REVERSE THE WEIGHT GAIN CYCLE

As anyone who has ever dieted knows, the challenge is not so much losing weight, as keeping it off. Many take up a crazy diet, shed loads of weight, plateau and despair and pile it back on. It is true that bad diets don’t work, because they’re restrictive and unsustainable. Once you’ve lost weight and put it back on a few times, you may find it harder to shed it. This could be due to changes in your microbiome, the 1-2 kg of microbes that live in the gut.

In 2017, the Weizmann Institute in Israel carried out some fascinating experiments on mice, which seems to show the microbiome retains a ‘memory’ of previous obesity. The microbiome accelerated the regaining of weight when mice were put back on a high-calorie diet. However, they found a way to reverse this, by feeding the mice flavonoids - powerful antioxidant chemicals made by plants to protect themselves against parasites and harsh weather, found in fruits and vegetables, particularly bright coloured ones.

A good reason to cram in multi-coloured fruit and vegetables and put aside the brightly coloured cake.