I would like to take a moment and talk about my overseas travels to the Middle East. This was the first overseas trip I took since I have created healthier habits for myself – I think I’m a little high maintenance now when it comes to my health!
I loved what I encountered and experienced during our 3-week tour of the Holy Land, even running my most challenging and hottest desert marathon! I am blessed to travel the world and live the life I live. At home, we have a flex meal once—ok at most twice–a week and otherwise eat organic, sticking to whole foods and pasture or grass-fed meats. Egypt, Jordan, and Israel have different meal traditions and we were served bread at every meal (they bake some amazing breads). The good news is meals were generally buffet or served family style and I was able to be as selective as I could be – but they prepared some irresistible hummus and dips for their home-made pita breads. Unfortunately, I was not able to eat organic most meals, and I have no idea if the meat was grass-fed and finished. Yes, there’s more bad news — I even ate small portions of ice cream multiple times over the course of the 3 weeks because I craved something cold!
We toured Egypt for 10 days prior to traveling to Jordan for our adventure and to run the marathon. Years ago, I experienced traveler’s diarrhea in Africa and I was intent to be extra vigilant now so as not to experience that again. I brought antibiotics with me last time and used them, but now I know how bad antibiotics are for your gut and I need to avoid them if possible. We took precautions. We filtered our water, even tap and some bottled waters to remove waterborne pathogens and many chemicals (including PFAS and VOCs), pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, flavors and odors. Another precaution was avoiding salads and fresh, uncooked fruits and vegetables until after the marathon. We feared that these foods could be either unwashed or washed with “bad” water. Many people in the marathon tour caught a miserable GI illness and had to see a doctor and miss portions of the tour. Post-race, you could say that we got “riskier” with our eating (the food was sooooo good), but we continued to take our supplements. In addition to our regular daily supplements, we brought many supplements that help the gut when it comes to food poisoning. Those supplements included Colostrum and Saccharomyces Boullardi.
Colostrum, or bovine colostrum, has been studied for its use with many different stomach and intestinal disorders. If you want to nerd out on colostrum, here is an article on it:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8228205/
Saccharomyces Boullardi is a yeast-based probiotic known to be beneficial to the gut. It helps to stop diarrhea-causing and inflammatory pathogens and toxins from infecting the gut. Read this if you want to know more:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20458757/
In summary, I am so grateful that I had a successful, healthy trip to the Middle East! Prior to an overseas trip, I would always recommend doing your research and visit a travel clinic if you have any questions. I would also recommend meeting with a health coach that is well versed in travel to also help with natural supplementation recommendations! Remember, there are proven supplements which can give your immune system a boost and possibly prevent misery on your vacation, and if you’re travelling to Egypt, you don’t want to miss the sunrise from the top of Mount Sinai!