What is a Probiotic?
Probiotics are live microorganisms that can provide health benefits when consumed in adequate amounts. They are typically found in fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, and kimchi, as well as in supplement form. Probiotics work by colonizing the gut and promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria, which can improve digestion, boost immunity, influence weight loss, and support overall health.
There are many different types of probiotics, each with its own unique set of health benefits. For example, some probiotics are particularly effective at reducing inflammation, while others may help to lower cholesterol levels or regulate blood sugar. Additionally, some probiotics may be more effective for certain health conditions than others, such as irritable bowel syndrome or eczema.
Probiotics are generally safe for everyone. They are naturally found in the body, as well as naturally produced in some foods. They also help balance your “good” and “bad” bacteria to keep your body working the way it should.
What’s a Multi-Probiotic?
Multi-strain probiotics are composed of more than one species or strain of bacteria and sometimes include some fungal species with benefits to human health. Whether you choose to use a single-strain probiotic or a multi-strain probiotic is up to you and what you’re hoping to gain from it. Typically, the thought is that multi-probiotics may be more beneficial because they include various kinds of good bacteria.
What Types of Bacteria are in a Probiotic?
Many different types of bacteria can be considered probiotics. However, there are two main types that are found on store shelves. These include Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium.
Probiotics are also made up of good yeast. The most common type of yeast found in probiotics is Saccharomyces boulardii.
Both of these types of bacteria and yeast are found naturally in the body. Different types of probiotics may have different effects. For example, if a specific kind of Lactobacillus helps prevent an illness, that doesn’t necessarily mean that another kind of Lactobacillus or any of the Bifidobacterium probiotics would do the same thing.
One other thing to note about probiotics is that they are measured in colony-forming units (CFU), which indicate the number of viable cells. Many probiotic supplements contain 1 to 10 billion CFU per dose, but some products contain up to 50 billion CFU or more. It has not been proven that higher CFU counts have a greater effect on the user’s health.
Weight Loss and Multi-Probiotics
Body weight can be related to two main types of bacteria located in the digestive tract, these types of bacteria are bacteroidetes and firmicutes. Studies have found that moderate-weight people have different gut bacteria than overweight or obese people. In most of the studies, overweight or obese people had more firmicutes and fewer bacteroidetes than moderate-weight people.
Another thing to note is that people who are typically overweight or obese have less diverse gut bacteria than people who are moderate-weight. You can conclude from this that diversifying the bacteria in your gut through taking a multi-probiotic may be beneficial for weight loss.
How Do Probiotics Affect Body Weight?
Probiotics can help influence appetite and energy usage via the production of acetate, propionate, and butyrate, which are short-chain fatty acids.
It is also thought that some probiotics interrupt the absorption of fat by the body thereby increasing the amount of fat excreted with feces. This basically means that your body is taking in fewer calories from the food you are eating and getting rid of them naturally.
Probiotics may also help with weight loss by releasing appetite-regulating hormones and increasing levels of fat-regulating proteins. Additionally, some strains of probiotics may help to reduce inflammation and improve insulin sensitivity, which can promote weight loss and improve metabolic health.
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Multi-probiotics may help influence the amount of fat your body retains. If you’re interested in learning more about the connection between multi-probiotics and weight loss, reach out to us at 10X Health.
