Your intestines play host to over 100 trillion bacteria, which is roughly equivalent to two and a half pounds. Pleasant thought, right? Well, these bacteria are an integral part of your immune system and can have a significant impact on your weight and overall health.

Benefits of Probiotics

Healthy bacteria, often referred to as probiotics can help regulate your weight and aid in destroying harmful, disease-causing bacteria that want to colonize and feed off your colon. In fact, probiotics have been proven to be beneficial to your body in a variety of other ways, such as: Absorb minerals, manufacture vitamins, and vanquish toxins

• Decrease risk and severity of allergies
• Boost your day-to-day mood and overall mental health
• Diminish asthma
• Subdue inflammation for better immune system efficiency

To ensure this level of activity in your body, a recommended diet consisting of whole, unprocessed foods, fermented and cultured foods, and quality probiotic supplements is essential. Various forms of probiotics can be purchased at almost any local grocery store, but top quality strains of probiotics, such as bacteroidetes, will likely only be found at health food stores. Bacteroidetes are a positive bacterial strain that are commonly found in plenitude among slimmer people, where as obese people are likely to have less bacteroidetes and an excess of firmicutes. Firmicutes bacteria have an adverse affect on your body and will turn calories from complex sugars into fat. When overweight individuals begin to lose weight, a balance of power in the bacterial community shifts from firmicutes to bacteroidetes. *Research found a staggering 20 percent of the weight lost in gastric bypass patients last year was due to a shift in those very same bacteria previously mentioned. This begs the question, how many of those procedures could have been avoided?

Take Control of the Bacteria you put in Your Body

That’s right, the old adage holds true – “YOU are what YOU eat.” Through the foods that you eat, you are in charge of the balance of your intestinal microflora (the bacteria found in your intestines). The good news is that it’s never too late to reverse the balance of your gut bacteria. In fact, changing your diet can make an immediate impact, as was recently studied; Science News reports: “A more recent study found that major diet shifts can change the mix of gut microbes noticeably in just a day. Omnivores switching to a diet of all animal products saw the biggest change, as some bacteria boomed and others declined. Microbes settled back to their previous profiles a day or two after subjects returned to their usual diets…” Meat consumption can have an enormous bearing on the balance of bacteria in your gut. A recent study also showed a comparison of an average American diet vs. that of an average Venezuelan. American diets consist of much more meat, dairy products, breads, pastas and other carbs than the Venezuelan diet, which consist of more corn, yucca, and the occasional slab of meat. According to Science News: “Americans, on the other hand, have a distinctive microbiome with about 25 percent less diversity than indigenous Venezuelans,” From this study, it’s no coincidence that the average American BMI (Body Mass Index) and obesity rate is higher than the average Venezuelan. The foods mentioned in the American diet contain more sugar, and are also more processed, sterilized and pasteurized. Both sugar and processed foods promote the growth of yeast and fungus, which can lead to a number of diseases. Symptoms from eating these sorts of foods can include the following:

• Fatigue
• Depression
• Indigestion
• Urinary tract infections
• Nasal Congestion
• Reoccurring Headaches

Curb Your Food Cravings

Further research suggests that your appetite may be directly correlated to your microflora. In essence, the foods you crave are simply messages being sent to your brain by the composition of bacteria in your gut. For example, if you are a person that enjoys a lot of sweet or salty foods, the bacterial community in your intestines will convince you that you need more of the same types of foods. Conversely, if your diet is rich in whole, unprocessed foods, you will receive the memo for more of the good stuff. Additional analysis shows that three certain harmful bacteria can form insulin resistance and weight gain by generating mild inflammation within your body. The scientific classifications of these three bacteria are as follows:

• Endotoxin- (producing Enterobacter, or soft tissue infections or urinary tract infections (UTI’s))
• The human adenovirus-36 (a cause of respiratory infections and pinkeye)
• Staphylococcus aureus9 (an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria)

Sometimes what you can’t see or understand is enough to scare you away. Though will power is entirely another conversation, it’s reassuring to know that modest behavioral changes in the way you eat can trigger new and healthy habits and aid you in staving off weight gain, infection and disease.

Eat Fermented Foods

Accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. While processed foods and foods high in sugar will act as more of a pesticide in your body, fermented foods act as a fertilizer and harvest healthy bacteria. Good examples of fermented foods include:

• Olives
• Sauerkraut and pickles
• Tempeh
• Kefir and other unpasteurized dairy products
• Miso

Bonus alert: Fermented foods are incredible detox agents and can help relieve your body of harmful toxins, pesticides and metals.

Make it a Lifestyle

Create a healthy routine and pay attention to the things you buy at the grocery store. Eat fermented foods and buy organic when possible. As a general rule, if you stick to the outside horseshoe of the grocery store, that will help you avoid the processed, sugar-laden, and genetically engineered foods that are saturated with harmful, colon-eating bacteria. In addition to foods that can kill good bacteria, make sure you stay away from other common chemicals such as:

• Antibacterial Soap
• Pollution
• Antibiotics (Always seek out grass-fed meat whenever possible)
• Chlorinated Water (Although it has its merits – think of the thousands of potentially harmful bacteria in a public pool)

Good health starts with the choices you make. Again, remember that this means a diet rich in whole, unprocessed, unsweetened foods, supplemented with quality probiotics, and traditionally fermented and cultured foods. We eat to live and we live to eat, so maintain a good balance of gut bacteria to achieve the health and weight you desire and deserve for a long, fruitful life.