Antibiotics - Are They Causing You to Gain Weight?

Today, I want to discuss antibiotics and it's effect on weight gain. We aren't going to focus only on personal use, but we are also going to dive into how antibiotics given to livestock are effecting our weight as well.

During cold and flu season you may come down with a cold and jump at the chance to go to the doctor who prescribes an antibiotic. Even though this cold is probably a virus, you take the antibiotic hoping to knock out the cold before it gets worse. The problem is that antibiotics fight bacteria not viruses.

With the common cold or flu, taking an antibiotic may be the worst thing to do. Not only are you destroying bad bacteria but the good (beneficial) bacteria as well. Antibiotics don't distinguish between the good and the bad.

Not only are they destroying beneficial bacteria but they may be causing you to gain weight. The "good guys" may regulate certain hormones responsible for weight loss or gain.

They may help DIGEST FAT, breaking it down into smaller absorbable nutrients.

Let me explain.

Let me give you a little glimpse into the process of beef that comes from factory (commercialized) farms. Back in the day cows were given antibiotics to fight bacterial infections because of a host of reasons including overcrowded disease infested stalls and to fight off infections of dairy cows' utters. Dairy cows' utters became infected from being pumped for milk excessively and antibiotics were used to combat this problem. What these factory farms found out is that by implementing antibiotics into livestock feed is that it caused the livestock to gain weight much more quickly. This meant they could fatten them up for a faster turnover, which meant more money in their pockets. The problem is that this process affects the consumers.

A cow given antibiotics is fattened up which means the meat you consume is fatter instead of leaner. If the antibiotics makes cows fatter, how do think this translates into humans. Don't be fooled by the person at the supermarket telling you the best cut of meat is the most marbleized. The more marbleized a steak is, means more fat for you.

I won't get into too much detail on why organic grass fed beef is better, just know this. Grass fed beef doesn't contain antibiotics or growth hormone, and they aren't fed grains (which also translates into weight gain in humans). Cattle raised on an unnatural diet of grain don't digest this type of food well. The hard to digest food sits in the cow's stomach which forms bacteria. This leads to a host of disease including e-coli. Grass-fed beef also has a great source of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) which helps to burn fat. The amount of omega-3 and omega-6 are in a much better ratio in grass-fed beef as well. To sum it up, grass-fed beef not only helps in weight loss but is also much healthier that its factory raised counterpart.

Now that I got that out. Let's get back to antibiotics, weight gain, good germs, and bad germs.

Good Germs, Bad Germs.

Antibiotics are powerful drugs which may rid your body of good and bad bacteria. By altering your gut microflora, your appetite may increase. This increase may raise your chances of weight gain, especially FAT GAIN. Like I said earlier, farmers have used antibiotics for many years to increase the size to make fatter and bigger cows with more meat. This use of antibiotics may also destroy a certain bacteria which may be on the brink of extinction. This bacteria may aid in digestion, and without this bacteria, ghrelin secretion may INCREASE possibly increasing your appetite leading to increased weight gain. This is NOT the end of the world, and it doesn't mean you have to stop taking antibiotics, as we know antibiotics do have a special place in the medical field, but there may be a chance to replace your good bacteria after using antibiotics.

Probiotics are products that may contain healthy bacteria which normalize gut flora.

The easiest way to increase beneficial bacteria is to start taking Genesis. It's the best green product I've come across. You can easily get more information on this great product by going to my site.

I hope this article shed some light on antibiotics and weight gain. Hope you enjoyed the information and I hope it helps in some way to better your health as well as reach your fitness goals.

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