The road to Vibrant Health is paved with good intestines”

“The road to vibrant Health is paved with good intestines.”… our digestive system is a very intricate and complex working system and yet it plays a huge role in our health & well being. It is the avenue that the body takes the foods you eat and converts it into energy.

There is a muscular tube that goes from the mouth to ur behind(south pole exit). This muscular track is coupled with a host of primary & accessory organs along the trail.

It begins with:
1. the mouth
2. esophagus
3 liver
4 gall bladder
5 stomach
6 deodenum
7 pancreas
8 Jejunum
9 small intestines
10 ileum
11 appendix
12 Cecum
13 Ascending colon
14 Traverse colon
15 Descending colon
16sigmoid colon
17 south pole exit (anus)

• Your main aspects of the digestive system are:
  mouth
• esophagus
• stomach
• small intestines
• liver
• pancreas
• gall bladder.

Here’s a little FYI: there are more organs in your digestive system than in any other system in the body.

Up to 2/3 of ALL your body parts are used just in the process of digestion.

You use up to 2/3 of your daily energy just to complete the process of digestion.

I tell most of my clients the 2 things your body uses the most energy on is digestion and elimination. So is it any wonder that when the quality of foods you are running thru your system don’t supply much in the way of useable nutrients, and have lots of unrecognized elements the body has to “think” longer on deciding what it is and what to do with it that so many are dragging their carcasses thru the day and relying on caffeine and energy drinks etc. just to function. (sorry just had to toss that tid bit in the mix)

So how does this elaborate system really work? You own it so I think it’s only fair that you KNOW… obviously you begin with the chewing process, of which many could do with taking their time with and actually using the teeth, but the food is chewed and mixes with your saliva which has an enzyme called ptyalin which is amylase. This helps to dissolve the food so it is easier to swallow and helps the breakdown process especially with carbohydrates/sugars. so once the food is swallowed, it moves down the esophagus a.k.a. da throat..

Then it enters the stomach which churns the food into a paste called chyme. Your stomach uses hydrocholoric acid (HCL), which many are very deficient in producing, and the other enzyme is pepsin which goes to work on the proteins; many are low in that one too.

OK, so some elements of the food like the water and sugar are a direct feed into your bloodstream while in the stomach. Then the food that is NOT absorbed moves on down the line. Next stop at the station is the pyloric sphincter, (yes we have something with that fancy name inside us) this is at the very end of the stomach and its the gateway to the small intestine. so when the food has been mixed and broken down well, it then gets released into the small intestine, which has 3 parts:

• the duodenum,
• jejunum
• ileum

this is where the major digestion and absorption of nutrients happens.

Those nutrients then get transferred to the blood and some are jockeyed to the liver. So the other players in this game of digestion are the:

• pancreas
• gallbladder
• liver

The pancreas is a gland and it sits behind your stomach and produces enzymes and hormones (all glands do), it manufactures more amylase for starches, insulin and glucagon for sugar regulation of the blood. these then get moved into the duodenum and a duct connects the duodenum to the gallbladder.

This little pear shaped wonder, then squeezes out something called bile, which is a waste product produced by liver ( I prefer to refer to bile as a degreaser) and has acids that help dissolve fats. (so some of you who have already had their gall bladder removed may have some trouble digesting fatty foods and been told ur cholesterol levels are too elevated).

Since the liver is the biggest organ in the body it is the main go to guy for processing the chemicals. It has like over 500 different jobs. so besides making the bile, it has to process nutrients, convert proteins into new proteins that the blood needs, it stores fats, carbohydrates, proteins and vitamins, releases proteins, carbohydrates and vitamins as the body sends signal it needs them, and absorbs poisons and toxic stuff before it goes to work to neutralize them(meaning it has to disable them before they hurt you.)

Ok, so once stuff moves past the small intestines, whatever is remaining then gets shuffled into the cecum, which is where the large intestine begins. It is in your large intestines that the poop is formed. Water is reabsorbed, B-vitamins are absorbed and the poop is moved thru the rest of the colon. The large intestines ends at the south pole exit called the anus. If you have a lot of Mucoid plague build-up going on in the large intestines, you will have trouble absorbing your B-vitamins, many peeps are chronically dehydrated therefore there usually isn’t much water to absorb hence constipation is a serious issue for many, you may experience having to sit in the library for a long period of time and only give birth to that of marbles.

Understand that the whole process of digestion is really all about change. This intricate system changes carbohydrates into simple carbohydrates or sugars. Its changes the proteins into smaller molecules called amino acids which the body uses as its building blocks for repair and muscle. It changes the fats into fatty acids/glycerin. Whole foods need to be converted into usable aspects called nutrients which then can be directly absorbed into the blood. So not only are you what you eat…. take it a step further and realize you are what you absorb (this is where the 2nd problem is for most).

I realize that most of what I post is long winded. I realize that maybe not all of ya are really interested in the details of why or how it has to work; you just want it to work… but that is all well and fine until it breaks down.

If you take the same mentality with your car, you don’t care what makes it run, you just wanna know that when you put the key in the ignition and give it a turn, move the gear shift lever, hit the gas pedal, the thing better take ya where you need to go (especially when your running late)….

But when you are in the process of traveling from point A to point B and something malfunctions, and you have to pull off the side of the road and your now stranded. You call someone for help and they ask well what’s it doing, and you state. I DON’T KNOW!!!!

So after the mechanic tows it to the shop (hospital), assesses the damage (lets envision this is the doctor) and the car is your body… the mechanic assesses the issues with your car by hooking up a bunch of diagnostic machines reading the electrical system and such (these tests are not FREE), then the mechanic says I “think” I know what the problem is and sets about taking out the part (surgery), or repairing, or says I did this and it should hold you over (meds). Worse yet is when someone fails to keep up on the needed fluids our cars rely on to perform, like transmission fluid, oil, gasoline. but what happens when we run low on oil or let it run out because we had leak? I think we can burn up the engine. What happens if the transmission fluid is allowed to get overly dirty, or again we have a seal leak and it runs low, we chew up the gears in the transmission. If we forget to look at the fuel needle and we run out of gas, the car dies and it goes nowhere.

Yet many make sure they know exactly how to maintain and keep their cars running as best as they can afford because they need them everyday to function. But the most prized possession you own which is your body (which your car needs to make it drive) many procrastinate, mask symptoms and wait until they have a breakdown and need a major service call.

So long and short of it. THIS IS WHY I TRY TO IMPART SO MUCH INFORMATION TO YOU. I’m hoping that many of you are adding these pages to your service manual for future reference, but also incorporating a check up system to better maintain what should be most precious to you. YOU….

I’m here to take you further, with a consultation, and  we can check your fluids and see what your best course of preventative maintenance needs to be. (preventative maintenance is always a more cost effective route to take)..

As always, Healthfully yours,
Jodi Barnett N.D.
QFA Clinician, Orthomolecular Nutrition coach,
Raw food coach

Harvested Health LLC
219-713-4789
mkt.com/harvested-health-llc