You may not be aware of how densely your body is inhabited by different types of bacteria. The truth is, there are trillions of them inside you! It is also worth knowing that the vast majority of them live in your intestines. However, there is nothing to worry about because gut bacteria play a few crucial positive roles in your health – for example, they improve the immune system communication and contribute to producing particular vitamins.
What is more, gut bacteria may also have an impact on the way different kinds of food are digested and release chemicals helping to make you feel full. For this reason, they are associated with weight regulation. To provide your body with beneficial gut bacteria, you should eat appropriate foods and take supplements, like those offered on primalharvest.com. To find out out more on that, keep on reading!
Energy Extraction
Our gut flora is pretty complicated, and to maintain a healthy body, we should feed the good bacteria properly so that they can work efficiently. To affect your metabolism positively and improve the weight loss process, you should provide a diverse and well-nourished ecosystem. Otherwise, you may deal with dysbiosis, which is a chronic microbes imbalance.
In this situation, the opportunistic microbes can prevail over the beneficial bacteria. Also, there can be a lower microbial diversity than it should. What you eat can strongly affect these factors, and it may play a role in weight gain.
Gut bacteria are able to break down food particles and extract energy from them, and as the process goes on, metabolites are left behind. They can stimulate your gut lining to work properly, or they can be transferred to the blood by the gut. Also, some of the metabolites are just removed from your body when you use the toilet.
Thanks to the good microbes, the complex carbohydrates in whole plant foods can be broken down by fermentation. As a result, your gut becomes a great place to produce vitamins, short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), and other metabolites. The SCFAs are essential in your body because they constitute a great source of energy for your gut. Apart from that, they are also signaling molecules, and they transfer messages from one cell to another, improving, for example, the vagus nerve communication (the process of notifying your brain). Such a function makes the gut microbiota play a vital role in both food intake and 12
The Most Significant SCFAs
The most important two short-chain fatty acids binding to the gut lining cell receptors are butyrate and acetate, as they strongly contribute to controlling your appetite and regulating fat storage. On top of that, they also stimulate the release of the gut hormones called peptide YY and GLP-1, responsible for appetite regulation. When their concentration is optimal, they contribute to suppressing the appetite, and if there is no sufficient amount of them, you can feel tempted to snack more.
When more opportunistic pathogens than good gut bacteria can be found in your body, it can negatively affect your well-being, and you may be prone to getting overweight faster than other people. Similar to your weight, your gut health can be affected by your lifestyle to a large extent. With a healthy diet and a sufficient amount of exercise, you can improve the diversity of your gut microbes and gain better weight control.
Foods to Improve Your Gut Microbiota
There are many foods that you can eat on a regular basis to help your microbiota stay in the right shape and improve body weight loss. Some of the essentials in healthy dietary habits are as follows:
- Vegetables and Fruits. As vegetables and fruits have diverse fibers in their structure, they are excellent for your gut bacteria. Eating many different kinds of them every day will be reflected in your microbiota diversity, helping you to lose weight more effectively.
- Whole Grains. Whole grains are those grain products that are prepared without refining. As they are rich in fiber that is digested by the beneficial gut bacteria (such as Bifidobacteria), they may contribute to keeping a healthy weight.
- Fermented Foods. Fermented foods have some favorable gut microbes in their structure, like lactobacilli, and can reduce the amount of disease-causing bacteria to keep you in good health. The most prominent examples of such products are yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, and kombucha.
- Probiotics. You do not have to get a probiotic all the time, but keep in mind that they can be a great help in regaining the right amount of healthy gut bacteria after a disease and/or antibiotics intake. In this way, they can both help you to get back to good shape and enhance your weight loss.
- Polyphenol-Rich Products. Even though your body cannot digest the polyphenols in such products as green tea, red wine, or dark chocolate, the advantageous bacteria can break them down and contribute to their increase in your intestines.
- Seeds and Nuts. Thanks to seeds and nuts, you can provide your body with a lot of healthy fats and fibers, helping the beneficial bacteria grow in your gut.
Conclusion
Your intestines are full of diverse bacteria – some may cause certain diseases, while others can enhance the metabolic processes, improving weight loss and your overall health. If you do not want to put on weight, you should do a lot of exercises and rearrange your diet to include foods rich in favorable bacteria. Thanks to eating and drinking fermented products, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, or seeds, you will provide your body with bacteria that help you not to become obese and prevent you from storing too much body fat.
Bear in mind that to achieve the desired effect, you need to be consistent – eating unhealthy three days a week has a detrimental impact on your intestines even if you stick to the diet in the remaining four days of the week. If you are not sure if your diet is appropriate for your individual needs and if it contributes to your weight gain or not, you can always consult a professional dietician.
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