Family get together last night:) That’s my dad, my mom, and my Uncle Fred, my 3 sisters, 2 of my daughters, and a few nieces and nephews.
Recently, Consumer Reports came out with data that had many people scared to eat meat. The Report found that beef does indeed contain bacteria that can become pathogenic, like e coli and salmonella. The report also found pretty big differences in the amount of bacteria, and anti-biotic resistant bacteria, in CAFO cattle (cattle raised in feed lots), compared to cattle raised on grass; grass fed steers had less bacteria in the finished product.
Comments at the end of articles and on social media had people claiming that this would be the end of their meat eating as obviously, meat was just crawling with germs.
Hold on.
More bad news: beards are loaded with poop. Actually, germs are literally everywhere: our kitchens, our phones, our toothbrushes, toys, sponges, towels..From Philip Tierno, a microbiologist at NYU, and author of The Secret Life of Germs: “To focus on beards is to miss the point. We, as a society, are literally bathed in feces,” Tierno said. “Wherever a man touches, there are feces and fecal organisms present.” Even to focus on toilets is to sort of miss the point: One study compared surfaces in the bathrooms and kitchens of 15 homes and found that the toilet was among the least bacteria-laden places tested.
Here’s the bottom line, bacteria are EVERYWHERE. We have a few pounds of it on ourselves, and in ourselves. It’s time to quit being scared of germs, and instead make sure our MicroBiome is healthy and cared for. Apparently, our personal ecosystem is like a garden, and we either feed and water it correctly and give it plenty of sunshine (yep!), so it works for us; or we ruin it with a diet of sugar, processed food chemicals, and a bad lifestyle (no sleep, no exercise, no sun) and get sick, sad, and fat.
(Scientists say our inner bacteria play a role not just in our immune system, but our personality, temperament, and mood. )
Hopefully, you’ve been convinced that we don’t need to starve ourselves in order to avoid bad bugs.
We also shouldn’t be using hand sanitizers (plain soap and water suffice), or keeping our homes too clean.
So, what can we do to strengthen our immune system? Lots!
1) Don’t eat Sugar or Processed Foods. Sugar suppresses white blood cell function, destroys bacterial balance in our gut and feeds both bad bugs and cancer cells. Emulsifiers in processed foods, such as Polysorbate 80 and Carrageenan, also cause damage to our eco-system.
2) Open the windows in your home. We’ve got bad stuff floating around, don’t keep it trapped. Have you ever heard of the book, Slow Death By Rubber Ducky? Scarier than than beef, I promise you.
3) Eat more plants, not just for their vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, but because they feed our good bacteria, they make them strong!
4) Eat your probiotics: kim chi, saurkraut (fermented, not vinegar), kombucha, keifer, good yogurts, fermented veggies… these foods are loaded with beneficial bacteria.
5) Avoid antibiotics unless absolutely necessary, they wipe out everything, the good and the bad.
*******Use your common sense here. If you have an obvious bacteria infection, they’re probably necessary.****** Overuse is famously common.
6) Consciously develop a lifestyle that’s Immune Strengthening, instead of Immune Weakening. Get to bed at a decent time, don’t over-do alcohol, get sunshine, exercise, pray, meditate, develop and nurture relationships.
7) Eat plenty of garlic, onions, ginger, and other foods that are, literally, powerful medicine. Real Whole Food is our life’s blood.
Want to learn more? Read this, and this.
Back to the beef: the boogy-man is us. Really. For the most part, we either make ourselves strong, and help our children develop habits and patterns that make them strong, or we make ourselves weak. The choice is ours.