Did you know that our gut bacteria have a direct impact on things like weight loss, weight loss resistance, insulin resistance and the foods we crave most.
For instance, Bacteriodetes and Firmicutes; People who suffer from obesity often have a rather low percentage of Bacteroidetes – and therefore higher firmicutes bacteria.
The reason these bacteria affect our weight is that they regulate how much fat we absorb. If two identical twins eat exactly 2,000 calories, but with different ratios of Bacteroidetes to Firmicutes. The one with a higher ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes will absorb more calories than the other and be more apt to gain weight while eating the exact same diet.
The other bacteria that impacts weight management is A. muciniphila. Akkermansia muciniphila (A. muciniphila) colonizes the mucosa layer of the gut and modulates basal metabolism. A. muciniphila is consistently correlated with obesity.
In fact, Akkermansia muciniphila helped overweight and obese people lose more belly fat and gain better blood-sugar control in a 2019 study from the Institute of Cardiometabolism and Nutrition at Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in Paris.
The study compared naturally-occurring levels of A. muciniphila, in 49 human volunteers before and after a 6 week weight-loss diet. People with the most (some in the high A. muciniphila group had levels 100 times higher than those in the Low A. muciniphila group) had smaller waistlines and lower blood sugar, insulin and cholesterol levels before dieting. While both groups lost similar amounts of weight on the diet, the High A. muciniphila group lost more abdominal fat and improved their blood sugar levels and insulin sensitivity more than the Low A. muciniphila group.
Furthermore, if there is an overgrowth of yeast, we tend to see more cravings of sugar in the diet, as yeasts thrive off sugar. This is a catch 22 - eating sugar promotes the growth of intestinal yeast and having too much yeast in your gut makes you crave sugar.
Different gut bugs have their own method of asking for their favourite meal, using variations of techniques to influence our food choices.
Microbes can produce toxins and make us feel like awful if we don’t give them what they want. So they know how to make us miserable.
Microbes can also increase our craving for food that they thrive on by changing our taste buds, increasing opioid and cannabinoid receptors, and producing neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin. So, they also know how to make us happy.
If you suspect something is not quite right with your gut and this may be contributing to your cravings and weight gain / weight loss resistance please get in touch, there are many different diagnostic tools we have as practitioners to assess and work with you to overcome.
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