Melbourne Naturopath

So matcha didn’t pass the test. But there is good news.

In case you haven’t discovered this yet, Coles sells a genuinely good pomegranate juice. Far better quality than anything I’ve tried elsewhere. USDA certified organic, in a glass bottle.

It beats green tea for polyphenol content. Its antioxidant potential is higher than resveratrol’s, which is a whole other story (are you still buying resveratrol supplements? Stop it. That myth refuses to die.)

What the research shows:

✅ One of the most consistently reproduced effects: blood pressure reduction. Daily intake lowers both systolic and diastolic by approximately 5 mmHg.

✅ It reduces oxidative stress, which decreases uptake of oxidised LDL, which significantly reduces atherosclerotic damage to your vessels.

In other words: it helps prevent cardiovascular disease ❤️‍🩹

✅ Excellent systemic anti-inflammatory. The compounds in pomegranate juice: punicalagins, ellagic acid, and anthocyanins m,odulate NF-κB signalling, reducing inflammation.

One caveat: sugar. It’s juice. Juice always means sugar. But this is one of the rare cases where it’s worth it.

Most people think fibre works like a scrubbing brush, or a sponge, sweeping you clean from the inside. That’s actually not what’s happening.

The fibre from your vegetables, fruit, grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds arrives in the large intestine completely intact, because our enzymes can’t break it down. In other words, we eat it for someone else.

You probably know we have a microbiome. It’s an entire universe in there, with its own hierarchy, its own representatives of good and evil and like something out of a Lukyanenko (Russian speakers will know) novel, they need to stay in balance.

I won’t go deep on the whole ecosystem today, but I want to mention two residents in particular:

👉 Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Roseburia. These bacteria ferment dietary fibre into short-chain fatty acids.

The most important one: butyrate❗️

Colonocytes (the cells lining your large intestine) get roughly 70% of their energy from butyrate. Not glucose. Not glutamine. Butyrate.

When these cells are well-fuelled, they maintain the tight junctions that form the intestinal barrier. That barrier is what separates the contents of your colon from your bloodstream. Butyrate also stimulates T cell differentiation, which supports immune tolerance and keeps the pathological inflammatory signalling that drives many gut diseases in check.

But not all fibre produces butyrate equally.

🥔 Resistant starch (cooked and cooled potato, green bananas, cold rice) is the most efficient precursor.

🥣 Beta-glucan from oats and psyllium help, but less so.

🧄 Inulin and FOS produce a lot of butyrate but cause more noticeable bloating in sensitive people.

Did you know the lining of the large intestine renews itself completely every 3–5 days?

A low-fibre diet isn’t just slower digestion. It’s cutting off the fuel supply to the cells responsible for barrier integrity and immune regulation.

This means what you eat matters! And it can make a big difference quite quickly.

This is not protocol-based care.

Your treatment is developed from a detailed understanding of your health, with interventions selected based on clinical relevance, not trends.

From there, we track, adjust, and refine.

Because effective care requires precision, not guesswork.

Drop a message or comment, ask a question or book your first appointment.

Website is now live (link in comments section below)

I’m Inna Mitelman, naturopath, university lecturer, leech therapist and mum of two, but it all started when I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at 17, and then told at 20 that I’d never conceive without IVF. I’ve been Crohn’s-free for 32 years. I have two children, both conceived naturally with the youngest arriving at age 43.

Swipe to learn more about my story and my work.