1. Apple Cider Vinegar

The drink of Hippocrates, Apple Cider Vinegar is a powerful drink for increasing longevity!  In fact, two tablespoons a day of this natural health drink can improve gut health dramatically.  If your unaware, 70 percent of the cells that make up your immune system reside in your gut.  Ancient wisdom knew that all disease and sickness start in the gut.  For this reason, its mandatory that your gut is in tip top shape.  Apple Cider Vinegar improves stomach acid levels in the gut.  When we age, our stomach acid declines.   As a result, we aren’t able to assimilate nutrients from our food efficiently.  Remember, adequate levels of stomach acid is needed for for proper assimilation and digestion of food.

As well as being a great stomach acid booster, Apple cider vinegar is full of beneficial probiotics.  These probiotics help keep our gut from being overrun by “bad bacteria.”   Those with Candida type issues will benefit tremendously from taking Apple Cider daily.  It’s important to make sure the Apple Cider Vinegar is “organic” and contains the “mother.”  The “mother” is the beneficial culture of bacteria that produces the important probiotics.  All Apple Cider that is “raw,” meaning unpasteurized, will contain the “mother.”  Check out my video HERE on how to make the perfect Apple Cider Drink for optimal health!

2. Adaptogenic Herbs

Adaptogenic Herbs are herbs that decrease stress levels and increase an individuals stress capacity.  These Herbs are a MUST if your looking to take back your health.  When stress levels increase, our gut bacteria is altered dramatically.  It’s at this point that we become susceptible to bad bacteria overtaking the good bacteria in the gut.  As mentioned before, 70 percent of our immune system resides in our gut.  When the gut contains more bad bacteria than good bacteria, our immune system drops and health problems begin to surface.

There are many adaptogenic herbs on the market today; some better then others.  If your interested in adaptogenic herbs and where to buy them, check out my article on them HERE.  These herbs have been used for centuries in both Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda.  They have a long and proven track record of aiding the body in regeneration.   Lifelong incorporation is safe and beneficial to the human body.

3. Soaking Nuts, Seeds, Grains, And Legumes

One of the easiest and most effective ways to improve health is to soak your nuts, seeds, grains, and legumes.  This step is skipped in all major production process of these products because it’s time consuming.  When these products are not soaked, they contain “anti-nutrients.”  Anti nutrients bind to minerals in the body and block the absorption of these vital minerals.  For example, if you eat raw cashews, you are also taking in a large amount of anti nutrients.  Although the raw cashews may contain a large amount of nutrition, you will not be absorbing most of these nutrients because of the anti nutrients.

By soaking your your nuts, seeds, grains, and legumes you destroy the anti nutrients.  You must understand that plants can’t ‘move’ or ‘run’ from a predator.  As a result, they contain anti-nutrients to protect themselves from predators.  The best way to soak these products is in a solution of salt and spring water.  The salt further break downs the anti nutrients.  Soaking tricks the seed or nut into the “sprouting stage.”  Sprouting food increases the nutrition content of that particular food.  Another benefit of soaking your nuts, seeds, grains, and legumes.

4. Introduce Cultured Foods Into Your Diet

Cultured foods have been a staple in indigenous peoples diets for centuries; and not by choice.  The practice of refrigerating and freezing food is a fairly new concept.  Before these technologies, people would “ferment” their left over food so that it could be eaten at a later time.  Fermented foods contain live probiotics.  Unlike probiotics found in pills, probiotics found in fermented foods are live and hardy.  Two tablespoons of Sauerkraut contain 6 billion microorganisms!  Check out my video HERE on how to make your own sauerkraut.

Another great choice of cultured foods are water kefir and mead.  These are health drinks that can be made in your own home.  Like sauerkraut, these drinks contain large amounts of live probiotics.  Again, probiotics are crucial for increasing and maintaining the good bacteria in your gut.  Check out my video HERE on how to make coconut kefir and check out my video HERE on how to make mead.

5. Eat More Super Foods!

Super foods are pretty self explanatory. They are foods that have been proven to benefit the body tremendously time and time again.  Typically, super foods require no further processing.  Unlike grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes, they don’t require to be soaked.  They are perfect as is and ready for consumption.  Goji Berries, Avocados, Acacia berry, cacao, raw honey, pine pollen, and bee pollen are all excellent examples of super foods.  To Learn more about Super foods Click HERE.