益生菌與體重管理 Probiotics & Weight Control

有研究表明，對身體有益的細菌(稱為益生菌)能發揮很多重要作用，加強免疫系統、改善口腔衛生、防治腸易激綜合徵（IBS）和腹瀉以及預防尿路感染等。

一個重要線索
農民和牧場工人很早已知道，細菌和脂肪代謝之間有一定關系。他們發現，給予患病奶牛服用抗生素，會殺死牛體內“好的”和“壞的”微生物，而服用療程後其中一個“副作用”竟然是牛的體重增加。時至今日，農業產業在部分飼料混合使用低劑量抗生素已成一貫做法，目的是養肥那些奶牛。

如果抗生素破壞體內微生物後能增強機體儲存脂肪的作用，那麽如果每天攝取益生菌是否能產生反效果，幫助身體燃燒更多脂肪呢？

小鼠乳酪實驗
麻省理工大學科學家埃裏克·阿爾姆博士和蘇珊·埃德曼博士最近嘗試以兩組實驗室小鼠作比較，對照組飼餵正常囓齒動物食物，而變量組飼餵同樣飲食外添加小鼠分量的含大量益生菌的乳酪。

今年5月，美國麻省理工學院的研究人員確定，老鼠吃了含益生菌的乳酪不但體態纖瘦健康、皮毛更光亮，而且男性鼠的性能力也有某程度提高。此外，吃乳酪的一組小鼠苗條而皮毛光澤之余交配更快，產生更多後代。

益生菌產品主要分為乳製品(例如乳酪或酸奶)以及膳食補充劑（片劑或膠囊）。藥丸形式的益生菌在乾燥環境下穩定和存活率好，服用後進入潮濕環境變得更活躍。


如果小鼠和牛的腰圍有任何啟示，服用益生菌瘦身療法確是值得一試的天然療法。

Studies have shown that healthy bacteria, called probiotics, play a role in strengthening the immune system, improving dental hygiene, combating Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and diarrhea, and preventing urinary tract infections.

The missing link?
Farmers and ranchers have long known that there is a connection between bacteria and fat metabolism. They discovered that sick cows that are given antibiotics, which kill both the “good” and the “bad” microbes, gain considerable weight. Today, it is common practice in the agriculture industry to fatten up healthy cattle by mixing low-dose antibiotics with regular portions of feed.

If antibiotics that destroy microbes help organisms hold on to fat, can a daily influx of probiotics have the opposite effect, helping the body burn more fat instead of storing it?

Mice on yogurt
Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists Eric Alm, PhD, and Susan Erdman, DVM, MPH , recently tested the theory with two groups of laboratory mice. The control group was fed normal rodent food, while the variable group was served the same diet, plus a mouse-sized helping of vanilla yogurt with live probiotic cultures.

This past May, the MIT researchers determined that not only are the mice who ate yogurt with probiotics thinner and sleeker, but they have much shinier fur—and the males have developed a certain “swagger.” Furthermore, the slim and shiny yogurt-eating mice mated faster and produced a larger number of offspring.


Most probiotics are consumed in either fermented dairy products such as yogurt and kefir or in dietary supplements (in pills or capsules). Bacteria that are dried and stabilized in pills remain alive but become active only when they are reintroduced into a moist environment.


If mice and cow waistlines are any indication, that weightloss cocktail might already be available.