Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Gut Bacteria

I've had the opportunity to read a lot of news lately. Aside from all those horrible disease, war, etc, things happening in the world which occupy most of my reading, I've also come across a lot of articles lately about got bacteria.

And since this is generally a health and life and weight loss and fitness blog, I will talk about got bacteria instead of what seems to be the apocalypse looming!

There have been articles that link gut bacteria and differences and gut bacteria to all sorts of things from autism to diabetes. It seems to be a general consensus among scientists that the type of gut bacteria we have can affect our overall health, including our weight.

There's research being done about using probiotics to alter the type of gut bacteria we have in order to do things such as alleviate aggressive symptoms of autism or prevent the onset of diabetes. (Note: even though probiotics are a big health craze right now, it seems that researchers are warning us against treating ourselves too heavily with probiotics, as they are not regulated by the FDA. Simply, do your research. The probiotics in fermented foods are really good for us - just be careful of the products you buy).

Other articles detail the fact that other types of foods, such as sweeteners found in diet soda, can alter our gut bacteria to actually make us more obese. Food for thought for you.soda drinkers out there!!

Anyway, just a trend I've seen in the news and studies recently. It makes a lot of sense, all those millions or trillions of bacteria in our stomachs and intestines must affect the way that our bodies and minds work.

We are little planets unto ourselves!

Off for my lunchtime walk :)

4 comments:

  1. Well since you "offer"ed your lunch time walk... I'll take it ;) Ha! That is interesting about the probiotics. We are giving Joshua probiotics to help his stomach from producing too much gas with his formula. It's live cultures in a pill form that you get in the refrigerated section of a health foods store. It's pricey and it one capsule has enough for about a week because we only give him what sticks to our finger tip. It really does help.

    Also we realized a few weeks ago that the hot chocolate we buy for church (Swiss Miss) has started adding sucralose to it's normal hot chocolate (not diet version). Talk about being pissed off!! Our kids drink this stuff...now I have to find a different brand.

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  2. Our bodies are finely balanced ......sometimes. When they go out of kilter that's when our health can suffer.
    Eat healthily, exercise too and try and get a good sleep pattern ...our bodies appreciate it so do our 'Gut Bacteria' ......probably.

    All the best Jan

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  3. I am intrigued by all the gut bacteria discussion lately and I think there is definitely something in this. As for all the other news? It's too depressing lately... seriously worrying. I wonder if it's just me but no, the news really is getting worse.

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