Why Yogurt and Probiotics Make You Fat and Foggy:
Yes, you read the title of this post correctly. You’re about to read how yogurt and some probiotics negatively affect our gut bacteria, which is an unknown culprit in making people fat and foggy headed.
For the past 30 years, obesity and autoimmune disease rates have been on a steady rise. At the same time, a little-known condition called histamine intolerance has become much more common. It’s a challenge to figure out the root causes and common denominators for these three seemingly unrelated health trends.
Lots of research shows that an unhealthy gut contributes to obesity, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, autism, depression, and chronic fatigue. The gut biome (intestinal bacteria), your diet, and the gut lining determine gut health. Modern lifestyle factors like the overuse of antibiotics, and diets high in processed, preserved, and histamine producing foods (i.e. most conventional yogurt), all contribute to an unhealthy gut biome. To repair an unhealthy gut and decrease histamine intolerance you need to eat an anti-inflammation diet, minimizing histamine producingbacteria and maximizing histamine degrading bacteria.
This isn’t just science to me – it’s personal. My history of 15 years of heavy antibiotic use for chronic sinus infections as a young man set me up to have a histamine intolerance. Biohacking that problem helped me to discover the histamine connection years ago, but the link to the gut biome was quite elusive.
Why Your Gut Biome has Changed and Why Probiotics Have Become So Important
The human gut biome (microbiome) consists of about 100 trillion bacteria cells – more than 10 times more than there are human cells in your body. You could even start to think of your gut biome as a significant organ in your body, so keeping it healthy and balanced is essential to reduce disease and optimize performance. As we learn more about the makeup of good and bad bacteria in the gut biome, researchers are also doing cutting edge DNA microbiome sequencing to show how people’s gut biomes are changing on a population level.
Gut biomes are becoming imbalanced because there are less good bacteria and more bad bacteria available in modern lifestyles and the standard American diet. When microbiota balance is out of whack, your body develops chronic inflammation, which can become autoimmune disease or other serious health problems. New research even suggests that diabetes may be an autoimmune disease triggered by poor gut health.1
By now, most people know that one contributor to a broken microbiome is overuse of antibiotics. Antibiotics may wipe out whatever bad bacteria you were hoping they would, but they can also clear your system of the really good bacteria that promote a healthy gut. A number of studies show that even a single course of antibiotics can permanently alter the gut flora.2,3
Aside from antibiotics overuse, poor diets and environmental toxins also wreak havoc on the gut by wearing down the protective barriers of the intestinal walls, eventually creating a leaky gut. As I’ve written previously, foods that are heavily processed, preserved, and filled with chemicals and toxins, damage gut health. Common types of these gut-damaging foods include: gluten, processed meats, sugar, most alcohol, mold toxins from coffee and chocolate, and more. These foods increase histamine levels, which in part is due to bad bacteria. I will go into more detail about histamine inducing bacteria in foods later in this post.
One of the reasons I’m such a fan of fresh, organic, local meat and vegetables is that our gut bacteria ultimately are related to our soil bacteria. Soil bacteria are the microbiome of the planet. Industrial agriculture has permanently modified soil organisms – molds and bacteria – so that they produce more toxins than ever before in history. The genes that form those toxins get shared with the bacteria growing in your gut.
Since the advent of antibiotics, scientists have been all over fighting bad bacteria. Now they are beginning to understand the importance of good bacteria and microorganisms in our guts. This “good bacteria” theory led to taking supplemental probiotics as the go-to way to help re-populate our guts after courses of antibiotics or other stressors. Although some probiotics are good for you, sadly (for yogurt companies especially), most manufactured probiotics are only minimally effective at re-populating the gut biome. It is becoming apparent that not all strains of probiotics interact with the gut in the same way.
Histamine Intolerance and Which Bacteria to Avoid
Disturbance in gut biome also plays a significant role in creating the recent rise in histamine intolerance. Histamine intolerance is the result of an imbalance between the breakdown of histamine and its buildup in the gut. This is generally caused by a deficiency in the DAO enzymes (found in intestinal mucosa) that helps metabolize and breakdown dietary sources of histamine.
A histamine overload leads to increased inflammation and many other symptoms including: skin irritation, hives, throat tightening, increased heart rate, nasal congestion, migraines, fatigue, heartburn, reflux, and weight gain.4 Unlike other food allergies and sensitivities, the response from histamine intolerance is cumulative and not always immediate, so it is harder to pin point right away. 5,6
This is personal – I’m histamine intolerant but have been able to reduce my intolerance dramatically following the advice I’m sharing in this post.
**Sneak peak into a future post: Histamine is not the only bioactive substance that can lead to histamine intolerance. Biogenic amines also interact with DAO enzymes in the gut.**
Although there are some genetic causes for a decrease in the production of DAO enzymes, the change in people’s gut biome is also responsible for histamine intolerance. Even if someone has a normal production of DAO enzymes, the levels may still be insufficient when placed against high concentrations of histamine-rich foods and histamine producing bacteria.
Many of the histamine-rich foods are found in the red (toxic) areas of the Bulletproof Diet infographic, but some common sources of histamine-producing foods are surprising. The following foods often have higher histamine contents or help release stored histamine:
- Matured or fermented foods (depending on the bacteria and yeasts that are involved in the process): Sauerkraut, Kombucha, pickles, fermented SOY products, soy sauce, fish sauce,fermented coffee (Upgraded Coffee is safe). Some fermented foods are acceptable as long as it doe not cause a negative reaction.
- Microbiologically produced foods: Most yogurt, buttermilk, kefir, mature cheese, sauerkraut, wine (especially reds)
- Processed, smoked, and fermented meats: Lunchmeat, crappy bacon, sausage, pepperoni, salami, etc.
- Alcohol: Red wine, white wine, champagne, beer
- Yeasty Foods: breads made with yeast
- Certain Vegetables, Fruit, and Nuts: tomato, canned vegetables, strawberries, kiwi, pineapple, peanuts, cashews, walnuts, and more.
Different types of bacteria and probiotics also play a part in histamine regulation. Some probiotics are necessary for proper gut function (where histamine lowering enzymes DAO form), but some strains actually raise histamine levels. The different strains of studied probiotics are categorized as (1) histamine producing bacteria, (2) neutral bacteria, or (3) histamine degradingbacteria.7-1
- Histamine producing bacteria: Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus reuteri, and Lactobacillus bulgaricus (Found in most yogurts and fermented foods).
- Neutral bacteria: Streptococcus thermophiles (also in yogurt) and Lactobacillus rhamnosus (shown to down regulate histamine receptors and up-regulate anti-inflammatory agents)
- Histamine degrading bacteria: Bifidobacterium infantis (found in breast milk), Bifidobacterium longum, Lactobacillus plantarum, and some soil-based organisms.
Some of these bacteria form histamine when they break down protein in foods, even vegetables, whether the food is in your gut or fermenting in your kitchen. Now you know why I’m skeptical about throwing a bunch of cabbage into a bucket to let it ferment. You just don’t know what you’re getting.
The Probiotic Bulletproof Coffee Failed Experiment
Four months ago, I had a brilliant idea. I’d add a prebiotic (food for probiotics) called fructooligosaccharide to my Bulletproof coffee in the morning, and take a probiotic with it. Over the last decade, I estimate I’ve spent upwards of $25,000 on various strains of probiotics to fix my gut, including the time I took pig whipworm eggs. Anyway, I took an “acidophilus pearl” capsule because those were convenient and I was out of my normal probiotic. The one I took had lactobacillus casei, a histamine producing bacteria in it.
The result? I gained 10 pounds in seven days, with a noticeable inflammation in the gut. I stopped the probiotics and it took 7 days to lose the weight.
Probiotic supplementation is a catch-22 and you should not just grab whatever has the best label on the shelf. If you have histamine intolerance, or you want to avoid developing it, experiment with avoiding histamine producing bacteria and focus on histamine degrading or neutral bacteria.
So just toss out the Lactobaccillus casei from your cupboards and fill your refrigerator with Bifidobacterium longum, right?! Uh… yeah… The good news is there are protocols, diets, and product already developed to help you reduce histamine-rich foods, avoid histamine producing bacteria, and consume more histamine degrading bacteria.
3 Ways to a Healthy Gut Biome and Reduce Histamine Intolerance
#1) Follow the Bulletproof Diet to heal your gut:
Eat a low histamine, anti-inflammatory diet like the Bulletproof® Diet as the primary way to protect your gut and reduce histamine intolerance. Eating prebiotic foods that selectively stimulate the growth of good bacteria in your gut is also helpful. Prebiotic foods in the ‘green portions’ of the Bulletproof diet include: Jerusalem artichoke, avocados, and vegetables high in soluble fiber like sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, and turnips. Onions are in the yellow zone because of what they do to alpha brain waves, but they also have prebiotics in them.
Self-tracking tools like the Bulletproof Food Sense App help to detect physiological responses to foods you are sensitive too that may be due to excess histamine concentration. Although histamine intolerance can be difficult to diagnose, one of the common symptoms is an elevated heart rate. Using the Food Sense App after meals (as instructed) will use the iPhone’s camera sensor to measure your heart rate and compare it to your baseline heart rate. If there was an increase of more than 16 beats per minute, then this signifies a food sensitivity and helps you zoom in on gut wrecking or histamine-rich foods.
#2) Reduce histamine producing bacteria
Avoid histamine producing bacteria like Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus reuteri, and Lactobacillus bulgaricus that are mostly commonly found in the majority of yogurts andfermented foods, especially when they are not balanced by other species. Rampant unbalanced focus on lactobacillus in yogurt has led to this problem.
#3) Increase histamine degrading bacteria
Finding ways to get more histamine degrading bacteria into your diet can be difficult, but is great for gut health and key to reducing histamine intolerance. High phenol foods like blueberries, coffee, and chocolate can feed a type of gut bacteria called firmacutes.
My favorite (best tasting) source of balanced bacteria is a yogurt-like product, called Amasi, that contains 30 carefully controlled strains of bacteria. Traditionally, Amasi is the renowned drink of the Masai warrior tribes in Northern Tanzania and Kenya and is known for its rich variety of beneficial bacteria and highly bioavailable nutrients.
As you might have heard on podcast episode #47 with Jordan Rubin, founder of Beyond Organic and creator of Amasi, he replicated the Masai tribes’ production system to produce Amasi from grass fed, antibiotic free, cow’s milk. Rubin even went to the extent to make sure he used the same genetic breed of the Masai’s cows to assure they have non-inflammatory kind of casein (Beta casein A2).
The fermentation of the Amasi is influenced by key histamine degrading bacteria: Lactobacillus plantarum, Bifdocaterium lactis, and Bifidobacterium longum.13,14 These particular strains not only lower histamine levels, reduce inflammation, and improve digestion, but Amasi as a whole food helps improve absorption of specific nutrients such as vitamin B6, B2, and K, folic acid, niacon, and zinc.
MLM alert – Beyond Organic, the creator of Amasi, is a multilevel marketing company. I despise that business model because it usually victimizes needy people, and it leads to low quality or high prices. Long discussions with Jordan and an evaluation of his standards and pricing lead me to believe that Beyond Organic is not out to victimize people and is charging a fair price for impossibly high quality dairy. I did not decide to mention a MLM company lightly and did so after great diligence. If you don’t like it that I’ve made this decision, I invite you either accept it or unsubscribe. It is a decision made with integrity.
Beyond Organic has gone to great lengths to do everything right in creating a truly transformative dairy product. I have never seen anything like it and Amasi is the only yogurt-like food my body has been able to digest flawlessly, and it tastes great! Amasi is a great way to allow a little bit of yogurt into your life and still feel perfectly normal afterwards.
This is why I worked with Beyond Organic to create customized Bulletproof packs at a special discounted rate for the Bulletproof Community to try these incredible products yourselves. TheBulletproof® Packs were personally crafted to include an assortment of Bulletproof approved foods and beverages that will help upgrade your gut health and mental performance, including: Amasi, Omega powder, grass-fed low histamine beef jerky, almonds, and herbs.
Check out the Beyond Organic Bulletproof Packs here.
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