Gut Bacteria: Could it be the cause of weight gain, mental health problems and immune related conditions?
Bacteria get plenty of blame when you get sick, but they never seem to get any credit when you’re healthy.
Your gut is swimming in bacteria, including ugly little beasts that would make people scream if they were big enough to fill a movie theater screen.
But they’re actually your friends — not dangerous monsters. (Most of ‘em, anyway.)
One new study of gut bacteria in 178 seniors in their 70s and 80s found that those with the widest array of bugs in their stomach did best on cognitive tests as well as tests designed to measure frailty when compared to seniors with less diverse gut colonies.
Read more here: The Douglass Report
What causes gut imbalances
It’s simple. Too many bad bacteria opposed to enough of the good bacteria. It only takes 1 course of antibiotics to cause digestive problems, leaky gut syndrome, thrush or yeast infections. A diet rich in processed foods, white flour products, sugars including fruit sugar (fructose) cane sugar (sucrose) and artificial and alcohol sweeteners (Maltitol, Isomalt, Sorbitol, Lactitol, Mannitol, Erythritol, Xylitol) will also upset the levels of good bacteria that your gut produces.
Want one reason for your beer belly? How about 100 quintillion? That’s about how many bacteria live in your gut. And scientists now believe these bacteria can have a significant impact on your weight.
Consuming high amounts of fructose (a type of sugar), artificial sweeteners, and sugar alcohols (another type of low-calorie sweetener) cause your gut bacteria to adapt in a way that interferes with your satiety signals and metabolism, according to a new paper in Obesity Reviews. (If you’ve noticed you’ve been feeling tired all the time and gaining weight, your metabolism may be slowing. Check out this plan to rev up your body’s fat-burning machine in 8 weeks!)
“An evolution of the gut flora to this new sweetener-rich environment has a potential to negatively impact our health,” says Amanda Payne, Ph.D., lead author of the review.
How does that happen? As bacteria in the gut process food, they give off byproducts called short-chain fatty acids. These can be beneficial and serve as energy in the body. But as the sweetener-adapted bacteria thrive and become more efficient at processing large amounts of high-fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, and sugar alcohols, they also produce more and more short-chain fatty acids. (Not to imply that sugar is any better than artificial sweeteners.
Read the full article here: menshealth.com
Gut imbalances can cause or worsen:
- Mental illness
- Depression
- Multiple sclerosis
- Muscular problems
- Asthma
- Food allergies or intolerance
Building up the friendly gut bacteria (flora)
So what can you do: Eat and drink foods rich in probiotics.
Yoghurt – no added sugar preferably organic, even make your own.
Cream cheese – made from yoghurt – don’t bother with the store bought as it’s full of gums, flavours and additives which completely negate any goodness.
Sour cream – Easy to make yourself using a bought culture.
Cultured or fermented vegetables – here’s the recipe.
Apple Cider Vinegar – bottled with the “mother”. I use the Braggs brand.[amazon_link id=”B001AIWAAE” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar[/amazon_link]
Fats and Oils – Butter, full fat milk, flax oil, olive oil and coconut oil all promote wellness and oodles of goodies for your gut as well as your whole body. Coconut oil has all the added benefits of being antibacterial, antiviral and anti fungal. Taken as a supplement it has the necessary composition to kill off candida and heal the lining of your gut.
Probiotic supplement – I prefer a liquid but capsules work just as well. I usually always use Inner Health Plus. Any pharmacy or health food shop will stock this one.
**Note: If taking antibiotics make sure you double the quantity of the supplement and take for a longer period after you have stopped taking the antibiotics.
The suggestions above are foods that you can introduce into your daily eating habits for the whole family. If you have children then the earlier you start the better off your children will be in years to come. If you have elderly parents or relatives that are not doing so well then any of the above suggestions will help with all sorts of ailments. And if you are in that age range of being 40 something or 50 and over than do yourself a favour and feed yourself rich probiotic foods. It could prevent the following.
Also, stay out of nursing homes. Seniors in the new study who lived in care facilities actually had the least diverse gut colonies of all — more proof that you simply can’t stay healthy on a diet of green Jell-O and instant potatoes…….The Douglass Report
How about you? Have you any recipes for probiotics or suggested uses?
