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Hey, 40s! You’re a hot mama. Some women even think they look better at 40 then they did at 20. But it’s not as easy to keep the weight off in this decade... There’s a lot of talk about probiotics being the new frontier of weight loss and they might just be your new waistline weapons.
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We all have bacteria in our guts -- like zillions of them -- that we need to help us digest food and keep everything healthy. Think of them as friendly bacteria. Eating food with probiotics, like yogurt and fermented foods, or taking a probiotic supplement, adds to this army of live microorganisms to help your body break down food and burn calories.
A Canadian study found that overweight women who took probiotic pills for 12 weeks lost weight and continued to shed pounds even after they stopped taking the pills. Amazing, right?
The researchers suspect the slimming effect could be a result of the probiotics making intestinal walls less permeable. Fewer cells that contribute to obesity, type 2 diabetes and glucose intolerance were able to find their way into participants’ bloodstreams. The public takeaway from researchers is to add more foods that contain probiotics to a low fat, high fiber diet.
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"Although the science is in its infancy the probiotic strain with the most science at this stage to support beneficial effects on weight management is Lactobacillus gasseri,” says Kara Landau, gut health expert and founder at Travelling Dietitian, NYC. And you need to take it as a supplement in an isolated form. I don't know about you, but I'm definitely going to be adding this probiotic to my weight loss routine!
