Is Gut Health The Reason You Cannot Lose Fat & Gain Muscle?

Is Gut Health The Reason You Cannot Lose Fat & Gain Muscle?

This, and questions about carbs may potentially be one of the most commonly asked about topics ever.

Now gut health is important but a lot of people place too much of their focus on drinking things like kombucha or apple cider vinegar because they think its the magic key to them dropping bodyfat or optimising their health.

The reality is the biggest obstacle to them reaching their goal is much more to do with them training consistently and correctly, as well as taking care of a few nutrition fundamental habits. If this sounds like you and you want some help contact me here so I can teach what you should be doing.

 

Now with that being said, if you’re here to learn about gut health, I shall begin…

 

1. Your body is full of trillions of bacteria, viruses and fungi. They can also be referred to as microbes. (In fact, there are more bacterial cells in your body than human cells…I know scary thought(1, 2).)
2. Most of these microbes are found in a pocket of your large intestine and they are commonly referred to as the gut microbiome.
3. ‘Gut health’ is a term increasingly used in science and by the food industry to talk about the health and diversity of these bacteria in the microbiome.

 

‘Good bacteria’ in your gut affects:

• How your body absorbs vitamins and minerals
• Hormone regulation
• Digestion
• Vitamin production
• Immune response
• Ability to eliminate toxins
• Even overall mental health and mood.

 

As you can see having a healthy microbiome is super important as it influences so many areas of our biology.

The gut microbiome is completely unique to each individual. Even identical twins have a completely different microbial make up. This means that like most things we can improve our Gut Health if we do the right things. (22, 23).

 

How to improve your Gut Microbiome (Gut Health)

• Eat a diverse range of foods: The more diverse our food choices the more potential for a diverse microbiome. So don’t just stick to eating chicken breast, broccoli and rice every day. (48, 49, 50, 51).
• Eat fermented foods: Fermented foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut, kombucha and kefir all contain healthy live bacteria (probiotics). These fermented foods can also reduce the amount of disease-causing species in the gut (52). I recommend at least one of these foods per day, before or during a meal, as the bare minimum.
• Limit your intake of artificial sweeteners: Some evidence has shown that artificial sweeteners stimulate the growth of unhealthy bacteria in the gut (53). In one study, when mice had an artificial sweetener, the numbers and types of bacteria in their guts changed, including a reduction in some beneficial bacteria (14). These changes weren’t seen in the mice fed sugar water.
• Limit Alcohol Consumption: Over consumption of alcohol is linked to gut inflammation, leaky gut syndrome as well as damage to other organs.¹ For the record over consumptions is considered as little as 4 units per event. Or 7-14 units per week. https://www.arcr.niaaa.nih.gov/arcr382/article01.htm
• Eat prebiotic foods: Prebiotics are a type of dietary fibre that stimulates the growth of healthy bacteria. Prebiotic-rich foods include artichokes, bananas, asparagus, oats and apples (54).
• Eat foods rich in polyphenols: Polyphenols are category of chemicals that occur naturally in plants. They can be found in various fruits, vegetables, fats (dark chocolate, olive oil) and even various spices. They are broken down by the microbiome to stimulate healthy bacterial growth (60, 61).
• Not getting enough sleep: It appears that the gut also follows a daily circadian-like rhythm. Disrupting your body clock may have harmful effects on your gut bacteria (64, 65, 66).
• Avoid antibiotics unless absolutely necessary: Antibiotics kill both good and bad bacteria in the gut, which takes months and sometimes up to a year to restore.  (63).
• Take a probiotic supplement: Although this is an option. I’d highly recommend you explore all the previous options first.

 

If there’s one key take away for improving gut health, it’s:

1. Eat Quality Foods often
2. Skip the Anti-biotics unless you abosltely absolutely must!
3. Don’t think apple cider vinegar is gona help you if you’re eating crap all the time 🙂

 

Not trying to mock you if you’re finding it hard to stop eating crap. The food industry is a tricky mofo and like I said if you need my help I’ve got your back.

 

Hope this cleared things up for you.

 

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