Not so long ago I held a small seminar about eating healthy. One of the topics that emerged was gut health, autointoxication and that bizarre colon cleansing fad a lot of people buy into today.

Intestinal autointoxication refers to the scenario where some diseases arise from toxins produced within the gastrointestinal tract. Today it’s widely known in the scientific community that a poor diet and stress wreaks havoc upon the digestive system by promoting a decline in beneficial and healthy bacteria. The common norm of most illnesses, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and fibromyalgia (FM) are an overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine (small intestinal bacteria overgrowth: SIBO). Symptoms of SIBO include bloating, constipation, abdominal pain, diarrhea, gas and fatigue. It also interferes with absorption of nutrients, which may not only cause malnutrition but may interfere with your mental wellbeing. And an overgrowth of certain types of bacteria may contribute to obesity by enhancing the uptake of calories from fibers and increasing storage of energy into fat cells.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot of other stressors such as heavy metals, pesticides, medications and food dyes that interfere with our intestinal health. But it’s not a reason undergo time wasting colonics or embark on some unhealthy juice fast or bulking up on laxatives. All you need to promote normal bowel movements and to detoxify is fiber from vegetables and whole grains. And to keep the gut healthy with friendly bacteria such as Lactobacillus, nothing beats plain old yogurt. Also, the beneficial bacteria have a working relationship with Omega-3 fatty acids, so make sure you supplement with some fish- or flaxseed oil.

In the end, eating a healthy diet containing of lots of vegetables, vegetable- and fish oil, lean meat and some fruit and berries is still your best insurance against any kind of disease or stressor.