Learn About the Good Bacteria (Probiotics) & the Bad (infectious)

What is a bacteria? Bacteria are large single-celled animals which are large enough to be seen in a microscope. The bacteria is a protein bag enclosing a fluid which mimics sea water in saltiness and acidity. This cytoplasmic cell fluid contains many parts, including the nucleus of the cell, and many primitive small sub-bacteria which are in each cell, called by such names as mitochondria and golgi-apparatus among others.

These sub-parts are very simple separate bacteria-like bodies which have specific functions in the cell such as collecting oxygen or actually doing the breathing, and other parts which take the sugar, fat and proteins in the blood stream and as they transfer into the cell fluid they are converted into food and energy for each cell. Thus, bacteria are living cells which, (1) can move, (2) can locate and eat food, combining the food and oxygen to make energy, and (3) can reproduce by making copies of each cell by dividing down the middle and making two new identical cells from the original one. Bacteria are at the basis of our life-support system. They supply our fertile soil and atmospheric gases. They cleanse our water supply, play a role in stabilizing the atmospheric nitrogen concentration, regulate the acidity or alkalinity of the soil environment, and thus generally ensure that our world is liveable.

Most of the infections people get have some bacterial connection; from pneumonia, to bubonic plague to acne. It would be easy to classify bacteria as the enemy, but if we are in a healthy state, our body (particularly the intestines) will have anywhere between four and eleven pounds of probiotics, also known as acidophillus. These are the good bacteria that keep the invironment of your body in a state that does not allow infectious bacteria to grow. Probiotics are very essential to intestinal health, the manufacture of B-vitamins, keep minerals like calcium available for absorption and other benefits. Many people are talking about the need to supplement probiotics, but I rarely ask my clients to supplement probiotics for several reasons. First of all, how could you ever think to supplement enough of something that is rated in pounds! You would have to take an extreme amount to get results. Those who have gotten notable results by using probiotics generally changed their diet and started eating the foods that encourage natural probiotic growth known as prebiotics.

The real key in balancing the intestinal bacteria, which you might consider as the hosting site for the good bacteria, is not supplements, but environment. The infectious bacteria reproduce and multiply in the presence of white sugar and refined carbohydrates (breads, cookies, pastries, etc.), all which create acidity. The more of those that you ingest, the more you are feeding the bad guys. And weather you supplement probiotics or not, the bad guys will win.

SIGNS OF BACTERIAL ACTIVITY:
Bowel movements that stink
Continual skin irritations
Bone density issues (evident when you have weak teeth)

Probiotics, the good bacteria, multiply in the presence of fruit sugar (long chains of fructose called fructooligosaccharides) and other bifidogenic foods such as Jerusalem artichokes, leeks, onions, barley and oatmeal. If your diet is high in organic, raw fruits and vegetables, especially flower or pedal shaped vegetables, you are probably getting plenty of prebiotics. Probiotics are naturally found in live-cultured foods such as sauerkraut, pickled vegetables, kefir, organic yogurt, tempeh and others.

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