The Link Between your Gut Microbiome and weight loss

Losing weight is a multimillion dollar industry, with new diets and weight loss techniques appearing on the market all the time.  Diets come and diets go, depending on the latest research that emerges at any particular time.

That being said, new research at the Mayo Clinic in Cleveland is discovering how an individual’s gut microbiome can help dictate what kind of diet is best suited to a specific individual. A study published in the Journal of the American Medication this past month, suggests that the best way to manage nutritional health is to build personal diets. Diets are usually based on what foods are healthy and good, and those that are unhealthy and should be avoided. This may not be the case anymore, in that not all foods are digested or affect individuals in the same way. Our body make-up plays a large role in how we metabolize and react to different foods.

In years gone by, the US Government’s food pyramid suggested daily servings of meat, grains, fruits and vegetables to remain a healthy diet. With nutrition science evolving all the time, we have gained more insight into the chemical workings in our bodies, which has resulted in a shift in nutritional concepts, focusing more on the properties of specific foods and how our individual bodies process them. Dietitians, food companies, functional medicine practitioners and the likes are seeing the benefits of food specifics on individuals as opposed to fad diets. This has proven that in dieting, a one-type-fits-all diet is not the case anymore.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic built a model for predicting how different foods impact people’s blood sugar levels. They discovered that by analyzing a person’s gut microbiome, age, level of physical exercise and other factors, they could accurately predict how the body reacts to food, more so than by counting calories or carbs.

As part of the research, 327 healthy individuals were tracked for 6 days. They had to  keep a diary of what they ate, their exercise and sleep routines, and a blood glucose monitor was used to track their glycemic responses to food. Stool samples were also collected to analyze each individual’s gut microbiome make-up. Once all the data was collected, the results were tested against the model they built for predicting glycemic reactions to different foods.

The model was more accurate in predicting blood-sugar changes than counting calories and carbs. With this ability, people no longer have to avoid foods that may not affect them negatively. It will enable people to choose foods in certain categories and lose weight on a tailor-made diet that fits well with their microbiome.