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The wonders of butyrate were detailed in a study published by Gao Zhuangao in the July 2009 edition of Diabetes, <\/em>the journal of the American Diabetes Association (Volume 58, No. 7, pp. 1509-1515). Scientists fed a high-fat diet to two obese groups of mice. One of the groups was also given butyrate supplements. The control group was not.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The mice who consumed butyrate showed improved insulin sensitivity. This is important because insulin is the hormone that moves glucose\u2014blood sugar\u2014into your cells. When your cells lose sensitivity to insulin\u2014known as insulin resistance\u2014<\/em>your body has to make extra insulin to do the same job, and you end up with high levels of insulin in your bloodstream.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And guess what insulin does at those levels? It promotes the storage of fat. Reduce insulin in the bloodstream, and you immediately rev up your metabolism. That\u2019s the effect that the butyrate seemed to have.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Normally, a high-fat diet promotes insulin resistance. The more fat you eat the less willing your cells are to respond to insulin.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Butyrate, however, seemed to counteract that effect. Even when eating a high-fat diet, the \u201cbutyrate\u201d group of mice showed more sensitivity to insulin than their \u201cnon-butyrate\u201d counterparts.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The mice also showed improved mitochondrial function. <\/em>The mitochondria are the energy generators in each cell. When your mitochondrial function is high, that means your cells are burning lots of energy.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The butyrate also seemed to reduce cholesterol, triglycerides, and other blood fats.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Same Food, Less Weight Gain<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

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But here\u2019s the really exciting part of the study: when the obese mice were given butyrate, they lost 10 percent of their body weight. <\/em> Mice on the same diet who were not <\/em>given butyrate didn\u2019t lose any weight.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In other words, taking butyrate seemed to result in significant weight loss, even without a change in diet. You could call it a metabolic miracle.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After all, the gut bacteria know more than we do about regulating our metabolism. Why shouldn\u2019t we tap into their knowledge?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When I prescribe butyrate to my patients, I jokingly tell them that now they can stop violating one of the Ten Commandments. You don\u2019t have to covet your neighbor\u2019s high-burning metabolism, I tell them, because now you\u2019re going to have that terrific metabolism for yourself!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wishing you could find a new way to break through your weight-loss plateau? Butyrate, a.k.a butyric acid, might be just what you\u2019ve been looking for. \u00a0 A Miracle Prebiotic \u00a0 Butyrate is a prebiotic\u2014an element that nourishes the friendly bacteria in your microbiome. Your microbiome is the community of trillions of microbes living in your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"yoast_head":"\n