How often have you heard the expression "You are what you eat"? Of course most people will assume that refers to weight but it also applies to how healthy you are. There's no question health is determined at the dinner table but according to the renowned Bacteriologist, Professor Ilya Mechnikov "death begins in the colon".
Let me explain.

In order to achieve optimum health we need

Fresh Air
Pure Clean Water
Quality Nutrition

However, the majority of us lack good nutrition and even those who do consume the best nutrients in the world often cannot digest and assimilate them. Why?

Well, most of us have a bacteria imbalance and that has much to do with what we eat.

We've all heard the expression "balanced diet" and that actually consists of 20 per cent acid forming foods and 80 per cent alkali-forming foods. The scientific reason for this is that the loss of alkali from your body is four times as great as acid.

Alkali forming foods include all vegetables, salads, fresh fruits except cranberries and plums, almonds and milk.

Acid forming foods comprise all animal proteins like meat, fish, shellfish, eggs, cheese, poultry, nuts (except almonds), sugars, and all cereal foods and starches including bread and flour.

Understandably most of us prefer the acid forming foods and so do bad bacteria.
Your digestive tract stretches from your mouth to your anus and is full of bacteria. If you were to stretch out your intestines they would cover half a tennis court so you can tell we are talking millions here.

The ideal ratio of good to bad bacteria in the gut is 85:15. That's 85% good (probiotic) and 15% bad (pathogenic). Most people have it the other way round.
How do you think you fare?

Probiotics are the first line of defence of the immune system. They are responsible for

providing essential enzymes to make nutrients available to the body
cleaning up cholesterol
manufacturing B vitamins
cleaning out the lower bowels of encrusted matter
destroying bad bacteria
eliminating toxins from the body.

Bacteria have no teeth. They produce enzymes which identify, digest and deliver nutrients to where they need to go. As enzymes are responsible for every metabolic process in your body you can well understand why probiotics are so essential.

There are many factors which upset the bacteria balance besides food. These anti-probiotics include

Antibiotics,
Birth control pills,
Steroids/ Hormonal drugs
Fluoride
Chlorine
Coffee/Tea
Carbonated drinks
Man made vitamins
Synthetic ascorbic acid
Radiation
Stress
Preservative
Additives
Pesticides
Fertilisers

When you suffer low quantities of probiotic bacteria your immune system is severely compromised and you are likely to have health issues. If your intestines are blocked or polluted then your body will be diseased in some way and remember you have a lot of intestines to keep clean.

There are many probiotic formulations on the market today but the problem with most of them is that they don't have sufficient variety to do any good. Some need nutrients generated by the others in order to perform their tasks. Most people don't realise this.

More importantly each of their food sources need to be present so the probiotic bacteria will live in harmony and not kill each other off. This is important because the strongest bacteria will kill off the weakest ones especially when competing for food. The whole point of taking probiotics is to kill off pathogens, not each other.

In modern society taking probiotics is a must. However, you need to ensure the ones you take are active. Many formulations will state the amount of probiotics at the time of manufacture but unless they have a food source these start to die off immediately so the amount you actually receive when you take them could be significantly less. Read the labels.

If you aspire to good health you must care for your bowels. Think health, think probiotics!