a near liquid.

Next week: on to the stomach. Week 3, points south.

My first book : Natural Alternatives to Nexium, Maalox, Tagamet, Prilosec & Other Acid Blockers. Subtitle: What to Use to Relieve Acid Reflux, Heartburn, and Gastric Ailments.

My latest book : Aloe Vera-Modern Science Sheds Light on an Ancient Herbal Remedy

Copyright 2011 Martie Whittekin, CCN