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"Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up." Gilbert K. Chesterton

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When I think of a fortress, I think of tall stone walls around a guarded castle. The only way to breach the barrier is to either climb the wall or use the entrance that surely has weapons trained on you at all times. Yeah, forget that image.

We know from previous newsletters that microbes in our gut number in the trillions. Despite our best efforts to have as many good microbes as possible, we live in an everyday world where pathogens are trying their level best to kill us with disease. It is quite the challenge to protect against the marauders.

The gut lining. What is it? How does it work? Why should we care? And most importantly, how can we wreck it, repair it, and strengthen it.

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Our gut fortress is our gut lining. And it's done largely with a one-cell thick layer of cells called the Epithelial Barrier. Now this stuff fascinates me.

It may not fascinate you- I get that.

But it helps to understand this crucial, physical component of gut health. I'm going to refrain from going down the rabbit hole of anatomy and physiology and start spewing too many words we can't spell or pronounce.

I'm a visual guy so I'm going to use a few pictures to describe how this all works.

Imagine this single layer of cells holding everything together and keeping the microbial metropolis inside the cozy confines of your large intestine (colon). We need those junctions to be extremely tight like this wall of football players.

Tight junctions mean everything stays inside, especially the bad guys- the pathogens.

Let's consider the opposite now. Instead of locked, bulky elbows in a tight line, imagine if we had skinny stick people that were connected with outstretched arms, holding hands.

If we had to run full speed into both of these lines, which one do you think we crash though, and which one do we bounce off like pinballs?

This is a simple way of thinking of the epithelial barrier and how well it works when it's fortified and how it fails when it's degraded. We'll discuss how we can control the good and the bad in a second.

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And if that isn't impressive enough, try this one on for size. Not only does this one-cell thick barrier need to keep the marauders in, but it also has to selectively and often simultaneously allow certain, very important things to pass through to the rest of your body, like nutrients!

Picture time again. I built a fence a couple summers ago. I used a post-hole digger from the 1960's... to dig ALL 30 post holes by hand, by myself! (I digress.)

I assure you when I built this, I was not thinking of an epithelial barrier but it's such a perfect example to describe intestinal permeability.

To understand the gut barrier's job of holding the pathogens inside your colon, imagine we are the pathogens. And since we're too large to fit through the 4x4 openings in the galvanized steel panels of my fence, we would need to run through this fence to breach tthe barrier. (I used 50lbs of concrete in each post hole) And let me remind you those are heavy gauge, galvanized steel hog panels.

It's not happening folks.

Now for the nutrients that need safe passage? Imagine a pile of confetti in front of the fence and you turn on a leaf blower. The confetti will pass through effortlessly. This is the same way the epithelial barrier operates when it comes to discriminately allowing certain things to pass through and others being denied.

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You've probably heard me talk about it or maybe you've even experienced it yourself- a leaky gut. This is the result of the epithelial barrier being compromised.

The one-cell layer starts to fail, and the junctions loosen and allow bad guys to penetrate the gut lining. Or worse yet, allow free transfer into our bodies. This sounds the alarms for the immune system to rally the defense, as it should.

But when the immune system is over-worked and remains active chasing all the pathogens, we enter into a chronic inflammation state, and this is when disease rears its ugly head.

This is exactly how my story went.

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But Jeff..."Do not come to me with your problems without solutions".

Fair enough.

There are many things that contribute to a gut bacteria imbalance (dysbiosis) but we're going to limit our discussion to only our diet. A Western diet full of ultra-processed foods and low fiber will put your good gut microbes at a disadvantage quickly.

We know that intentionally increasing our fiber intake will give our good bacteria what they need to survive and thrive. Part of the non-digestible, fermentable fiber that makes it all the way through our GI Tract ends up in the colon and will help to produce short chain fatty acids (SCFA's).

The rockstar of the three SFCA's is Butyrate. Butyrate plays a huge role in strengthening our gut lining. The epithelial layer is addicted to butyrate. So, fiber is key for a healthy gut lining.

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One other type of carbohydrate that doesn't get digested in your small intestine and makes it to your colon is resistant starch. It also ferments in the colon and you guessed it- produces Butyrate!

Foods high in resistant starch are beans, oats, green bananas, and boiled and cooled potatoes, to name a few.

WAIT! I thought potatoes were a starchy, "off limits" food loaded with carbs? Fry them in hot oil and eat a super-sized portion and you might be on to something there.

But let me tell you an EASY way to get resistant starch from a potato and how you can enjoy this nutrient-dense spud. When you boil potatoes and let them cool in the refrigerator overnight, they release resistant starch. And even if you reheat them, the resistant starch isn't compromised.

So try this. Reheat a boiled and cooled potato and make your best baked potato masterpiece. (may I also suggest you substitute plain Greek yogurt for sour cream for the extra protein punch?)

When you're done making this baked potato, flip it over. That's right, flip it over. This way you have to eat every bit of the skin FIRST before you get to the flesh. The skin has all the nutrients and fiber! Who cares if you're stuffed and can't finish off the flesh.

No more empty baked potatoes! I'm begging you.

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I know I veered of course there toward the end, but the gut lining is a crucial part of overall gut health. It's not just a tired cliche'. It's true:

EVEYRTHING starts with the gut!

And when we don't eat a gut-healthy diet, you can see how so many things can go off the rails when pathogens leave the yard.

Next week- the gut and immune system are joined at the hip. We'll look at how a healthy gut is essential to a properly functioning immune system.

And fFlip those baked potatoes!

Thanks for reading,

Jeff

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