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Q&A: What Everyone Ought to Know About Digestive Enzymes, HCL, and Bile Supplements

January 27, 2023 21 min read

Causes and Solutions for Digestive Discomfort

Topics in this article include:

Q: Why take bitter herbs and spices with my food? Doesn't the body produce its own bile and digestive enzymes?

Ancient Traditions

Q: If I am taking Digestive Bitters, will I also need to take enzymes, HCL, antacids, laxatives, or ox bile supplements?

The Most Common Causes of Digestive Impairment Are:

The Acid vs Alkaline Effects on Digestion and Gallstone, Kidney Stone formation

Q: But I was told that the body produces less digestive enzyme & bile fluids after a certain age, thus the importance of taking enzyme & bile supplements.

Q: When are digestive enzyme supplements recommended and not recommended?

Q: What are the side effects from using nutritional concentrates and isolated nutrients?

Q: Why are animal bile supplements, HCL, antacids, and most laxatives not recommended?

Whole Herbs, Spices & Clay for Optimal Digestion

Q: When is the best time to take Digestive Bitters?

Q: Will the Digestive Bitters still help me to lose weight if I stop taking enzymes, bile, and laxatives?

Q: If my gallbladder has been removed is it still OK to take Digestive Bitters?

Q: What is the difference between liquid bitters and dry herbal capsules?

Q: How were the herbal ingredients in Digestive Bitters selected for the formula?

-----  --  -----

Q&A: What Everyone Ought to Know About
Digestive Enzymes, HCL, and Bile Supplements

Digestive problems are among the most common health complaints of them all in today's "modern" society. The effective metabolism of fats, proteins, carbohydrates, and sugars are so central to one's overall quality of health, that most other health issues arise from this one basic health problem: deficiencies in the digestion and utilization of the nutrients in the food that we eat. 

A multibillion dollar industry of medical treatments, and natural supplements designed to treat digestive issues has arisen from this obvious fact. 

Yet before medical science was invented, Nature had already designed solutions that would naturally support the innate digestive powers of the body. Ancient cultures have utilized these solutions with meals for thousands of years, and to some extent, still do today. 

These solutions involve the use of bitter herbs and digestive spices in recipes and as condiments, or as a pre or post-meal digestive stimulant. 

As medical science and prepackaged, processed foods came on the scene, the digestive health of the average person began to deteriorate rapidly, leading to the multibillion dollar industry spoken of before. 

Food combining rules became popular, due partly to weakening digestive powers becoming rampant among "civilized" societies. Sensitive digestive systems were able to handle less and less food combining stress with each successive generation. 

Now, with digestive complaints showing up as being foundational to almost every other serious health condition, it is time to pay close attention to adding back into the daily meal regimen Nature's original solutions to deficient food metabolism: bitter herbs and digestive spices.

Q: Why take bitter herbs and digestive spices with my food? Doesn't the body produce its own bile and digestive enzymes?

If you are living off the land, if you are surrounded by forests, drink pure spring water from your own land, grow 100% of your own food or find your food in the wild, eat good amounts of raw food daily with your cooked food, do not eat a high fat diet (thus diluting your bile concentration while increasing constipation), have never consumed antibiotics or allowed mercury fillings in your teeth, and do not have a history of consuming genetically modified (GMO) food or chemically farmed, non-organic food, or chemically-laced city water, then additional herbal nutritional support may not be required, providing you include your own digestive spices and bitter foods with every meal, and adhere to wise food combining practices.

While very few people might meet those requirements, the good news is, that a few years of a high quality lifestyle that follows the suggestions above, even after the fact, generally restores digestive powers, partly because you will be growing or wildcrafting your own herbs as well, and using them instead to activate your body's own digestive juices.

Today's human is subject to numerous environmental influences and dietary habits which have diminished, and in some cases, nearly destroyed the body's ability to digest food properly. Yet, even though this is true, Nature has not left us without an answer.

Ancient Traditions

In ancient human diets bitter herbs, spices, raw foods, and fermented foods were consumed with meals as a matter of course. Their herbal knowledge far exceeded that of our own of today. 

The record of herbalist Li Ching-Yuen, recounted below, is an example of such a lifestyle. His life experience centered around a simple diet, herbal intake, and the practice of Qigong allowed him to live 256 years.

Li Ching has been an inspiration to me to follow the herbalist path since the day I discovered his remarkable life.  

Remnants of such ancient practices can still be found in indigenous cultures today, whose levels of health also far exceed that of modern man (until, of course, the indigenous culture becomes westernized).

Antibiotics, mercury amalgam tooth fillings, genetically engineered food sources, and chemicals in our food, water, and environment have caused great havoc in the area of digestive health.

With proper herbal support the digestive system begins a gradual reconstruction.

The ancestral lifestyle of living close to the earth has been all but lost in modern congested, high-rise style living.

More so than at any other time in human history, herbal restorative digestive nutrition is needed to support and correct the damage done by modern living.

Q: If I am taking herbal Digestive Bitters, will I also need to take enzymes, HCL, antacids, laxatives, or ox bile supplements?

In most cases HCL, antacids, laxatives, and ox bile supplements can be dispensed with, unless of course, your stomach and liver are entirely incapable of producing stomach acids or liver bile (the body's natural laxative), which may partly be related to the use of these very replacements for your innate digestive juices. 

Since these four digestive supplements are quite harmful to your digestive organs (as will be explained below), they are best discontinued as soon as is practical as you build up your innate digestive powers with bitter herbs, digestive spices, and fermented foods.

With proper herbal support the digestive system begins a gradual reconstruction.

If the diet is corrected by reducing the combination of proteins/fats with sweets/fruits, many digestive complaints will go away with this one change alone.

Reducing constipating foods (meat, cheese, nuts, eggs, granulated sugars, etc.) will go a long way toward improving regularity.

Most pharmaceutical drugs are constipating as well, so you will have to either compensate for that with additional herbal bitters and complex mineral magnesium sources, or discuss with your healthcare practitioner the possibilities of reducing them. 

The use of digestive enzyme supplements may vary for each person based on the quantity of cooked food verses raw food in the daily mix, and the current strength of your digestive juice production.

Although the use of bitter herbs (to stimulate bile), digestive spices (to stimulate internal digestive enzyme production), and blood sugar regulating herbs (to improve insulin sensitivity) with each meal may reduce or eliminate the need for enzyme supplements as well. 

Digestive Bitters formula contains both bitter herbs and digestive spices for this purpose. 

BloodSugar Balance formula contains herbs known to regulate sugar levels naturally. 

Adding a larger quantity of raw foods with cooked food meals will also reduce the need for enzyme supplements, if your body can tolerate raw foods.

However, due to the strain that cooked food places on the enzyme producing organs of the body (salivary glands, stomach, pancreas, and intestines), the temporary use of enzyme supplementation may provide a suitable crutch until such time that the diet is corrected and the digestive organs rebuilt with bitter herbs and digestive spices.

The moderate use of enzyme supplementation does not atrophy the digestive organs in the way insulin atrophies the pancreas or hormone replacement atrophies the endocrine system.

However, long term use of digestive enzymes and heavy reliance of them can disrupt your innate ability to produce them yourself, or cause physical discomfort or disease due to excess. 

Enzymes naturally occurring in raw food is a form of supplementation intended by Nature organically, so I see no reason not to take plant-based enzymes for short durations (avoiding animal-based enzymes).

If your system is burdened by a quantity of cooked food (that kills the natural enzymes in the food), or has been damaged by chemical laden foods, antibiotics, fast foods, dental or medical treatments, and you are not consuming a volume of raw foods or raw fermented foods (naturally containing those very enzymes) with each meal, then the very best solution will be to consume digestive spices instead of enzyme supplements.

Add in an additional complement of bitter herbs and digestive spices with each meal (along with some fermented options, like sauerkraut juice or raw milk whey), and the need for enzyme supplementation will disappear within a few days or weeks for most people, simply because bitter herbs and digestive spices work for you in two ways:

  1. by providing the nutrients the body requires to produce its own digestive juices

  2. by supporting the restoration of the organs and glands responsible for creating those valuable juices innately

Q: Why are animal bile supplements, HCL, antacids, and most laxatives not recommended?

The observed loss of digestive powers of the body as we age is not caused by “natural and expected aging processes”, as many would have you believe. It is caused by poor diet, medical and dental treatment, wireless microwave radiation, microwave ovens, environmental toxicities, and worry or stress.

The fact that older people experience digestive weaknesses more often is simply due to the fact that they have spent more years ingesting toxins and disrupting their body's digestive powers with the above factors.

Young people today are experiencing the same digestive problems for the same reasons due to the degradation of diets over the last several decades and increased environmental and medical toxic influences.

Your own body already knows how to regulate the precise quantity of bile, stomach acids, and other digestive juices you need in a given moment to digest the unique set of foods you are consuming.

Trying to micromanage the regulation of these more refined digestive juices with animal extracts is throwing the body out of balance in two basic ways:

  • Animal juices are designed uniquely for that animal, not for humans, and may be too much or too little for your body in a given circumstance.
  • Digestive juice supplementation can never accurately approximate the precise digestive requirements of your body at any given moment throughout the day or night.

Fed properly, your own body's natural digestive mechanisms are perfectly capable of meeting your unique digestive needs in the moment.

Instead of supplementation, consider nourishing your organs and glands back to health. Then normal, ideal production of digestive juices, at any moment, day or night, becomes available to you on demand.

Bitter herbs are far superior as a digestive support by activating the bile production and stomach acids most suitable for your specific digestive requirements. They are also a significant part of the solution to constipation. 

Hydrochloric acid (HCL) supplementation is not recommended either as this can disrupt and reduce your body's own versions of stomach acids. 

Extreme cases of digestive impairment may need to taper off the HCL and bile crutches gradually (since the body shuts down in areas where we endlessly supplement, rather than nourish organs back to health). 

Tapering is best accomplished while simultaneously building digestive powers through the herb and mineral nutritive approach. This transition process generally only takes a few weeks or less.

Antacids are an unwise choice as well, as their use is based entirely on the false premise that heartburn and throat acidity is related to excessive stomach acid.

While stomach acids in the throat are too acidic for the delicate throat membranes, the cause of heartburn and throat acidity is more often due to poor food combining practices, combining fats and sweets, or due to the insufficient amount of digestive juices in the stomach. 

Hiatal hernia (the protrusion of the stomach into the esophagus), generally caused by a spleen weakness from sweets, stimulants, and/or alcohol, allows stomach acids to rise up and burn the esophagus, thus contributing to much of the discomfort. 

The stomach needs a pH of 1.5 to 3.5 to perform its most challenging work, like digesting nuts or meat. If the acidity in the stomach is only 4 or 5 pH, it is insufficient for the tough digestive work, yet still too acidic for the delicate membranes of the throat, so it appears that the problem is excessive acidity when it is actually quite the opposite.

Often the true cause of heartburn is weakness in the spleen resulting in a prolapse or herniation of the opening to the stomach.

The body's natural production of digestive juices can be supported with nutrition from herbs and earth-born mineral sources, thus assisting the body to rebuild these organs to the point that they regain full digestive juice production again. This includes HCL, digestive enzymes, and bile. 

Bile – Your Natural Laxative

Bile is your body's natural laxative. Bile is naturally activated by the consumption of fats, oils, bitter foods, and bitter herbs. If you are consuming the herbal bitters and reducing the volume of constipating foods in your diet (meat, nuts, dairy, eggs, sugar, etc.), in most cases no other support system will be necessary (other than observing wise food combining rules). 

If constipating foods are going to continue for awhile in your diet, then additional Digestive Bitters (that also contains digestive spices), and possibly a magnesium mineral supplement (like Ancient Mineral Blend) will be required to maintain regularity.

Any magnesium supplement needs to be derived from a complex mineral source that is naturally occurring. Such a source will also naturally possess other macro minerals, like calcium and numerous trace minerals which are essential to magnesium's effectiveness in the body.

Drinking lemon water each morning and celery juice daily will also support digestive repair over time. With these two beverages, in combination with digestive herbs and mineral sources, the digestive restoration process is vastly accelerated. 

Rebuilding digestive powers may take a short amount of time or longer, depending on the degree of harm done by medical and dental treatments, the supplements taken, and the nature of the diet causing the digestive obstructions in the first place.

The Most Common Causes of Digestive Impairment Are:

  • pathogen-promoting foods (especially sweets and fruits when combined with oils, fats, meats, dairy, or nuts/seeds and their butters).

    Nuts top the chart here as they are so common among health food advocates and easily overdone. Nuts, even the soaked versions, feed the herpes/shingles strains of viruses (due to their high arginine/low lysine content), and are a major contributor to the Lyme-type chronic fatigue syndrome. 

    "A detailed investigation of the amino acid requirements of herpes simplex virus in human cells was made by Tankersley (1964), who found that both virus growth and cytopathic effect ceased when arginine was omitted from the medium. When it was replaced virus growth resumed promptly and extensively." Whereas lysine exerts a partially inhibitory effect upon virus multiplication. 

  • chemicals and heavy metals (antibiotics, radiation, medications, vaccinations, mercury tooth fillings, chemical laden water, household, farm and industrial chemicals)

  • eating food grown with herbicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers (central to most gut issues due to the havoc they wreck on the intestinal biological terrain)

  • drinking too much liquid with or after a meal, thus diluting digestive juices

  • mineral depletion or imbalanced mineral ratios in the body due to poor diet, or due to taking common mineral supplements (isolated calcium, magnesium, antacids, etc.)

  • an over-acid body constitution in general, the result of worry, stress, coffee, sugar, meat, citrus fruits, tomatoes, nuts, etc. 

  • an insufficient quantity of alkalizing sea vegetables and superfoods in the diet (required to supplement the lack of nutrients in organic food these days due to poor growing practices, like tilling the soil).

The Acid vs Alkaline Effects on Digestion and Gallstone/Kidney Stone Formation

Both bile and enzyme production are more effectively delivered to the right places when the body (not the stomach) is already in an alkaline state.

Acidic food and drink from colas (phosphoric acid), animal products, fast food, packaged food, sugar, too many tomatoes, citrus, etc., in combination with high oxalic foods (chard, spinach, nuts, chocolate, ascorbic acid, etc.) can cause bile to get thick, thus move slowly to and from the gallbladder, block pancreatic enzyme delivery, and form gallstones or oxalate kidney stones.

A primarily alkaline diet (but not totally) is essential for optimal production of the liver bile and proper elimination of acidic waste from the body.

The reason is so oxalic acid foods do not congregate into stones in this case, especially if water is consumed sufficiently enough to keep the body hydrated and the kidneys flushed.

Dehydration overworks the kidneys due to the increased concentration of acidic byproducts needing to be processed. 

Surprisingly, a daily intake of lemon water provides the right type of citric acid (as opposed to ascorbic acid) to bond with the alkaline calcium in oxalate stones and turn them into powder.

An alkaline diet and clay mineral sources are also capable of providing acid electrolytes to the stomach and other places in the body when needed, plus alkalinity where needed, but an acidic body is limited in its ability to send alkaline electrolytes to the pancreas and other places in the body when required.

Earth & Sea Greens, Vital Cleanse & Nutrify and Sea Vegetable Blend are our most effective ways of moving the body quickly toward a perfect alkaline state (7.4 pH) without pushing it excessively alkaline, thus providing minerals that work to acidify the stomach where it is needed, and other minerals and phytonutrients  to the pancreas (that plays a big role in alkalizing intestinal pH for the proper breakdown of fats and oils prior to entering the bloodstream).

Q: But I was told that the body produces less digestive enzyme and bile fluids after a certain age, thus the importance of taking enzyme and bile supplements.

The human body is recorded to have lived at one point, for several hundred years. For example, Li Ching-Yuen of China lived between 197 and 256 years (birth records back then were not common, so other public records were relied upon to confirm this). Li Ching lived an exceptionally healthy life without digestive enzyme or bile supplements.

Li Ching-Yuen at the age of 250 years

What makes the difference between Li Ching's life and ours? His diet and lifestyle were radically different from our modern lifestyles, thus assisting him to maintain his health longer than is traditional for us today: Li Ching Yuen

He ate simply, lived close to the earth, and practiced qigong everyday.

His diet included medicinal herbs, fruits, and rice wine.

From the age of 13 he gathered herbs for a living. At the age of 130 he was taught Baguazhang, a martial art practice, along with and a set of Qigong practices with breathing instructions, movements training coordinated with specific sounds, and dietary recommendations.

His teacher was a forest dweller that was referenced by some to be close to 400 years his senior. 

In 1927 a military general, Yang Sen, that knew him well described his appearance: "He has good eyesight and a brisk stride; Li stands seven feet tall, has very long fingernails, and a ruddy complexion."

The general took the above picture of Li Ching at the reported age of 250 years, and wrote a report about him. This is the reason the world knows about Li Ching today, and many have since investigated his background to document it.

The article "Tortoise-Pigeon-Dog", in Time magazine in the 15 May 1933 issue, reports on his history, and includes Li's answer to the secret of a long life:

Keep a quiet heart, sit like a tortoise, walk sprightly like a pigeon and sleep like a dog. — Li Ching-Yuen.

In contrast, our modern lifestyle habits, diets, toxicity and medical treatments are the true cause of the diminishment of our body functions, not aging alone.

Herbal support is merely applying ancient wisdom to the modern lifestyle in an effort to help correct the harm we have done to ourselves with our modern ways of living.

Q: When are digestive enzyme supplements recommended and not recommended?

In some instances, especially for therapeutic purposes, digestive enzymes are suggested temporarily, especially if the diet is mostly cooked, and if raw foods (that contain the same enzymes) are not tolerated, or if food combining mistakes have taken a serious toll on digestive health.

Then a short term use of enzymes, in combination with a digestive system building protocol of bitter herbs and digestive spices, will be helpful until the enzyme supplements are able to be replaced with an abundance of raw food, herbal digestives, a better diet, and the digestive organs (especially the pancreas) have rebuilt to normal production levels. 

Digestive enzymes are extracts of plants and other sources, meaning they are not the whole plant. (Animal enzyme sources are not recommended.) Thus the numerous supportive compounds (in some cases, hundreds of phytonutrients) that Nature builds into a plant for optimal digestion are not included in the digestive enzyme supplement.

To take Nature's plants and mineral sources apart, then isolate specific compounds from them to turn them into supplements, is revealing an inherent distrust of the Original Natural Order of Life.

It is saying that Nature's original provisions are not sufficient on their own merit, in their complete forms; that 5 billion years of product development by Nature cannot do as much as the measly 300 years of medical intervention and "natural" extract-based supplements.

Isolates and extracts have short term therapeutic value when used properly based on the unique needs of each individual, so they are not to be ignored entirely.

There is a place for them. But they must also be replaced eventually with the more natural 'whole' forms found within Nature's storehouse. 

The more concentrated and isolated a substance becomes, the more likely it is to cause disturbances in the body's biological terrain, especially with long term use.

What are the side effects from using nutritional concentrates and isolated nutrients?

Disturbances in the body eventually show up as deficiencies and excesses similar to the incompleteness of the extracted compound.

Isolated compounds extracted from herbs and mineral sources can in some cases, result in the weakening of body organs to such an extent that they atrophy, much like what happens to your leg muscles when placed in a cast.

Try getting off of hormone replacement therapy or addictive pharmaceutical drugs after a year or more, and you will understand just how disruptive isolated supplementation and pharmaceutical medications can be to the human body.

Digestive enzyme supplements, being isolated extracts, while less impacting than hormone replacement therapy or HCL supplementation, are still missing some of what Nature built into herbs and raw food sources.

They do little to rebuild the body's digestive organs (salivary glands, stomach, pancreas, intestines, spleen, and liver/gall bladder). So for short term therapy, they can be used, but long term, it is better to stimulate your organs and glands with herbs and spices so these organs can be nourished back to health with their normal full production powers.

Digestive organs manufacture many digestive compounds (even those we know little about) that are needed by the body. Enzymes are also naturally found within raw foods and whole herbs.

Isolated ingredients assembled into a supplement filled with extracts (like HRT, most mineral and vitamin formulas, ox bile, HCL, antacids, etc.) give the body the signal that it does not need to work at producing those compounds, causing the atrophy of the organs and glands responsible for doing just that.

Isolated minerals and vitamins also place undue strains on the body by demanding that the incomplete mineral or nutritional profiles in the supplement be supplied by resources already resident within the body, if they even exist there at the time. 

Isolate supplementation leads to nutrient deficiencies and nutrient ratio imbalances (calcium/magnesium, sodium/potassium, zinc/copper, etc.), thus the further breakdown of health. 

It is far wiser to simply give the body the building blocks needed by the body to construct the metabolic compounds, in ways that only Nature understands how to do.

Herbs, clays, sea vegetables, and other wild foods are complete forms of nutrition built by Nature for the human being to nourish specific areas of human physiology (also built by Nature).

The body uses these little known compounds in natural resources to regenerate itself according to Nature's own wisdom.

Which would you trust more, 5 billion years of earth's product development wisdom, or the measly 300 years of human scientific/natural/medical infancy?

Until we restore the Natural Order in our diet and lifestyle we are still living in the dark ages of medical ingenuity. 

Whole Herbs, Spices, and Clay for Optimal Digestion

Digestive Bitters provides whole plant herbs and digestive spices which nourish the body back to digestive health in accordance with the wisdom of Nature.

The body reacts to bitter herbs by producing bile in the liver. Digestive spices provide nutrient building blocks and an electromagnetic stimulus with which the body manufactures its own digestive enzymes in the pancreas, salivary glands, stomach, and intestines.

BloodSugar Balance provides the herbal nutrition needed by the body to reduce insulin sensitivity and deliver the vital sugar reserves to the cells, muscles, organs, and glands.

Friendly Flora provides the body with probiotics, humic/fulvic earth (also supportive of detoxification, immune strength, as well as improved digestion) and prebiotics (which feed the friendly bacteria essential for complete digestion in the intestines).

Herbal C provides herbs naturally high in Vitamin C that also support digestion, immune response, glutathione production, and detoxification. 

Sacred Clay provides minerals that promote HCL production in the stomach for improved digestion. Sacred Clay also promotes the detoxification of chemicals and heavy metals, stomach and intestinal lining repair, and the gradual cleansing of the intestinal tract of unwanted biofilms and mucoid plaque.

Ancient Mineral Blend is a non-clay calcium-magnesium source (approximately 18-20% Ca & 8-10% Mg by volume) with its own trace minerals, which provides these two essential electrolytes along with laxative effects provided by Nature in a pre-established balance. 

Water infused with clay and lemon provides the missing minerals, electrolytes, and hydration that are essential for proper digestion.

Even a small amount (1 teaspoon/5 ml) of clay/mineral water (Sacred Clay, or Ancient Mineral Blend, or Mineral Manna (that contains both) in 2-8 ounces of water 10-20 minutes before a meal), helps to prepare the stomach to produce digestive juices.

    Q: When is the best time to take Digestive Bitters?

    20 minutes prior to, or with a meal. An ideal time is when consuming the clay water and Friendly Flora prior to a meal. Otherwise it can be taken with the meal, or even after a meal (minimizing liquid intake, of course, so as not to dilute digestive juices in the stomach).

    Digestive Bitters can also be taken between meals if the prior meal has failed to digest sufficiently (often due to food combining conflicts, or hard to digest food like meat or nuts).

    Taking a small amount of Digestive Bitters between meals also assists in the cleanup of the bloodstream of excess lipids and toxins, along with the reduction of excess cholesterol and cellulite.

    Regardless of one's age, when fed properly and nourished sufficiently with earth-born nutrition the body will produce all of the digestive enzymes, bile juices, hormones, and soil based organisms required for perfect digestion.

    Thus, enzyme supplements, laxatives, antacids, and ox bile-type supplements will no longer be needed.

    Q: Will the Digestive Bitters still help me to lose weight if I stop taking enzymes, bile, and laxatives?

    Absolutely. The simplest and most effective approach for dropping excess cellulite is to take Digestive Bitters with each meal and again before bed. A small amount between meals also speeds this reduction program along.

    Just keep the quantity taken cumulatively in a day at or below 12 capsules or 1 tablespoon (15 ml). The product description on Digestive Bitters explains this in more detail.

    Liver Bile is responsible for recycling fats and cholesterol. Bile production places a demand on the body's cholesterol levels. It has to draw lipids from all places in the body to fill this bile production need.

    Your body, when healthy, produces close to a quart of bile fluids everyday. Bile is composed of 97% water, 0.7% bile salts, 0.2% bilirubin, 0.51% fats (cholesterol, fatty acids, and lecithin), and 200 meq/l inorganic salts.

    While the fats portion of it does not appear to be a great amount, that steady drain of fats has the influence of reducing fat buildup and breaking down existing cellulite for recycling into more bile and the production of lipid-based hormones (progesterone, estrogen, testosterone, etc.) and vitamins (A, D, E & K).

    The bile is also a transporter of toxins from the body, thus reducing one cause of fat accumulation (by isolating metals, chemicals, viruses, bacteria, parasites, yeast, etc. in bile fluids).

    Bile salts also reduce pathogens in the food, thus reducing bloat and potential illness.

    The net observed result is all who take the Digestive Bitters as suggested experience a slimming down.

    Q: If my gallbladder has been removed is it still OK to take Digestive Bitters?

    Consuming bitter herbs with a meal supports the body's natural bile production.

    The liver produces the bile (with some help from the spleen) and would normally store the bile in the gallbladder to concentrate it 5-20 times before delivering it to the small intestines once oils or fats exit the stomach. (For those without a spleen, the liver and lymph systems take over some of the splenic functions).

    Without the concentration process performed by the gallbladder, the bile from the liver is simply dumped into the intestines when stimulated by oils, fats, or bitter herbs.

    This means the bile is not as strong as is desirable, but is still effective to a degree.

    So, yes, someone without a gallbladder can take the Digestive Bitters since bitter foods provide nutrients (an herb is simply food; parsley, coriander, cumin, dandelion leaf, and fennel are common herbal foods), to which the body reacts by increasing the quantity of bile manufactured by the liver.

    In this way one might overcome the lack of concentration with abundance.

    (Keep in mind that bile is the body's laxative agent, so vary any amount of bitter herbs with observed and desirable effects.)

    Secondarily, bile performs the function of encapsulating toxins (chemicals, heavy metals, bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites, etc.) filtered out of the blood by the liver. Thus, the detoxification benefits of bile-stimulating bitter herbs will still be as powerful as before.

    Thirdly, bile is also used by the body to help reduce stomach acids in the food exiting the stomach, to reduce harm to the intestines, so this benefit remains as well.

    Q: What is the difference between liquid bitters and dry herbal capsules?

    Liquid bitter herbal formulas are also helpful for the human digestive tract in a similar way that a dry herbal encapsulated formula works. The difference between the two are:

    1) The bitter taste of an encapsulated formula is noticed less than with a liquid formula, so this makes it easier for some to take.

    2) It is also true that the taste of the herbs help to prepare the digestive tract to produce certain kinds of digestive juices, so there is an advantage there in favor of the liquid if one is preferring capsules.

    For this reason, some of our clients will open one capsule, to get the taste advantage, then take the rest in the capsule form.

    3) An herbal extract is not a whole plant, thus the liquid forms are missing part of what Nature intended for the human body to be most effective. It is impossible to extract 100% of the medicinal value from a plant using the various liquid extraction methods.

    4) The fibers of a plant alone contribute significantly to the effectiveness of a plant's action in the human body.

    Among their many benefits are the fact that fibers are a food source for friendly bacteria & archaea in the intestinal tract. Friendly bacteria and archaea are intimately involved in completing the breakdown of foods and fibers into nutrients for the body.

    Q: How were the herbal ingredients in Digestive Bitters selected for the formula?

    Complete digestion of food involves much more than just the stomach and intestines. The ingredients in Digestive Bitters were selected due to their historical and scientific value for assisting the body to improve the digestive powers of the entire human digestive tract.

    Each herb selected has its unique nourishing effect on various organs and glands of the body involved in the numerous digestive actions applied to foods consumed.

    The complete picture of food digestion and assimilation involves the salivary glands, stomach, pancreas, liver, gall bladder, small and large intestines, spleen, kidneys, bladder, adrenals, blood, capillaries, probiotics, enzymes, hormones, and numerous biological transformations.

    Digestive enzymes, ox bile, HCL, antacids, laxatives (the most common supplements reached for when the digestion is off), are incapable of providing the hundreds of plant-based nutritional compounds that Nature designed into various herbs and spices to support the true needs of the human body for total digestive efficiency.

    Bitter herbs and digestive spices are Nature's answer.

    "Question science, trust Nature" says it all.

    Many blessings of health and success,
    Enjoy the simple gifts of Nature!

    ––– – –––

    Related Articles:

     

    Candida - What Causes It and How to Manage It
    A Few Surprising Facts about the Most Rampant Health Condition on the Planet!

    ––– – –––

    Bowel Management and Digestive Solutions
    7 Simple, Natural, Gentle Approaches to Digestive Health (A-G)

     

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    Michael King
    Michael King

    Michael King is a Life Enrichment Consultant, a natural intuitive, a researcher of Nature's most powerful healing resources the world over, the author of "Detoxify, Nourish & Build – Three Essentials for Vibrant Health", the Vital Health News Updates – a periodic newsletter documenting the most life-building natural resources on the planet, The Blessing Transformation, and the co-author of Life Chats with Oversoul – an ongoing dialogue designed to gain clarity and direction while navigating the immense changes going into the New Era. Michael is also an advocate of sustainable gardening, environmental responsibility, and an architect of ways to increase global food production.



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