The human body’s digestive system frequently takes a back seat to heart or brain. The surface area of the intestines, if laid out flat would cover a football field. It requires this much surface area to absorb all the food we consume each day.
It is important to realize that the gastrointestinal tract (GI) is one of the few places in the body where the inside is exposed directly to substances from the outside world. Water, food, swallowed air and nutrient foods pass through us from the contaminated outside environment every danger.
The body has an incredible and complex way to protect itself from internal contamination. For instance, the cells lining the GI tract are all jammed together, preventing larger food particles from getting into the blood stream. Should these larger food particles get in, our immune system is alerted that an invader has entered and treats it the same way it would a germ by our immune system.
One of the more important ways the body protects itself is by using the immune system. Very early in life, the body lets the immune system know what food components to allow, something we call intolerance.
This process of educating our GI tract’s immune system is critically related to the presence of friendly bacteria & interferes with the development of food tolerance. This sets up some children for food allergies or intolerances in later life.
The cells lining the body cavities, the GI tract and respiratory system secrete a very important antibody called IgA, which not only protects us from harmful invaders but also regulated the tolerance system. When all of these elements are working as they are supposed to, we remain free of allergies and intolerances.
