The creator of Restore For Gut Health, Zach Bush is a triple board certified doctor who used to develop chemotherapy. He was noticing similarities between diseases that he couldn’t explain. He noticed mass increases of autism, and other neurological diseases.
Between 2012 and today there’s been a doubling of the rate of autism every 2-3 years and it’s projected to reach 1/3 by 2035. Cancer rates, as we all know, are through the roof, and dementia is in full gear. He noticed all these diseases had a rapid uptick in the mid 1990s. He started to think, maybe these aren’t all different diseases but rather maybe they all had the same root cause. So he started moving backward to figure out what is the root cause – of the root cause — of the root cause.
Chronic inflammation was the common denominator, but what is causing the inflammation? Inflammation is a good thing first of all. It’s a normal immune response to fight off infection, and injury. 70% of the volume of the immune system is in our gut, and 80% of the work done for the immune system is in our gut lining. The gut lining membrane is only 1 cell thick (a human hair cut in half) and can spread the surface of 2 tennis courts. His theory is that since everyone’s immune systems were in crisis at the same time, there’s a good chance it’s gut related. He looked toward potential assaults on the gut that would have needed to increase a little before the mid 90s when things seemed to start going haywire for people’s health.
He dug deep back into history and saw that we started mono cropping instead of crop rotation and the integrity of top soil was starting to decline. Government subsidies are given to farmers so they will only produce soy, corn, and wheat (a sad story for another post). So there’s no soil diversity which is need to create heathy microbes – the soil needs a healthy well balanced biome — just like we do. In addition, there was the “green revolution” of the 1960s where fertilizers were coming into favor among farmers (even though they were doing quite well, in fact better, without them). The plants did turn green, (from nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium), but they were lacking nutrients as a result so the plants became weak, and they were all of the sudden more prone to pests and weeds. So then there was a need for chemical pest and weed control for the first time. Similar to what we do in modern medicine – we treat the symptom – not the “root” cause. One drug begets another drug. Around the same time, antibiotics came into favor for our bodies. So we are simultaneously killing the diversity in our soil and out guts.
Then here comes glyphosate. The key component in the weed killer Roundup which was actually initially patented as an antibiotic. So, not only is it acting as an antibiotic to our crops, but to our bodies as well when we consume non-organic produce. What’s worse, glyphosate is water soluble which makes it even easier for the plants to soak it up, and for our bodies to soak it up as well. What’s worse, is that it is also a chelator which bonds to heavy metals like mercury and aluminum (hello autism and dementia). The process of chelation makes even foods thought of as superfoods, like kale, incredibly toxic when grown non organically. And yes, I’ll say it again……what’s worse is that glyphosate blocks the Shikimate Pathway in plants. The pathway makes all the essential amino acids in plants. Human beings don’t have a Shikimate Pathway so Monsanto said it was safe for us because the pathway is only in plants. The problem with that is we can’t make essential amino acids. We need to get them from foods. But now our food doesn’t have them either because glyphosate blocks the pathway to do so. SO if you’re eating non-organic produce, you are missing the essential building blocks to make a healthy humane body. And thanks to an unfortunate symbiotic relationship between gluten and glyphosate (which I’ll explain in depth in a later post) there has also been a huge increase in people with gluten sensitivities.
You’re also continually stripping your gut flora because of the fact that your ingesting a small, but continuous dose of the anti fungal and antibacterial properties of glyphosate. If you think taking a probiotic will help you out, it may actually do the opposite. I’ll get into this at length in another post, but for now I’ll say that we need tens of thousands of probiotic strains in our guts, and store bought probiotics only have a few strains. So we are overpopulating our guts with only a few strains, creating a greater loss of diversity. PREbiotics in foods, probiotic fermented foods, and PREbiotic supplements (if needed) are a far better option. I definitely recommend everyone (kids and adults) take Restore for Gut Health with meals as an insurance policy to protect your gut lining.
By eating organic, you’re avoiding stripping your gut, you’re getting food with actual nutrients, and amino acids. We have a country full of people who are over eating, but nutrient deprived. Once your gut lining is comprised – it’s only a 1 cell barrier after all – you’re body starts attacking itself. Then you have all the auto immune diseases start flooding in. It’s a breeding ground for cancer cells, and inflammation. We know that inflammation anywhere in the body creates inflammation in the brain leading to neurological diseases. Even if you somehow managed to keep your gut lining in tact though all of this, given the fact that glyphosate is water soluble, it easily passes through the gut lining, and passes through the blood brain barrier. Because it’s water soluble, 99% of glyphosate ends up in the rests of our ecosystem, our water supplies (hello toxic algae blooms). The Mississippi River collects 80% of all the Roundup in the Country. That region is now known as Cancer Valley. It evaporates into the air (so you breath it) and then rains down on us.
There’s more to come on the environmental concerns that have risen thanks to glyphosate, but for now, I’m hoping I made a good case for why it’s important to eat organic. I know it’s more expensive, but with more demand, comes more organic farms, comes lower prices. Buying from farmer’s markets is the best option, not only because the produce didn’t have to go through a long transport process, but it also supports your local farmers. So let’s stick together on this and crowd out the need for non-organic farming.
Eating organic vegetarian is more expensive but you have fewer medical bills, less pain, and a better quality of life!
Exactly – and it saves our country so much money in medical care!