Gut Healing and Cancer: Part 1

Hippocrates once said that "All disease begins in the gut." 70% of your immune system resides in your gut [1]. It is also at the core of Ayurveda in India, which translates as the science of life. In Ayurveda, they refer to digestive Agni, which translates as fire [2]. Beyond the meaning of literal fire, Agni represents transformation, and the ability to process not only food, but also experiences in life. It symbolises the power to change, cleanse and connect. It is also associated with inner power and will, representing the energy that drives spiritual evolution and self-realisation.

When your digestion, or Agni, is weak, it is very difficult to heal from serious chronic diseases like cancer. Ayurveda would say that the weak digestion is what created the cancer in the first place. So in this article series, we will talk all about gut healing as it relates to cancer.

Before get into specific gut healing foods, supplements, treatments and protocols, we're going to discuss what we call the Principles of Agni Health. When you think about what the digestive tract is doing, it is literally magic. You are taking one energy in the form of food, that came from the earth, sun and sky, and transforming it into the essential components that make up a human being. That’s fire.

And so here we borrow our Principles of Agni Health from Ayurvedic medicine as well the essential principles of how to eat as taught by Hippocrates Health Institute. Let’s take a look at the principles one by one:

1. Prepare food in peace - it is believed that food is energy and it adopts the energy of the one who handles the food during preparation. Because you become what you eat, you want to ensure that the energy of the food you eat is peaceful and joyful, not stress. We’ve all heard the saying the secret ingredient is Love. Or that it was made with love. Everyone knows that food is not as simple as the sum of the ingredients. You could try and replicate the same special dinner that grandma makes, but it will always be different because grandma has infused it with her special love. So while your food doesn’t have to be perfect, take your time when cooking it. Don’t rush. Put some music on and enjoy the process. Go slow with your movements and how you handle the kitchen utensils. You may think it’s silly but it completely changes the way you and your body experiences food. 

2. Eat your food in peace - the same principle applies when you sit down to eat your food. There is a main communication line between the brain and the gut known as the vagus nerve. This helps to regulate release of stomach acid, digestive enzymes, blood flow to the GI tract, bile release, and peristalsis that helps move the food along from top to bottom. When you have stress in your body, the vagal tone decreases, which means there is a measurable drop in all of the GI duties the vagus nerve helps to regulate. Basically what that means is, if you are holding any amount of stress in your body, as many of us do, your digestive system becomes compromised. And if this happens on a routine basis, that’s where many of the major GI disturbances we mentioned earlier start to take form. So when you eat, sit down. Don’t eat on the go. Don’t have any distractions like cell phones or the TV running. If you must have these going while eating, make sure it is something light and enjoyable, not stressful or serious. Before you pick up your utensils, take a pause. Take a deep breath or two. Tap into gratitude for the food you’re about to eat, where it came from and who helped to prepare it. Look at the food, smell it. Take one more deep breath, and then go for it in a calm and controlled manner. 

3. Chew your food well - slowing down and chewing your food well is one of the most important things you can do to digest your food properly. Digestion starts in the mouth, and your stomach relies on your food to be fully masticated into chime, which is essentially like mush. When you chew your food to this degree, it gives your saliva and the digestive enzymes in your mouth a chance to properly mix with your food. Your stomach cannot do its job without this process. Remember, it doesn’t have teeth. So take your time and chew your food well. Some say 30 bites, but really just make sure your food turns to mush and there are no more pieces remaining. It helps to put your utensils down in between bites so that you are not tempted to shovel more food in before the previous bite is finished. 

4. 80% full - Westerners are accustomed to overeating at each mealtime for many reasons. This is a combination of the hyperpalatability of the food, the lack of nutrient density, the need for dessert after meals, and the fact that we eat too quickly causing us to eat past the delayed signal from the stomach that it's full. You are meant to eat until you are approximately 80-90% full and then stop. Even if you could easily fit in more, don’t do it. Your stomach has an enormous task ahead of itself and it needs the space inside to properly mix the hcl and gastric juices. In Ayurveda, they say that when you get the 1st burp, that’s your indication to stop eating. So pay attention to that burp and assess whether or not you are at the 80% mark. It may be hard at first, but your stomach size will adjust in combination with the fasting you do. 

5. Take a walk after meals - everyone knows they feel better when they take a walk after a meal. That’s because you are physically creating space in your GI tract by standing up, and you are helping the gastric juices to mix with the food by physically moving your body. Doing this especially at dinner time is good because you get the added bonus of being outside in the sunset hour, which is helpful to sync your circadian rhythms. But the most important thing is that you’re up standing rather than sitting. 

6. Meals over snacking - every time you eat something before the previous food has emptied the stomach, you delay that previous meal from emptying as it mixes with the new food and you get fermentation, gas, bloating and create stagnation in the GI tract. This can all lead to the GI tract issues we mentioned at the beginning of this video when this is done persistently. There are many reasons we have developed a habit to snack in between meals, including insulin resistance and nutrient deficiencies. But when you allow your entire diet regiment to rebalance, you no longer have the cravings to snack. on how many meals you’re planning to eat in a day based on your intermittent fasting window. If you’re going for an 8hr window, you can fit 3 meals. But anything less than that you’ll have to go to 2 meals to leave adequate space between the meals. Which brings us to our next point. 

7. Space between the meals - The ideal time between meals is a minimum of 4 hours, keeping in mind that different foods take shorter or longer to digest. Fruit takes the quickest to digest in about 30-60min. High fat and high protein meals take the longest from 4-5hrs. Because fruit takes so quickly to digest, it should always be eaten alone. If you eat it with any other food, it will be held up in the stomach after it has already finished its digestion and it will ferment creating harmful gas, bloating, pressure and changes in pH. 

8. Regular meal times - when you are trying to heal and restore your gut to optimal function it helps to create a reliable rhythm that it can rely on. When you eat at regular times every day, you GI tract begins to anticipate the meal before it arrives, meaning it has prepared its gastric juices ahead of receiving the food which will allow it to digest it more efficiently.  

9. Meal sizes - we’ve been told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. We also end up eating our biggest, most elaborate meal at dinner time. This is all backwards according to research that indicates that your digestive power is the strongest at mid-day, when the sun is highest in the sky. So anywhere from 12-2, depending on the time of year, would be your ideal time to eat the biggest meal of the day, not breakfast and not dinner. A typical breakfast is usually skipped if your intermittent fasting window is less than 8hrs. But if your eating window is 8hrs or more, and you choose to eat breakfast, then it should be a very light breakfast while the digestive fire is still waking up. An example would be berries or a small sprouted porridge. If you eat too big a breakfast, this can smother the digestive fire and create sluggishness throughout the day. As for dinner, this should also be a lighter meal than your lunch, so that you ease back into your fasting period and don’t give your digestion too much to work with as it is winding down, especially during the sleep hours. 

10. Hydration - many people have a tall glass of water to the side of their meal, but what they don’t realize is that drinking water during mealtime dilutes your stomach acid, which weakens your digestive power and compromises the entire flow of food from top to bottom. Hippocrates recommended to stop drinking water 30min before a meal and to resume 1-1.5hrs after you’ve completed the meal. The reason many people get thirsty during mealtimes is because the body requires a lot of fluids for the digestive process, and if you weren’t sufficiently hydrating between meals, then your thirst signal will trigger when the water is needed most. So if this sounds like you, then ensure you are doing a better job of hydrating away from meals so that you’re not out of balance when your body needs to make gastric juices. It’s also not good to drink cold drinks, as it weakens your agni. Only in extremely hot weather should you enjoy a cold beverage, otherwise stick to room temperature or warm drinks like herbal teas.

11. Bedtime - your last meal should finish at minimum 3hrs before bedtime, otherwise both your digestion and your sleep will be compromised. After your dinner, you should avoid all snacking, including desserts. If this has become a habit, it may be difficult to stop at first, but give your body a week or two to adjust and it will adapt to the changes without discomfort. You’ll also notice that the later in the evening you eat something, the earlier in the morning you are hungry again. So stopping all food after your dinner will help support your intermittent fasting goals as well.

12. 90/10 rule - and finally, as always just do the best with where you are in your journey. Don’t feel like you have to stick to these ideals 100% of the time if that causes you stress. A better approach is to aim for 90% of adherence to these rules, allowing 10% for your occasional slip ups. Eventually as your body adapts, you can push it back towards 100% when you are ready for it. 

So as you can see, it’s not all about what you eat. It’s about what you can digest and absorb that counts. And that all comes down to the health of your digestive system. Regardless of what you eat, you can protect your gut and improve the overall health of your digestive system by implementing the Principles of Agni Health. In the next article, we'll talk more about our most recommended gut healing foods, supplements and protocols.

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References

1. Wiertsema SP, van Bergenhenegouwen J, Garssen J, Knippels LMJ. The Interplay between the Gut Microbiome and the Immune System in the Context of Infectious Diseases throughout Life and the Role of Nutrition in Optimizing Treatment Strategies. Nutrients. 2021;13(3):886. Published 2021 Mar 9. doi:10.3390/nu13030886

2. Sutrasthana CS I. What is Ayurveda? https://ayurveda-akademie.org/en/knowledge/ayurveda/what-is-ayurveda.