Blog - Health & Fitness

Probiotics are tiny, “good” bacteria that naturally occur in the gastrointestinal tract and destroy harmful bacteria, improve bowel movements and aid digestion. However, appropriate levels of these bacteria, commonly called microflora, do more than just make sure food passes through you efficiently. Probiotics directly affect nutrient absorption and they lower chronic inflammation, while supporting your body’s ability to produce neurotransmitters for the brain.

In fact, about two-thirds of your neurotransmitters are made in the gut lining, meaning that the major chemicals that are responsible for mood and brain function are produced in the gastrointestinal tract. There’s a lot of evidence that cognitive function and mood will be poor if you have problems with your gut.

Improve Your Digestion

It is estimated that one third of the UK population regularly suffers from digestive illnesses, such as irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, diarrhoea, stomach-aches and nausea. The healthy bacteria in probiotics are involved in the completion of digestion, the manufacture of B-vitamins and the gut barrier preventing toxins from entering the blood stream. They also keep pathogenic organisms under control.

Detoxify Your Body

A new study in the journal Nutrition shows that probiotics help detoxify the body of heavy metals, free radicals, and dangerous bacteria by enhancing the natural antioxidant status in the body. It significantly increased glutathione status (the number one internal antioxidant in the body) and decreased malondialdehyde, (a primary marker of oxidative stress that leads to inflammation) indicating activation of the detoxification system.

A second study of pregnant women confirms this. Seventy pregnant women in their third trimester who were given a probiotic for nine weeks had much higher glutathione and related antioxidant levels than a control group. Researchers suggest a probiotic is safe and beneficial for the health of the mother and the fetus.

Lose Belly Fat

The interesting thing about belly fat loss with probiotics is that it starts with the brain. Here’s how it works: if you have an unhealthy gut, you will likely have more stress and anxiety, which leads to the release of stress hormones, such as cortisol. Several studies have shown that stressful events trigger cortisol and lead to the onset of chronic gastrointestinal disturbances. Stomach problems and elevated cortisol directly affect insulin health and leads to belly fat gain.

Detoxifying your body also helps with fat loss. The effect of enhancing the body’s antioxidant system is better blood sugar management and insulin health, leading to better body composition.

For best results, consider taking a probiotic all the time. Many people think a probiotic is only necessary when feeling sick, but with the constant inundation of bad bacteria, heavy metals, and oxidative stress we are exposed to daily, a probiotic is essential. Also it’s a no brainer if you’re trying to lose fat. A good supplement I use is Bio-Acidophilus Forte from BioCare.

A client of mine asked me recently if he could replace the meat in his diet with soy. I already knew about the controversy surrounding soy but I was shocked with what I found out from my research. Dozens of respected scientists have issued warnings stating that the possible benefits of eating soy should be weighed against proven risks.

An interesting historical fact is that traditionally Asian soybean plants were not grown to be eaten but to be used as "green manure" — as a cover crop designed to be plowed under to enrich the soil between plantings of the crops used for food. It was a fertilizer. It wasn’t until the Chiang Dynasty that the Chinese came up with the fermentation methods needed to tame the soybean’s undesirable elements and make it into a food.

In the West, the soybean has mostly been used for its soy oil, which is what you get in most products labeled vegetable oil, margarine, or shortening. Soy here is a product of the industrial revolution — an opportunity for technologists to develop cheap meat substitutes, to find clever ways to hide soy in familiar food products, to formulate soy-based pharmaceuticals and to develop a plant-based renewable resource that could replace petroleum-based plastics and fuels. This last could be good for the planet.

It's all a matter of moderation and suitability. In women excess intake of soy can have adverse hormonal effects involving the reproductive organs and the thyroid. When there is too much soy in the system, a woman may complain of an array of symptoms including fatigue, low libido, heavy menstrual flow, cramping, infertility, depression, hair loss, dry skin and weight gain.

For men the main dangers are related to a decrease in testosterone production. Just about all soy products on the market contain the phytoestrogens (plant estrogens) known as isoflavones. Plant estrogens have lowered testosterone levels in rats, monkeys, and other animals as well as humans. This usually leads to decreased libido and lower sperm count. There’s an old wives tale that Japanese women punish their straying husbands by feeding them a lot of tofu!

The processing of soy also makes it a less than desirable food item since the process involves chemicals, such as aluminum, high heat and pressure, robbing it of nutrients it may have had. The high temperature denatures the protein so that it is virtually useless as a protein source. Some people even refer to soy as an anti-nutrient since it contains protease inhibitors, phytates, saponins, isoflavones which interfere with nutrient digestion, mineral absorption, and the immune system.

Trypsin is an enzyme that is responsible for the breakdown of proteins and this action is blocked by soy. When proteins are not completely broken down they tend to putrefy in the gut leading to a host of GI symptoms. Research has also shown that when trypsin is continuously inhibited that the pancreas is prone to pathologies, including cancer.

Soy also contains a substance that promotes red blood cells to clot and together with trypsin, this dynamic duo has been shown to inhibit growth. Fermenting soy products inactivates these harmful effects.

It is also important to note that there are many hidden sources of soy including margarine, ice cream, pastas, bread, chips, cereals, canned tuna, fast-food burgers and vegetable oil. Soy can be found in more than 60 percent of the goods sold in supermarkets. Anyone who's eating processed, packed, or canned foods is probably getting some "hidden soy." It’s even been called the "stealth ingredient."

If you are still not convinced, read Dr. Kaayla Daniel’s book The Whole Soy Story. The information and research provided here will blow you away.

With a healthy dose of determination and a few altered lifestyle and dietary habits, you can ditch the additional body fat and approach a respectable level of body composition. However, when bitten by the training bug, you may reach a point when respectable is not good enough. So why is losing those last few pounds so difficult? Enter leptin – one of the key factors related to fat loss.

Leptin is a hormone that plays a key role in regulating energy intake and energy expenditure, including appetite and metabolism. It is one of the most important adipose derived hormones. That’s right - fat isn't simply just a storage tank for excess calories, it’s actually an endocrine organ, like a thyroid or adrenal gland, for example. This means that fat – in this case white adipose tissue – secretes hormones, and leptin is one of them. The more fat the fat cells contain, the more leptin is released. Think of leptin as a metabolism controller and a hunger regulator. It controls food intake and energy expenditure by acting on receptors in the hypothalamus. The absence of leptin (or its receptor) leads to uncontrolled food intake and resulting obesity.

This is nature at its finest. Your body is programmed to survive. On one hand, when food is available, leptin keeps you from adding too much fat mass. On the other hand, leptin responds to and defends against excessive body fat loss that might threaten survival or reproductive ability. Eat too much and metabolism speeds up to keep up. Don't eat enough and it slows down to keep you alive.

Leptin resistance is a condition in which the brain can't determine when body fat is at an appropriate level. The fat cells are sending leptin out to the hypothalamus to signal that fat stores are full. Leptin binds the receptors, but no downstream messages are sent. It's like knocking on the door when nobody is home. In spite of all the extra body fat mass, the brain perceives starvation and orders fat storage.

Here are a few tips to prevent leptin resistance and keep your metabolism humming:

- Get and stay lean

Don't "bulk up”. Stay close to target weight, and minimize body fat gain, then you won’t have to resort to extremes that put your body into survival mode to get lean.

- Cheat meals

When you go sub-maintenance calorically and get into a depleted state, adding in a cheat meal once per week can stop you from entering "perceived starvation." This will help prevent leptin resistance.

- Limit inflammation

Reducing inflammation increases leptin and insulin receptor.

- Don't go carb-crazy

High insulin levels cause insulin resistance, which causes increased inflammation. Insulin and leptin resistance are so intertwined that fixing one helps the other.

- Sleep

Sleep deprivation reduces serum leptin levels. In some cases, dysfunctional sleep can also increase leptin levels, leading to leptin resistance.

There are also several dietary supplements that can help fight leptin resistance – calcium, fish oil, taurine and acetyl-L-carnitine.