Yes, there is a friendly and necessary bacterium required to stay health. Let me tell you a true story.

17 years ago, my 2 year-old grandson had been having diarrhea for weeks and nothing seemed to stop it. The doctor had given prescriptions and a diet that wasn't touching it. After two weeks of diarrhea it had became watery and blood tinged making my grandson one tired and cranky little boy as his system was unable to absorb nutrients from his food or vitamins. One day a dietitian friend was visiting us while I had my grandson for weekend and I told him how perplexed I was at what to do for this child. My friend, said to give him a glass of acidophilus milk and it will clear it up. He went on to explain that system was devoid of friendly bacteria namely lactobacillus among others and acidophilus milk had friendly bacteria. I told him my grandson was allergic to milk but he informed me that even people allergic to milk can take acidophilus milk without a problem…

After giving my grandson a glass of milk he was fine within a few hours.

That grandson had chronic ear infections from age of 9 months until he had tubes put in his ears at age of five and was on antibiotics off and on whole four and something years, which killed off friendly bacteria and made it necessary to add probiotics to his system on a weekly basis. He is now a healthy 19-year old college student getting straight 4.0 average!

As years went by I came across adults in medical Offices where I worked that were having same problem and I prescribed same treatment, behind doctors back, and miraculous things happened for them as well.

At beginning of my learning about friendly bacteria It wasn't available for sale other than acidophilus milk. But in last ten years friendly bacteria has become available in health food stores in tablet and capsule form, some will work well while others aren't as effective.

What is "friendly" bacterium?

Acidophilus is actually a strain of bacteria, a beneficial one that naturally inhabits stomach and bowel, but a "germ" nonetheless. Despite its lineage, it can be helpful in a number of healthful situations, most of them involving digestion and bowel function. When body fights germs they are usually expelled through bowels and/or urinary tract, therefore making it a necessity at that time to have a tip-top conditioned intestinal tract.

I wasted so much time, energy, and money. I was obsessed with my weight. Living like that was miserable. Today, I understand that weight was not real problem. It was actually a symptom. The real problem was that I was an “emotional eater”.

Emotional Eaters use food to manage feelings. We use food to self-soothe. People who have struggled with it, and professionals who treat it, call it by many different names; compulsive overeating, emotional eating, and food addiction. No matter what it’s called, people USE food because food works!

1.Food works as a tension reliever Both eating food and thinking about food work as distractions from uncomfortable feelings. Being food- focused takes edge off any feeling that a person would rather not feel or tolerate (boredom, stress, anxiety, anger, loneliness, etc.).

For example…You’re feeling bored. Suddenly you find yourself thinking about ice cream in freezer. As soon as you start to think about ice cream, you are no longer focused on feeling bored.

Food and food thoughts can be used in reaction to and as a defense against any intense feeling or stressful life situation. The use of food to manage mood becomes a self-reinforcing habit. (Today, scientists are also focused on biology & brain chemistry of overeating. There may also be many physiological reason why we keep turning to food even when it feels self-defeating to do so?)