Seven Million Years of Evolution: Greens and Human Beings Together

In the decision making that we as consumers make when we select foods, it is rare that we also consider the mutual needs of our bacteria found in the gut. Yet we have co-evolved with those bacteria over millennia. As scientists continue to study the intricate signalling that takes place between that which we ingest and that which we bacterially metabolize, they turn up new evidence of significant beneficial partnerships.

Foods, when consumed in their full, natural and nutrient rich state, contain a number of messenger molecules released by digestion and metabolism. These molecules impart specific cues to influence our genes.

Most of us agree that food-derived antioxidants have a positive role to play in human health. Contemporary understanding indicates that antioxidants and oxidants deliver their health benefits best when they operate on a dynamic continuum. In effect, we live and function in a perpetual dance between fire and the quenching of fire, a redox balancing act. The emerging model of hormesis – the idea that a stressor or oxidant in a small dose can elicit a positive biological response, the opposite effect of a large dose – is increasingly appreciated to add nuance and depth to this model. Hormesis suggests that modest stressors, when adequately supported by buffering agents, actually add health generating qualities, including the management of our essential organelles: the mitochondria.¹

So what does this have to do with greens? A lot. Foods, when consumed in their full, natural and nutrient rich state contain a number of messenger molecules released by digestion and metabolism. These molecules impart specific cues to influence our genes via signalling molecules called transcription factors. These include Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptors,² Sirtuins,³ peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors⁴ and others that enhance numerous health mechanisms such as the cytochrome P450 enzyme families and antioxidant generating pathways.⁵ These and other historical and deeply encoded mechanisms developed in response to our 7 million year heritage, which stressed us with periods of substantive thermal and nutrient challenges.⁶  The result is our elegant and resilient system of cellular repair mechanisms. These respond to nutrient-rich foods, which offer numerous health benefits including the generation and maintenance of new, healthy and vibrant mitochondria.

It is here that the opportunity of uniquely enhancing the effects of phytochemical rich green drinks becomes apparent. Membrane specific phospholipids demonstrated in human clinical studies to enhance mitochondrial fitness⁷ can be mixed with green food concentrates and mucosal immune supporting probiotics to provide a unique platform for reinventing history (without the periods of extreme hunger and cold!) and gently stimulate health and healing. Nutrient dense greens, combined with moderate but consistent exercise⁸ and a sensible constraint on food selection and intake,⁹ promote regeneration of essential tissues and cell organelles. More recently discovered is the multi-point intervention of a qualified virgin, red palm oil-extracted vitamin E known as full-spectrum tocotrienols that has numerous points of interaction in health maintenance, age related decline and cognitive health,¹⁰ which in turn enhances your ability to remember to take the vitality enhancing greens every day!

References:

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