The Role of Prebiotics

The key to inflammation and weight retention is gut health. If your gut isn’t healthy, you are not going to reach your body goals, no matter how much you work out or how healthy you think you eat. Your gut controls your immune system as well as your metabolism. There are two types of bacteria (flora) in the gut: Good and bad. To help cure your gut, you need to increase the amount of good bacteria in the gut.

You’ve taken the step to cut out sugar from your diet, but you still keep the Splenda in the cupboard and the Stevia on the counter. They seem like a great substitute for your sugar addiction. After all, artificial sweetners have been said to curb your sugar cravings and help you control your weight. In reality though, the use of these products actually makes your body more sugar intolerant. Your blood sugar levels increase, which leads to an uncontrollable urge to overeat. Using artificial sweetners can trigger the growth of bad bacteria, causing your gut to become inflamed and creating a risk for obesity, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and metabolic disease. Scientific research and studies have proven that artificial sweetners repel good flora in the gut.

It is important to keep the levels of good bacteria in your gut higher than the levels of bad bacteria. By increasing the number of good bacteria in your gut, you help your body digest glucose and other sugars. It’s easy to decrease the amount of bad bacteria in the gut, but increasing the good bacteria can be more difficult. Two ways in which you can accomplish this are by eating whole grain-like seeds and taking prebiotics.

Quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat and millet are all examples of whole grain-like seeds. These foods boost your metabolism and decrease inflammation, encouraging a healthy gut. They are easy to prepare at home and can help you feel satiated and build your immunity to overeating.

Prebiotics can be found naturally in foods such as chicory root, dandelion greens, garlic, onions, leeks, asparagus and flax seeds, to name a few. When eaten raw, these foods are high in fiber, boost your immune system and help with digestion.

Try to incorporate these foods into your diet daily to promote a healthy gut and ward off the bad bacteria. You don’t want to lose those benefits though; to keep those levels high, take out the artificial sweetners from your diet and see your health improve and your body slim down!