10 Reasons Why Good Bile Production is Essential to Your Health

How to Build the Digestive Powers of the Body with Bitter Herbs & Digestive Spices

Topics in this article:

1. The liver should produce 1-2 quarts of bile per day. This is how important bile is to your digestive health.

2. Bile helps to digest/recycle:

3. Bile helps the liver purify the blood of:

4. Bile helps to dissolve:

5. Bile helps to lower high blood sugar levels:

6. Bile helps to reduce bacterial, viral & yeast/fungal overgrowth by:

7. Bile helps to reduce body fat due to:

8. Bile and the importance of maintaining an alkaline system:

9. What is the best way to stimulate the production of bile in your body?

10. What is the best way to ensure your food is fully digested?

(This article is in outline format to present the essential basics in an easy to read fashion.)

1. The liver should produce 1-2 quarts of bile per day. This is how important bile is to your digestive health.

a. Bile is the primary laxative, moistening agent in intestinal movement

b. Bile is made primarily of water (97%), with the remaining composed of bile salts, bilirubin, fats (cholesterol, fatty acids, and lecithin), and inorganic salts.

c. Constipation is often alleviated by increasing bile flow

2. Bile helps to digest and recycle:

a. fats, oils, and fatty acids

b. oil soluble vitamins like A, D, E, and K for recycling

c. proteins (by emulsifying the fats that are usually bound with the proteins)

d. starches (by emulsifying added fats & oils so they interfere less with starch/sugar metabolism)

e. cholesterol-based steroidal hormones being recycled by the liver (progesterone, estrogen, testosterone, cortisol, etc.)

Bile is manufactured by the liver (with help from the spleen), then delivered to the gall bladder to be concentrated 5-20 times before being sent into the duodenum (the beginning of the small intestines) when fats and oils pass through.

One of bile's many purposes is to assist in the emulsification (breakdown) of fats/oils prior to entering the bloodstream.

3. Bile helps the liver purify the blood of:

a. pathogens (parasites, fungus, viruses, bacteria, mycoplasma, etc.)

b. heavy metals

c. chemicals and other toxins

The liver utilizes bile to encapsulate toxins and pathogens purified out of the bloodstream. This, in effect, isolates the harmful agents as they are purged from the system (providing that sufficient soluble fiber is also consumed at any point during the day to absorb the bile and escort it out).

If sufficient soluble fiber is not present in the system, the body may reabsorb the bile to be recycled for the body's natural cholesterol purposes. Recycling of cholesterol may result in toxin reabsorption. Soluble fiber absorbs the bile, insuring complete delivery out of the body.

Soluble fiber sources include:

• beans
• lentils
• potatoes
• most grains, especially oats & barley
• citrus fruits
• figs
• dates
• strawberries
• apple pulp
• brassicas, such as broccoli and cabbage
• avocados
• asparagus

4. Bile helps to dissolve:

a. body fat

b. gallbladder stones

c. arterial plaque (caused by sugar, stress, mineral imbalance, vascular biofilms, animal fats, and trans fats)

d. excess blood cholesterol (by placing a demand on the blood to deliver the cholesterol to the liver to manufacture more bile).

e. mucoid plaque buildup in the small intestines (produced by the body to protect itself from chemicals, mercury from tooth fillings, other heavy metals, undigested food, pathogens, etc.)

5. Bile helps to lower high blood sugar levels:

a. Bile is responsible for digesting oils and fats

b. Undigested oils interfere with insulin utilizing or lowering sugar levels in the blood (insulin-resistance)

c. This is why it is important to consume whole food fats and whole food sugars rather than extracts or concentrates of either.

d. Excesses of fats/oils, and concentrated sugars (especially if combined, like in a dessert), lead to both high fat and high sugar in the blood.

e. High sugar in the blood leads to bacterial, viral, and fungal overgrowth (the body's last resort attempt to lower blood sugar levels).

f. High fat in the blood leads to the overgrowth of viruses and mycoplasma that feed primarily on fats and toxins.

g. These 'friends' are actually there to consume excesses of sugar, fat, heavy metals, chemicals, and undigested foods. Reduce the excesses and the pathogens return to healthful background levels.

8 Examples of sugar-raising / pathogen-promoting food combinations to avoid:

1) oils (nuts, flax seed oil, olive oil, etc.) with fruits, honey, or sugar

2) almond butter on bread or a rice cracker

3) potatoes/squash with butter, or sour cream, or cheese

4) honey/agave/sugar in a salad dressing with olive oil

5) granola trial mixes (fruits & nuts)

6) breads made of fruits & nuts, or oils & sweeteners

7) apples, bananas (and other fruits) or sweeteners in a veggie drink with flax oil (or other oils)

8) butter on whole grain toast, or other starches like grain cereal, potatoes, rice, etc.

h. Simply separate your sweet/starch meals from your oil/fat meals. Veggies go with both.

i. Eat whole food fats and whole food sweeteners to reduce this concern when combining the two in the same meal.

j. Consume bitter herbs and digestive spices with meals to assist the body metabolize both the fats and the sugars (see below).

6. Bile helps to reduce bacterial, viral & yeast/fungal overgrowth by:

a. encapsulating/isolating/digesting typical food sources for bacteria, viruses, and fungus in the blood & intestinal tract (fats, oils, mucous, chemicals, heavy metals, and blood toxins)

b. clearing the way for insulin to find the sugar in the blood and deliver it to your cells or store it properly

c. improving the digestion of food so food no longer rots or turns to poison in the intestinal tract

d. dissolving the mucoid plaque lining of decades old undigested food in the small intestines

7. Bile helps to reduce body fat due to:

a. improved digestion & assimilation of food nutrients (thereby reducing insulin resistance)

b. reduction of toxins in the body (otherwise stored in fat cells)

c. reduction of fungal/viral overgrowth

d. emulsification of the fat in fat cells (drawing fat & cholesterol back to the liver for bile production, thus eliminating stored fat)

e. improving intestinal pH to the neutral to slightly alkaline state (important for proper digestion of food and the proliferation of probiotics in the gut). (Acidity in the intestines reduces probiotics and increases pathogen development)

8. Bile and the importance of maintaining an alkaline system:

a. An acidic constitution causes bile to become thick and sluggish (bile needs to be almost neutral to slightly alkaline to remain fluid & effective)

b. Thick, sluggish bile in the gallbladder fosters yeast/fungus overgrowth (because fungus feeds on the toxins encapsulated in the bile that are trapped in the acidic gallbladder)

c. Thick bile from an acidic constitution can result in gallstones. Acidic sugar & fast/processed food is the primary cause of gallstones, not fat.

d. An alkaline system thins the bile allowing for fluid movement of bile from the liver, through the gallbladder (where it is concentrated 5-20 times), and into the small intestines where it works its wonders.

e. Fluid bile dissolves gallstones.

f. The fastest and most effective way to alkalize the body is with sea vegetables (Sea Vegetable Blend, Earth & Sea Greens, Vital Cleanse & Nutrify)

9. What is the best way to stimulate the production of bile in your body?

a. Take bitter herbs & digestive herbs/spices with every meal (Digestive Bitters, Herbal C).

b. Strengthen spleen function (the spleen manufactures bilirubin, an essential component of bile) (Spleen Builder).

c. Consume whole earthen mineral and ocean sources with naturally-occurring electrolyte content particularly balanced in sodium, potassium, chloride, and bicarbonate (the electrolyte makeup of bile). (Sea Vegetable Blend)

d. Do not consume sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). Baking soda (a strong mineral alkaline) will disrupt digestive processes due to the way it increases the pH of the stomach (which needs to be close to a 2 pH at times to be effective). This is why Nature designed the alkaline bile to enter the intestines at the duodenum, not the stomach. Sea vegetables are a superior way to alkalize the body.

e. "virtually all the osmotic [flow of fluids through membranes] activity of any bile specimen may be accounted for as the sum of sodium, potassium, chloride and bicarbonate", [the electrolyte fraction]...". (Electrolyte Excretion in Bile)

f. The flow of bicarbonate ions from rocks weathered by the carbonic acid in rainwater is an important part of the carbon cycle.

g. Thus the consumption of Sacred Clay, Mineral Manna, Friendly Flora or Ancient Mineral Blend (all mineral-rich sources) 20 minutes before a meal help prepare the digestive tract for the needed HCL, pancreatic bicarbonic juices, and bile. Moderate amounts of Himalayan or other sea salts with a meal also support improved digestion.

10. What is the best way to ensure your food is fully digested?

a. Consume with every meal a combination of bitter herbs (for the oils & fats) and digestive herbs & spices (providing, or assisting the body to make, the 3000+ enzymes manufactured by the body, including the numerous digestive enzymes).

The major categories of digestive enzymes from the pancreas include lipase (to digest fats), protease (to digest proteins) and amylase (to digest starch & carbs)

Digestive spices that support the production of digestive enzymes from the pancreas, liver, stomach, and intestines include:

1. Hawthorn berry (assists in the digestion of meats)

2. Alfalfa (contains enzymes for all major food groups)

3. Fennel (stimulates bile and reduces gas)

4. Turmeric (supports liver functions in numerous ways, thus the production & recycling of bile)

5. Seaweeds and other herbs (contain enzymes which assist in their own digestion)

6. Whey (contains enzymes, glutathione, and probiotics for improved digestion)

7. Fermented foods (assist in the breakdown of foods in both the stomach and the intestines)

8. White oak bark/codonopsis/wood betony/cardamon and other herbs/spices build spleen function, the organ responsible for nutrient assimilation

9. Numerous other herbs & spices which support digestion exist in the herbal kingdom, many of which are included in Digestive Bitters, Herbal C & Spleen Builder

b. Enzymes are fundamental to the digestive process. Digestive spices activate the manufacture of digestive enzymes from the pancreas, liver, stomach, and intestines.

Quality digestive spices eliminate the need for enzyme supplements.

c. Three basic enzyme groups are involved in the break down of basic foods into compounds our bodies can utilize for health and healing:

1. Protein – proteolytic enzymes (proteases): Proteases break-down the twenty major amino acids that compose proteins, with each protease targeting a different kind of amino acid.

2. Fats – lipolytic enzymes (lipases): Lipases decompose various fats, including oils, lecithin (phospholipids), and cholesterol (sterols) thereby assisting the function of bile in the intestines.

3. Starches & Sugars – amylolytic enzymes (amylases). Amylases break down the various starches and sugars such as: sucrose, milk sugar, fruit sugar, and starchy grains & vegetables.

d. Herbs, naturally-occurring minerals sources, and spices provide the enzymes and digestive stimulus needed by the body to manufacture its essential digestive fluids.

e. Consume very little fluids during and after a meal so as not to dilute stomach acids, often a contributing factor to acid reflux.

f. Chew your food thoroughly to fully mix saliva with the food (predigests the food before entering the stomach) and reduce the size of the food, thus easing the strain on the stomach and intestines. Savor the flavor! Take your time. Enjoy your food!

g. Best to take herbal formulas before or during a meal, but if forgotten, take them after the meal with as little fluid as necessary so as to preserve the concentration of digestive juices in the stomach.

h. Adhere to proper food combining practices to improve your body's digestive power with each meal: OK, So What Foods CAN I Eat?

 

Related Articles:
Is Coffee Really Really Good for Your Health???
Advantages and Disadvantages of the World's Most Favorite Beverage