Your gut has both good and bad bacteria. Good bacteria help to boost your immune system and extract nutrients from the food you eat.
On the other hand, bad bacteria are responsible for a myriad of health challenges. This study showed that having too many gut bacteria leads to chronic fatigue, brain fog, headache, and diabetes.
Weight loss can be severely impeded when you have a bacterial imbalance. You can even become obese because of it.
You thus need to know how to starve bad gut bacteria to fix these problems.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO KILL BAD BACTERIA IN THE GUT?
According to this study, it is possible to restore healthy gut flora after 2 months. The analysis involved antibiotics as the main source of gut flora imbalance.
It is thus possible that bad bacteria from other sources other than antibiotics could take their own course.
DOES FASTING KILL GUT BACTERIA?
Several studies show that you can gut cleanse good gut bacteria through fasting.
In this study, lab organisms were subjected to intermittent fasting.
Within a period of 60 days, the flies experienced a change in abundance of bad bacteria compared to the ones that were not exposed to intermittent fasting.
In another study, it was shown that fasting protocols could significantly affect outcomes. The subjects in this experiment fasted for 12, 16, and 20 hours per day.
Organisms that did not fast for 16 and 20 hours did not report significant bad gut bacteria reductions.
While the above findings relied on lab animals, they still inform decisions on how to starve bad gut bacteria. You may want to prolong your fasting protocols to see results.
However, this does not change the fact that fasting does kill bad gut bacteria.
10 TIPS ON HOW TO STARVE BAD GUT BACTERIA
1. ORGANIZE YOUR SLEEP ROUTINE
When you lose sleep, bacteria from the intestines tend to move, which impacts your other biological functions.
Endeavor to wake up at the same time every day and to get at least 7 hours of sleep.
This study demonstrates that a relationship exists between the circadian rhythm, stress, and gut microbes. In other words, if you have too many bad bacteria, your circadian rhythm could be altered.
You thus want to restore this balance so that you can increase good bacteria in the gut.
2. ADOPT A MEDITERRANEAN DIET INSTEAD OF A WESTERN DIET
The Western diet is rich in fat and starch, which often predisposes you to heart disease and similar illnesses. These foods promote inflammation and thus the latter lifestyle illnesses.
Bad bacteria thrive in these kinds of environments. On the other hand, if you want to repopulate the gut with good gut bacteria, you need to have an environment rich in fiber.
The Mediterranean diet is full of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. It also has a low level of processed foods.
Overall, replacing highly refined foods with fiber-rich ones can kill bad gut bacteria, which feed on these substances.
3. EXERCISE MORE
Exercise has a positive effect on the population of gut bacteria. This is because exercise has a way of enriching the diversity within your gut.
Working out promotes the restoration of good gut bacteria.
Start with simple interventions such as walking or yoga. Thereafter, you may do jogging once your body has developed the stamina for it.
4. INDULGE IN POLYPHENOLS
You need polyphenols to balance out the healthy gut bacteria. These are compounds that do not get digested by the body but instead are digested by good gut bacteria.
Some sources of these include berries such as strawberries and raspberries. Dark chocolate is also another source of polyphenols, and so is red wine.
On the flip side, taking alcohol is harmful and will not repopulate your gut with good bacteria.
5. INCREASE ESSENTIAL FATS
Your body requires essential fats that fight inflammation. When your body is inflamed, you tend to have an imbalance of gut bacteria.
One way to starve bad gut bacteria is to stock up on Omega-3 rich foods such as flax seeds, fish oil, and fish.
6. EAT FERMENTED FOODS
Certain types of foods can increase the presence of bad bacteria in your body because they are fermented.
These may include kimchi, kombucha, unsweetened yogurt, and kefir.
7. REMOVE ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS FROM YOUR DIET AND DITCH THE SUGAR.
The problem with artificial sweeteners is that they alter the gut microbiome. This often predisposes you to glucose intolerance even when you are not consuming sugar.
Added sugar in and of itself is a rich source of food for most bad gut bacteria.
When you have too much added sugar in your body, you encourage bacteria’s unwanted population to grow and replicate.
You will also be susceptible to leaky gut and inflammation if you continue to add sugar to your diet.
8. CONSIDER PREBIOTICS
Good bacteria feed on prebiotics. Some of the sources of prebiotics include dandelions green or artichokes.
Prebiotic powders are also available in the market. If you don’t know how to starve bad gut bacteria, you need to populate your gut with foods eaten in low quantities.
9. MANAGE STRESS IN YOUR LIFE
Stress often has a ripple effect in your gut that makes the environment rife with bad bacteria.
If you are stressed, your body goes into fight or flight mode and releases hormones to counter this reaction.
In return, your gut microbiome gets altered negatively.
Another way that stress makes matters worse in your gut is by its effect on neurotransmitters.
Whenever the population of bacteria changes, this affects your nervous system and thus has the unwanted effect of increasing stress levels.
Seek professional assistance from a counselor if you are always anxious. Alternatively, make commitments to people that you can honor.
Find things to do that make you relax, like yoga.
10. EMBRACE DIRT
As counterintuitive as it seems, your body could benefit from a little dirt.
When you spend time in nature, do a little gardening, and do plenty of things outdoors, you expose your system to natural microbes.
These then go to restore healthy gut flora within your system.
According to this research, when you are too hygienic, you compromise your gut microbiota.
If an animal is reared in a spotless environment in its early life, it tends not to have a diverse atmosphere.
This study showed that normal guts should not be protected excessively from bacteria.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Your gut population changes because of several reasons.
First, it could be the food you eat, so endeavor to make this friendly to good bacteria.
Second, it is the psychological conditions you live in like stress, lack of sleep, or inactivity. Do the opposite of these to have balanced gut flora.
Third, it is the way you condition your body. If you have been unduly obsessed with cleanliness, this could go counter to your gut health.
While it may not be possible to change your gut composition, enacting these steps completely is the best answer on how to starve bad gut bacteria.
[related_posts_by_tax posts_per_page="4"]
