The overlooked key to weight loss may lie in the gut

When you are overweight, your gut will often be out of balance. But because the gut is very flexible – both physically and metaphorically, the right diet or supplements can bring the gut back into balance.

When it comes to weight loss, we may be faced with a 'chicken or the egg' situation.

A balanced gut can lead to weight loss. Conversely, weight loss can also lead to a balanced gut. ^{1 2}

This connection, according to Scott Anderson (author of the book The Psychobiotic Revolution), is largely due to the fact that an imbalanced gut will have much fewer different bacterial cultures and thus fewer types of bacteria to control what should be signaled to your brain.

You may have noticed that you often have the same craving for either salty, sweet, fatty, or a combination of these?

This is due, according to Amar Sarkar (Gut Researcher) et. al., to the preferences of your gut bacteria. If you have an abundance of bacteria in your gut that enjoy mushing in fat and some in sweets, then your brain may be decoding the signal as “chocolate” or perhaps “ice cream.” ³

What's funny about this type of bacteria is that they are self-reinforcing. If you eat a typical Western diet – high in fat and sugar but low in fiber – you'll also have more of the gut bacteria that love that type of food. ⁴

This will mean that you get more signals to your brain that it is time for something sweet or fatty. This is particularly interesting if you look at the obesity problem in the Western world – because what really came first: the obesity or an imbalanced gut?

In this blog , you can learn more about which botanical ingredients can help you with weight control and perhaps overcome an imbalanced gut.

 

Are you or your gut bacteria running the show?

You may know the feeling after giving in to a craving – that feeling that comes just before regret and the “why couldn’t I have just not done it” thought. The feeling of something nice, maybe even a little bit of happiness.

This is your gut bacteria thanking you and giving you a reward for giving in to their prayers. When you eat something your gut bacteria have been begging for, they have the ability to reward you, including by increasing the secretion of dopamine – our happiness hormone. ⁵

However, gut bacteria can do much more than send signals about food to your brain. Your gut bacteria are responsible for a large part of the signaling that determines whether you feel hungry or full. We have a satiety hormone, Leptin, and a hunger hormone, Grehlin, which constantly send signals to the brain about the status of the stomach.

Leptin sends a signal that goes something like: OK, OK, OK, OK, EMPTY, EMPTY, OK, OK, OK. This signal is decoded by the brain as either the stomach is above the level of being empty, or else it is empty and you are hungry. On the other hand, we have Grehlin, which sends the signals: OK, OK, OK, OK, FULL, FULL, FULL, OK, OK, OK.

The signals from Grehlin are decoded as your stomach is either below the level of satiety, or at the level where you are full and do not need more food. With an imbalanced gut, which we have just learned that the gut of the obese is, you may risk losing this signaling. Contrary to what you might think, you will not only lose your appetite, but on the contrary have an increased secretion of the hunger hormone 'floating' around the body, since during imbalance you also have an increased stress level, which increases the secretion of the hunger hormone via the gut bacteria. ⁶

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In people who are overweight, you see an abundance of, for example, the bile acid-loving bacteria that love to fill themselves with bile acid. Bile acid is, among other things, necessary in the breakdown of fat and meat, which is why you will crave these food groups if this particular intestinal bacteria lives with you. ⁷

You also see a large abundance of so-called effective bacteria. An effective intestinal bacteria is a bacteria that utilizes all the nutrients in the food and does not let anything go to waste. This means that the difference between an overweight and a normal-weight person will largely be whether the person has the intestinal bacteria that utilize the calories in the food as much as possible or not. ⁸

 

You can do that.

This blog has been about the many things that happen when it comes to hunger and satiety that you have no control over. But there are actually things you can do to take matters into your own hands.

Here are a few tips for what you can do going forward:

1. When you get cravings, you think twice. Should your gut bacteria be allowed to control what you eat?
2. Change your diet. Add more so-called prebiotic foods to your diet – these can include vegetables, whole grains, fruit and legumes, all of which feed some of the good and healthy gut bacteria.
3. Avoid fast food and too much saturated fat from, for example, donuts, ice cream and meat products.

Read about our dietary supplement MÆT here which comes with a unique formulation and contains a variety of plant extracts. All plant extracts are carefully filled into a capsule that has a special function; to release the extracts in the intestine. This means that your intestinal bacteria meet your dietary supplement in an unbroken form when the capsule releases the contents here.

Remember that weight loss is not just about "shut up and move more" but that for many people it is much more complex.

In any case, science indicates that the gut has a lot to say.

All that's left is to say TRUST YOUR GUT

 

 

¹ Highlighted quote applies to overweight people.

² Annadora, J. Bruce-Keller et al. (2015): Obese-type gut microbiota induce neurobehavioral changes in the absence of obesity. Biological Psychiatry 77, no. 7.

³ Anderson, S. et al. (2017): The Psychobiotic Revolution – Mood, Food, and the New Science of the Gut-Brain Connection. National Geographic Partners, LLC. pp. 16 & 53-57.

⁴ John K. DiBaise et al. eel. (2012): "Impact of the Gut Microbiota on the Development of Obesity: Current Concepts". In American Journal of Gastroenterology Supplements 1, no. 1.

⁵ Anderson, S. et al. (2017): The Psychobiotic Revolution – Mood, Food, and the New Science of the Gut-Brain Connection. National Geographic Partners, LLC. pp. 21 & 122.

⁶ BC Finger one. eel. (2011): "Behavioral Satiety Sequence in a Genetic Mouse Model of Obesity: Effects of Ghrelin Receptor Ligands". In Behavioral Pharmacology 22, no. 7.

⁷ Anderson, S. et al. (2017): The Psychobiotic Revolution – Mood, Food, and the New Science of the Gut-Brain Connection. National Geographic Partners, LLC. pp. 102-105.

⁸ Anderson, S. et al. (2017): The Psychobiotic Revolution – Mood, Food, and the New Science of the Gut-Brain Connection. National Geographic Partners, LLC. pp. 224.