$5 million overdue but welcome
A LOCAL health food supplier says news this week that Australian researchers have been awarded a $5 million National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Synergy Grant is welcome, but way overdue.
Dubbo Health Food’s Mike Parish says the project, which is intended to advance knowledge of the gut, microbiomes, metabolites and diet, and their role in both causing and potentially treating inflammatory respiratory diseases, is something people in his sector have been assisting their clients with for decades.
Here he talks to Dubbo Photo News about the importance of nutritious diets and healthy living.
What do you think about this grant?
I think it is definitely as step in the right direction. For far too long the focus in conventional medicine has been on treating symptoms and not addressing the root cause.
Sadly, there is a lot of money to be made in treating symptoms and no real incentive to fix the underlying cause.
Interestingly, I have met soil scientists that are studying gut health, and doctors and medical researchers that are studying soil health, and they are amazed at the similarities and connections.
How long have people in your industry been talking about the importance of gut health and how an unhealthy gut leads to so many serious illnesses?
Decades – and just about every natural health professional has a focus on firstly healing and restoring the gut health, which is the foundation.
Why has it taken conventional medicine so long to catch up?
Quite simply, I think it is about money. The majority of research money comes from the pharmaceutical industry. Why would they want to fund something that could threaten that current model?
Our current health system should be more correctly described as a sickness industry rather than a health system, as the majority of focuses on diagnosing and treating symptoms.
Just think, when was the last time your health professional asked you about your diet and lifestyle; they look for your symptoms and then match up a treatment.
I travelled to Singapore many years ago and they decided decades ago to focus on causes of health issues. They spend about 4 per cent of their GDP on health, where we spend about 17 per cent – and it is forecasted to outpace our GDP.
To quote Wendell Berry: “People are fed by a food industry,
which pays no attention to health, and are treated by the health industry, which pays no attention to food.”
Tell us about the importance of gut health.
It has been estimated that up to 80 per cent of our immune system is located in the gut.
Our gut biome is an ecosystem, that is extracting and absorbing nutrients from that food. Good bacteria are the first line of defence from bad bacteria, viruses and toxins.
The wrong foods, and therefore an undesirable gut biome, can cause a breakdown of this defence/barrier, which then leads to all sorts of serious health issues, lack of nutrient uptake, allergies and other immune responses.
When our gut microbiome is healthy we barely think about it, when it’s not we are miserable and more susceptible to illness.
What do you generally recommend for people to get their gut health in order?
The obvious place firstly is to explain to them that the gut is an eco-system very similar to a healthy living soil. I was a biological farmer for over 15 years and learnt in that time for you to have healthy plants and animals, and to decrease inputs (chemicals and
fertilisers), you need to create a ‘state’ in the soil for the beneficially fungi and bacteria to thrive and exist.
If you overgraze and over-farm land, and add in toxic chemicals and fertilisers, this is not a healthy state for beneficial soil microbiome.
So it is important to create a healthy state in our gut, plenty of prebiotic vegetables, fruits and other sources, filtered water, limit the amount of sugar, starches, junk processed food, etc. And be aware, toxins, drugs and antibiotics have a huge detrimental effect on gut biology.
So eating a diet rich in prebiotic foods, low in carbohydrates, good quality proteins (pastured and grass-fed) and good fats.
“We are what we eat,” and also my favourite, “We are what we eat eats,” and that includes plants grown in healthy, living soils.
Think about adding fermented foods to your diet such as sauerkrauts, kefir and kombucha.
If you need to take an antibiotic, think about also taking a probiotic to help restore some of the gut biome, which I have heard can take six months to recover without help.
What sort of results have your customers told you about when
they’ve worked on improving their gut health?
Very positive, they experience a general improvement in wellbeing, more energy, no brain fog, better sleep and more able to resist illnesses, many ridding themselves of long-term health conditions.
What should governments be doing aside from grants such as this?
Really rethink their strategies around human health, have a full overhaul of what a healthy diet is – so much of our dietary recommendations have been made with consultation and lobbying from the processed food industry, which donate substantial amounts of money to political parties.
When you look at our health outcomes now, compared to 50 years ago, there has been a huge increase in obesity, diabetes, cancer and many other diseases, and it all started with the introduction of the food pyramid and what we should be eating, according to new ‘dietary experts’.
Before then, our grandmothers and the wisdom of the old people knew what we should be eating – what makes us fat, etc. There was very little processed food or fast-food outlets and most people grew some veggies in their backyards.
How much information is there in the medical literature worldwide these days which stresses the importance of gut health?
There is a huge amount of literature and science but it’s only there if you are willing to look for it. Our current political health leaders and governments don’t seem willing to look at or want upset the current health model which requires an unsustainable amount of money and infrastructure.
Anything you’d like to add?
People need to take personal responsibility for their health, many people know the things that are unhealthy to eat and effect their heath, and their body usually tells them.
It is more convenient to eat processed and fast food and ignore their body than it is to buy quality fruit, vegetables and proteins and then cook them.
Our younger generations have been raised in a processed food environment and many lack the knowledge and skills to cook a meal from scratch.
Buy some cookbooks, ask your mother and grandmother for some recipes and just start eating real wholefoods. Your body will thank you.