Are Bad Gut Bugs Causing Your Food Cravings?

Most of us have good intentions when it comes to our diet. We would like to eat mostly healthy food, because we’re aware of the health benefits. It’s also easier to maintain a healthy weight when you eat lots of vegetables and minimise junk food.

As we all know, things don’t always go according to plan. Food cravings can become so powerful and overwhelming that they derail your healthy eating plans again and again. A lot of different things can cause food cravings: stress, loneliness, depression, anxiety, procrastination, bad habits; and the list goes on. Did you know that the type of bugs you’ve got living in your gut have a powerful influence over your food cravings? Knowing this can help to give you back your power, and enable you to achieve your health goals.

We each have at least 10,000 different species of microbes living in our digestive tract. The bacteria is there for very important reasons; it helps us extract nutrients from our foods, synthesizes vitamins and reduces the risk of parasitic gut infections, among other functions. The bacteria benefit from living inside us by feeding off our food remains.

We each have a slightly different composition of gut bugs inside our intestines, and their food preferences vary. Your dominant gut bugs will have the greatest influence over your physiology and food preferences. Researchers have found that intestinal bacteria can affect your food choices in several ways:

• They can change the expression of your taste receptors, causing certain foods to taste better.
• They can cause the release of hunger-inducing hormones.
• They can manipulate the vagus nerve (which connects your stomach to your brain) to control your eating behavior.

If you eat too much sugar, this encourages the growth of bad gut bugs, which are very hungry for sugar, and need a constant supply to ensure their survival. This means if you try to cut sugar out of your diet, and improve your eating habits, the bad gut bugs will be screaming out for you to eat sugar!

Fortunately you have a lot of control over what types of bacteria grow inside your digestive tract. Studies have shown that consuming more vegetables and probiotics skews the balance of gut bugs in a favorable way; promoting the growth of bugs that make you crave healthy foods.

So how can you fight sugar cravings and win? Here are my recommendations:

• BactoClear capsules. These capsules contain a combination of powerful herbs and essential oils that help to kill bad bacteria, Candida and other parasites in the bowel. Cloves, oregano and thyme all help to improve digestive function, reduce bloating and gas.
• Eat adequate protein. I’m amazed by the number of people who go through each day basically living on starch and fruit. Good sources of protein include eggs, poultry, red meat (preferably grass fed), seafood, whey protein powder, whey protein powder, nuts, seeds and legumes. Protein helps to stabilize blood sugar and in that way reduces hunger and cravings. It is extremely high in protein and extremely low in carbohydrate. It is sweetened with stevia and when you make it with coconut milk you are adding in healthy fats which will help stop carb cravings. Besides that, it is really delicious!
• Take a supplement to help stabilize your blood sugar. Chromium, gymnema, bitter melon, carnitine and other nutrients are combined together in Glicemic Balance capsules. All these nutrients help to reduce hunger and cravings and reduce your blood insulin level if it is elevated. That means your body will be more efficient at burning fat. This product makes it so much easier to fight cravings when you are trying to wean yourself off sugar.
• Berberine is a herbal extract that helps reverse insulin resistance (syndrome X). That means it makes the hormone insulin work more efficiently in your body. That’s great because it promotes the calories you consume to be burned for energy, rather than stored as fat. People with insulin resistance typically don’t feel full and satisfied after meals. Berberine helps to correct that.
• A probiotic. A probiotic is a good bacteria supplement. It helps to restore levels of good bacteria in your intestines. Once you have overcome a gut infection, it is good to include foods high in good bugs, for maintenance of good health. Examples of suitable foods include yoghurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi and miso.

By cleaning up the environment in your intestines and restoring a healthy balance of good bacteria, you will be less likely to suffer with strong food cravings.

The above statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.