Bacteria has a bad reputation and is mostly connected with illness, but it has an integral place in controlling your weight, helps food to be assimilated and absorbed by your intestines and keeps you youthful looking.

If you do eat meat make sure it is grass fed – the livespan of bacteria is about 20 minutes so replenishing your gut is important. Remember the 80-20 principle, eat good wholesome food 80% of the time and your body can cope with 20% of the time when you don’t.

I’ve never counted calories or fat content because I believe changing your eating habits and making lifestyle choices are more sustainable habits. Hunger is controlled by your brain so teach yourself to:

  • Eat mindfully (slowly and enjoy flavours and textures)
  • Dish smaller portions
  • Choose fewer sugary and starchy foods
  • Include Prebiotics and Probiotics
  • Note how certain foods make you feel

Prebiotics – Eat more of these foods to help your gut: artichokes are full of inulin (fibre family of fructans), garlic, leeks, onion, asparagus, and cabbage (kefire and sauerkraut are also good because of fermentation)

Probiotics – I take these in the pill form, but you can also take in liquid or powder. These really help with inflammatory bowel problems when you include large amounts of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium amongst others. Some people feel bloated with all the extra bacteria but it does settle down from my experience.

How does this make you lose weight? Unhealthy gut microbiome is like an inflammatory disease because they cannot operate their normal task of immune regulating work and inflammation can increase throughout your body, food cannot be digested and used properly by the body so fat gets stored.

Tea tip: Fennel tea is great for your gut, bloating and your digestive tract. You can also use fennel seeds in boiling water to make the tea and strain it before drinking.

Science tip: Weight gain is not only due to calories intake but the link between the state of your microbes in your gut and the immune system.

Look out for blog links to products to help you shop for healthier options.