Читать книгу The Virgin Diet: The US Bestseller - JJ Virgin - Страница 26

There is another factor that might be making you fat and old before your time: poor digestion. When digestion works well, it is a beautiful thing, but when it’s out of whack, it can be a huge contributor to weight gain.

Bacteria, also known as flora or gut flora, is crucial to good digestion. Believe it or not, we have more than 500 species of different bacteria in our gastrointestinal tract. In fact, we have more bacteria than we have cells. Most of that bacteria is good for us; it helps break down food, absorb nutrients and keep our immune systems primed. Some of that bacteria is bad – the kind that attacks our cells or produces toxins.

The key thing with gut bacteria is making sure that we have the ideal amount of good bacteria that we need. So, focus on promoting the good bacteria that will help support your gut immune system and keep the bad bacteria at bay.

How do you do that? First, protect your good bacteria. You might want to take probiotics, which are supplements that support bacterial growth. If you take antibiotics, which kill a lot of good bacteria while they’re gunning for the bad, upgrade probiotics from ‘good idea’ to ‘absolutely essential’. You always want to follow any antibiotic treatment with a round of probiotics.

You can further support your good bacteria with prebiotics, which is soluble fibre that feeds your gut flora (for example, garlic, onions, asparagus and dandelion greens), and with fermented foods, such as pickled ginger, kimchee and sauerkraut. We also need good gut bacteria to make vitamin K, which is important for immune function.