Lose Weight With the Right Gut Bacteria

As we’ve discussed before, a healthy gut is key to a healthy body (and mind). But did you know that your gut bacteria can actually affect your weight? If you struggle with your weight, here are some tips that may help.

More and more researchers are revealing the connections between gut health and overall health and well-being. As we discussed last week, supplementing with probiotics or probiotic foods can really help you build a healthy digestive system.

But probiotics are only part of the puzzle. There is a lot more you can do to support a healthy gut bacteria population, and doing so could also help you achieve your weight loss goals.

Here are some tips for feeding your gut bacteria properly to promote weight loss:

Did you know there are certain foods that encourage the growth of beneficial bacteria, keeping these colonies strong so that bad ones don’t overgrow? These foods are called prebiotics.

What are prebiotics? 

Prebiotics are nutritional fibers that cannot be digested by the human digestive system. They are complex chains of sugars that travel through the stomach and small intestine 90 percent whole and arrive in the large intestine, where they serve as food for probiotic bacteria. 

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How prebiotics can benefit your health 

One of the main benefits of prebiotics is their ability to feed desirable probiotic gut bacteria. This is done through a fermentation process. Many types of bacteria are able to ferment and metabolize prebiotic fiber, but lactobacilli and bifidobacteria in particular have been observed to thrive on prebiotics. You may recognize those species from the back of a yogurt container or probiotics supplement label. These are two of the main species that help us digest food properly and excrete what’s left over as waste.

Prebiotics were first identified by scientists in 1995, and since then many studies have been performed to evaluate their therapeutic effects. In studies where people consumed prebiotics, it was observed that their gut microbiome shifted toward containing more beneficial gut bacteria and fewer pathogens (disease-causing microorganisms).

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…, A 2009 study found that prebiotics can be very helpful in controlling body weight, and may be a key tool in the battle against widespread obesity. Study participants consumed 21 grams of prebiotic fiber each day and lost an average of 1.03 kg of fat over 12 weeks. Dr. Raylene Reime, the lead researcher, confirmed that it was fat weight being lost, rather than bone or muscle.These promising results may be because of improved insulin sensitivity and lowered blood glucose levels caused by prebiotic starch. Another potential reason is that prebiotics allow for greater production of an anti-inflammatory substance called butyrate by the microbes in the gut. Since obesity is closely tied with systemic inflammation, butyrate may assist in reversing the disease process.

With so many benefits already uncovered, prebiotics are a very exciting area of nutritional research.

Sources of prebiotics

Interestingly, the single food “purpose-built” for humans contains prebiotics: mother’s milk. The oligosaccharides in human breast milk have been observed to help keep infections at bay in newborns and children up to two years old. Researchers have found that the increased growth of bifidobacteria in breast-fed babies helps them stay healthy and get sick less often as compared to formula-fed babies. This is just one of the major benefits of breast-feeding infants. 

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For older children and adults, food sources of FOS and GOS forms of prebiotics include:

• Onions
• Garlic
• Milk
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• Cooked and cooled potatoes
• Plantains
• Artichokes
• Asparagus
• Leeks
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• Honey
• Dandelion greens
• Legumes
• …………………………………………..

Whole grains such as rye, wheat and oats also contain prebiotic fiber, but we do not recommend these foods as part of a healthy diet.

Prebiotics are also sold as dietary supplements. In this form, prebiotics may even be more effective than probiotics. This is because living probiotic cultures are difficult to preserve and package while maintaining their viability…. Prebiotics, on the other hand, are simply carbohydrates. They can be cooked, dried, frozen or powdered and still have healthful properties when they are consumed. 

Ultimately the research indicates that using a “symbiotic” supplement is likely the most effective choice. This is one that contains both live probiotic cultures and also some prebiotics to encourage their proliferation. Symbiotics have been found to be more effective than either prebiotics or probiotics on their own.

Thanks to the fact that prebiotics can be found in a variety of plant foods, it should be pretty easy to get your daily dose if you eat a balanced wholesome diet. The goal is to consume five to 30 grams of prebiotic fiber per day. Five grams is the minimum required to get any noticeable benefits, and 30 is the maximum that studies have found can be comfortably consumed without digestive upset.

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If you find that even a small amount of prebiotic fiber causes you stomach pain, this may indicate an underlying health condition, such as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth or microbial dysbiosis. If this is the case, a holistic health practitioner will be able to help you find balance in your microbiome through herbal and dietary treatments.

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