Slippery Elm & Banana Powder: Soothe & Protect Your Gut

Last week we started a series on our new Soothing Greens formula, introducing y'all to one of its lesser-known but powerful ingredients larch arabinogalactan.

If you read my newsletter, you'll remember that larch is a veritable superhero among immune boosters. Scientifically-minded folks fall all over themselves about larch--just saying "arabinogalactan" makes you sound smart, don't you think?  ^..^

Now it's time to introduce two other prime time players in our Soothing Greens formula -- slippery elm and banana powder, gut healers extraordinaire!

Let's start with slippery elm. Slippery elm is harvested from the bark of a medium-sized tree growing abundantly in central North America. The tree can live for 200 years (cool to know, eh?) and draws its name from its very slippery inner bark.

Slippery elm's benefits date back hundreds of years. Native Americans used slippery elm for a wide variety of health benefits, with examples including:

• Plains Indians used slippery elm to treat cuts, abrasions, and burns as part of healing poultices.

• The Iroquois used slippery elm bark in combination with other plants to treat infected and swollen glands. The inner bark was also made into an eye wash for sore eyes.

• The Ojibwe used slippery elm to treat sore throats.

• The Dakota, Omaha-Ponca, and other tribes boiled and drank fibrous slippery elm to support easy elimination.

Cuts, abrasions, swollen glands, sore throats, sore eyes, there seems to be an underlying theme to these conditions, namely some level of irritation or inflammation that slippery elm soothes. 

Thus, we put slippery elm in Soothing Greens to nourish and calm down any unhappy little cells in your stomach or intestinal lining.

Slippery elm offers potent antioxidant action, however, its rapidly-acting soothing capacity is also based on its mucilaginous properties.

You see, slippery elm coats your entire gastro-intestinal (GI) tract with a soothing film that helps ease tissue irritation. Research suggests slippery elm can also help treat inflammatory bowel conditions like Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

Mucilage moistens and soothes the lining of the GI, while tannins help shrink and protect any inflamed or damaged tissues along the way.  

Banana Powder - Nature's Best Antacid

Turns out monkeys are onto something -- bananas are one of nature's best antacids. In fact, bananas offer significant protection against stomach ulcers. One animal study showed that bananas protect the stomachs of test subjects from several different types of wounds and lesions.

Other animal studies have shown banana powder helps protect the gastric lining from the damaging effects of stomach acid.

Bananas work their protective magic on two fronts. First, similar to slippery elm, bananas help activate mucus-producing cells in the stomach lining that then produce a thicker protective barrier against stomach acids. Second, bananas contain protease inhibitors, which help eliminate ulcer-causing bacteria (the h. pylori critters that are just part of the ecosystem of the gut).

Also, Ayurvedic doctors in India have long used dried banana powder to treat ulcers. Human trials showed dried banana powder helps treat peptic ulcers. In those trials, two grams of dried banana powder taken four times daily for eight weeks led to substantial improvement in ulcer-related symptoms.

Bananas also contain pectin, a soluble fiber that helps normalize elimination and eases constipation.

Who knew that bananas --those potassium-packed little gems with resistant starch -- could be so helpful with an aging digestive system?!  ^..^