Probiotics can help people on a diet to accelerate the weight loss process, according to a new research published in the Science magazine.
Including yogurt or other types of probiotics to your healthy food regime brings faster weight loss results because these active bacterial cultures modify the way your body absorbs calories and processes the food, according to endocrinologist DrSupneetSaluja from the US-based Mercy Medical Center. This immediately results in lower calorie absorption and therefore the potential for faster weight loss, she said.
However, we agree with DrSaluja, in that probiotics can produce this effect only when added to a healthy diet and that taking them on top of an unhealthy diet will have significantly less impressive results.
From our own experience – Probiotics from food are not enough to correct years of poor gut health. We like to ramp up clients’ gut flora with pharmaceutical grade probiotics with a guaranteed live count at expiry date. This may not be necessary if a client is willing to eat kimchi and sauerkraut each day but not many people will do that.
Another important time to ramp up probiotic intake is before, during, and after travel to unfamiliar destinations (think India, Asia, Africa for most of us). Our immune system can take a beating and we are highly likely to encounter strains of ‘bad’ bacteria that we are unfamiliar with – the best defense is to have an army of good bacteria to fend off the new strains. We may use a stronger strain and higher dose in this case.
Likewise, during and post antibiotics is important to replenish the gut with good bacteria because antibiotics don’t discriminate – they kill off the good and the bad which may leave us at more risk of getting ill post treatment.
We have experienced some clients having the uncomfortable and undesirable side-effect of wind/bloating – unfortunately this is a sign of the gut in repair. When the new, healthy army of bacteria does its work, bad bacteria die and decompose – nice! A reduced dose, higher fiber intake, cleaner diet, and higher water intake will help reduce the overall discomfort for most people and speed the return to optimal balance within their gut.