Our intestinal flora .

'Hopelessly incomplete primer' .by Melchior Meijer 2013

Unauthorized translation

Healthy intestines provide permanent housing for a thousand billion bacteria. Joop microbe and  his buddies enjoy room and board , but also pay a hefty rent . Therefore they make indispensable enzymes and vitamins. They put together every night a nice bolus for their landlord , so that in the morning the only thing he needs to do is sit down and enjoy the passing . They make short work of newcomers who want to demolish the house . And ... they keep our immune system in check .

Two kilos of livestock help you daily in the digestion of all the goodies that comes across your lips . Possibly it takes away your appetite for a moment , but it might still be nice to know that you would get nothing through your system anymore if that teeming horde on a bad day as a man would decide to head for the sewer . Not a bite your throat  Luckily  that  happens only rarely . Our intestinal tract is too pleasant a place to voluntarily abandon. It is warm and humid , there is always something to tuck into , and contrary to what you might suspect  from the number a trillion there no  overcrowding in the least . The inside of our intestines covers thanks to the many creases and folds an entire football field. If all those trillion microbes would cozy crowd together, they fit well on the center spot .Like The Netherlands it seems . Together in Almere :-) .

Spread over that ' football field' live four hundred different species together as people in society . They make war over a Febo – croquette, inhaled by some ill informed loonies (this is a joke ) , closing a temporary alliance with a basically hostile crowd when they find out that they cannot handle  the loot on their own to work it into a beautiful turd, they steal and conduct barter , kill each other after a job is done, in short, they're all too human .

Back to the Febo croquette or let us choose a paleo darling , a mixed salad with mussels and sardines . Without gut bacteria our intestinal wall might not at all be able to  absorb many nutrients from the lunch fest. What would be a waste of money and also extremely awkward. Our digestive system  would work its ass off, run into unsolvable problems all the time and what was initially such a warmly received delicacy would eventually be relieved, unused, as a pathetic puddle of diarrhea . The only thing that digestion without outside help can get  is mother's milk. Fortunately , our microscopic little friends assist us after every meal again and again. . Certain bacteria cut too large carbohydrate molecules to shreds , so that they can pass through the intestinal wall Other useful guys nibble the amino acids from the bile . Only then is the stuff in a position to cut fats into small , absorbable pieces Still other groups feast on what ultimately remains of the snack. As a thank you they shit , spit and sweat stuff which helps us further , such as folate , vitamin K , and perhaps even the "new" star in the sky , vitamin K2 . Oh yes, they are also generous with the gassy combination of carbon dioxide , hydrogen , sulfur and methane , which we may or may not consciously  unload into our environment on average forty times a day .

The collaboration between our body and its diverse inhabitants goes so far that they communicate with each other in an amazing way . Host Microbe Crosstalk , this phenomenon crucial for life, is called . Researchers already described in 1996 in Science beautifully how a 'good' bacteria colony wipes out an invading gang of , for the human body, dangerous competitors . The alarmed ' good guys ' report to certain cells in the intestine ( enterocytes ) and order some sugar . The intestinal cells do not hesitate and meet  their request . They produce glucose . In exchange for this fine meal the members of the 'good' gang multiplyi like crazy and start as if on command to secrete a very specific poison . That kills the pathogenic invaders before they can harm the body.  It is striking that  intestinal cells "know" whether there is indeed danger.  If the 'good' bacteria 'just' come begging for sugar the gut does not play ball (unless there's WGA in the game , but that's another story ) . The intestinal flora also is in a constant , insanely complicated communication with almost all parts of the immune system . And it even performs lengthy phone calls with brains , through the so-called gut -brain axis .

The friemels in your stomach not only eat what your pot brings forth . They also eat you yourself. The intestinal mucosa renews itself continuously , similar to your skin that peels after a sunbath . An adult loses daily around two hundred grams of meat , as much as a reasonable steak. You can guess that our gourmets in there know how to deal with that . They give themselves over to a pigging out, stuffing their faces where Caligula would be sick to his stomach . Their heroic motto is " eat steak and die ." After the feast , they create offspring and perish . That battlefield you can smell every morning . Feces consists for the most part of, with the Military William Order distinguished bacteria that have fallen for the Good Cause, and  the sulfur-containing residues that they expelled just before their death throes .

Isn't biology  fun :-) . Those waiting for Honig potato starch  still have to continue scrolling down .

In the cauldron of your stomach a constant battle takes place between beneficial and potentially pathogenic bacteria .Even the latter are needed , they just must not get the upper hand . The in the stomach pouch  living Helicobacter pylori for example, can in large quantities cause an ulcer , but as long as the population remains within certain limits , it is only beneficial . In exchange for that nutrient-rich place in the stomach it produces a targeted antibiotic that eliminates bacteria that like to have us looking green and yellow hanging over the toilet within twenty minutes .

Beneficial bacteria are naturally found in large quantities in the intestines of people who , like our   ancestors, come into intense  daily contact with the earth and the therein Soil Based Organisms ( SBO 's ) . Modern people have them too, but probably in much smaller quantities . And now we come at last , that is, bit by bit , at Honigs potato starch. These for metabolic flexibility necessary SBO are incredibly dependent upon carbohydrate compounds which amylase can not be break down and cut into individual glucose molecules, and of absolute necessity for a properly functioning immune system and a tip- glucose tolerance Such carbohydrate strands have (therefore ) no  glycaemisch effect, but go unchanged into the intestine there to serve as a delicacy for those bacteria.

In the first place, there are so-called fructo- oligosaccharides such as inulin. These are plant ( fructo ) sugars ( saccharides ) with few ( oligo ) connections. Inulin (has nothing to do with the hormone insulin ) is naturally found in bananas, beans , chicory , onions , garlic , but also in unrefined sugar. Another non-digestible carbohydrate chain is called resistant starch . This show up in places like raw potatoes and very immature (fry) bananas. It is this kind of Resistant Starch what this post is ultimately about . Potato starch . Honig .

People co - evolved with the bacteria in their environment and thus the bacteria in their gut . Anybody who has followed my communication with the lovely Anna Archeonova , knows that I consider strong glycemic starch as a potential pathogen. Hunter / gatherers probably ate very little glycemic starch. However resistant starch, in contrast, they were probably quite likely to get, even though the Honig family was not in business (as yet) . From paleontological research  we find that our paleo -ancestors from the Low Countries in the time that the river delta between Rotterdam and Dover was not yet flooded, had more on their menu than mammoths, fish and shellfish . There were also cattail roots ( stinky cigars ) on their menu Cattail roots, but also other ancient roots and acorns and chestnuts,  bursting with the RS . Our ancestors gave their menagerie  behind the navel presumably -with in their low glycemic diet – also a relatively large RS . Today we generally eat relatively little RS . To make a long story a little shorter too, more and more studies and a swelling tide n = 1 suggest that even people who are already paleo  can, along with their Paleo / LCHF often already improved intestinal flora, also benefit from a dose of RS . The best and easiest source of RS in the Netherlands? Bring on the music, blow the horns , light the fireworks , ... Honig potato .

By far the most outspoken proponents of potato starch are the American blogger Richard Nikoley , his buddy Tim Steele ( aka Tatertot ) and blogging pharmacologist Dr . B. G. (first name Grace ) . They and their readership have collected a fairly consistent range of effects . One teaspoon to one tablespoon ( Honig!) potato starch daily ,three times a day in cold water and drink it , and you may  notice the following:

Flatulence ( usually odorless , usually temporary )

Decreasing fasting blood sugars, and less high postprandial glucose excursions

Strongly damped appetite, falling blood pressure

Loss of excess body weight, Better , more even temper

Disappearance of pathological anxiety ( gut -brain axis ? )

Lively , often ' romantic' dreams ( gut -brain axis ? )

Increased exercise tolerance

Spontaneously stop biting your nails ( nail biting may be a way to get inside SOBs ) .