Power-up your polyphenol intake to prevent chronic disease
“Eat your fruits and vegetables—they’re good for you.”
How many times were you told that as a kid? Or maybe you’ve told that to your kids.
But when it comes to eating healthy, there’s one secret I bet you’ve never heard about …
And it’s that most polyphenols — the nutritious, anti-inflammatory compounds abundant in fruits, vegetables, and other natural sources — never even make it into your bloodstream.
In fact, an astonishing 90 percent simply pass through your digestive tract.
So does that mean you can stop eating polyphenol-rich foods? No way. Far from it…
Even if your bloodstream never absorbs the vast majority of them, they still exert an important influence over your health.
Generous helpings of polyphenols douse the inflammation that would otherwise run amok in your body, promoting chronic diseases, from cancer to Alzheimer’s.
They accomplish this through a concept called biome-availability — the secret in your gut that reigns in inflammation and keeps you healthy. And today, I’ll tell you exactly how you can optimize this built-in power.
No absorption? No problem!
To explain this concept, let’s first start by talking about “bioavailable” nutrients. This means that a nutrient is easily absorbed into your bloodstream from your gastro-intestinal (GI) tract. Bioavailable foods quickly reach and nourish cells, tissues, and organs.
Based on that idea, Dr. Marc Micozzi has coined the new term biome-availability in his Protocol for Eliminating Deadly Inflammation.
He explains that biome-availability describes supplements and foods that don’t need to be bioavailable. “That is,” he adds, “they don’t need to be absorbed into the bloodstream in order to effectively thwart inflammation.
“Instead, they work directly on the good bacteria, or probiotics, right within the GI microbiome — balancing the microbiome, and thereby cooling the inflammation taking place in the body.”
And in the case of some biome-available botanical and herbal remedies (including polyphenols), all of this important work has a powerful effect in its interaction with your microbiome.
Iron-clad protection against colds and flu
Dr. Micozzi describes a large study that demonstrates how biome-availability works.
Researchers recruited more than 240 volunteers with gastroenteritis — a viral inflammation of the lining of the intestines, which you may know more commonly as the “stomach flu.”
Results showed that polyphenols were significant in helping relieve bloating, gas, and diarrhea. “In other words,” Dr. Micozzi says, “the polyphenols worked directly in the GI tract to provide relief… and ultimately, it didn’t matter if they never made it to the bloodstream.”
Dr. Micozzi singles out elderberry as one of the botanicals that illustrates this biome-availability concept. Elderberry has limited absorption into the bloodstream, but it also contains key flavonoids (a type of polyphenol) that prompt the microbiome to produce a chemical known as DAT — one that protects against flu viruses.
Not only that, but elderberry also works directly in the gut to help prevent colds and shorten the duration and severity of colds and the flu.
Your anti-inflammatory shopping list
Along with elderberry — and for optimal health during flu season and beyond — Dr. Micozzi recommends filling your diet with a wide variety of polyphenols from the following:
- Fruits and vegetables like apples, berries, onions, oranges, plums, pomegranates, and red cherries (preferably organic and minimally processed)
- Kitchen spices like cloves, cocoa powder, dried peppermint, and star anise
- Whole grains (preferably non-GMO)
- Polyphenol-rich “guilty pleasures” such as dark chocolate, wine, coffee, and tea
Just by including more of these elements in your diet, you’ll nourish your microbiome and control the chronic inflammation that sparks the development of countless health issues.
In addition to nurturing your biome-availability, Dr. Micozzi offers many other anti-inflammatory strategies to bolster your health and prevent disease in his Protocol for Eliminating Deadly Inflammation. Click here to learn more about this unique guide to better health, or enroll today.