Crack your waist ‘fat code’: eight ways to improve your gut health and shrink your tummy

You may know that bacteria in your gut can affect your immune system, digestion and even your mood. Now, research shows it could also help shrink your belly fat. In part two of our ‘reduce your waist, improve your health’ plan, Anna Magee speaks to leading scientists to show you how

Look after your gut health and your waist size will look after itself (Getty)

In recent years, pimping the bacteria in our intestines with probiotic foods and supplements has become an obsession with the health conscious. Celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow, basketball legend LeBron James and tennis star Serena Williams have waxed lyrical about improving the state of their microbiomes and how it has affected their digestion, energy and wellbeing. The market for probiotic foods and supplements has soared and is now estimated to reach $131bn (£102bn) by 2032.

We’ve seen a growing body of evidence showing that our gut microbiomes can impact our immune systems, energy, skin, digestion and, increasingly, our moods. “Our microbes release chemicals that interact with various organs in the body, meaning they can impact several functions, from the immune system to metabolic health and mental health,” says Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London and scientific co-founder of Zoe, an app-based personalised nutrition programme that tracks people’s blood sugar, lipids and microbiomes. Spector and his team have worked extensively in the areas of gut health for the last decade. Now, they have found the bacteria in our gut can even influence the size of our gut.

Belly fat that surrounds your organs is called “visceral fat” and it’s linked to an increased risk of diseases, like type 2 diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. A study published in 2019 in Nature Medicine by scientists on Spector’s team at King’s College London identified 100 “good” and “bad” gut microbes and a number of species associated with increased visceral fat.