Beyond the Shots: Focusing on Gut Health Can Aid Weight Loss

Beyond the Shots: Focusing on Gut Health Can Aid Weight Loss February 25, 2024 Share Share Link Close share Copy link 6 min read Managing Gut A Health for Longer Life Expectancy Feb.

22, 2024 -- Injectable weight loss drugs like Wegovy, Saxenda, and Zepbound have been getting all the glory lately, but they’re not for everyone.

If the inconvenience or cost of weight-loss drugs isn't for you, another approach may be boosting your gut microbiome .

So how does one do that, and how does it work?

“There are a lot of different factors naturally in weight gain and weight loss, so the gut microbiome is certainly not the only thing,” said Chris Damman, MD, a gastroenterologist at the University of Washington.

He studies how food and the microbiome affect your health.

“With that caveat, it probably is playing an important role.” Trillions of Microbes The idea that your gut is home to an enormous range of tiny organisms -- microbes -- has existed for more than 100 years, but only in the 21st century have scientists had the ability to delve into specifics.

Best and Worst Foods for Gut Health 1 / 11 Gut Health Your gut relies on just the right balance of different bacteria to digest your food and to prevent infection and inflammation.

Gut health also affects your mental health, weight, blood sugar, and liver.

Prebiotic foods (whole grains, bananas, greens, onions, garlic, soybeans, and artichokes) act as food for healthy gut bacteria.

Probiotic foods like yogurt are full of good bacteria already.

2 / 11 Best: Fermented Foods Fermenting is a method of preserving foods with bacteria and yeast.

When you eat fermented foods such as yogurt, kefir, kimchi, and sauerkraut, you get the live bacteria in them.

This makes them a great source of probiotics.

3 / 11 Best: Bananas Bananas supply your gut with inulin, a type of fiber that helps good bacteria grow.

4 / 11 Best: Leafy Green Veggies They’re a top-notch pick because they’re high in fiber and a special carb, both of which feed helpful gut bacteria.

5 / 11 Best: Whole Grains Your body can’t break down fiber on its own.

When it gets to your large intestine, gut bacteria get to work fermenting it.

This creates acids that feed cells in your intestines while helping to protect your gut from harmful bacteria.

6 / 11 Best: Polyphenols These compounds in foods protect your cells from damage while fighting inflammation and infection.

Colorful foods are rich in polyphenols, as are tea, coffee, and red wine.

Polyphenols in green tea may help fight “bad” bacteria like E.

coli and calm symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and peptic ulcers.

Polyphenols can also promote the growth of good gut bacteria.

7 / 11 Worst: Red Meat Red meat can trigger the growth of gut bacteria that lead to clogged arteries.

Stick to lean protein sources such as fish or plant protein like beans and tofu.

If you can’t give up beef, pork, and lamb completely, choose leaner cuts with names that include round, loin, or sirloin.

8 / 11 Worst: Fried Foods Fried foods are already on the not-good-for-you list.

It hasn’t been proven in humans yet, but studies on rats shows that heated oil, which soaks into the fried foods, can damage healthy gut bacteria.

9 / 11 Worst: Foods With Antibiotics Antibiotics can’t tell the difference between “good” and “bad” bacteria, so they kill them all.

Often, farmers treat animals with antibiotics to keep them from getting infections.

If you eat these animal products, you can kill the healthy bacteria in your gut.

And because some bacteria become antibiotic resistant over time, meaning the drugs no longer affect it, you might end up with a hard-to-kill superbug.

10 / 11 Worst: Alcohol Alcohol, especially if you’re a heavy drinker, can disrupt the balance of bacteria in your gut and help bad bacteria grow.

Moderation is key.

11 / 11 Worst: Caffeine Coffee, soda, and even too much chocolate can up the caffeine in your body, which ramps up your intestines.

This excitement in your digestive system often causes diarrhea.

We now know you want a robust assortment of microbes in your gut, especially in the lower gut, your colon.

They feast on fiber from the food you eat and turn it into substances your body needs.

Those substances send signals all over your body.

The American Diet Messes With Your Gut If you’re a typical American, you eat a lot of ultra-processed foods -- manufactured with a long ingredients list that includes additives or preservatives.

According to one study, those foods make up 73% of our food supply.

That can have a serious impact on gut health.

“When you process a food and mill it, it turns a whole food into tiny particles,” Damman said.

“That makes the food highly digestible.

But if you eat a stalk of broccoli, a large amount of that broccoli in the form of fiber and other things will make its way to your lower gut, where it will feed microbes.” With heavily processed foods, on the other hand, most of it gets digested before it can reach your lower gut, which leaves your microbes without the energy they need to survive.

Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown, PhD, is director of the Biodesign Center for Health Through Microbiomes at Arizona State University.

Her lab has done research into how microbes use the undigested food that reaches your gut.

She describes the problem with processed foods this way: While the study wasn’t designed for weight loss, an interesting thing happened when researchers analyzed participants’ bowel movements.

“We found that when you feed subjects a diet designed to provide more energy to the microbes and not to the [body], our subjects lost a little weight,” Krajmalnik-Brown said.

“It looks like by feeding your microbes, it seems to make people healthier and potentially even lose a little.” Another possible mechanism involves the same hormone that powers those injectable weight loss drugs.

The lower part of your gut makes hormones that tell the entire gut to slow down and also help orchestrate metabolism and appetite.

Among them is GLP-1.

The drugs use a synthetic version, semaglutide or tirzepatide, to trigger the same effect.

According to Damman, you can stimulate your gut to make those helpful hormones with the food you eat -- by giving your microbes the right fuel.

Eat to Feed Your Microbes The foods you eat can affect your gut microbiome, and so your weight.

But don’t go looking for that one perfect ingredient, experts warn.

Eating for gut health isn’t a magic bullet in terms of weight loss.

But the benefits of a healthy gut go far beyond shedding a few pounds.

“I think we need to strive for health, not weight loss.” Krajmalnik-Brown said.

“Keep your gut healthy and your microbes healthy, and that should eventually lead to a healthy weight.

You’ll make your microbes happy, and your microbes do a lot for your health.” Back to blog Leave a comment Name * Email * Comment *