Last week we looked at the possibility that the antibiotic prescribing and consuming culture may have got us into an overweight, worldwide problem. We looked at gut issues and how the microbes living there could be responsible for whether or not you are overweight.
A study carried out in the UK – the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children – followed 14,500 children. They followed them from 1991 and found that those who received antibiotics in the first six months of life became fatter.
Martin Blaser, director of the Human Microbiome Programme at New York University, began to wonder a few years ago why antibiotics given to farm animals made them fat. Since the 1940s, farmers have been dosing their livestock feed with a steady stream of low-dose antibiotics to promote rapid weight gain.
They found that no matter which antibiotic they used, it worked. In fact, the earlier they began feeding their chickens, pigs and cows, the fatter they grew. So the practice flourished on farms globally, without any thought for safety. After all, doctors were prescribing the same, in much higher doses, to infants.
The idea that the explosive use of antibiotics in children might also be linked to the rising tide of human obesity led Blaser to his team’s groundbreaking mouse studies. They have demonstrated that exposure to low-dose antibiotics in infancy changes their gut microbes, predisposing them to obesity for the rest of their lives (Cell, 2014).
So the question arises, can we manipulate our microbes? There is encouraging research emerging that our microbiomes, which are constantly shifting, dynamic living ecosystems, can be altered by the food we eat. When we feast, our microbes feast. Just as when one organism is wiped out from a food chain in the wild, the whole food chain is altered, so it seems we can deliberately starve some species in our gut and cultivate ‘good’ bugs that shift us to a healthy weight.
Those who received antibiotics in the first six months of life became fatter- study
When he was 17 years old, Gerard Mullin tipped the scales at 293 pounds. Later that year, inspired by the Rocky boxing movie, he decided to do something about it. He tried various diets, after which he found a book advising an increase of fibre. He started eating oat bran every day, cutting out red meat and adding in yoghurt. “In no time, I was dropping weight and feeling fantastic.” Mullins recounts this in his book, The Gut Balance Revolution (Rodale Books, 2014).
Mullin went on to become a leading integrative gastroenterologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital, inspiring others in the epidemic battle against the bulge. “I now realise that I had developed a way of eating that restricted foods that promote inflammation and spike blood sugar and fat forming insulin,” says Mullin. “I was also supporting the growth of friendly bacteria in my gut with prebiotic fibre-rich foods and live yoghurt cultures… this may be the reason the diet worked.”
Here are some of the microbiome enhancing superfoods Mullin advocates for weight loss:
• Apples – Scientists at the School of Food Science at Washington State University studied the gut microbiome profiles of obese and lean rats before and after they ate apples. They found that every variety of apple they tested had the ability to normalise the imbalanced gut flora of obese rats. The tart green Granny Smith, highest in the non-digestible fibres that gut flora thrive on, showed the greatest benefit.
• Cinnamon – This spice is a zero-calorie, fat-burning powerhouse. One US Department of Agriculture study showed that just a quarter of a teaspoon of cinnamon, daily, lowers blood sugar, cholesterol, triglycerides and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in type 2 diabetics. It also blocks glucose absorption and enhances the uptake of sugar in the blood by insulin. Other research has shown that it slows stomach emptying to reduce after-meal blood sugar spikes. In addition, cinnamon has antimicrobial properties that work against a number of pathogenic gut microbes.
• Wild salmon – Salmon is packed with Omega-3 healthy fats that improve insulin sensitivity and help burn fat and prevent heart disease. Mullin says that wild salmon have a much higher ratio of beneficial fats than farmed fish, which are also frequently doused with antibiotics and fed genetically modified corn and soy. Salmon in the wild are also less contaminated with toxic chemicals such as dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
• Whey protein – Mullin favours this super protein because it has the highest concentration of branched chain amino acids, especially leucine, which preserves fat-burning muscle for lean metabolism and suppresses appetite. It is casein and lactose-free, so it should be tolerated by most people sensitive to dairy. It is full of immune regulating glycomacropeptides and beta-glucans, which are shown to heal the gut limiting and cool inflammation.
Mullin’s weight loss programme included a 30-day high-protein, low-carbohydrate ‘reboot’ diet that eliminates gluten, all sugars except stevia and most dairy foods. It radically reduces other short chain carbs and sugary foods that bacteria tend to love; even foods that are good for weight loss, such as fibre and beans, are restricted to starve out the bacteria and ‘till the soil’.
Eventually, it incorporates a broad range of high-quality lean meats, eggs, fish, artisanal hard cheeses, non-sugary fruits and vegetables, such as blueberries, plums and green vegetables, and some grains, actually resembling the Mediterranean diet.
kathryn@maltanet.net