0
0
Your cart is currently empty
Shop Here

Tag: prebiotic blend

Holiday Splurging

Posted on by Tim Ashton

80/20 Rule

Maintaining your health during the Christmas/New Year period is no small feat. While there’s nothing wrong with letting your hair down this silly season, keep your Flourish supplements close (especially the organic turmeric powder, beetroot powder, and chicory root prebiotic blend), and take part in a liver cleanse (using our 21 Day Cleanse) afterwards if you plan on splurging.

I am often asked by my patients if they need to be plant-based 100% of the time.  My answer is usually long and drawn out, but the crux of it is, only if you want to stay well.

However, at Christmas/holiday time,  if you wish to consume all the festive fare, then adopt an 80/20 rule.  Make 80% of your plate plant-based and 20% whatever you fancy.

Many then do this, only to feel terrible the next day, or they become bloated within hours of eating all those ‘yummy’ naughty foods that they haven’t had for many months.   Many people find that the symptoms of their health condition will reappear; this will depend upon how long you are ‘naughty’.

Our gut microbiome can change within a twenty-four hour time period, hence why feeling bad again, can happen so quickly.

After years of eating a plant-based regime, I now can’t face the usual Christmas traditional food, I know how I am going to react and feel, so it is an easy choice.  This year I am spending time experimenting with a fabulous main meal for Christmas day, and I will share the recipe once it is perfect.

Most of my patients’ need to find out for themselves, so I usually say knock yourself out on Christmas day, let your hair down, only to be emailed with a ‘HELP’ request the day or week later.

 

Natural Detox

So what if you do let yourself go, how do you recover?

The best way –

(1)  Keep taking the flourish products throughout the festive season, especially the daily detox beetroot powder.   If you do have a bloated moment, a teaspoon of the prebiotic blend with a little turmeric blend and that horrible feeling will go away, usually within 30 – 40 minutes.

(2)  Recover using the 21 day cleanse which is up on our website.  Or at least the first 7 days.   You will need at least the 7 days, to get things back to normal and feel like your healthy self once more, but again this will depend upon how long you have been celebrating.  The full 21 days will give you a much better and more complete outcome, and this is what I always recommend.

Wishing you all a very happy festive/holiday season.

Vegan Vs. Whole Food Plant-Based: What’s the Difference?

Posted on by Tim Ashton

2019 is being touted as the year of veganism – but what is a vegan diet? Our products – which include a beetroot powder supplement, a turmeric blend, and a prebiotic blend – are all both vegan and whole-food, plant-based lifestyle friendly. In this article, we’ll take a look at what makes the two lifestyles different.

Veganism

According to  Wikipedia, veganism “is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products, particularly in diet, and is accompanied by an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals”. A true vegan diet really just means that no animal products are consumed.

Whole-Food, Plant-Based

On the other hand, a whole-food, plant-based diet concentrates more on ensuring that the food you consume is from a “whole” source. In other words, the food you consume is unprocessed or minimally processed. Foods such as refined oils, refined sugars and refined flours are kept to a minimum or not consumed at all.

An example of this is olive oil. Those people following a whole-food, plant-based lifestyle are able to eat olives, however, olive oil – which is highly processed –  is not considered whole and therefore would not be consumed. A whole-food, plant-based diet is made up mostly of whole grains, vegetables, legumes,  beans, nuts and seeds.

The Difference

The word ‘diet’ is not accurate when describing veganism or whole-food, plant-based. While it describes the way a person eats, neither are calorie-restricted.  A better way to describe them would be ‘vegan lifestyle’ or a ‘whole-food, plant-based lifestyle.’ Both usually have a guiding philosophy, and what motivates the two lifestyles can differ significantly. Those inspired to go towards a ‘vegan lifestyle’ usually do so for ethical reasons. They are either driven by the philosophy of stopping cruelty towards animals or wanting a more sustainable environment. Those inspired towards a whole-food, plant-based lifestyle do so more for health reasons. They are looking to prevent or improve a chronic illness.

A simple way of looking at this is by considering the humble Oreo. By some miracle of food science, the Oreo is vegan, and those following a vegan lifestyle are able to consume as many as they like. Those choosing a whole-food, plant-based lifestyle, however, would avoid them and view them as too highly processed, calorie-rich and nutrient-poor, with way too many ingredients, offering no real health benefits. Basically, that is the difference.

We at Flourish promote a whole-food, plant-based, refined oil-free lifestyle because we know and understand that to recover or improve from any health crisis, it is one of the most effective ways to achieve desired results. Our whole food supplements are suitable for both vegan and whole-food, plant-based lifestyles.

Prebiotics vs Probiotics

Posted on by Tim Ashton

Simply put, probiotics are live micro-organisms (bacteria, yeast or fungi) and they live naturally on and in our bodies. Prebiotics are a form of fibre that acts as a food, for the bacteria found within your gut.

In order to have a healthy gut, most health practitioners will tell you that you need to have a good balance between your good and bad gut bacteria, and whilst we at Flourish agree with this, the ways of achieving it differs dramatically.

Let’s talk about probiotics.  I want to keep this really simple, not highly technical as I think it is easier to understand and therefore allow you to be able to make a more informed decision as to what is right for you.

The gut microbiome or gut flora – I am going to refer to these as if they have a personality.

Their role in life is to keep us healthy.  Their job is to keep the immune system strong, make certain vitamins and minerals, aid digestion, metabolism, psychology and reduce chronic inflammation one of the key drivers of chronic illness.

Some facts:

  • There are 10 x as many of them as they are of you, totalling approximately 100 trillion microbes
  • Thought of as a new organ with distinct metabolic and immune activity
  • There are between 1500 – 5000 different species, but this number is changing rapidly as new research comes to light.
  • Weighs approximately 2 kilograms
  • The majority reside within the large bowel
  • Make up approximately 60% of each and every bowel movement
  • Populated during birth and breastfeeding and continues to develop until the age of 2 -3 years when the gut microbiota stabilises and resembles that of adults
  • Antibiotics in early life can shift the bacterial profile and promote obesity and metabolic abnormalities and/or autoimmune disease.
  • It is believed that our gut microbiota diversity is influenced by some three generations travelling down our mothers side.
  • Lack of diversity is linked with chronic diseases, especially allergies
  • A bad gut can lead to a fatty liver
  • Gut bacteria profiles are unique like fingerprints. No two humans have the same profile.  In fact we only share 68% of the same profile the rest of the profile is unique to each and everyone of us.

 

 

 

5 Ways To Improve Your Gut Health

Posted on by Tim Ashton

It’s the season of Gut Health here at Flourish, and for good reason too!

Our gut microbiome (the trillions of microorganisms living in your intestinal tract) is the corner stone of our health and our happiness. These microorganisms, mainly comprising of bacteria, are involved in functions critical to your health and wellbeing. It’s essential that we keep them as happy as possible!

Small changes can go a long way in improving our gut microbiome, here’s our top tips:

1. Eat the rainbow

The more colours of fruit and veggies on your plate, the greater the diversity of species and the more species present, the healthier your immune system!  A good way to begin to do this is to make a chart with each colour of the rainbow marked on it, then each day tick off what you have eaten from each colour range.

2. Don’t be too clean!

We don’t mean to be a grub! But using antibacterial wipes and hand sanitising gels constantly just isn’t healthy.  They are designed to wipe out bacteria and since our bodies are made up of more of trillions of essential bacterias, it’s important not to wipe them out using sanitising gels.  Research shows that the more sterile the environment for our gut microbiomes the smaller the diversity of species, and thereby the less healthy the host, which is us!

3. Eat gut loving foods, they are natural detox

Eat at least one or all of these foods daily: cold white potatoes with no fat or oil on them, cold rice like sushi with no mayonnaise, and cold oats. The reason we advise to eat these foods cold is because when they’re cold they’re much higher in resistant starch (which is what our gut microbes love!) The gut bugs eat and convert it to short chain fatty acids and butyrate which is the primary food source that keeps the cells of our colon healthy.

4. Avoid C.R.A.P

Otherwise known as ‘Calorie Rich And Processed’ foods.  Stay away from food out of a packet and foods high in processed sugars.  Keep fat to less than 20 grams per day.

5. Take our Prebiotic Blend

Our obvious choice! Our Prebiotic Blend is food for the gut microbes!  It is full of resistant starch and inulin (from chicory root), a form of fibre that they love. Our Prebiotic Blend to gut bugs is like what a Krispy Kreme is to a 10 year old, delicious!

SHOP THE BLEND

You might also be interested in “The Difference Between Turmeric & Curcumin“.

Introducing: The Prebiotic Blend

Posted on by Tim Ashton

We at Flourish are so excited to announce the hatching of our newest member of the Flourish family: our inulin powder Prebiotic Blend!

Our prebiotic blend.

This blend, our new natural prebiotics made up of chicory root, green banana flour, cinnamon, cardamom, cacao, aniseed, fennel, orange and ginger nourishes your gut, leaving you feeling healthy and happy.

Gut health is a buzz term at the moment and an important one at that. It’s also something we are constantly getting asked about from our customers and clients, so a prebiotic blend was the obvious choice when it came to developing our next product.

So what does it do?

We have approximately 100 trillion bacterias in our guts, made up of 700-1500 unique species.  The greater the number of species that call our gut home, the more diverse it is, and the greater our gut diversity are, the healthier we will be.

The prebiotic blend feeds your gut with all that it needs to grow more species of bacteria.

How does it work?

The gut-loving ingredients we mentioned earlier are all to thank when it comes to how this blend works.

The star of the blend, chicory root is a wonderful source of inulin, one of the special fibre groups that bacteroids (one of the major players in immune health) love. Green banana flour is also a major source of resistant starch.

Probiotics love all things fibre, especially resistant starch.  Resistant starch is a type of fibre that resists being absorbed high up in the gut thereby making its way to the large colon where all the probiotics live. 

They see it come through, do a happy dance, eat till they are full and healthy and by downstream effect, feed your colonocytes or colon cells, making your bowel healthy and happy.

Why not a probiotic?

Probiotic is just another name for gut microbe. Most probiotics on the market are made up of 8-15 different species.  There may be billions of them, but it is not the number of microbes that is important, it is the number of species.

If the number of species in your gut is small and there is an overabundance of one particular species it leaves you feeling unwell and can lead to food allergies and intolerances.

Our founder, Medicinal Nutritionist Kathy Ashton says that this blend can benefit anyone and everyone.

“This blend will change your life. Remember you need to feed your own gut microbes in order for you to be perfectly healthy. Go forth and Flourish!”

Give your gut the diversity it needs and your body the wellness it deserves.

Let’s Shop the Prebiotic Blend.

You might also be interested in “Why Cleanse?“.