Are Your Microbes Keeping You Obese
Did you know you have 100 Trillion microbes living inside of you…. And you can’t live without them!
Our microbes can not be seen by the naked eye, but under a microscope we know they have many different shapes and sizes.
I was watching an episode of The Nature of Things with David Suzuki, called: “It Takes Guts”
I found it fascinating how something inside of us, we can’t see or feel has such a profound impact on our lives.
Microbes are the reason diets don’t work. Low fat diets consistently fail. It is due to our microbes. — Prof. Tim Spector, Author of The Diet Myth
Is there a link between diet, microbes and our weight?
Microbes have a huge impact on our lives and our health. They help us digest food, convert calories into energy, produce crucial vitamins, regulate appetite, protect our immune system and fend off the bad bacteria. Our lifestyle, including highly processed foods and overuse of antibiotics, unfortunately has an effect on the species of bacteria in our gut. Scientists agree having a wide range of microbe species is key. Current studies indicate that obese people have a less diverse microbiome.
Super Size Me Experiment
Prof. Tim Spector, Author of The Diet Myth performed an experiment with his son. His son went 10 days on burgers and fries washed down with coke and chicken McNuggets was a treat. He wanted to re-create the ‘Super Size Me’ documentary and analyze his son’s microbiome.
After 10 days of burgers and fries his son began not sleeping well, started looking pale and yellow and actually wanted a salad.
The results of the experiment… The diversity of his son’s microbiome went down. Half of them were gone! It took two weeks of a fibre filled diet to restore his microbes.
The one thing that is to blame for the microbes being under attack is not just the increase in fat or sugar in our diets. It is the fact we are eating less fibre.
Are Processed Foods to Blame
Processed foods do not make it to the gut or to the colon where a vast majority of the microbes are living. Carbs and sugars are easily absorbed and they go straight into our blood stream and the microbes in the lower intestines go hungry. When we eat well, we are feeding our microbes and they provide us with vitamins, nutrition and the energy we need.
Processed foods are just simply a treat for our taste buds, but our guts are suffering the consequence.
Antibiotics and Good Bacteria vs. Bad Bacteria
Dr. Martin Blaser Author, Missing Microbes says : “If Farmers feed antibiotic to fatten up their animals are we fattening up our children?”
It is estimated that children receive:
- 3 courses of antibiotics by age 2
- 10 courses of antibiotics by age 10
- 17 courses of antibiotics by age 20
Unfortunately antibiotics can not decipher the good bacteria from the bad. It is a bomb that wipes out the target and the beneficial bacteria too.
Our microbiome is under assault and we are seeing a lot of consequences. – Dr. Martin Blaser Author, Missing Microbes
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Karen Fleury’s – Clean Eating With Benefits
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E-Mail: karen@cleaneatingwithbenefits.com
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