Why Your New Year’s Diet May Not Be Going Gangbusters

So you’ve resolved to eat a healthier diet this year. Congratulations! So long, refined carbs, saturated fats, and added sugars. Hello, whole grains, fresh veggies, and lean proteins. If you’ve made these healthy dietary changes but you’re not seeing blockbuster results right away, don’t give up. There could be a reason for the delay.

Photo by Meredith

If the benefits seem to be lagging, the culprit could be your intestinal microbes. Here’s why. Your community of gut microbes grew up with you; your diet is their diet. And if that diet has been, over time, heavy on saturated fats and processed foods (typical of the “Western diet”) and light on vegetables and whole grains, your microbial ecosystem may have become diminished, less diverse.

And now, sudden dietary change, even for the better, brings befuddlement at a gut level. Which is to say, your intestinal microbes, lacking diversity, may not be entirely compatible with this new regimen that has them processing and absorbing nutrients from semi-foreign foodstuffs like fiber-rich vegetables and whole grains. Turns out, the benefits of a healthy diet can lag behind when gut microbes have been conditioned by the standard American diet. This is all according to a new study published in the scientific journal Cell Host & Microbe.

But don’t give up! Your microbiome will likely get there in time — particularly if this new way of eating evolves from a short-lived diet into a full-blown lifestyle. As The New York Times reported, “Refashioning the community of bacteria and other microbes living in your intestinal tract, collectively known as the gut microbiome, could be a good long-term investment in your health.”

Photo by Meredith

To help keep you on track, check out these related articles and top-rated recipes:

• Essential Winter Foods For A Happy, Healthy Gut
• How to Eat for a Healthy Gut
• 9 Ways To Add Fermented Foods To Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
• 5 Veggies To Eat Now For Better Gut Health
• More Recipes that Promote a Healthy Microbiome

---

Get more cooking tips and awesome food finds.

---

The post Why Your New Year’s Diet May Not Be Going Gangbusters appeared first on Allrecipes Dish.

from Allrecipes Dish