HEALTHY GUT DIET

by 5:2 diet creator dr Michael Mosley

FOR years, I bemoaned the fact that no matter how careful I was about my diet, I couldn’t seem to stop the insidious creep of middle- age spread — yet my wife, Clare, always seemed to stay effortlessly slim.

I’ve now learned to control my weight through intermittent fasting, healthy eating and steely willpower (bar occasional lapses), but am beginning to realise my tendency to gain weight might not have been entirely my fault after all.

I’ve become obsessed with our guts and the amazing work performed by the trillions of microscopic bacteria that live there. I have discovered that my personal mix of bacteria — called your microbiome — is quite different from my wife’s, and could have been sabotaging my weight-loss bid.

Thanks to very exciting research, we now know that gut microbes help regulate body weight, decide how much energy our body extracts from food and control hunger signals and the degree to which your blood sugar spikes in response to a meal.

The bad news is that an unhealthy microbiome, or mix of gut bacteria, really can help make you fatter. But the good news is, you can change your biome so it works with you, rather than against you.

I have written a book, based on the latest science, which explains what our gut bacteria is up to, and how best to nourish it. All this week in the Daily Mail, I will reveal the impact of gut bacteria on your life, and tell you what to eat to improve it.

With nutritional therapist Tanya Borowski and my wife, GP Clare Bailey, I’ve developed delicious, gut- friendly recipes the whole family can enjoy.

In Saturday’s paper, I packed 17 recipes into one glossy magazine (if you missed it, see details at the end of this piece to order a copy).

In today’s supplement, you’ll find healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes you can add to those in the magazine, to create a repertoire of meals. There are also gut-friendly snacks.

If you follow my plan, you should find losing weight is easier than you thought, but I hope you’ll see other health benefits, too.

We still don’t understand everything that determines an individual’s personal microbiome mix, but genetics clearly play a part. Whether you were born naturally or by Caesarean, whether or not you were breastfed and your early exposure to antibiotics all seem important.

However, we do know that your microbiome is heavily influenced by what you eat and how you live your life.

Once you’ve improved your microbiome, you should notice less bloating, wind and gut pain (if you suffer from these).

There is also evidence that a healthy microbiome improves mood, raises energy levels and dampens down inflammation throughout the body.

Surprisingly, skin conditions such as acne and eczema have been linked to a poor microbiome, while the health of your immune system and ability to fight off gut infections are dependent on it.

One of the important things is to have lots of different species of microbe in your microbiome.

Studies show that unhealthy, overweight people tend to have a less diverse mix than healthy, slim people. This doesn’t mean lack of diversity is making you fat, but it might help explain why losing weight is harder for some. For many, the big dieting challenge is not so much losing weight as keeping it off. Many people go on a diet, shed the pounds, plateau, despair — and pile the weight back on.

One reason for this is that your body responds to weight loss by trying to counter it. As you shed

fat, your body produces more of the hormones that make you hungry and fewer of those that suppress appetite — at least in the short-term.

Studies (on mice) have shown that dieting — particularly yo-yo dieting — creates a new mix of microbes which are brilliant at triggering weight gain.

We rely on gut bacteria to help digest our food. In the past, when food was scarce, having gut bacteria that could squeeze out every last drop of energy would have been a huge advantage.

Not now. If the animal studies are correct, the people with more of these ‘efficient’ bacteria are likely to be fatter.

Your gut bacteria can also influence the rise in blood sugar levels when you eat, which affects cravings and appetite.

I know (I’ve been measured) that I get a rapid spike in blood sugar levels after eating a biscuit, then a crash, followed by cravings for another biscuit.

My wife’s blood sugar levels respond far more slowly, and might explain why she finds it easier to resist temptation.

Studies have shown that everyone responds differently to the same foods, and one of the main reasons appears to be the different mix of gut bacteria.

Fortunately, the research also shows, you can improve your body’s response to food by changing your microbiome. This should lead to less dramatic peaks and troughs in blood sugar levels, and could also undo some of the metabolic ‘damage’ often caused by yo-yo dieting.

The key could lie in increasing your intake of flavonoids, the natural chemicals made by plants to protect themselves from parasites and harsh weather.

You’ll find them in blueberries, cherries, blackberries, plums, grapes, tomatoes and green tea. They are powerful antioxidants — and people who eat lots of them tend to put on less weight.

A recent study showed yo-yo dieting (at least in mice) creates an unhealthy microbiome, rich in bacteria that destroy flavonoids, which leads to weight gain.

When the researchers gave the yo-yo mice flavonoids in drinking water, the rodents had a kind of digestive ‘reset’ and no longer put on weight as quickly.

The flavonoids in the mouse study included apigenin, found in parsley, celeriac and camomile tea, and naringenin — extracted from grapefruit, oranges and tomato skin.

It is unlikely that eating these will give you as big a dose as the mice in the study received, or that the flavonoids which worked for them will work for us. But what is there to lose?

Sorting out your gut bacteria might not be a silver bullet for slimming, but research indicates it is worthwhile for anyone with a weight problem to support and increase beneficial gut bacteria.