SMALL CAN BE VERY POWERFUL—looking at you, split atom, microchip, and mosquito—and that definitely holds true when it comes to bacteria in your gut. The 100 trillion tiny microbes, a.k.a. gut flora, that call your digestive tract home play a pivotal role in everything from your immune system to your digestion to your mood. But researchers are now convinced that there’s something else your microbiome (your internal microbial ecosystem) affects—your weight.
“The gut is connected to everything,” says Mark Hyman, M.D., director of the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Functional Medicine. “If your microbiome is out of whack, i.e., it doesn’t have enough good bacteria or too much bad bacteria, it can affect how your food is metabolized as well as lead to inflammation.” It’s a cascade of casualties: Bad bacteria…
