Gut-friendly recipes that’ll help you lose weight — fast
WE LOVE our guts and their tiny, alien inhabitants and we are utterly convinced by all the new science of their importance, especially when it comes to how we look and feel. But we want you to be just as convinced, so today, we’re going to tell you some of the science behind the Clever Guts Diet Recipe Book and explain why looking after your microbiome — the collection of microbes that live in your gut — will not only make you feel better, but help you shed weight before the party season kicks off.
We know that most people find it easier to stick to something if they understand why they’re doing it — Clare is a GP and, in her experience, patients are much more likely to follow her recommendations if they really understand why she’s making them. So we’re hoping that once you understand what is really going on down there, you will find it easier to stick to our suggestions.
One of the great things about the Clever Guts diet is that the weight loss is a sideeffect of making your gut healthier. Focus on keeping your microbiome happy, rather than on the scales, and you’ll banish bloating and shift pounds more easily than ever.
That’s because, as you’ll see, having the wrong sort of microbiome can actually make you fatter. When it comes to gut health, a varied mix of microbes is crucial — here’s why: the microbes in your gut have several functions, one of which is deciding how much energy your body extracts from food.
There is mounting evidence they can shape hunger signals, help decide which foods we crave and determine how much our blood sugar levels spike after a meal. So once you’ve whipped your microbes into shape, hopefully the rest of you will fall into shape, too.
The fact is, our digestive systems are not 100 per cent efficient. Some of the calories we take in will also be excreted. And, although much of the energy in the food we eat is extracted by our gut, we also depend on our gut bacteria to do some digesting for us.
Mice with sterile, bacteria-free guts are much skinnier than normal mice, despite eating the same number of calories. With no bacteria to pull the calories from their food, a lot of what they eat passes right through their bodies.
SOME bacteria that live in our guts, including a tribe called Firmicutes, are better than others at extracting energy from our food. So, if Michael has more Firmicutes in his gut than Clare (which he does), he will probably be absorbing more calories after eating exactly the same meal.
The more calories your body holds on to and the less you excrete, the more likely you are to become fat. That’s one reason why obesity is far more complicated than just saying: ‘It’s because you’re eating more calories than you burn off.’
There is also mounting evidence that your gut bacteria may have a hand in decisions such as: ‘Shall I have a doughnut rather than a stick of celery?’ through something called the enteric system — or your ‘second brain’.
The brain cells that line your gut communicate with the brain in your head via the vagus nerve. This is like a busy broadband network, with lots of messages going in both directions; the enteric system talks to your brain and your brain talks back.
But, like miniature hackers, the microbes that live in your gut can tap in to this system and talk directly to your brain via the vagus nerve. They also produce a range of hormone sand neurotransmitters that reach your brain via the bloodstream, to control mood and cravings.
Why would your microbes want to manipulate you like this? Well, they don’t all have the same dietary needs — some thrive on sugars, others need fat, and in a bid for self-preservation they each try to get more of what they need. So the more junk food you eat, the more you feed the sort of microbes that like junk food, and the more they want.
Although there are some good bacteria and some bad, the main message from research is that the key to good health is having as wide a range of species in your gut as possible. People who do tend to be slimmer and healthier. Having a l i mited ecosystem means you are more likely to be overweight and sickly.
Why should this be? The argument goes that in a diverse microbiome all those different, tiny creatures will clamour to be heard and, like a gang of children all shouting at once, they cancel out each other’s demands and are actually easier to ignore.
If the sugar-lovers are just as loud as the fat-lovers, neither gets heard clearly. Problems start when one group — say, the ones who thrive on junk food — starts to dominate.
As a gang, these bad guys will be much more influential and, by producing chemical signals, generate cravings for junk food you will find hard to resist.
So how do you make sure your microbiome is a diverse environment that will help you lose weight? For a start, by not feeding the cravings.
If you starve the sugar-lovers, eventually they will die off and you’ll lose the desire to eat the stuff that wasn’t doing you any favours in the first place.
But it’s not just about avoiding the bad stuff — it’s also about nurturing the good guys.
You’ve probably heard the words prebiotic and probiotic bandied around, but there’s more to them than just yoghurt and supplements. Prebiotics are
complex carbohydrates, usually fibre, which are not digested in the small intestine but continue down the gut as an important s ource of nutrients f or t he microbiome, promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria.
Two important types of fermentable fibre are inulin and oligofructose. You’ll find these i n asparagus, chicory, Jerusalem artichokes, onions, string beans, wheat bran, celery and tough stems of cabbage or kale. Think of them as the fertiliser that helps the grass grow on a lawn. (Caution: These foods can trigger bloating and gas in people with irritable bowel syndrome.)
Probiotics, however, are like the seeds you scatter on the lawn to keep it lush and free of weeds. They are ‘friendly’ live bacteria found naturally in fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kefir and yoghurt, which work in a variety of ways along the digestive tract, boosting healthy microbes and driving down numbers of harmful ones.
FORTUNATELY, it’ s getting easier to lay your hands on fermented foods. Live yoghurt and sauerkraut have been around for a while but, thanks to becoming more fashionable, there are now many different types more widely available.
Kimchi, a sort of spicy, Korean version of sauerkraut, has become a trendy restaurant ingredient, while the cultured milk drink kefir can be found on the shelves of many of the bigger supermarkets.
But you don’t have to buy it — more and more of us are making our own fermented foods. Home fermentation jars and kefir kits are sold online, so you can brew your own good bacteria. They are generally easy to use, mainly involving adding sachets of live culture to milk and leaving it for a day.
But before you worry this all seems too complicated, let us reassure you it really isn’t. Many of Clare’s patients — often middle-aged men who didn’t cook much before — have told her they really like cooking this sort of thing. The recipes are straightforward and include foods people thought would be banned — full-fat yoghurt, eggs, nuts and more. And it’s all really delicious. People don’t even notice that it’s good for them.
Clare recently stewed pears in red wine, but I swapped half the wine for kombucha, a fermented tea drink — and none of the family noticed.
To show you exactly what we mean, today we are sharing gut-friendly recipes that will please even the fussiest of eaters. Some are variations on popular favourites, such as fishcakes and bolognese, and others — like the chocolate and walnut bites and exotic carrot cake — taste so indulgent you won’t believe there is no added sugar.
(Although here’s a top tip: these sorts of tasty treats are best enjoyed after lunch, not only because they are digested more slowly after a meal, reducing the sugar spike, but also because you are more likely to be moving around t hen and therefore burning the calories.)
Read on — and enjoy!