Maybe you know this: people who can eat anything without worrying about whether they can tolerate it or not and still maintain their comfortable weight? Who have radiant skin and are always balanced and in a good mood?
Maybe you're wondering why this isn't the case for you. Maybe you often feel bad after eating, even though you were so careful to eat the “right” thing. Maybe you can't tolerate more and more foods, but you haven't done anything differently. Your skin may quickly become irritated, even though you already take such good care of it. Maybe you're less able to cope with stress than you were a few years ago.
The key to health lies within you
It's actually not that difficult to make use of it. All you need to do is find an ally and rebuild a good connection with them. And that ally is your gut – more specifically, its community of around 39 trillion bacteria living together. This may sound quite surprising to you at first. Even for experts who have been studying the “right” diet for decades, it is a fascinating topic.
When it comes to promoting health and preventing disease, we can do a great deal ourselves. Our gut – more specifically, the gut microbiome – plays a central role in this. If each of us gave it greater importance in our everyday lives, it could help to alleviate certain complaints or even prevent them from developing in the first place. Because the balance of the gut bacteria in the gut microbiome is crucial to our health, wellbeing, mental health and quality of life. Many of us simply aren’t aware of how much influence we ourselves have over this through our diet and lifestyle.
Foods can trigger different metabolic responses in different people.
Every person tolerates foods differently
The latest studies show that there is no diet that is equally suitable or suitable for all people. While researchers have certainly found foods that offer health benefits, they have also discovered that the same food can trigger very different metabolic reactions in different people - depending on the composition of the gut microbiome. Even if it sounds almost too simple, your daily diet has a much greater and faster positive impact on well-being if you know your intestinal microbiome and promote its balance.
But why is that so? What does the gut do, and why is the gut microbiome different for everyone?
Your gut is an important part of the digestive system – it transports the food pulp, absorbs nutrients and water, forms vitamins and short-chain fatty acids and excretes indigestible food components. With a length of around eight metres, a surface area of up to 400 square metres and just a few centimetres in diameter, it is the main artery from grocery shopping to the bloodstream.
The consequences of the modern lifestyle
The gut is your protective shield from the outside world. The healthy intestine can intercept, destroy and excrete foreign substances, toxins and pathogenic germs so that they no longer pose a danger to your body. Unfortunately, this defence of the gut is massively disrupted by today's modern diet and lifestyle, for example, due to too little fibre and too much sugar, white flour products and additives in many finished products.
Did you know that an adult is estimated to consume 8 kg of preservatives during their lifetime? The preservative property means that they can destroy bacteria – the bad ones but also the good ones.
There are also other factors, such as stress, lack of exercise, medication and alcohol, which negatively change the intestinal microbiome and damage the intestinal mucosa. The disease-causing bacteria primarily benefit from this, because they can adapt more quickly to the changed environment and multiply better accordingly. As a result, inflammation of the intestinal mucosa can occur, and the intestinal epithelium gradually becomes permeable (leaky gut syndrome) to allergens, pollutants and pathogens that harm the body. Allergies, type 2 diabetes mellitus, skin diseases and fungal infections are also associated with a damaged and therefore negatively altered gut microbiome.
It is therefore optimal to have a wide range of different bacteria in the gut so that it is well protected and the gut cells are optimally supported.
Lactobacilli and bifidobacteria can partially metabolise food. This creates short-chain fatty acids that provide energy and positively promote intestinal movement and blood circulation in the gut wall. Butyric acid promotes the metabolism of the gut mucosa, has an anti-inflammatory effect and can even prevent cancer. Propionic acid and acetic acid play an important role in sugar and fat metabolism. Propionic acid, for example, protects against food cravings because, among other things, it inhibits the release of sugar and stimulates the pancreas to produce insulin.
The real causes of obesity
Obesity is still commonly associated with a high-calorie diet and a sedentary lifestyle. However, numerous studies now show that there is also a significant difference between people of normal weight and those who are overweight or obese in terms of the composition of the gut microbiome. For example, the two bacterial phyla Bacteroidetes (also known as Bacteroidota) and Firmicutes (also known as Bacillota) occur in different proportions – Bacteroidetes strains have been found to predominate in people of normal weight, whereas the “chubby bacteria” Firmicutes are more prevalent in people who are overweight. The higher the proportion of “slimming bacteria", Bacteroidetes, the lower the body weight tended to be. However, as is so often the case, things are not simply black and white, good or bad, in practice. Firmicutes are also important producers of short-chain fatty acids and are often found in higher proportions in athletes.
When it comes to overweight and the dietary recommendations associated with it, two other bacterial groups, Prevotella and Bacteroides, are also of particular interest. Depending on a person’s enterotype, the ideal dietary approach may differ.
For people with a higher proportion of Prevotella, a diet rich in fibre – particularly complex carbohydrates from wholegrain foods – may be beneficial. For those with a higher proportion of Bacteroides, this appears to be less beneficial. In this case, a diet that supports Bifidobacteria may be more favourable. Foods rich in inulin, such as parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes, leeks and black salsify, as well as fermented dairy products, other fermented foods, bananas and legumes, may positively influence metabolism and support weight management.
As you can see, there can be no blanket nutritional recommendations that will work for everyone. It has to be something else. Something bigger, more comprehensive than advice or diet alone ever can. Are you excited?
This is how you activate the healthy & slim potential of your gut
We want to support you in feeling more comfortable in your own skin again, improving your body confidence, letting go of fatigue and tension, and regaining your energy. We want to help reduce cravings and sustainably improve your digestion and your skin. To help you rediscover your motivation to exercise and fall blissfully onto your pillow at night. And yes, along the way, your body shape may also change, helping you gradually reach your feel-good weight.
By gaining a comprehensive insight into how your gut is really doing and understanding how it affects other areas of your body, you gain the knowledge you need. Valuable insights that can help you get to the bottom of the possible causes of your symptoms at last. A solid foundation for taking targeted action, rather than continuing to feel your way in the dark and trying all sorts of things on a hunch.
With your myBioma microbiome analysis, you can explore your gut microbiome and discover, among other things, what it is made up of. When it is out of balance, both body and mind can be affected. The key lies in the balance between ‘beneficial’ and ‘less beneficial’ gut bacteria – and this balance is different for everyone.
Use myBioma Ultimate to support the healthy & slim potential of your gut.
The myBioma Ultimate Microbiome Test
Your own ‘microbiome fingerprint’, together with the information and personalised dietary recommendations, recipes and tips based on your test results in your myBioma report, provide the foundation.
Your personal microbiome assistant, Mika, will then support you in the weeks that follow – for as long as you like, whenever you need it. Mika answers your questions, creates meal plans tailored to your microbiome and makes it easier to stay on track. This is the crucial difference: it helps you put the insights gained from your microbiome test into practice in your everyday life so that you can actually experience positive changes.
Step by step, this enables you to bring your gut microbiome back into balance and unlock your gut’s healthy & slim potential.
This doesn’t happen overnight – with consistent implementation, you may notice the first changes after just a few weeks. A repeat microbiome analysis after 3–6 months allows you to objectively monitor the development of your gut microbiome and adjust your measures and recommendations according to your progress.
A myBioma gut microbiome test is right for you if:
- you want to learn more about the influence of your gut on other areas of your body.
- you want to know whether your microbiome is in balance and what exactly it is made up of.
- you want to identify possible causes and connections behind your symptoms.
- you want to take an active role in supporting your wellbeing and health, following the principle: “Prevention is better than cure.”
- you want personalised, individual recommendations and support from your microbiome assistant Mika (included with myBioma Ultimate).
- you don’t have the time or desire for boring diet plans or calorie counting, don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen and value good food and enjoyment.
- you want to discover that healthy food can be not only delicious but also easy and quick to prepare.
- you finally want to find your long-term inner balance and take your wellbeing and health to the next level.
Does this sound interesting to you? Find out more on our website.
References
- Yu Q et al. Lactobacillus protects the integrity of intestinal epithelial barrier damaged by pathogenic bacteria. Front Cell Infect Mircobiol. 5:26. Doi: 103389/fcimb.2015.00026.
- Schumacher B. "Intestinal disorders make you sick". Ärzte Zeitung 2014 Oct 10; 03:05.
- Wehkamp J, Götz M, Herrlinger K, Steurer W, Stange E "Chronic inflammatory bowel diseases"; Deutsches Ärzteblatt 2016 Feb 5; 113/5
- Fischer S. "Genome, Proteome and Microbiome - A microbiological view into the human organism. Die Naturheilkunde 5/2015
- Francesco Asnica et. Al: Microbiome connections with host metabolism and habitual diet from 1098 deeply phenotyped individuals; Nature Medicine (2021; DOI: 10.1038/s41591-020-01183-8)
- Christensen L., Roager H. m., astrup a., Hjorth m. f. (2018): microbial enterotypes in personalized nutri-tion and obesity management. am J Clin nutr 108 (4): 645–651
- Hjorth m. f., Roager H. m., Larsen T. m., Poulsen S. K.,Licht T. R. Bahl m. I., Zohar Y., astrup a. (2018): Pre-treatment microbial Prevotella-to Bacteroides ratio, determines body fat loss success during a 6-month randomized controlled diet intervention. Int J Obes 42 (3): 580–583
