Why You Should Care About Gut Health

The Skinny on Poop

Why should a girl care about microbes and poop? Best left to those who can appreciate the digestion process, like eight year old boys. Right? Except, did you know a mouse could be made fat or skinny depending on their gut microbes? If two mice are in a the same cage with the same food, but one mouse is given the poop from a fat person,* and the other mouse the poop from a skinny person, the mouse with the poop from the fat person will become fat, while the mouse with the poop from the skinny person will remain skinny.  That’s right, there is fat and skinny poop.

By manipulating their gut bacteria, mice can be made fat, skinny, social, reclusive, even sexy… to the other mice.  So, how does one get the skinny, social, sexy gut bacteria?
 

1. Eat vegetables and fruits. The good bacteria** in the gut depend on the plants that are eaten for their fuel. Bad bacteria,*** like rats and cockroaches, can survive on junk. A diverse gut flora may a reason vegetarians live longer than nonvegetarians.
2. Eat fermented foods. Most cultures have traditional foods that are fermented like sauerkraut, kimchi, vegetables pickled with whey, tempeh, yogurt, raw kombucha and kefir.
3. Take a probiotic. There is not one probiotic that works for everyone. Find a probiotic that has 5-10 strains and 50 billion live organisms. There’s assistance in choosing supplements at Orchard Nutrition and lots of opinions on Amazon.
4. Avoid added sugars and processed foods. They feed bad bacteria. A good practice is, if food has a barcode, always read the ingredients.  
5. Take antibiotics only when necessary. If you must take an antibiotic, replenish your gut bacteria with probiotics. Some scientists believe that overuse of antibiotics has contributed to the obesity crisis.

 
An interesting finding is that smoking changes gut bacteria and, when a person stops smoking, their gut bacteria changes into the gut bacteria of a fat person. Weight gain after smoking cessation could be avoided by actively restoring a healthy gut bacteria balance. While we get our microbiome from our mother, lifestyle can change the bacterial balance and our health.
 
This is a link to Rob Knight’s Ted Talk about our microbiome. It is a fun and informative way to spend 10 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-icXZ2tMRM
 
This is a link to American Gut, where you can have your poop tested for your microbiome.
http://americangut.org
 
*a fecal transplant. That’s right, putting someone else’s poop into another person. Sounds gross, unless it could cure a disease, then it sounds like a good plan.
**good bacteria are responsible for our vitamins, minerals, hormones, neurotransmitters, endocrine production and appetite. 
***bad bacteria are really good at making fat cells even fatter. 

By: Linda Soloniuk, RN, MA
Redding Laser Tattoo Removal
reddinglasertattooremoval.com
[email protected] ​