Positive Health Online

Republished from thehimalayantimes.com

https://thehimalayantimes.com/opinion/its-all-in-the-gut/

It’s all in the gut is a commonplace precept. It narrates the possibility construct within and outside of our intuitive compass. This isn’t gawking at our star-signs – in simple terms, our gut is the contextual junction between us and our world. To picture a case in point – the earthworm scuttles ever so unobtrusively through the soil, ingesting a tiny part – a fraction of which travels through its pint-sized body and transforms into a casting.

This is a remarkable natural enterprise. It extracts and adds rich value to the soil. You and I network in much the same way, the variance being of degree.

The food we all eat is integrated into our tissues –  the surplus is ousted. You get the point – our digestive tract corresponds to a temporary transit point for building blocks of energy, which may be used or stored for use. It reflects our temperament, too – including our larger personality that represents us. It showcases our own fertile ‘soil’, a complex web of bacteria, fungi and viruses. Such microorganisms, like everything that happens in our world, fight for territorial rights – including individual hegemony. They allude to the famed Darwinian maxim –  survival of the fittest.

Our life is a complete stage-show; it is complex and mutually dependent. You cannot, for instance, stub out a species to benefit the other. This holds good for our gut, too. If we promote just fungal forms in our gut, it hampers the presence of good bacteria at the cost of our well-being.

Do you know that bacteria  –  good and bad  –  are absolutely essential for the proper functioning of our gut? Just think of it – our digestive function could go erratic in the absence of such microbes. This, in turn, could affect normal assimilation of food and its nutrients.

There is yet another dimension to our gut  –  that it is all-embracing, also ahead, of our ‘gut feelings’. When we don’t take good care of our gut, no food can make us feel cheerful. Our palate leisurely goes into a state of bad taste.

This muddles our sense of what is right, or may not agree with our gut. We may gradually tend to forget what our gut, the seat of observation, knows best  –  more so, when it has moved into a state of confusion. Our ancients were wise. They not only espoused the harmonious foundation of eating right  –  or eating with meditative simplicity – but also amplified their wellness quotient and conscious awareness, while leading a gutsy life.

A version of this article appears in print on December 13, 2019 of The Himalayan Times.

Acknowledgement Citation

Republished from thehimalayantimes.com

https://thehimalayantimes.com/opinion/its-all-in-the-gut/