Change Your Diet, Change Your Gut, Change Your Health
by Garth Davis, MD on June 29, 2015You will be hearing a lot about gut bacteria in the future. It seems like lots of diseases, even obesity, may be caused by or exacerbated by our gut bacteria.
Of course, companies are jumping on this bandwagon now by offering a wide array of probiotic pills. The efficacy and content are never really tested. You don’t know what you are getting.
Most importantly, you cannot just take a pill and think it will fix all you gut bacteria. The good bacteria have to be fed properly to survive.
This article published in Nature shows how important diet is when it comes to what kinds of bacteria grow inside you. Just a few days of eating meat and the whole micro biome changes, and not for the better.
Good gut bacteria need good food, called prebiotics. Prebiotics are fibers and undigestible carbs that the bacteria use as their food.
So think before you eat. Are you giving the good guys inside you the fuel to thrive and thereby allow you to thrive?