In the past, when modern medical science was in its early days, the body was often simplified to that of a machine, performing the biological equivalent to mechanical processes. Digestion is a perfect example: a process that was reduced and simplified to “calories and nutrients in, calories and waste products out”, the digestive organs acting as an intermediary, with the help of stomach acid and digestive enzymes.
Advancements in modern science and a deepening holistic understanding of the human body are uprooting this superficial model, and the true complexity of biological life forms is gradually being revealed.
Biology in general, and specifically the digestive system, is now understood to be less like a machine and more like a garden.
If you begin to think of your digestive system as an “inner garden” that you cultivate and nourish with every action you take, this is the first step to robust, thriving digestion, which leads to greater overall vitality.
Ancient cultures already understood what modern science is now coming to realize. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been practiced for over 5,000 years, and was foundationally built on this holistic understanding of the connection between the optimal functioning of the body’s organ systems with the total health and vitality of the individual.
“Digestive fire” builds chi, or qi, which is the life force necessary to power every bodily function. If digestion is weak or stagnant, vitality will be low, and the individual will inevitably experience health problems.
How is the digestive system like a garden?
Did you know that your digestive system uses much more than just stomach acid and enzymes to digest food? The term “gut” is increasingly used to describe the digestive tract as a unified ecosystem rather than a collection of separate organs. From the mouth and stomach to the intestines and colon, this intricate system influences not only digestion and elimination, but also immunity, energy, mood, and overall vitality.
An essential component of the gut is the microbiome, which contains trillions of microorganisms that not only break down food into smaller, usable components, but actually produce vitamins that are not present in the food itself. Various beneficial bacteria that are present in a healthy gut also directly support immune function, regulate inflammation, and even create neurotransmitters that regulate your mood and cognitive function. Have you ever heard of the gut-brain connection, or that your gut is your second brain? This refers to how the state of the gut directly affects mood regulation and brain function.
However, every person’s gut consists of a different and entirely unique combination of microbial species. These types of microbes are broadly categorized into beneficial versus opportunistic microbes.
Beneficial means they work for you: everything these microbes do is for the purpose of strengthening the health and vitality of their host (your body).
Opportunistic means they work for themselves: they are constantly looking for opportunities to grow their own populations at the expense of the health of the host (your body).
This is a simplistic explanation, and the reality is more complex, as even opportunistic microbes can serve a larger purpose. A healthy microbiome is dynamic, diverse, and constantly adapting to its environment. Life is always doing its best to survive, and imbalances in the internal environment due to poor food choices, chronic stress and many other factors (including harmful EMF exposure) can bring more “bad” bacteria into play to try to compensate for the imbalance.
A good example is the yeast Candida albicans, which exists in small amounts even in healthy guts. The population of Candida often grows more prolific when excess refined carbohydrates and poorly digested sugars are consumed regularly, as this yeast has the ability to break down and bind to these otherwise harmful substances. However, if poor food choices are prolonged, Candida has no choice but to continue to proliferate to protect the host, which eventually leads to uncomfortable and inflammatory symptoms of yeast overgrowth. In TCM, this condition would be described as dampness and excess sweetness, creating fermentation and stagnation.
The gut microbiome changes naturally when you change your fuel and environment
Opportunistic microorganisms thrive in guts that are weak, damaged or improperly fueled. Lack of dietary fiber, excess sugars, and highly processed foods encourage the growth of these organisms, until they become the predominant species, outnumbering the beneficial microbes that should be the main “crops” of your inner garden.
In nature, even weeds often emerge to protect damaged soil. The microbiome behaves similarly. Many microbes labeled as “bad” may initially expand as adaptive responders to inflammation, excess sugars, poor digestion, or ecological imbalance within the gut. Rather than viewing the microbiome through a simplistic lens of good versus bad organisms, both modern ecology and Traditional Chinese Medicine suggest that restoring healthy terrain may be more important than waging war against individual microbes.
Some people say that your gut should be composed of 80% beneficial microorganisms and 20% opportunistic microorganisms. You actually don’t want to completely get rid of all the opportunistic or so-called “bad” microbes, as they play an essential role in times of stress or imbalance.
It’s more productive to focus on improving the terrain itself than trying to directly change the organisms inhabiting the terrain. This is because changing the terrain, by changing the food that nourishes your gut, will automatically change the organisms inhabiting the terrain. When the terrain improves, opportunistic overgrowths often naturally recede without aggressive eradication.
Beneficial strains of microbes thrive on prebiotic fiber from root vegetables, whole grains and sea vegetables, and fermented or cultured foods directly introduce beneficial bacteria into your system, helping to boost the overall population of these helpful microbes.
Many factors influence our internal terrain, including the strength of our stomach acid, bile flow and motility (speed of digestion), our endogenous supply of digestive enzymes, the presence of stress hormones, our mineral status, food quality, fiber diversity, circadian rhythm, and even our emotional state (which influences stress hormones).
Some practical ways to nourish your gut to improve your inner terrain are:
- eating a wide variety of fiber-rich plant foods, supporting microbial diversity
- consuming cultured or fermented foods like sauerkraut, kim chi, miso, shoyu/tamari, and natural vinegars for their supply of living probiotics and enzymes, and to improve stomach acid production
- including seaweed (sea vegetables) in your diet, for a rich supply of essential minerals, prebiotic fiber and polysaccharides
- consuming herbs that specifically increase digestive strength, and saliva and stomach acid secretions
- protecting your sleep and circadian rhythm by getting natural light in the morning and avoiding bright lights at night, and sleeping when it’s dark outside (sleeping during the hours 10pm to 2am are thought to be extra rejuvenating)
- protecting your mental health and stress levels with mindfulness exercises, and spending time in nature
Nourishing foods and herbs for a healthy gut microbiome
Here are some specific foods and herbal formulas that can significantly improve the health of your gut microbiome, which can lead to an increase in overall health and vitality.
High quality cultured or fermented foods are some of the most important foods for your gut microbe strength and diversity. Not only do they provide living strains of beneficial bacteria that can directly populate your gut, but they also supply living enzymes to assist in digesting fats, proteins and carbohydrates. The natural acids in these foods also boost your stomach’s production of hydrochloric acid, which is necessary for cleanly and completely breaking down and assimilating the nutrients from your food with minimal production of waste products.
Our Aged Miso products are fermented with traditional Japanese preparation techniques, in small batches, for the highest possible quality. They are also delicious, with a salty, sweet, earthy and savory flavor, and are excellent when added to savory foods like soups, salad dressings, or even eaten straight from the spoon. Our misos are made from organic, heirloom brown rice, an ancient koji strain, and sun dried glacial salt. We even have variations that include barley, burdock root and soybean, to give you a variety of prebiotic fiber types for optimal microbe diversity.
Our Shoyu or Tamari, a traditionally fermented soy sauce, is a classic Asian condiment that adds a savory and salty flavor to any dish. Our shoyu is live, fermented and unpasteurized, containing a wide variety of enzymes and beneficial bacteria that promote gut health and digestion. We use pure sun-dried coral salt in our soy sauce, balancing the natural sodium content of this living food with many other essential minerals necessary for optimal digestion.
Black Bamboo Vinegar is a unique, high grade living vinegar product aged in barrels lined with black garlic, which imparts a rich and slightly sweet flavor as it matures. Properly prepared living vinegar helps neutralize gases in the digestive tract, helps the stomach acid perform more effectively by supporting the production of bile salts, and assists in more complete breakdown of food for better bowel health.
Umeboshi Plum Paste has been a staple in Japanese cuisine for centuries. This tasty, sour fruit supports robust digestion, and although the fruit tastes acidic, it actually has an alkalizing effect on the body, and supports the elimination of toxins. It is a great addition to miso broth or soup, or as a flavor booster in salad dressings, dips or marinades.
Now let’s talk about seaweeds, or sea vegetables, and their underappreciated importance for gut health. These ocean vegetables provide a rich source of minerals that are necessary for strong digestion, such as magnesium, potassium, calcium, iodine and trace minerals. These essential minerals support stomach acid and enzyme production, bile flow, muscle contractions that improve the transit time of food (motility), and nervous system regulation. Most modern foods are mineral deficient due to soil depletion, making sea vegetables a vital mineral source in modern diets.
Seaweeds also contain unique fibers and polysaccharides not commonly found in land vegetables. These are compounds that humans cannot fully digest, but act as prebiotics: food for beneficial bacteria. These compounds include alginate, fucoidan, carrageenan (naturally occurring forms), and more. When fermented by beneficial gut microbes, these fibers help produce short-chain fatty acids like butyrate, which nourish colon cells, support the gut lining, regulate inflammation, improve microbial balance, and strengthen intestinal barrier integrity.
The soluble fibers in seaweed absorb water and produce a gentle gelling effect, which can support bowel regularity, soften stools, bind waste products, and metabolize excess bile acids. Stagnation in the digestive tract allows inflammatory compounds and toxins to accumulate, and seaweeds gently encourage healthy motility and waste removal.
We provide a variety of top quality seaweed products, including:
- Coral Seaweed: a light-colored, mineral-rich, gut-nourishing sea vegetable
- Kombu, Hand-Harvested: this whole seaweed makes a rich soup or broth when steeped in water or blended
- Prepared Wakame: a delicate, crunchy seaweed that can be eaten directly or added to soups or salads
- Kazumi Seaweed Powder: a concentrated blend of three rare seaweeds to sprinkle on food
- Nori Sprinkle: a delicious seasoning that makes it easy to add seaweed to your diet
Specific herbs and herbal formulas are excellent for supporting digestive health. You may have heard of “digestive bitters”, but the right herbal formulas do far more than just use bitter flavors to stimulate digestive juices.
Our Prime Digestion Activator, for example, works to support and nourish the entire digestive system, instead of just stimulating the digestive organs to function. Not only does it prime your digestive fire, it also helps reduce gas, bloating, heartburn and indigestion, increases the production of stomach acid, encourages regular bowel movements, and helps to gently support liver detox. Instead of just bitters, this formula contains all 5 flavors (an superior quality in TCM), supporting all the organ systems responsible for health and vitality, not only the digestive organs. It is also savory and delicious! Sprinkle a little bit of this powder on your tongue before meals, to activate the digestive process.
Impact Gut & Immune Formula is a powerful combination of three botanicals used for centuries in Japanese and Mediterranean traditions. In pure TCM style, it is intended to nourish the whole body be supporting every organ system simultaneously, each herb working on different levels and acting in synergy. Japanese pepper leaf “opens the channels” by awakening the senses, improving circulation, and stimulating digestive fire, preparing the body to receive nourishment. Sprouted Japanese wasabi clears stagnation and supports internal purification, increasing glutathione, catalase and SOD, the body’s master antioxidant systems, to protect health at the DNA level. Wild oregano completes the trinity, providing a grounding and protective influence, and supporting microbial, digestive and immune balance. This formula is designed to renew the whole system, rooted in ancient herbal intelligence. All you need is one capsule in the morning, on an empty stomach or taken with food.
Senshi Warrior Spray is a powerful and centering liquid that you spray into your mouth and throat, producing a tingly sensation which stimulates the salivary glands. It then moves up through the sinuses and down the throat to coat the gastrointestinal tract, supporting the microbiome by balancing the bacterial and yeast populations. This unique herbal formulation has been used for generations, especially by warriors for immune protection, digestive and first aid needs. It supports digestion, detoxification, elimination, oral health, and gut neurotransmitter production.
Our two turmeric-based herbal formulas support digestion and detoxification, and also reduce excess inflammation, improving cognition and overall wellness. Mend Turmeric Formula is a traditionally prepared sake extract of turmeric and several supportive herbs, taken under the tongue at a dose of 5-7 drops, 3 times daily. For acute support (especially for pain or inflammation), a dose of 15 drops can be taken. Our Protect Ninniku Immune System Formula, Turmeric variation, is an invigorating throat spray that acts as a daily immune tonic, or for acute symptoms of cold or flu. It supports healthy microbial balance in the mouth and gut, improving circulation and detoxification.
Lastly, we have to mention our Aloe Inner Gel Flakes, as aloe is a remarkably soothing plant for the digestive tract, and has been used for thousands of years across various civilizations. The ancient Egyptians referred to aloe as the “plant of immortality”, and it is often used to treat internal and external wounds and irritations, for a cooling and soothing effect. It is a rich source of rare minerals and polysaccharides, which support overall digestive health, and may have a mild laxative effect for relief of constipation, while soothing and protecting the intestinal lining.
Small consistent habits restore balance over time
Consistently consuming a nutritive and varied diet will gradually improve the microbiome over time. Changing gut health doesn’t happen in one day, but is a slow process that powerfully responds to your consistent daily habits.
By nourishing your inner garden with whole foods, cultured foods, seaweeds, and carefully curated herbal formulas, you can create the conditions for vitality to flourish from within.