The human body is a remarkable instrument to serve us but carelessness and the wrong lifestyle can easily damage it. Most people's diets these days contain too few vegetables and are heavily based in animal foods, breads, pastas and processed foods that have very few nutrients.
Via the surface of small intestinal epithelial cells, the small intestine is the major site in the digestive tract for the digestion and absorption of most nutrients essential to health. If the small intestine were simply a smooth pipe, its total inner surface area would be only about 0.5 a square meter. But in reality, its inner surface is 500 times larger, roughly 250 square metres-the size of a tennis court. But how is this possible? The small intestine has developed two features that account for its huge absorptive surface.
Mucosal folds: The inner surface of the small intestine is not flat but made up of circular folds, which increases surface area and acts as a mixing tube.
Microvilli: The mucosal folds inside the gut are studded with densely packed microvilli. The epithelial cells that cover the microvilli absorb virtually every single nutrient from the diet and deliver it to the body's cells through the blood.
The microvilli of most people are covered with food sludge in various stages of deterioration. For good digestion and absorption, this sludge should be removed. This is done naturally by the scrubbing action of insoluble fibre, caused by the normal contractions of the digestive tract (peristalsis), which moves food and fibre along the small intestine.
Today's diets contain very little fibre and fibre-poor food travels through the digestive tract only slowly. Sludge and deteriorating food residues start to build up between the microvilli, beginning the build-up of toxic molecules. Toxins can weaken cells, tissues, glands, and organs throughout the body, leading to the manifestations of many degenerative diseases such as cancer. Additionally, the temperature inside our body is ideal for bacterial growth. Slowly rotting food can also cause inflammation, increase temperature, and speed bacterial growth, creating enormous stress for the entire body, which now must battle bacteria as well as toxic molecules produced by food rotting inside the gut.
The good news is that the slimy, sluggish, dark-coloured sludge that lines the small intestine may be easily removed by the long-term use of the right kind of fibre supplement. Insoluble fibre will gently scrub the microvilli and after several months, they will become squeaky clean. This fibre improves general well being through better elimination and by helping the body to better absorb vitamins and nutrients, increasing vitality. Soluble fibre will also help elimination, will stabilize blood glucose, reduce food cravings, give a full feeling and suppress appetite, feed the friendly bowel bacteria (probiotics), escort spent cholesterol, bile acids, heavy metals, and liver-generated toxins from the body, and improve the body's detoxification capacity. Along with fibre, if super high quality foods such as proteins, essential fats, minerals and vitamins are introduced, the nutrients and vitamins that they contain can then be more effectively absorbed by the microvilli.
About Udo Erasmus, Ph.D.
Udo Erasmus is an internationally recognized authority on the role of fats, oils, and cholesterol in human health. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Honours Zoology with a major in Psychology from the University of British Columbia, followed by graduate studies in biochemistry and genetics. Several years of research in the field of nutrition led to him write his first book, Fats and Oils, which earned him a Ph.D. in nutrition and was later expanded and republished as Fats That Heal Fats That Kill.
by Udo Erasmus, Ph.D.
