If someone told you that they knew of a substance that helped protect against breast cancer, diabetes, heart disease, blood clots, diverticulitis, high cholesterol, constipation, gallstones, colon cancer, varicose veins, piles, obesity, oestrogen overload and toxic bowel, would you go out and buy it? Of course you would!
That substance is fibre.
Fibre is the plant skeleton and is mainly indigestible in the human body. In nature it is found in wholegrains, vegetables, fruit, seeds, and nuts, etc. The refining of whole grains and other foods removesmost of its fibre content, as in white bread. Our consumption of fresh fruit, vegetables, whole grains, etc, in Great Britain is desperately short of even the minimum fibre intake.
In Third World rural communities, around 60 -120 grams of fibre is consumed daily; by contrast awestern style diet is doing well if it can provide 20 grams! To increase intake by five or six times may seem like a huge task, but it is relatively easy. If you substitute brown bread for white, brown rice for white, etc, eat six or more pieces of fresh fruit daily, have a whole grain meal such as organic oats for breakfast, and fresh vegetables with other meals, you will have gone a long way toward solving the problem.
Average faecal transit time for Third World communities is one to two days; for healthy U.K. adults three to four days, and for many less healthy it can be two weeks! These extended transit times can lead to a toxic bowel, which in turn, can lead to serious health problems. Forty-seven per cent of the considerable numbers (over 800) of people that I have tested for a toxic bowel have this condition.
For every day we do not have a bowel movement equates to three meals backed up in our intestines! We become immersed in our own effluent. The correct daily intake of fibre will not only guard against this serious condition, but also help to alleviate it. Research has shown the multitude of toxins that can leach into the blood from a toxic bowel. Some of these are octopamine*,sepsin, skarol, indican, putrescin and cadaverin.
*Octopamine. I show octopamine as an example of a toxic substances capability. Bacterial activity from a putrefying gut, instead of liberating phenylalanine a precursor of catecholamine neurotransmitters, it (phenylalanine) is converted into phenylethylamine (PEA). This is absorbed by the gut wall and when it reaches the brain it is converted into the pseudo-neurotransmitter octopamine, replacing the active neurotransmitter noradrenaline.
And the effects of this can be: behavioural changes, memory impairment, thinking processes impairment (foggy brain), severe emotional problems, anxiety, depression and possibly schizophrenia.
Past and recent scientific evidence suggests that 'bad' bacteria produced by bowel toxins can create an increase in the bacterial enzyme beta-glucuronidase that can reactivate 'dead' oestrogens, which are reabsorbed into the blood. Any elevation of oestrogen beyond the normal can have serious consequences for both males and females. For instance, seventy-five percent of breast cancers are oestrogen dependent, i.e. they are stimulated by oestrogen. Fibre passing through the colon helps to absorb and carry away these 'dead' oestrogens.
On a high fibre diet, mainly 'good', bacteria such as Acidophilus, reside in the intestines, which displaces the 'bad' bacteria.