You may be aware, and possibly have
experienced firsthand, that antibiotics can
cause diarrhea.
This is because antibiotics, by design,
disrupt the balance of good and bad
bacteria in your gastrointestinal tract, often
killing off both beneficial and harmful
microorganisms without distinction.
It is through this same mechanism that
antibiotics may also be causing you to pack
on extra pounds.
In fact, Dr. Martin Blaser, a professor of
microbiology at New York University
Langone Medical Center, suggests that
antibiotics may permanently alter your gut
bacteria and interfere with important
hunger hormones secreted by your
stomach, leading to increased appetite and
body mass index (BMI).
Antibiotics Lead to Increases in
Body Fat and Hunger Hormones
Research by Dr. Blaser has shown that 18
months after antibiotics are used to
eradicate H. pylori bacteria, there is a:
6-fold increase in the release of
ghrelin (the "hunger hormone") after
a meal
20 percent increase in leptin levels
(leptin is a hormone produced by fat
tissue)
5 percent increase in BMI
Levels of ghrelin should ordinarily fall after
a meal to signal your brain that you're full
and ready to stop eating; an increase would
therefore essentially tell your brain to
continue eating, leading to weight gain.
Further, the increase in leptin levels is
concerning because overexposure to high
levels of the hormone can lead to leptin
resistance, which means your body is
unable to properly hear leptin's signals.
The way your body stores fat is a highly
regulated process that is controlled,
primarily, by leptin. If you gain excess
weight, the additional fat produces extra
leptin that should alert your brain that your
body is storing too much fat and needs to
burn off the excess.
To do this, signals are sent to your brain to
stop being hungry and to stop eating. When
you become leptin-resistant, your body can
no longer hear these messages -- so it
remains hungry and stores more fat.
Interestingly, you can easily become leptin
resistant by eating the typical American diet
full of sugar ( particularly fructose), refined
grains and processed foods … which, like
antibiotics, will upset the balance of
bacteria in your gut.
Farmers Use Antibiotics to Fatten
Up Livestock Quickly
About 70 percent of all the antibiotics
produced are used in agriculture -- not
necessarily to fight disease, but rather to
promote weight gain.
As stated by the Ontario Ministry of
Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs:
"Continuous, low-dose administration of an
antibiotic can increase the rate and
efficiency of weight gain in healthy
livestock. The presence of antibiotics likely
changes the composition of the gut flora to
favor growth. Debate is ongoing as to how
gut flora are changed; change may simply
be a reduction in numbers, a change in
species composition or a combination of the
two.
… Some antibiotics may also enhance feed
consumption and growth by stimulating
metabolic processes within the animal."
Unfortunately, this practice is also
contributing to the alarming spread of
antibiotic-resistant disease. As it pertains to
your weight, there's ample reason to
believe that this same phenomenon occurs
in humans as well, figuratively turning
Americans into fatted calves.
Your Gut Bacteria and Your
Waistline Go Hand-in-Hand
Research by Dr. Blaser, for instance, found
that mice fed antibiotics (in dosages similar
to those given to children for throat or ear
infections) had significant increases in body
fat despite their diets remaining
unchanged.
Multiple studies have actually shown that
obese people have different intestinal
bacteria than slim people, and that altering
the microbial balance in your gut can
influence your weight. Here are six such
studies:
1. When rats were given lactic acid
bacteria while in utero through
adulthood, they put on significantly
less weight than other rats eating the
same high-calorie diet. They also had
lower levels of minor inflammation,
which has been associated with
obesity.
2. Babies with high numbers of
Bifidobacteria and low numbers of
Staphylococcus aureus -- which may
cause low-grade inflammation in your
body, contributing to obesity --
appeared to be protected from excess
weight gain. This may be one reason
why breast-fed babies have a lower
risk of obesity, as Bifidobacteria
flourish in the guts of breast-fed
babies.
3. Two studies found that obese
individuals had about 20 percent
more of a family of bacteria known as
Firmicutes, and almost 90 percent
less of a bacteria called Bacteroidetes
than lean people. Firmicutes help
your body to extract calories from
complex sugars and deposit those
calories in fat. When these microbes
were transplanted into normal-weight
mice, those mice started to gain twice
as much fat.
4. Obese people were able to reduce
their abdominal fat by nearly 5
percent , and their subcutaneous fat
by over 3 percent, just be drinking a
probiotic-rich fermented milk
beverage for 12 weeks.
5. Probiotics (good bacteria) have been
found to benefit metabolic syndrome,
which often goes hand-in-hand with
obesity.
6. Probiotics may also be beneficial in
helping women lose weight after
childbirth when taken from the first
trimester through breastfeeding.
Healthy Gut Bacteria Cannot
Coexist With Antibiotics
Antibiotics can save your life if you develop
a serious bacterial infection, but it's
important that you resist the urge to ask
your physician for a prescription for every
ear, nose, or throat infection you come
down with. Likewise for a cold or the flu.
Antibiotics are useless against viral
infections like these, and when used for this
purpose will only harm your health by
wiping out the good bacteria in your gut.
Antibiotic use has become so routine in the
United States that one round of the drugs
may seem like no big deal, but remember
that using them drastically alters the
makeup of bacteria in your gut, which will
need to be rebuilt in order for you to stay
in good health. Whenever you use an
antibiotic, you're also increasing your
susceptibility to developing infections with
resistance to that antibiotic -- and you can
become the carrier of this resistant bug and
even spread it to others.
Ultimately the problem of antibiotic-
overuse needs to be stemmed through
public policy on a nationwide level,
especially in the agricultural community,
but I urge you to also take personal
responsibility and evaluate your own use of
antibiotics, and avoid taking them -- or
giving them to your children -- unless
absolutely necessary.
Remember that the foods you eat are also a
major source of exposure to antibiotics, so
to protect your gut bacteria you should buy
primarily antibiotic-free, organically raised
meat and produce. Keep in mind that
conventionally farmed food is often grown
in fertilizer derived from factory-farmed
animal waste and human sewage, which
may be a source of contamination with
antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
The Recipe for Healthy Gut Bacteria
Your gut bacteria are vulnerable to your
lifestyle. If you eat a lot of processed foods,
for instance, your gut bacteria are going to
be compromised because processed foods
in general will destroy healthy microflora
and feed bad bacteria and yeast.
In addition to antibiotics, your gut bacteria
are also very sensitive to:
Chlorinated water
Antibacterial soap
Agricultural chemicals
Pollution
Because virtually all of us are exposed to
these at least occasionally, ensuring your
gut bacteria remain balanced should be
considered an ongoing process, and
consuming fermented foods is one of the
best ways to do this.
One of the reasons why fermented foods
are so beneficial is because they contain
lactic acid bacteria -- a type of beneficial gut
bacteria that research shows can help you
stay slim.
I have long stated that it's generally a wise
choice to "reseed" your body with good
bacteria from time to time by taking a high-
quality probiotic supplement or eating non-
pasteurized, traditionally fermented foods
such as:
Lassi (an Indian yoghurt drink,
traditionally enjoyed before dinner)
Fermented organic grass-fed raw
milk, such as kefir
Various pickled fermentations of
cabbage, turnips, eggplant,
cucumbers, onions, squash and
carrots
Natto (fermented soy)
If you do not eat fermented foods on a
regular basis, a high-quality probiotic
supplement can be incredibly useful to help
maintain healthy gut bacteria when you
stray from your healthy diet and consume
excess grains or sugar, or if you have to
take antibiotics.
Also please remember that it is vital to
eliminate ALL sugars. They will sabotage any
beneficial effects of the fermented foods,
as they will act as nutrients for the
pathogenic yeast, fungi and bacteria that are
in your gut.
