Intestinal bacteria can affect your weight – Adresseavisen

• The author of this article, Cathrine Borchsenius, clinical nutritionist and founder of Bramat.no and Sunnogsprek.no

In 2015 it became known that a woman who got transferred intestinal bacteria from its overweight daughter, even became overweight. The woman had a severe bacterial infection of the intestine, and was therefore transferred the intestinal bacteria from her daughter since this has proven to be a highly effective way to cure severe bacterial infections.

The woman got rid of the infection, but began to put on weight. After 1.5 years she had gone up 15 kg, and the weight continued to increase. Researchers believe that this may indicate that the bacteria we have in the gut, has an impact on weight. You get transplanted gut bacteria from an obese person, you could end up being overweight themselves.

Overweight

This is really nothing new. We know that the composition of the intestinal bacteria our having a major impact on health. Researchers in Denmark have shown that the composition of the intestinal bacteria can say something about a person’s risk of developing both type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity.

They also saw that people with normal weight had a richer intestinal culture than obese – that several different types of bacteria in the gut and more of them. The obese had lost part of the bacterial species in the intestine, and had fewer types of bacteria in the gut. This is also shown in other studies.

Eat yourself to better intestinal flora

In 2012 it published a study of Irish elderly. It showed how important it is to have a varied bacterial flora in the intestine. The study showed that those who had a more varied diet, including more fruits, vegetables and whole grain products, also had more diverse bacteria. They also had a better general condition, compared with the elderly who received more monotonous food.

In another there have been changes in the intestinal bacterial composition obese people who were on a controlled diet. The study showed that one fiber, fruit and vegetables can help to enrich the flora and hence provide an impact on the numbers on the scales.

Scientists also believe there may be an opportunity to implant another bacterial culture in the intestine, thus giving obese people a bacterium composition that can help them lose weight.

Healthy gut flora

A varied gut flora is essential. It is the one that enables you to break down food, releasing nutrients from food, and communicate effectively with the immune system. The bacteria in the gut produce including vitamins and neurotransmitters, which runs through the intestinal wall and affect different processes in the body. These processes affect people’s metabolism, insulin production, and immune system.

In a normal bacterial culture there is a balance between the various bacteria, but bacterial cultures where there are lots of one type, this could dominate and interfere with the normal processes. This can make us sick, and maybe even overweight.

That bacteria can influence metabolism, were found in mouse experiments in which one saw that mice that lived in a sterile environment were not obese. This included among others that these mice had decreased uptake of glucose and decreased production of short fatty acids in the intestine. When these mice were visited by mice that were not sterile, altered metabolism, and they could be overweight.

Top affecting

What kind of intestinal bacteria we has depends on several things, including sex, diet, where we live, hygiene, stress, how we were born (we inherit actually our mother’s gut flora during birth), and if we were breastfed as infants.

However, common to all is that we have both favorable and unfavorable bacteria in the gut, it applies only to not have too much of the adverse and too little of the beneficial bacteria. The beneficial bacteria come and go, we do not have a fixed amount of beneficial intestinal bacteria, we have to get it supplied via food.

If we live too sterile and does not allow any bacteria to get into the intestine, this is not especially beneficial for gut. Nor repetitive use of antibiotics, which not only kills unfavorable bacteria, but also the beneficial bacteria.

Read more Bramat matters here:

VIDEO: Lifestyle diets that will make you smarter and younger: