Gut Health and Weight Management

Leaky gut, dysbiosis, SIBO, gut flora imbalance, inflammation, it seems our gut bacteria, especially the unhealthy ones have a lot to answer for. Not only does it contribute to food intolerances, autoimmune conditions, mental health issues, ADD / ADHD, Autism, recurrent illness, bloating, IBS and a myriad of other conditions, we also now know that it can affect our ability to lose weight.

What has now become the standard Australian diet can be a huge contributing factor when it comes to dysbiosis of the gut. This is predominantly due to high refined sugars, the wrong fats, processed foods, along with stress, age, genetic factors and antibiotic use (not only the ones you’ve taken orally or used topically but also those that have been used in the foods we eat).

The poor gut health leads to inflammation, leaky gut, poor gene expression and as a result the person ends up either overweight or with any other host of diseases.

When comparing someone of regular weight and those that are overweight, the overweight tend to (but not exclusively) have more bad bacteria and less good bacteria in their digestive systems.

So what does that mean to us as humans?

If you’re overweight and have tried every calorie restricted diet and punishing exercise routine under the sun without success it could be as a result of dysbiosis. What you eat is just as important as how much you eat, processed foods high in refined sugars, white flour and empty calories will cause inflammation in the body and poor gut health.

Just by changing the diet, removing inflammatory foods and adding in healthy, anti-inflammatory foods, prebiotics, probiotics and fermented foods it will help to promote a better balance of the gut bacteria.

Out of many things people battle, obesity is a really tough one to beat, especially due to the fact that it takes a strong will to walk past all of those addictive, processed foods in the supermarket isle. Additionally, weight loss programs such as those that promote meal replacements in particular often contain ingredients that actually feed the bad bacteria so you might have success whilst limiting those calories, however, the bad gut bacteria has had a feeding frenzy and flourished which results in you ending up putting all the weight back on plus a little extra.

Don’t despair though…  you can lose weight…

Address your gut health first then start looking at your actual weight loss, you might just find that one helps the other.

From the team at Mumma’s Own

Get your copy of my 10 Ways to Support your Gut Health and Lose Weight