Are Your Gut Microbes Making You Fat!?

Are Your Gut Microbes Making You Fat!?

There are trillions if bacteria living in your gut, that we know.  But did you know that the population of your microbes may determine if you are likely to be fat or thin?! As we study this amazing microbe machine inside of us, we are discovering the many and far reaching implications of having a healthy population of bugs in your gut.

Researchers recently found pairs of human twins in which one was obese and the other lean. They transferred gut bacteria from these twins into mice and watched what happened. The mice with bacteria from fat twins grew fat; those that got bacteria from lean twins stayed lean. The study published in Science on September 6, 2013, describes the details.

It is becoming more clear that our microbial colonies play critical roles in health, with doctors now curing people by transferring microbe-rich tissues from healthy people into sick ones. Where the term "fecal transplant" used to sound like science fiction, there is now strong enough evidence of potential benefits that there are major medical centers performing this procedure to treat resistant clostridium difficile colitis infections.  Could they be transplanting gut bugs in the future to cure obesity? Sounds crazy but perhaps not too far fetched...

I don't know about you... but I'd rather change my diet than exchange fecal matter! Keep reading on for how diet can change your microbes, too...

There is a caveat: Microbes associated with leanness can’t take up residence in mice with “obese” gut microbes unless the animals eat a healthy diet.

As part of the study, the twins’ gut microbes were transferred into mice that had been raised in a previously microbe-free environment. The researchers had a chance to observe what happens when a mouse carrying a collection of gut microbes from an obese twin is housed with another mouse carrying gut microbes from the lean twin.

“Eating a healthy diet encourages microbes associated with leanness to quickly become incorporated into the gut,” said senior author Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, director of the Center for Genome Sciences & Systems Biology at Washington University. “But a diet high in saturated fat and low in fruits and vegetables thwarts the invasion of microbes associated with leanness. This is important as we look to develop next-generation probiotics as a treatment for obesity.”

In 2009, Gordon found that the microbes in obese individuals also lack diversity and contain more pathogenic species. Individuals with healthy microbes contain a larger variety and include species such as provatella and bifidobacter. Earlier research showed that obese individuals had a shift from more Bacteroidetes to greater proportion of Firmicutes. Those that remained lean continued to have high levels of bacteroidetes. There is also evidence showing that these gut bug populations also change as we age.  Perhaps the most important idea from that past decade of research is that the diet we consume has the ability to change our internal mileau!  More industrialized nations tend to have gut populations that favor Firmicutes while less industrialized societies that still rely heavily on unprocessed food sources have guts that remain high in Bacteroidetes.

These observations were confirmed by a recent Danish clinical study that linked the risk for metabolic disorders – obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes – to a shortage of friendly intestinal.  The microbiome of bacteria-poor people were dominated by species that cause chronic inflammation in the body.

The "good" guys vs. the "bad" guys ... 

The Firmicutes ("bad" guys) and the Bacteroidetes ("good" guys)  are divisions of gut bacteria. The microbiota of the human gut is dominated by these two species, most of which are benign although a few are pathogenic.

The Firmicutes is the largest bacterial class, containing more than 250 types, including Lactobacillus, Mycoplasma, Bacillus and Clostridium.  They are a very diverse class and Clostridium species are obligate anaerobes whereas members of Bacillus form spores and many of them are obligate aerobes. Streptococcus pyogenes, the well-known cause of 'Strep throat', is also a member of the Firmicutes.

The Bacteroidetes include about 20 types. In the human gut, Bacteroidetes is probably the most abundant single genus. Species of Bacteroidetes are obligate anaerobes that are benign inhabitants of the gut. However, they are opportunistic pathogens that can cause disease if they gain access to the peritoneal cavity outside the gut, for example in bowel perforation or surgery. In addition research raises the question of how consumption of increasingly hygienic and processed food deprives our microbiota from useful environmental genes and possibly affects our health.

Could Probiotics Help?

Probiotics are bacteria that help maintain a healthful balance of microbes in the intestines, and generally benefit their host.  The average person’s digestive tract hosts about 400 kinds of probiotic bacteria, which help prevent the growth of harmful bacteria and promote healthy digestion.  Now we know they may also affect our disposition towards being thin or obese!

Lactobacillus are often given to patients following a course of antibiotics, and are also found in yogurt and most other cultured/fermented foods.  Probiotics may be used in infants to populate the gut after c-section and may benefit babies with colic.  For more on probiotics and how they can benefit your health, read this!  I believe we are just on the edge of understanding how these healthy bugs and supplementation of different strains may affect health and disease and weight.  Stay tuned for the coming research and blog articles...

So What Should I Eat?

The Paleo Diet may be beneficial in reducing your risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease and many autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. I frequently use the basic principles of the paleo diet to help patients re-learn how to eat healthy, maintain ideal weight, and feel fabulous! Perhaps the most important thing about it is that it encourages you to get back to whole delicious real food.  It will allow you to feel better, lose weight easily and maintain muscle at any age. I challenge you to give it a try for yourself for 30 days and see if it doesn't change your life!

Does This Chemical Make Me Look Fat?! More on Obesogens...

Photo courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net

Obesogens are chemicals that can inappropriately alter fat storage and change metabolic set-points. This disrupts energy balance and modifies your appetite to promote fat accumulation. Chemicals in your environment can certainly have an impact on your health and often your weight. Some of these exposures may occur before you’re born but there is still a lot that you can control! Exposure to obesogens don't necessary doom you to become overweight, but it's all the more reason  to consider ways to avoid exposure and regularly use neutraceuticals and whole foods to aid our body's natural detox mechanisms through our liver, kidneys and bowel.

Here's some easy ways to do a quick check of your home a to determine where your greatest exposures may be coming from.

Here's 12 simple changes that will significantly reduce your risks:

1. Eat organic foods, especially the "dirty dozen" Researchers have found that it takes just five days of eating organic to rid the body of virtually all pesticide residues.
2. Rather than eating conventional or farm-raised fish, which are often heavily contaminated with PCBs and mercury, supplement with a high-quality purified krill oil, or eat fish that is wild-caught and tested for purity.  My personal favorite is Wild Alaskan salmon.
3. Avoid any flexible plastics whenever possible, especially in children's toys.
4. Stop drinking out of plastic water bottles to avoid BPA.  Buy a reusable stainless steel or glass one instead.
5. Use a good quality reverse osmosis or carbon filter in your home.
6. Avoid using plastics with food or beverages
7. Choose glass jars instead of storing your food in plastic containers.  Especially don't make the mistake of freezing or microwaving in plastic.
8. Use natural toiletries and personal care items, cleaning supplies, laundry detergents and other household products.  Start by cleaning up your make-up and body lotion... a good rule of thumb is if you wouldn't put in in your mouth, don't put it on your skin.
9. Replace your non-stick pots & pans with ceramic or glass cookware
10. Replace your vinyl shower curtain with one made of fabric or install a glass shower door 
11. Get rid of your indoor plug-in air fresheners, candles and fabric softners.  These seemingly pleasants scents are often toxic chemicals and contribute to poor indoor air quality and may even cause breathing problems, such as asthma.
12. Look for natural, chemical-free clothing, furniture, flooring, paint and other building supplies to use in your home

Could These Seven Foods Be Causing Your Weight Gain?!

Food Allergy "Fat"
"Fat" that comes with food sensitivities is a characterized by bloating and fluid retention that many people experience when they ingest these top seven food allergens.  Eating foods that interfere with our body’s chemistry causes tissue swelling, abdominal bloating or even facial puffiness that may have the appearance of real fat. In fact, it’s not unusual for a person to look ten to fifteen pounds heavier due to these nasty reactions.

The foods that people react to most commonly are also the most prevalent in the Standard American Diet (SAD, for short)  They are dairy, wheat, corn, sugar, soy, eggs and peanuts.  Many patients assume they aren’t “allergic” to these foods because they don’t experience the immediate histamine reaction we associate with an allergy, like hives, throat swelling or vomiting.  Another complicating factor is that these type of reactions often cause delayed symptoms, meaning that you may not feel badly for 12-36 hours. This makes such sensitivities extremely difficult to identify, particularly if your sensitivity is to a food that you eat on a daily basis. If you are constantly consuming wheat or dairy, for example, and having a low-grade reaction, you may not recognize this as your body’s distress signals. Instead you might assume they are totally unrelated chronic problems, like a eczema, migraines, fatigue, joint pain, or heartburn.

Virtually any food can cause these reactions — even “healthy” foods like citrus or bell peppers. Typically an individual will develop sensitivities to the foods he or she eats most often. Unfortunately the top seven - dairy, wheat, corn, sugar, soy, eggs, and peanuts - are the basis for most processed foods so most Americans are frequently exposed to them.   If we eat such foods on a daily basis, we may experience a near-constant state of reaction — including bloating and fluid retention. More serious, it may cause inflammation to the lining of the gut, upset your metabolism, create nutritional deficiencies, and blood sugar imbalances.  This can lead to food cravings, low energy, depression and even PMS!

When you eat reactive foods, they enter your bloodstream incompletely digested... as bigger particles that your body doesn’t recognize as food. This not only causes indigestion and gas within the gut, but may trigger release of cytokines and chemicals like adrenaline and histamine that set off an inflammatory response. As fluids rush into afflicted cells and are held in your tissues, swelling and abdominal bloating occur. Due to the fluctuation in endophrins that occurs in this "flight or flight response, you may find that you crave the foods your are most sensitive to.  The only real way to heal the gut is to eliminate these food triggers from your diet.

Elimination Diet to the Rescue!

One of the best ways to determine if you are having food reactions is an elimination diet.  Plan for a minimum of 3 weeks off all of the most common seven food allergens:  dairy, wheat, corn, sugar, soy, eggs and peanuts.  You will not be cured by that time, but you can determine which of these seven you are reacting to by adding them back into your diet one-by-one and seeing which one(s) you have a reaction to.

Another way to find the food culprits is to have your physician test you for IgG food sensitivities.  The elimination diet is the "gold standard" to determine what foods you are sensitive to but some patients prefer to have the data on paper before they start.  I use laboratories like, Genova Diagnostics, Metametrix, and US Biotek for this type of testing. 

Be aware that avoiding staple ingredients like wheat, dairy and corn syrup may require you to limit restaurant and packaged foods and to prepare most of your meals yourself.  I also recommend drinking plenty of water and getting regular exercise. Exercise will stimulate your metabolism and boost your energy level. It will also help flush excess fluids, burn calories and suppress your appetite, allowing you to experience even faster results.  Finding you have hidden food sensitivities may require you to adjust your eating, but when the inches start coming off and you feel better than you have in ages it will be worth all the effort!