Do you ever find yourself wishing that somebody else could lose weight for you, instead of having to do all the work yourself?  Well you are in luck!  Emerging research is now suggesting that a missing link in the weight loss puzzle may be found in trillions of little helpers called probiotics.

Although the term probiotics was not coined until 1953, scientists have recognized the health benefits of certain gut bacteria since the early 19th century when Russian microbiologist and Nobel Prize laureate Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov first proposed that replacement of harmful bacteria with beneficial ones could prevent certain diseases during his tenure at the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

Since that time, probiotics have been implicated in numerous health benefits including prevention of colon cancer, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.   While the wonders of probiotics have long been touted by natural health practitioners, they have only recently gained mainstream attention in the United States as a result of marketing campaigns by yogurt manufacturers.

Recently, a team of Stanford scientists led by Dr. John Morton investigated the use of probiotics in 44 patients who had previously received gastric bypass surgery.  The study group was allowed to consume yogurt, as well as a daily probiotic supplement.  As compared to the control group, the study group was found to have lost 10% more weight.  The study was published in the July issue of the Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery.

While probiotics are naturally found in the human gut, they may become depleted due to poor food choices.  Overconsumption of sugary foods, along with underconsumption of soluble fiber, leads to imbalances in the intestines which favor the growth of harmful bacteria over the beneficial ones.  Levels of good bacteria can also become low as a result of repeated use of broad-spectrum antibiotics such as are commonly used to treat sinus and ear infections.   These antibiotics are not very selective in the bacteria they kill, and can often end up killing off the good guys along with the bad guys.   While it has become common practice among doctors in the E.U., Asia, and South America to prescribe a probiotic supplement as a follow-up to a course of antibiotics, this has yet to become a regular recommendation of doctors in the United States.

Probiotics can be found in cultured foods, such as yogurt, and in fermented beverages such as kombucha tea.  I recommend purchasing products with a broad-spectrum of cultures, such as Stonyfield Farms yogurt, rather than those containing only one or two strains of bacteria.   Probiotics may also be taken as a supplement in liquid, capsule, or powder form.