Destroys Gut Bacteria – Causes Malnutrition… Sweet, Sweet Misery
Have you ever though that you were not 100% human?!?
- Good bacteria
- Counteract inflammation and control growth of disease-causing bacteria. Inflammation is correlated to obesity
- Are a major player in keeping you healthy and well nourished!
- Without them you are left craving more food leaving you overfed yet malnourished. This also correlated to obesity.
- Lack of good bacteria allows bad ones to take over – you get sick more easily
- Sugar outright DESTROYS good bacteria while feeding the bad!
- Improve your bacteria cultures by eating little to no added sugar, indulge in fresh fruits and veggies for your sweet tooth fix
So, your gut is full of teeny-tiny bacteria. Matter of fact your body is 10 TIMES more bacterial DNA than human DNA!!!!!!!!!!!…. Ugh! Grosssss! Well! Sorry but that is just the way the cookie crumbles!
And talking about cookies… bacteria like cookies, right? So, wouldn’t it be good to feed these essential bacteria cookies to keep them happy? Hmmmmmmmmm, NO!
Here is why…
First, why do we have so many bacteria floating among our human cells. What do they do and how did they get there?
Bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microorganisms that are part of our body’s microflora play a major role in your health, both mental and physical, matter of fact they are instrumental doing your body a lot of services it cannot do itself. It’s a symbiosis.
For example, beneficial bacteria, also known as probiotics, have been shown to (1)
- Counteract inflammation and control the growth of disease-causing bacteria
- Produce vitamins, amino acids (protein precursors), absorb minerals, and eliminate toxins, a.k.a. It is a major player in your digestion
- Impact your weight, for better or worse
There are a lot of other benefits to them, but let’s just look at the nutrition \ physical health parts now…. And let’s understand why “gut bacteria [have] been found to influence the processing and utilization of nutrients and even help protect against food borne disease”. “It’s also well-known that an unbalanced microbiome can weaken your immune system” another sign of malnutrition. (1)
Studies with fecal transplants (yes, you read that right…. take a little poop of one person and put it into another… yes… the studies were done with mice though… human to mouse to be clear!) have shown that mice implanted with poor diversity bacteria were developing much more poorly (stunted growth etc.) than mice implanted with great diversity bacteria even if they were fed the exact same diet and provided with the same level of exercise and stimulus. (2)
What they found was that the bacteria could break down the food more efficiently and effectively providing much more value to the carrier. They grew bigger (not fatter), stronger, healthier!
If you have a poor gut culture your food will not be processed properly and your body will become deficient in all sort of important nutrients. Generation of B12 for instance might be diminished leading to nervous system issues, depression, focus problems etc. Production of Vitamin D (actually a hormone produced inside of you) could be suboptimal leading to fatigue, higher inflammation, greater chance for all sort of diseases. Low levels of consistent systemic inflammation have also been linked to obesity and a correlation between a poor gut culture and fat storage leading to obesity has been shown repeatedly. (3)
A lot of times when you are sluggish and down you eat for the quick pick-me-up. Often some sugar and carbs. Problem is this becomes a vicious cycle. Your body wants food because it is deficient in nutrients and wants you to give it what it needs. But then you give it processed sugar and carbs which unfortunately is devastating to the good bacteria and for the most part has no nutrition to begin with. This might also be part of why it has been shown repeatedly that “Malnutrition may manifest as either obesity or undernutrition (deficiency symptoms as mentioned… not being skinny) “. (3)
Here is the tricky part, you have bad bacteria as well. Your body constantly balances itself allowing the good ones to fight the bad ones gallantly. But while the bad ones thrive on the sugar you eat, the good ones need a type of sugar you find specifically in fresh natural plants, especially leafy green vegetables. They get to use it because other nutrients as well as the fiber in the plants facilitate this process.
Once you feed these good bacteria they can get to work and maximize the value of your food, leaving you well nourished, satiated, and in good health.
In addition to the fresh veggies and greens, eating fresh fruit and any sort of fermented food such as sauerkraut, yogurt, kefir etc. is excellent for those little buggers. (4)
Check out The Difference between PRObiotic and PREbiotic, if you want to dig a bit deeper.
In the meantime, minimize any processed foods such as breads, pastas, crackers etc. and anything else that has added sugar (look carefully at the store-bought pasta sauce or the flavored yogurts!!!!!!! TONS of sugar!!!!!). (1) That will help you starve down the bad bacteria. Give that about 2-3 weeks and you will be amazed about how much more energy you have and how your body really craves less… after all it will have the nutrients it need! See our Gut-It-Out Challenge! coming soon.
NOTE: ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS ARE PURE POISON \ TOXICITY \ DEATH to healthy bacteria! (5)
So, don’t think for a second to sub the sugar with that stuff!!!!! Read more @ THE 101 OF ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS.
1. Mercola,J.M., 2016. How Probiotics and FiberHelps Combat Malnutrition [Online]. Available: https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/03/07/probiotics-fiber-malnutrition.aspx[Accessed September 2, 2017].