If you are or ever have struggled with weight gain and not be able to eliminate it easily, your gut may be the problem. In recent years researchers have become increasingly convinced that the microbes that flourish our intestines have become the culprit. That research has led to the study of the billions and billions of gut microbes.
New evidence indicates that gut bacteria alter the way we store fat, how we balance levels of glucose in the blood, and how we respond to hormones that make us feel hungry or full. The upset of this process can contribute to the wrong mix of microbes, and can help set the stage for obesity and diabetes from the moment of birth! Keeping our gut microbes happy could be the elusive secret to weight control.
Our intestinal system is like an ecosystem. Just like in nature once out of balance our entire health can go bad. Fortunately, researchers are beginning to understand the difference between the wrong mix and a healthy one as well as the specific factors that shape those differences. This could lead to advances in understanding obesity as well as diabetes, antibiotics, chronic inflammation and autoimmune diseases. How we eat definitely contributes to microbial imbalances, but also other factors like stress, ingredients in packaged foods, as well as degenerative diseases. Keeping our gut microbes happy and content may be the elusive secret to weight control.
Chronic inflammation is the beginning of virtually all chronic disease and autoimmune diseases. Chronic and autoimmune diseases occur when (1) the gut becomes overly permeable on a constant basis, (2) chronic inflammation prevails and permeates through the blood system by means of various elements of the inflammatory cascade and (3) a genetic weakness in some remote tissue reacts to this chronic inflammation, then (4) the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissues.
For those of us who are sensitive to gluten, gliadin initiates the damage to the gut lining. An abundance of various irritants to the gut increases the potential for chronic inflammation. When this syndrome persists, chronic and autoimmune disease may begin to manifest.
It is suggested in many reports that gluten be eliminated totally from the diet! Mostly because so many people are developing intolerances to it. Gluten is a family of proteins that are present in wheat, rye, barley, and other grains. Gluten is a common ingredients that may be found in many processed foods, as well as cosmetics, prescription medications and nutritional supplements. The human body cannot completely digest gluten, and one of the remnants of the incomplete digestion is gliadin.
Gliadin could be considered a unique trigger that initiates future disease, a key trigger comprising of chronic disease. It forms holes in the gut lining (our immune system’s first mechanism of defence), allowing potentially toxic substances to leak directly into the bloodstream. Research has found this damage occurs in every human regardless of gluten intolerance whenever gliadin is present in the intestines.
Research says that gliadin causes a chemical reaction in the intestinal wall. It increases the reactivity of zonulin, a protein that causes the cells of the intestinal wall to separate and open large portals to the bloodstream. As cells in the one-cell-layer-thick lining of the gut separate, undigested particles of food, bacteria and foreign debris can leak through the openings into the bloodstream.
Leaky Gut is the unhealthy leakage from the intestines into the bloodstream. As described in Dr. Alvin Danenberg, book titled Crazy-Good Living , gliadin is one of the triggers that can break down the gut lining. When undigested particles of food or toxic substances enter the bloodstream, the immune system becomes activated. Our immune system’ function is to detect and disintegrate foreign elements. The process to rid the body of irritating substances is called inflammation. Long term inflammation is unhealthy, affecting any organ or tissue anywhere in the body.
Food packaging could also negatively affect nutrient absorption in your body. A study at Binghamton University, titled “Food packaging could be negatively affecting nutrient absorption in your body” found that zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles that are relevant to what you might normally eat in a meal or a day can change the way that your intestine absorbs nutrients or your intestinal cell gene and protein expression,” said Gretchen Mahler, associate professor of bioengineering at the University.
According to Mahler, these ZnO nanoparticles are present in the lining of certain canned goods for their antimicrobial properties and to prevent staining of sulfur-producing foods. In the study, canned corn, tuna, asparagus and chicken were studied using mass spectrometry to estimate how many particles might be transferred into the food. It was found that the food contained 100 times the daily dietary allowance for zinc. Mahler then looked at the effect the particles had on the digestive tract. “We are looking at cell function, which is a much more subtle effect, and looking at nanoparticles doses that are closer to what you might really be exposed to.”
“They tend to settle onto the cells representing the gastrointestinal tract and cause remodeling or loss of the microvilli, which are tiny projections on the surface of the intestinal absorptive cells that help to increase the surface area available for absorption.” said Mahler. “This loss of surface area tends to result in a decrease in nutrient absorption. Some of the nanoparticles also cause pro-inflammatory signaling at high doses, and this can increase the permeability of the intestinal model. An increase in intestinal permeability is not a good thing, it means that compounds that are not supposed to pass through into the bloodstream might be able to.”
“It is difficult to say what the long-term effects of nanoparticles ingestion are on human health, especially based on results from a cell culture model,” said Mahler. She also said, “understanding how they affect gut function is an important area of study for consumer safety.”
This is the first research that analyzes how ZnO nanoparticles affect the human body. The study was done by Mahler, Fabiola Morena-Olivas, a graduate study studying biomedical engineering, and their collaborator Elad Tako from the Plant, Soil and Nutritional Laboratory, Agricultural Research Services, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Ithaca, N.Y. The research is funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
