Something has been bugging me…
It’s funny how your body is always trying to tell you something. Whether it is fatigue telling you to rest or pain asking you to stop doing something, the messages are always in your best interests. If you listen and reflect you can do a lot to improve your health.
With that said, I have recently learnt a bit about my own health. I completed one of the new cutting-edge microbiome tests called METABIOME. It analysed my gastrointestinal microbiome, showing me how my bugs were affecting such things as digestion, elimination, immunity, inflammation, mood, metabolism and detoxification. Thankfully my lifetime of health focus gave me a pretty good score card. However, there was one little glitch that helped to explain something my body has been communicating to me for most of my life.
It seems I have a reduced number of lactate producing bugs. Lactate is an epigenetic modifier that can decrease inflammation. When you eat fermented foods, for example, yoghourt, kefir, sauerkraut and kimchi, it is the lactate producing bugs that create them. And when you eat these foods you get a hit of these bugs as well a supply of lactate.
Thankfully, I have not been affected greatly by this slight deficiency. However, I have been unknowingly compensating for it. For as long as I can remember I have craved fermented foods! As a young child I used to love a swig of vinegar. In primary school I used to go to school with a lunchbox full of tasty fare to the envy of my peers. One day one of my friends came to school with homemade pickled beetroot sandwiches. They looked soggy and disgusting but smelled great. I asked for a bite and I was instantly hooked. Thereafter, I agreed to swap lunches with my beetroot friend every day. At one point I even negotiated a swap – 2 jars of homemade pickled beetroot for a leather football. Everyone thought I was mad. I thought it was a bargain!
Since then I haven’t been able to get enough sauerkraut, pickled turnips, apple cider vinegar, kefir, kombucha, yoghourt and miso. It seems my body has been constantly directing me to support my slightly deficient lactate producing bug colony by eating fermented foods.
My METABIOME test has explained scientifically what I thought was just a quirky trait. It has translated on of my body’s messages so that I can now work even more specifically toward my health potential.
All of us have messages being sent to us by our bodies each day. Some are easy to read. Others are more cryptic. Listen and observe mindfully. There is much wisdom to be gained.
