Gut feeling: Our body knows best
A workshop series focuses on food that nurtures the health of the bacterial microbiota within each one of us
By Smriti Daniel
The session comes to a close and everyone gathers around the refreshments. The women neglect the pots of tea and milk for the bottle of fermented kefir. They sip the pale amber liquid tentatively and then exclaim over its subtle but refreshing flavour. Shalini McCray encourages everyone to drink only a little bit – “everything in moderation,” has been her unofficial anthem in the last half of this class.
The small group has gathered at MILK on Horton Place for a series of summer workshops with McCray. Beginning with a focus on gut health, the series coverd baby’s first foods ( July 23), the making of fermented drinks ( July 25), food and its effect on a child’s behaviour (July 28), finally wrapping up with a workshop on healthy lunchboxes (July 29). McCray based in Sydney, Australia, is a popular consultant and speaker on the subject of natural health, and she says her life’s work is to nurture healthy, happy people around her.
“I’m fifty and when I was young, I knew no child with food allergies, cancer or diabetes. My children, by the time they were ten had been to the funerals of three classmates,” McCray tells the Sunday Times. As the theme of her workshops reflect, she is convinced many of our modern ailments can be remedied by our diet – more specifically by nurturing the health of the bacterial microbiota within each one of us.
Though she began speaking on the subject some 15 years ago, when we knew much less about the role of the microbiota in our intestines, McCray is now an expert in a new and rapidly evolving field. In 2007, the Human Microbiome Project set out to study all the microorganisms living in our bodies. They found that some two million unique bacterial genes make up the human microbiome - compare this with the 23,000 genes in our cells and you begin to have an inkling of the importance of the colonies of bacteria, fungi and parasites that live within us.
Now in 2015, we have developed a deep appreciation for the role these organisms play. Bacteria in the gut is our key to breaking down our food. They also secrete chemicals that regulate our moods and produce essential vitamins. Researchers have found links to obesity, joint pain, cancer, diabetes, various skin conditions and even our mental wellbeing. “The microbiome in our gut is the foundation of our good health,” says McCray, “we now know that we are only 10% human, the rest of us is bacteria.”
Before science offered proof, cultures all around the world seemed to have glimpsed this truth, and the evidence is in our culinary traditions. McCray points to how the Japanese serve miso soup lukewarm, thereby allowing the bacteria within to thrive. Other examples of traditionally rich probiotic foods include sauerkraut and kimchi, as well as the range of curds, lassis and pickles that we consume in this part of the world. Many of these traditional foods provide a much heartier dosage of good bacteria than commercial probiotic drinks and food, says McCray.
Consuming these foods is about restoring and enriching the communities of gut microbiota within our bodies. There is more than one way to do this. McCray talks about the impact of a procedure known as Fecal Microbiota Transplant (FMT) which is becoming increasingly popular. In it, a sample of stool is collected from a tested donor, mixed with a saline or other solution, strained, and placed in a patient, by colonoscopy, endoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, or enema. The procedure, used to combat a sometimes fatal condition caused by an infection of bad bacteria known as Clostridium difficile or C. diff restores the balance of good bacteria in the gut.
Fortunately, not all interventions need be so serious. McCray shares with her clients simple ways in which to prepare fermented foods and beverages rich in bacteria. Though some of her advice seems contrary to current medical thinking – for instance her take on what pregnant women can eat and drink – she is always pragmatic in her solutions.
She brings to her work a rich and eccentric course of studies, having formally learned nursing, remedial massage, nutrition and herbal medicine. At 50, she is also an ordained interfaith minister, an Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) practitioner, a laughter yoga professor and a certified Gut and Psychology/Physiology Syndrome (GAPS) practitioner. In May this year she sat her exams and is now a qualified practitioner from the Medical Academy of Pediatrics Special Needs.
All this learning has instilled in her a conviction that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to health and wellness. She advocates eating local, and seasonal, and says our traditional cuisines often offer exactly what our bodies need. But she readily acknowledges the difficulties of this as well. “These days we intermarry. Take the example of my family, just me alone: my father is Indian-Portuguese, my mother is Dutch-Sri Lankan-Irish, my husband is Scottish-Chinese. My children, what are they? What is their traditional diet?” The answer she says is clear: “We have to go back to the wisdom of our bodies. The body knows.”
McCray is focused on empowering people. She acknowledges that we come with our own genetic baggage – say a medical history of diabetes in a family. However, it is epigenetics - external or environmental factors that switch these genes on and off – that allow us some measure of control. It takes effort and knowledge to take charge, but this can be learned. “The way I explain it is ‘Genetics is a loaded gun but epigenetics pulls the trigger’.”