Hi there, everybody.
It's Eric Bakker the Naturopath from New Zealand.
Thank you for coming back.
I want to create a video today based on some questions I've received on the You Tube channel,
The Candida Crusher Channel, but we now call The Gut Probe, a thing called Gut Expert Channel,
all right.
Right.
The question is how can I improve my digestive health naturally?
It's very interesting.
I was just watching a video.
I love watching videos on You Tube, and particularly ones from pioneers, guys like Paul Bragg,
or Jack Lalanne, or people like that.
It's a real shame I can't watch a video with Hippocrates from 2000 years ago.
I would've loved to watch that guy talking.
That would've blown me away.
What's an interesting thing when you look at guys like Jack Lalanne, for people old
enough to know this name, all right, you young people out there you hipsters may not even
know who Jack Lalanne is, all right, and Paul Bragg, people who have brought apple cider
into the world, and people like that.
I'd like you to watch Paul Bragg's video.
In fact, I'm putting a link in the description box below.
I really would like you to watch this video.
Now the reason being is Bragg wasn't a bragger.
He did brag a lot, but he was an exceptional guy in that he really believed in the power
of eating healthy food.
Watch how the video starts, and he says, "I want to talk about the most important person
in the world.
You."
He says things like, "What's your most priceless possession?
It's your body."
And he's right.
Now if you're sitting there watching this, and you've got a Lamborghini Countach, or
you've got a Bugatti car, or whatever you got, some fancy car ... I'm not really a car
person.
Let's say, one of my patients actually I spoke with a few weeks ago said, "I've got this
beautiful Lamborghini, this million dollar red Lamborghini."
I said, "So what.
What's your gut look like?
Who cares about your car?
A car can be crashed.
Look after your digestive system more than your car, mate.
You're probably gonna get rid of the car in a few years, but you're probably not really
going to get rid of your gut in five or 10 years.
You'll probably want to keep that for a long time."
The point I make with this man's Lamborghini is the fuel because he kept talking about
how important it was to get the optimal fuel, and I said, "What about your fuel?
You've got bloating, and gas, and what fuel are you putting into your gut, into your digestive
system, your body, your most important asset?"
A question I like to put to patients of high net worth that I've got, I say to them, "Let's
talk about some [inaudible]."
Oh, and they tell me this and that.
And I say, "But what value do you put on your health?
How much is your body worth?
What's it worth to you?
If someone wanted to take your life how much would they have to give?"
They look at you really puzzled.
People can't seem to understand that concept.
But Paul Bragg put it quite well, "There's no greater possession than your health, and
then your body."
But yet we tend to mess it up all the time by putting crap in there.
This is a very important concept of the early health pioneers who really tried to promote
was eating really well, particularly in a time when guys like Bragg lived when people
were eating lots of crap, lots of even more crap than they are today.
Lots of white bread, but in Bragg's day they didn't have high fructose corn syrup.
They didn't have aspartame, and a lot of the poisons that we've got today.
Today I would love to see someone like Paul Brag get out there and really push that message.
But healing your digestive system naturally obviously when you hear the word nature it
implies what Bragg always said you always wanted to be focusing on putting things into
your gullet that make sense to put in there.
But, we are human beings.
We've got emotions.
It's almost impossible for most people to live an absolutely austere life like Paul
Bragg that never touched one drop of alcohol and never touched one little tiny little piece
of this, or one tiny piece of that.
Now you could wish to live your life like that.
I can't live my life like that.
I'm a normal guy.
I like to have a beer or a wine.
I don't have them often, but I could never honestly say to you in all fairness that you
have to avoid alcohol for the rest of your life.
You have to avoid all kinds of gluten for the rest of your life.
I mean I'm sounding like one of these high court judges putting you away for 20 years.
Look at these You Tube videos of people going down for 10, 20 years.
That's what you feel like when you're in that position.
You literally telling people you're laying down the law, okay.
There's no law when it comes to eating healthy food.
You can choose what you want to eat.
But the basic premise of eating healthy food will never change.
It's been the same for thousands of years, and it's a focus on fresh foods.
Whether you eat raw foods or steamed is up to you.
I'm not a believer in an all raw diet.
I don't really think it's a great thing to do.
And similarly I'm not a believer in an all processed diet.
I mean not many people are today.
A combination of some foods is very important to understand that most people are going to
be living on some cooked food, some raw foods, a small amount of processed foods.
Everybody eats like this.
However, this is the important point of the video, the choices you make on a daily basis
will define your habits.
Now remember, I've used this expression before, but it's a good one to remember.
People don't create their future.
They create their habits, and their habits create the future for you, or for that person,
all right.
It's habits.
Habits will decide what you're going to eat regularly.
Try and get in the habit of regularly eating really good food.
You know what good food is.
But I'm not saying get into the habit of only eating good food, all right.
I've always believe in the 80/20 rule.
80% of what you're doing you should be a good boy, or a good girl.
20%, well you might not be so good, all right.
And now to that 20%, it could be 1%, or I'm not even going to go there, all right.
But Paul Bragg was 100% guy.
"You got to live like this.
If you don't like this you're gonna die in hell," and all that kind of stuff.
Well I don't talk like that to people because I actually want to get on with people, and
I want to have a clinic, so there's a lot of give and take.
Remember the 80/20 rule, and you can't go wrong, all right.
Now I can guarantee you this, the best health gurus I know today don't follow the advice
they give to their patients.
I personally know a lot of people in the natural health business, a lot of people.
I'm not gonna give away names, but I can tell you now from where I'm sitting most of the
people I know that promote real good health to their patients and look great and robust,
they don't always walk the line, all right.
I know that.
Don't feel bad about that because they're human beings.
That's what we all are, humans.
We all like to have a little bit of that 10, 20%, all right.
That we know the 80% is gonna give us the longevity that we desire.
As we get older and older we can change the 80 to 85 to 90 to 95.
You get my point?
You give away more when you're younger and less when you get older.
As you get older you got to look more quality not quantity.
When you're younger you can get away with a lot more.
You're stronger, and you've got a more active gut.
Lots of things are different.
You measure a 90 year olds digestive system versus a 20 year olds, all right.
The 90 year old will be on the 95, 99% premise where 95, 90% what they're eating is really
good food.
However, the 20 year old in my opinion doesn't need to follow the 80/20 rule, not at all.
But they need to develop a lot of intelligence regarding the habits that they're building
up that are gonna keep them going all through their 30s, 40s, 50s.
There's a lot to take in, in the video, but the point I'm making is the 80/20 rule, all
right.
As long as you always strove to make the right choices and occasionally you're gonna make
the wrong choices.
But like a friend of mine always used to say to me, "Do your best."
But sometimes your best is not always as good as it should be and other times your best
is sublime.
That's a good way to follow a lot of things in your life.
Always try and do a really good job.
And if it wasn't that good, but at least you tried, all right.
Don't beat yourself up if your in that 20% category right now.
Thanks for tuning in.