Diet Archives

Could a high-fat diet harm your gut-brain axis?

Choosing high-fat foods impacts your physical health, making you more vulnerable to obesity, diabetes and a host of other issues related to metabolic syndrome. The biological connection that links your intestines, brain and emotions as one — better known as the gut-brain axis — may be harmed too.

Although researchers at Louisiana State University didn’t specifically mention the gut-brain axis in their recently published study in Biological Psychiatry, the implication was certainly present in the results. They concluded that eating a high-fat diet may increase your risks for behavioral problems, including depression.

Scientists tested their theory by transplanting gut bacteria of mice, fed either a high-fat diet or a control diet, into non-obese adult mice. The mice were then evaluated for signs of behavioral changes.

The mice exposed to gut bacteria fed by a high-fat diet displayed numerous changes, both mentally and physically.

On the mental health side, the mice experienced impaired memory, greater anxiety and repetitive behaviors. Physically, the mice displayed signs of inflammation and increased intestinal permeability.

According to researchers, the connection between the gut-brain axis, behavioral disruptions, and high-fat diets could also indicate inflammation in the brain.

“This paper suggests that high-fat diets impair brain health, in part, by disrupting the symbiotic relationship between humans and the microorganisms that occupy our gastrointestinal tracts,” Dr. John Krystal, editor of Biological Psychiatry, commented in a press release.

Fortunately, probiotics can help prevent the negative effect of a high-fat diet.

How probiotics can help

Unfortunately, high-fat diets are just one variable that disrupts the healthy balance of bacteria in your gut. Relying too often on antibiotics can be a big problem, leaving you vulnerable to hazardous infections like Clostridium difficile, which can be severe and, on occasion, deadly.

Protecting the diversity of your gut bacteria can be tricky with our hectic lifestyles that encourage us to eat high-fat, high-calorie meals because they are quick and simple.

Spending a little more time every day to eat a healthier diet richer in fiber and cutting out extra calories does your body a world of good.

Taking a multi-species probiotic like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic that contains 10 different strains of beneficial bacteria plus the prebiotic FOS (fructooligosaccharide) can be the boost your health needs to protect your gut and brain.

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How to get rid of constipation

Diet, Digestive Health / By Staff Writer

How to get rid of constipation?

Have you ever experienced such a bad case of constipation that you considered going to the ER? Don’t be embarrassed. A growing number of Americans have made that trip, according to a recent report in The American Journal of Gastroenterology.

After collecting data from more than 950 U.S. hospitals, researchers found the number of emergency room visits related to constipation rose from nearly 500,000 in 2006 to more than 700,000 in 2011, an increase of 41 percent.

In addition to the growing number of constipation-related ER visits, patient costs rose by more than 50 percent.

Of all age groups, younger and senior patients suffered the most. A 2006 study shows that infants under age 1 visited the ER most frequently, followed by geriatric patients above age 84.

Alarmingly, the number of children ages 1-17 in need of ER treatment increased over 50 percent from 2006-11. This group also represented the second largest age group making ER-related visits due to constipation.

These recent numbers certainly add to the 2.5 million visits patients making visits to their doctors or gastroenterologists for constipation, as cited by the American College of Gastroenterology.

What You Can Do About It

As mentioned before in this space, the lack of a hard-and-fast definition for constipation can be a problem. Although it’s often described as the inability to have regular bowel movements, your regularity may vary depending on your diet, exercise levels and age.

According to the Mayo Clinic, other signs that you or a loved one may be suffering from constipation could be:

Straining to complete a bowel movement.
Feeling a blockage that prevents a bowel movement.
Producing lumpy or hard stools.
Needing help (pressing on your abdomen) to finish a bowel movement.

Medical experts say the underlying causes of constipation could range from medication side effects to hormonal issues and serious diseases such as multiple sclerosis, colon cancer and diabetes.

Fortunately, many cases of constipation are easily treatable by following these common steps:

Keep your body hydrated by drinking plenty of water.
Be sure to incorporate more fiber-rich foods into your daily diet.
Stop sedentary living and get moving with a little exercise every day.
Schedule plenty of time in the bathroom to complete a bowel movement.
Take a probiotic with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria, like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic or EndoMune Kids (for kids).

If these simple steps do not relieve your constipation problems, please make an appointment with your primary care physician. Doing so could prevent a painful trip to the ER.

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The creamy chemicals in ice cream harm your gut health

Diet, Digestive Health / By Staff Writer

It’s no secret that chemicals contained in the processed food products we consume can do harm to our bodies, particularly our gut microbiome.

A recent Israeli study found common artificial sweeteners, used in everything from diet soft drinks to low-calorie foods, may have a harmful effect on our gut health.

The presence of artificial sweeteners in American diets promotes glucose intolerance that leaves our bodies vulnerable to conditions like adult-onset diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

According to a recent study in Nature, you can add FDA-approved food chemicals called emulsifiers to the growing list of substances that can harm your gut health and trigger metabolic syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Are there detergents in your processed foods?

Food emulsifiers, like polysorbate 80 and carboxymethylcellulose, are commonly used to add texture (think ice cream), prevent oils and other ingredients from separating (think mayonnaise) and extend the shelf life of processed foods.

What’s more, these chemicals are similar to detergents and have been found to affect the mucus barrier and microbes associated with it, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Researchers at Georgia State University studied mice that were fed these chemicals for 12 weeks, to determine how their presence would change the healthy balance of bacteria in their guts and promote disease.

Overall, consumption of these common emulsifiers caused alterations in the composition of gut bacteria in mice, activating the expression of more pro-inflammatory genes by their immune systems. Plus, these altered bacteria were able to permeate the dense mucus layer that lines the gut, normally an area mostly free from bacteria.

Despite no changes in diet, healthy mice fed these food emulsifiers developed mild intestinal inflammation or metabolic health problems, including hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, obesity and increased appetites.

The results were worse among mice genetically engineered to be predisposed to inflammatory gut health problems. The presence of emulsifiers boosted the frequency and severity in which these animals developed chronic colitis.

When gut bacteria from the normal mice who had been fed food emulsifiers were transplanted into germ-free mice, these animals gained fat, became glucose-intolerant and developed low-grade inflammation.

Small amounts of food emulsifiers make a difference

Food emulsifiers only account for a portion of the 17 pounds of food chemicals — flavorings, colorings and preservatives to name a few — the average American consumes every year, according to clinical nutritionist Dr. Elizabeth Lipski to Rodale News.

Going natural may not help you bypass those health problems either. Georgia State University researchers are currently testing many more food emulsifiers, including chemicals like soy lecithin which are considered “natural,” to determine if they cause similar gut health problems.

Fortunately, you can protect your gut from a host of health problems like obesity by promoting greater microbial diversity in the gut. This can be as easy as taking a multi-species probiotic like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

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One more reason why you don’t need a fecal transplant

Diet, Disease, Drug interactions / By Staff Writer

As medical science looks for new ways to conquer tough-to-treat health problems like Clostridium difficile (C. diff), fecal transplants — the transferal of gut flora from healthy donors to sick patients via tubes or pills — are attracting more attention than ever.

Due to the growing amounts of successful research, the FDA has been pushed to regulate fecal transplants as experimental drugs, yet continues to struggle on how to do so.

A recent case study published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases illustrates the conundrum the FDA and patients face when deciding if the “cure” is really worth the true price.

Unintended Consequences

This study could be defined as a case of unintended consequences, a term coined by American sociologist Robert K. Merton. Unintended consequences defines unexpected outcomes — benefits, drawbacks or perverse results — that occur from a purposeful action.

One such case was a 32-year-old woman who was successfully treated for a recurring C. diff infection with a fecal transplant from an overweight donor (her teenage daughter) in 2011. She then gained 20 percent of her body weight (34 pounds) over the following 16 months, jumping to 170 pounds.

Unfortunately, despite a medically supervised exercise program and liquid protein diet, the woman, who had never been overweight before the fecal transplant, has gained 7 more pounds since then and remains obese today.

“We’re questioning whether there was something in the fecal transplant, and whether some of those ‘good’ bacteria we transferred may have had an impact on her metabolism in a negative way,” said Dr. Colleen R. Kelly of the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University via a press release. The case report was a joint effort with Dr. Neha Alang, of Newport Hospital in Rhode Island.

The unintended consequences of sharing bad traits thanks to fecal transplants is supported in other published studies, in which fecal samples transferred from obese mice to those of a normal weight may lead to a marked increase in fat. This explains why scientists urge patients to find fecal transplant donors who aren’t obese.

What’s more, scientists speculate the fecal transplant may not be the sole reason why the woman became obese, citing several antibiotics prescribed to treat H. pylori, illness-related stress, aging, genetic factors and the resolution of her C. diff infection as other contributing factors.

One way to have counteracted those side effects: Her doctor should have prescribed a probiotic, such as EndoMune Advanced Probiotic, that would have helped her treat the H. Pylori to protect her overall gut health.

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Treat IBS with probiotics and not drugs

Diet, Digestive Health, Disease / By Staff Writer

IBS treatment. As you know, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the more common and chronic gastrointestinal problems, affecting the health of up to 20 percent of the Western world.

The symptoms of IBS — bloating, constipation, diarrhea, cramping, gas and abdominal pain — are certainly uncomfortable and embarrassing, but there are treatment options available.
You can read more about how to get rid of constipation here.

Previously, we’ve discussed research that has shown how conventional medicine has treated IBS with drugs like mexiletine, part of an antiarrhythmic class of medications that are a mixed blessing due to side effects, some of which can be adverse.

A recent study featured in Gut and Family Practice News has ruled out another IBS drug: Masalazine (Pentasa), an anti-inflammatory prescription drug that belongs to the aminosalicylate class and is used to treat ulcerative colitis.

Interestingly, some of the known side effects of mesalazine include diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, which can worsen ulcerative colitis too. And, because this medication is similar to aspirin, young children and teens shouldn’t take it if they have the flu and chickenpox or have received a recent vaccine.

None of these are “good” side effects for a drug meant to treat IBS.

In a double-blind study, 115 patients who finished a trial took a daily dose of mesalazine or a placebo for 12 weeks. Patients maintained a “stool” diary, had appointments with researchers during the study and gave stool and sigmoid biopsy samples before and at the end of the trial.

Although a small group of patients experienced significant improvements in some areas, scientists determined there was no advantage between taking mesalazine and a placebo.

For most patients, taking mesalazine didn’t improve stool consistency or abdominal pain compared to the placebo during the final two weeks of the study. In fact, a worsening of IBS symptoms (diarrhea and abdominal pain) was the most common problem experienced by patients taking mesalazine.

Drugs like mesalazine and mexiletine merely treat symptoms of IBS but don’t get to the root cause of the problem: restoring the balance of beneficial bacteria that builds the foundation of good gut health.

The good news: Protecting and improving the diversity of your gut health can be as safe and convenient (no side effects) as taking a probiotic like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic and EndoMune Advanced Junior, made from multiple strains of beneficial bacteria plus the prebiotic fructooligosaccharide.

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Eating dietary fiber does more than relieve constipation

Diet, Digestive Health / By Staff Writer

Getting the right amount of dietary fiber from fresh fruits, legumes, whole grains and vegetables is good for your gut health as it can help to relieve constipation safely and naturally.

However, you may not know eating dietary fiber — the portions of plant-based foods that can’t be digested — offers additional healthy benefits, thanks to a pair of recent studies that link good eating habits to a lower risk of heart disease and losing weight.

Dropping pounds may be easier with a dietary fiber focus

Which is a more effective dietary approach: Following a basic diet with few rules or a more complex, restrictive eating strategy?

Based on a study featured in the Annals of Internal Medicine, following a simple diet of eating more fiber-filled foods may be just as effective for losing extra weight as the more rigorous American Heart Association (AHA) diet.

Scientists at the University of Massachusetts tested their theory by splitting 240 adults considered to be at-risk of developing Type 2 diabetes into two groups. One patient group followed a simple goal of increasing their dietary fiber intake by at least 30 grams a day, while the other followed the more complex 13-step AHA plan that restricted calories, sugar and salt while balancing cholesterol, proteins, carbohydrates and fats to specific ratios.

A year later, high-fiber patients lost an average of 4.6 pounds, while those who followed the AHA diet dropped 6 pounds. Patients in both groups also experienced improved insulin resistance and fasting insulin as well as lower blood pressure numbers.

“We found that increasing dietary fiber was accompanied by a host of other healthy dietary changes, likely because high-fiber foods displaced unhealthy foods in the diet. Asking people to make one dietary change can have collateral effects on the rest of their diet,” said study co-author Dr. Sherry Pagoto in a press release.

Reduce cardiovascular problems by increasing dietary fiber intake

Declines in coronary heart disease (CHD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) prompted scientists at the University of Leeds to review health data collected from the U.S., Japan, Australia and Europe to uncover any links to the consumption of dietary fiber (soluble, insoluble and total intake).

The good news: Based on a number of categories (insoluble, fruit, vegetable and total intake), the chances of a CHD or CVD event drop steadily as the intake of dietary fiber increases. In fact, the risks of cardiovascular or coronary problems drop by 9 percent with every additional 7 grams of total fiber consumed, according to the study published in the British Medical Journal.

Adding 7 grams of fiber to one’s diet can be as easy as eating a portion of whole grains (pasta, bread, cereal or rice) along with a serving of beans or lentils or two to four servings of fruits and vegetables.

But that’s not all of the good news. The combination of taking a probiotic and eating foods high in dietary fiber provide even greater benefits.

A high fiber diet provides nourishment for the healthy intestinal bacteria. Bacteria in the gut ferment the resistant starches in the fiber and use it for energy. In the process of fermentation, metabolites like butyrate provides nourishment for the colon lining cells.

The result is that the intestinal tract is healthier and functions more effectively. Adding probiotics increases the fermentation process of the fiber and lessen symptoms of various diseases.

Protect your health and heart with probiotics

Considering how important fiber is to your health and heart, based on these studies, it seems like a no-brainer to add fruits and vegetables to your daily diet.

Unfortunately, our on-the-go lifestyles often force us to eat on the run, prompting us to choose high-fat, fast foods that clog our arteries and slowly but surely, harm our health.

Recent studies have shown how gut health — greater amounts of beneficial bacteria and the diversity of those species — offers more protection from cardiovascular diseases and can help you lose weight, too.

The best thing you can do to protect your family’s health from the damage done by cardiovascular disease and obesity: Give them a multi-strain probiotic like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic or EndoMune Advanced Junior (for kids) that protects the healthy balance of bacteria in the gut.

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Almonds may help Boost your Gut Health

Diet, Digestive Health / By Staff Writer

In the world of nutrition, there’s little doubt that almonds are among the most popular, delicious and healthy foods to eat.

A single cup of raw almonds (143 grams) provides a surplus of measurable benefits from a variety of vital nutrients, including calcium, niacin, vitamin E, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, protein and fiber, according to the USDA’s National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference.

Chock full of unsaturated fats, almonds have also been associated with a growing number of health benefits, from reducing the risk of heart disease to lowering two of the markers linked to metabolic syndrome and promoting satiety (feeling full after eating).

As the positive health news has spread (with much help from the Almond Board of California), the profile of almonds has risen exponentially, along with the number of products sold at your neighborhood grocery store.

In fact, almonds lead the pack in new food products worldwide by a sizeable margin (9.7 percent) and over all nuts combined (7.1 percent), which may explain why you’ve been seeing more brands of almond milk sitting next to traditional milk products.

Almonds: Food for the Gut

A recent study funded by the Almond Board of California has discovered one more healthy reason to eat almonds and almond skins. Almonds serve as prebiotics—non-digestible carbohydrates/plant fiber that feed the good bacteria already living in the gut.

In this study, patients boosted amounts of Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus in the human gut significantly after eating almonds or almond skins for just six weeks.

Scientists monitored the health of 48 healthy patients (ages 18-22) who supplemented their daily diets with 56 grams (almost 2 ounces) of almonds, 10 grams of almond skins or 8 grams of fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), a natural substance derived from plant sugars that’s used as a prebiotic in products like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

During the six-week observation period, the collective gut bacteria of volunteers were affected positively but at different times.

For example, groups who ate almond skins or FOS enjoyed increased amounts of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria from the beginning. On the other hand, those who consumed roasted almonds didn’t experience growth in good gut bacteria like the other groups until week six. By the end of the study, both almond groups reached the same elevated levels of good gut bacteria.

Additionally, the gut health benefits linked to eating almond skins lasted two additional weeks after the six-week period ended.

One more benefit from eating roasted almonds or almond skins: Levels of Clostridium perfringens, a spore-forming, gram-positive bacterium that contributes to food poisoning, were greatly reduced.

However, before you start loading up on almonds, be aware that up to 80 percent of this nut is fat, so you should eat them in moderation.

When looking for a good probiotic, be sure it contains FOS or another proven prebiotic that feeds the healthy bacteria in your gut, like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic or EndoMune Advanced Junior (for kids) with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria.

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Dietary changes may affect your gut health, triggering auto-inflammatory bone disease

Diet, Digestive Health / By Staff Writer

As you know, the diversity of bacteria in your gut—specifically the lack of it—can be an indicator of serious health conditions, including cardiovascular disease, colon cancer and obesity.

Moreover, your daily diet plays an important role in the makeup of your gut bacteria, which influences your susceptibility to health problems like auto-inflammatory bone disease, according to a study recently published in Nature.

Scientists at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital studied mice with chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis (CRMO), an inflammatory childhood bone disorder. These test animals had mutated Pstpip2 genes whose presence leads to osteomyelitis (an infection inside a bone).

During their research, scientists discovered changing the nutritional balance of test animals affected the makeup of their gut bacteria positively and negatively. Among the bacteria affected by diet variations was Prevotella, which has been linked to inflammatory problems in humans like arthritis, periodontal disease and osteomyelitis.

For example, one beneficial diet scientists tested limited the growth of Prevotella by reducing amounts of Interleukin-1 beta chemicals. (For this study, the supply of Interleukin-1 beta chemical was affected in specific immune cells called neutrophils, chemicals that are the biggest type of white blood cells in mammals that form an essential part of the innate immune system.)

“While multiple lines of evidence have suggested that diet can impact human disease, the scientific mechanism involved was a mystery,” said Dr. Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti of St. Jude’s Department of Immunology.

“Our results show that diet can influence immune-mediated disorders by shaping the composition of the gut microbiome, which our findings suggest play a role in immune regulation.”

The intestinal connection between osteomyelitis and the gut microbiome was verified when scientists successfully treated test mice fed a disease-promoting diet, first, with an array of broad-spectrum antibiotics, then, by transplanting the microbiomes of healthy mice to sicker, genetically modified mice.

“The results suggest probiotics might provide a more targeted method for suppressing production of [Interleukin-1 beta] and protecting against autoimmune diseases,” said Dr. John Lukens, according to a press release.

Often, our go-go-go lifestyles don’t leave us much time to eat healthy, nutrient-rich diets that promote good gut health and boost our collective immune systems.

That’s why taking a probiotic like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic or EndoMune Advanced Junior (for kids) with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria, is so important and beneficial in protecting your health naturally.

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Good gut health allows chocolate to sharpen your brain

Diet, Mental Health / By Staff Writer

Earlier this year, you learned how eating polyphenol-rich dark chocolate can benefit your health and why your gut plays an important role in that process.

In fact, the presence of Bifidobacteria, one of 10 beneficial strains contained in EndoMune Advanced Probiotic and EndoMune Advanced Junior (for kids), and lactic acid bacteria is the primary reason eating dark chocolate produces healthy, anti-inflammatory compounds.

These same beneficial microbes also create the opportunity for healthy older folks to reverse age-related declines in memory, according to a recent study published by Nature Neuroscience.

An important thing to note: The declines in memory due to age that are being discussed here are far different than those experienced by folks who suffer more serious health challenges due to Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia that destroys neurons throughout the brain.

On the other hand, age-related declines in memory—forgetting a phone number or where you parked a car—usually start in early adulthood, becoming more noticeable as people approach their 50s or 60s.

Scientists at Columbia University Medical Center studied the effects of consuming dietary cocoa flavanols to confirm that age-related declines in memory were located in the portion of the brain known as the dentate gyrus (inside the hippocampus).

For the study, 37 healthy participants ranging in age from 50-69 received either a low flavanol drink (10 mg.) or a high flavanol drink (900 mg.) daily for three months. Before and after the study, patients were given memory tests, and their brains were scanned to measure the amount of blood in and the type of memories controlled by the dentate gyrus.

Patients who were given the high flavanol drink experienced terrific results compared to those receiving the low flavanol mixture.

“If a participant had the memory of a typical 60-year-old at the beginning of the study, after three months, that person on average had the memory of a typical 30- or 40-year-old,” said Dr. Scott Small, according to a press release.

Interestingly, the high flavanol product used in this study, produced by global confectionary manufacturer Mars, isn’t the same as chocolate, which is why researchers caution people not to increase their chocolate intake to replicate the effect.

In fact, attempting to eat that much chocolate rich in epicatechin (a healthy flavanol also found in tea and grapes), you’d have to eat at least 300 grams of dark chocolate a day, amounting to seven average bars.

Also, scientists reported no additional activity in the entorhinal cortex, another region in the hippocampus that’s affected early in the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

For this high flavanol drink to work so well in these experiments, it has to be “processed” by intestinal bacteria so that the active agents are absorbed and work to improve the brain’s ability to retain memories.

The real story “behind” the study: To enjoy these chocolatey benefits, ensure that you have a healthy gut by taking a quality multi-species probiotic like EndoMune Advanced.

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Artificial sweeteners may harm your gut health

Diet, Digestive Health / By Staff Writer

Earlier this year, we explained how poor gut health can be one underlying factor that contributes to the epidemic of obesity plaguing our country.

So, you start on the right track by getting the right amount of exercise and sleep, cutting down on fatty foods, and switching from products containing real sugar to those made with non-caloric artificial sweeteners (to liven up that early morning infusion of java).

Unfortunately, those artificial sweeteners—specifically sucralose (sold in America as Splenda), aspartame (Nutrasweet and Equal) and saccharine (Necta Sweet or Sweet‘N Low)—may have the opposite effect, according to research published in the journal Nature.

Scientists from the Weizman Institute of Science’s Department of Immunology (Israel) made the discovery after feeding 10-week-old mice one of several diets (normal or high-fat) and water laced with one of the artificial sweeteners mirroring amounts sanctioned by the FDA, plain water or water mixed with glucose.

Eleven weeks later, the test animals exhibited signs of glucose intolerance, an indicator signaling several metabolic conditions including adult-onset diabetes or metabolic syndrome. What’s more, repeating the same test with different mice and different amounts of artificial sweeteners produced the very same results.

How test animals react to artificial sweeteners

Then, researchers tested a theory that the gut’s reaction to artificial sweeteners may be triggering glucose intolerance, because our bodies don’t recognize the sugar as food, using only saccharin. Interestingly, they found saccharin isn’t absorbed by the gut but does have contact with the gut bacteria in mice, which triggers glucose intolerance.

Other signs that gut bacteria was affected by artificial sweeteners:

Treating the mice with antibiotics reversed the process completely.
Transferring the microbiota of mice harmed by artificial sweeteners to sterile mice conferred the same results to the new animals.
DNA sequencing revealed contact with saccharin affected the diversity of gut bacteria.
Even placing the affected gut microbiota outside the bodies of sterile mice along with artificial sweeteners was enough to induce glucose intolerance.

How YOUR gut reacts to artificial sweeteners

Lastly, researchers at the Weisman Institute turned to data collected from The Personalized Nutrition Project, the largest human trial to study the connections between the human gut microbiota and nutrition.

Based just on the reporting of some 400 people (at this time only from Israel) participating in the project, scientists discovered a significant connection between their gut bacteria, self-reported consumption of artificial sweeteners and clinical signs of glucose intolerance.

Finally, scientists recruited seven fit and health volunteers who didn’t use artificial sweeteners to incorporate the maximum daily amount of it in their diets for seven days. The gut health of four patients changed to a balance associated with the propensity for metabolic diseases, while the remaining three weren’t affected at all.

Why were some volunteers affected, but others weren’t? Specific bacteria in the guts of those who developed glucose intolerance reacted to the fake sugar by secreting substances that triggered an inflammatory response similar to sugar overdose, thus promoting changes in the body’s ability to metabolize sugar, said Dr. Eran Elinav.

Even more compelling: Treating mice with gut bacteria of volunteers whose gut bacteria developed glucose intolerance triggered the same result.

Taking a probiotic protects your gut

“Our relationship with our own individual mix of gut bacteria is a huge factor in determining how the food we eat affects us,” said Dr. Elinav in a press release. “Especially intriguing is the link between use of artificial sweeteners—through the bacteria in our guts—to a tendency to develop the very disorders they were designed to prevent; this calls for reassessment of today’s massive, unsupervised consumption of these substances.”

Because the effect of artificial sweeteners wasn’t universal, it’s possible that probiotics could be used to shift gut bacteria in order to reverse the damage done by glucose intolerance, said Dr. Eran Segal, Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the Weizman Institute to the New York Times.

Because your gut bacteria can change very quickly based on the good and bad foods you eat, it’s more important than ever to take a probiotic, like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic or EndoMune Advanced Junior (for kids), containing multiple strains of beneficial bacteria for your good gut health.

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