Healthy weight

Digestive imbalance and your weight — a Core Balance approach

by Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP

As a functional medicine practitioner, one of my main priorities is to help women address digestive imbalances because they can impact our health in such far-reaching ways — including compromising our weight loss efforts. And from what I’ve seen in practice, when we heal the digestive system, the results are astounding! My patients are often confused about how an imbalance in the digestive system could make it hard for them to maintain a healthy weight. “If I’m not digesting my food,” they ask, “how can I possibly be gaining weight?”

First of all, any time there is an imbalance in the digestive system, it sets the stage for systemic inflammation. And inflammation can lead to a host of other issues in the body, including a heightened immune response, increased oxidative stress, possibly a greater chance of developing insulin resistance, and increased deposition of fat tissue.

Secondly, at the root of a digestive imbalance, we often find a food sensitivity. Some common examples include allergies or sensitivities to gluten, dairy, or eggs. And a food sensitivity can be linked to intense cravings for the very food that’s causing the imbalance, which worsens weight gain in the end. I’ve had many gluten-sensitive patients tell me that once they start eating foods containing gluten, it leads to days and days of intense cravings for more.

The other problem with low-grade digestive inflammation is that it will always, always compromise your gut’s ability to process and absorb nutrients from your food. So no matter how much or little she is eating, a woman with a digestive imbalance is at risk of nutrient deficiencies. I believe this is one of the most common health problems today.

What’s really wonderful is that we can heal the digestive tract and calm inflammation simply by changing how we eat. And weight loss is just one of the many potential health benefits of reducing inflammation! You can find out more about this connection and an eating plan designed to heal digestive imbalances in my new book, The Core Balance Diet. We’ve also written extensively on digestion and GI health in our website articles.

Related to this article:

References & further reading on core digestive imbalance

 

Original Publication Date: 04/16/2009
Last Modified: 02/16/2010
Principal Author: Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP