Are you struggling to lose weight or seeking relief from chronic diseases? Perhaps you've been drawn in by trendy diets, only to find they don't deliver on their promises. If so, the Microbiome Diet might be a viable alternative worth considering.
This article provides an overview of the Microbiome Diet, exploring its principles, potential benefits, and drawbacks, to help you determine if it aligns with your health goals.
What is the Microbiome?
The microbiome is a complex ecosystem of trillions of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, and viruses, residing in your body, particularly in your gut. These microbes play a crucial role in extracting nutrients from food, balancing mood, and sharpening focus. Maintaining a healthy balance within this inner world is vital for overall well-being.
The Microbiome Diet: Restoring Gut Health
The Microbiome Diet, developed by Dr. Raphael Kellman, a functional medicine physician specializing in intestinal health, is based on the idea that restoring gut health can lead to weight loss and improved well-being. It's a three-phase program designed to promote a healthy gut microbiome, which is believed to improve digestion, reduce inflammation, decrease anxiety, and enhance brain function and mood. A balanced gut is one that’s diverse, high in good (friendly) bacteria, and low in bad (pathogenic) bacteria.
According to a 2020 medical review, "Nutrition has profound effects on microbial composition, in turn affecting wide-ranging metabolic, hormonal, and neurological processes."
Read also: The Hoxsey Diet
The Three Phases of the Microbiome Diet
The Microbiome Diet is structured into three distinct phases, each with varying levels of dietary restriction:
Phase 1: The Four R's Meal Plan (21 Days)
This initial phase is the most restrictive and focuses on the "Four R's" of intestinal health:
- Remove: Eliminate foods, toxins, and harmful chemicals that cause inflammation or imbalance gut bacteria. This includes processed foods, sugar, gluten, eggs, soy, and dairy, as well as packaged/artificial foods. Dr. Kellman advises buying organic whenever possible to avoid pesticide exposure and its potentially negative effects on your gut and greater health.
- Replace: Use herbs, spices, and supplements to replace stomach acid and digestive enzymes, improving the quality of bacteria in your gut.
- Reinoculate: Repopulate your gut with healthy bacteria through probiotic- and prebiotic-rich foods and supplements.
- Repair: Consume plant foods and supplements that heal your gut and support the microbiome.
During this phase, you'll avoid grains, eggs, most legumes and dairy, and starchy fruits and vegetables. Instead, you're encouraged to eat an organic, plant-based diet with prebiotic-rich foods like asparagus, garlic, onion, and leeks, and fermented foods rich in probiotics, such as sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, and yogurt.
Certain supplements are strongly recommended, including probiotics, zinc, vitamin D, berberine, grapefruit seed extract, wormwood, and oregano oil.
Phase 2: Metabolic Boost Meal Plan (28 Days)
As your gut strengthens, this phase allows for more dietary flexibility. You still avoid gut-damaging foods from Phase 1, but only 90% of the time, allowing up to four weekly meals that include restricted foods. Dairy, free-range eggs, gluten-free grains, and legumes can be reintroduced, along with most fruits and vegetables like mangoes, melons, peaches, pears, sweet potatoes, and yams.
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Phase 3: Lifetime Tune-Up
This maintenance phase has no set duration and encourages continued adherence until you reach your desired weight loss goal and maintain it long-term. While the restricted foods remain the same as in Phase 1, only 70% compliance is required, allowing for dietary flexibility 30% of the time (about one meal per day). Processed foods and added sugar should still be minimized.
Foods to Avoid and Enjoy on the Microbiome Diet
The Microbiome Diet emphasizes avoiding certain foods thought to negatively impact gut health:
Foods to Avoid:
- Processed and fried foods
- Sugar and high-fructose corn syrup
- Artificial sweeteners (except small amounts of Lakanto)
- Trans and hydrogenated fats
- Starchy fruits and vegetables (bananas, potatoes, corn, peas)
- Deli meats high in salt and fats
- Peanuts, soy, and other legumes (except chickpeas and lentils)
- High-mercury fish
- Dried fruit and fruit juices
- All grains containing gluten
- Eggs and dairy (except butter and ghee)
- Yeast and foods containing it
Foods to Enjoy:
- Wild salmon and grass-fed meat
- Fermented vegetables (sauerkraut, kimchi)
- Non-starchy vegetables (asparagus, carrots, garlic, artichokes, leeks, onions, radishes)
- Non-starchy fruits (tomatoes, avocado, apples, cherries, grapefruit, kiwi, oranges, nectarines, rhubarb, coconut)
- Nuts, seeds, and their butters
- Sunflower and olive oils
- Chickpeas and lentils
- Lakanto sweetener in small amounts
- Herbs and spices
During Phase 2, free-range eggs, dairy, legumes, gluten-free grains, and certain starchy fruits and vegetables can be reintroduced.
Additional Recommendations
Beyond food choices, the Microbiome Diet recommends:
- Prioritizing organic foods
- Avoiding chemicals in non-natural household cleaners and personal care products
- Using a good water filter
- Considering supplements like zinc, glutamine, berberine, caprylic acid, quercetin, garlic, grapefruit seed extract, wormwood, oregano oil, probiotics, and vitamin D
- Avoiding overuse of antibiotics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and proton pump inhibitors
Potential Benefits of the Microbiome Diet
The Microbiome Diet may offer several potential benefits:
Read also: Weight Loss with Low-FODMAP
- Improved Gut Health: The diet promotes eating probiotic- and prebiotic-rich foods, which are essential for a healthy gut. Probiotics introduce beneficial bacteria to the gut, while prebiotics feed these friendly bacteria. Specific probiotic strains may also help prevent leaky gut syndrome.
- Reduced Sugar Intake: The diet limits added sugar, which can positively impact gut bacteria.
- Careful Medication Use: The Microbiome Diet warns against overuse of antibiotics, NSAIDs, and proton pump inhibitors, which can harm the gut wall and disrupt the balance of microorganisms.
- Nutrient-Rich Diet: The diet encourages eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, lean protein, and other plant-based foods, providing essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
- Potential Weight Loss: The diet is naturally low in fat and rich in vitamins, minerals, and fiber, which may contribute to weight loss.
- Disease Prevention: Improving gut health may protect against various diseases, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, colon cancer, Alzheimer's, and depression.
- Immune System Support: The microbiome turns fiber into short-chain fatty acids that strengthen the gut wall and immune system.
Drawbacks of the Microbiome Diet
Despite its potential benefits, the Microbiome Diet also has some drawbacks:
- Restrictive Nature: The first phase is highly restrictive, eliminating nutritious foods like some fruits, starchy vegetables, all grains, and most legumes. Unless you’re intolerant to them, scientific evidence supporting that you need to avoid these foods to lose weight or maintain a healthy gut function is lacking. In fact, avoiding gluten can lead to a lack of fiber in the diet, which is counter to the research supporting a high-fiber diet for healthier microbiome. There is no reason to avoid gluten unless you have been diagnosed with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity by a healthcare professional.
- Emphasis on Organic Foods: The diet's strong emphasis on organic foods fails to acknowledge that organic foods may also be treated with pesticides, and there's limited evidence that non-organic foods damage the gut.
- Heavy Reliance on Supplements: The diet recommends numerous supplements, which can be expensive, and most have limited scientific evidence backing their use to improve gut health.
- Lack of Human Research: Despite claims that a healthier gut will boost metabolism, reduce cravings, and promote weight loss, research in humans to confirm these benefits is lacking.
Sample Meal Plan (Phase 1)
Here's a sample three-day meal plan for Phase 1 of the Microbiome Diet:
Day 1
- Breakfast: Fruit salad with Brazil nuts
- Snack 1: Parsnip sticks with almond butter
- Lunch: Chicken and vegetable soup
- Snack 2: Roasted cauliflower with curry
- Dinner: Grilled salmon with roasted Brussels sprouts, mixed greens, and fermented beets
Day 2
- Breakfast: Pancakes made with almond flour topped with almond butter and fruit
- Snack 1: Walnuts and cherries
- Lunch: Vegetable salad topped with sauerkraut, chickpeas, and a parsley-lemon vinaigrette
- Snack 2: Celery sticks with guacamole
- Dinner: Zucchini noodles topped with marinara sauce and chicken meatballs
Day 3
- Breakfast: Blueberry and almond breakfast cookies
- Snack 1: Sautéed pineapple topped with shredded coconut
- Lunch: Vegetable salad topped with miso-glazed cod
- Snack 2: Carrots with hummus
- Dinner: Flank steak tacos with steamed veggies, salsa, and guacamole
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