Antibiotics and Sugar Cravings

If you've ever wondered 'do antibiotics make you crave sugar?' you're not alone. This common but rarely discussed side effect has a scientific explanation. When you take antibiotics, they don't just kill harmful bacteria – they also disrupt your gut microbiome, creating the perfect environment for sugar-craving yeast to flourish.

There is a connection between antibiotic therapy, antibiotics in your food, and sugar cravings!

By and large, most people don’t realize that a large portion of the antibiotics being absorbed into the human genome or body are not from prescription antibiotics. 

Many antibiotics are actually in our foods, namely our meat sources. Meat production in our country uses antibiotics to help improve growth, rather than treating illness in the livestock that they are raising. Because of this, antibiotics are naturally going into our bodies, landing in the gut system. This kills off bacterial function, causing an effect that is detrimental and pathologic. 

Many do not realize that up to 80 trillion cells in our intestines are bacteria,  which can account for 2-3 pounds of your weight. When antibiotics are introduced, there is a clear cutting, like a ravaging wildfire.  Just as in real life, huge wildfires, where you see everything decimated; all houses, all structures, all plants are completely burned up... The same thing is happening in our intestinal tracts. Antibiotics can go in and create this type of decimation, clearing out the bulk of the bacteria that is naturally supposed to be there. 

Antibiotics: The Good and The Destructive

How blessed are we that we get to live in a time period where we can go to a doctor who can give us a way to kill off harmful little bacteria that are trying to make us ill? The obvious benefit of antibiotics: They kill bacteria that are harmful and cause you to be sick.

Unfortunately, antibiotics also kill off bacteria that are good and helpful in our everyday lives. One example of a good bacteria in the body is acidophilus. This is thought to be helpful because it produces Vitamin K and lactase. It is used in probiotics to help with intestinal health and overall feeling good. Antibiotics do what their name says: kill bacteria. Both good and bad.

Since antibiotics lead to killing off bacteria, space is left for other things to grow. Most of the time it is worth it since you have killed off whatever sickness that is trying to grow. But that still can be problematic. Often what begins to grow, since good bacteria isn’t there to stop it, is Candida Yeast.

Why Probiotics Alone Aren't Enough To Combat Yeast 

Probiotics are helpful in that they reintroduce good bacteria into the system. However, probiotics lack anything that would actually kill off the yeast. 

Yeast, once it is established and self-perpetuating, can actually begin to eat through the intestinal lining and become systemic. This means yeast can get into the blood stream and travel throughout your whole body wreaking havoc. Systemic yeast overgrowth can present itself in many different ways. While probiotics are helpful in reestablishing beneficial gut bacteria, they do not get the job done in heading off yeast overgrowth, leading to leaky gut.

Yeast to Leaky Gut

Yeast, which is an opportunistic type of fungus, now gains a stronghold and an imbalance occurs. The bulk of our intestinal mucosa should be made up of about 90% bacteria and about 10% yeast. When those ratios get reversed, leaky gut can happen. 

With its powerful tentacle-like legs called hypha, yeast creates holes in the mucosa of the intestinal wall, which today is known as leaky gut syndrome. As our food passes through our intestines and absorption occurs, small particles of food become held up at these small pinpricks in the intestinal wall. At first, this creates irritation, and then becomes an allergic response or reaction as the food particles pass through the wall. 

After too much of this passing through the intestinal lining, autoimmune dysfunction begins. 

The Historical Shift in Our Gut Health

Prior to the 1940’s, there was no such thing as a prescription antibiotic. People were only able to eat what they were able to grow and harvest from their livestock. The introduction of technical processing of food to create a long shelf life, food additives, along with increased sugar and increased salt, allowed for slower decay of our food in our grocery stores. 

Fast forward to today: 75 years of increased processing of our food and increased antibiotic therapies in our livestock and in healthcare have increased yeast overgrowth in our bodies. We see this specifically in the intestines.

The Microbiome

Science has now shown that a communication exists between our intestines and our brain. When our intestines are filled with the proper ratio of bacteria and yeast, the brain is able to make healthy nutritional decisions. As our intestines are under assault, being overtaken by yeast and the ratios are reversed, the brain begins to make very poor decisions about its nutritional needs. This concept is known as ‘the microbiome’, or ‘gut-brain relationship’. 

Poor health begins when the body is introduced to this vicious, leaky gut cycle by a combination of errors:

1. The application of antibiotics through livestock and medicine.

2. The increased use of sugar as a preservative creating this primary detrimental habit to be formed.

3. The lack of a rebuilding process in the intestines that would give the organism the ability to heal and go back to the proper ratios of bacteria to yeast in the microbiome.

As we eat more sugar, our yeast grows which demands more sugar. When this cycle is in place, sugar cravings are run by the microbiome. Your brain is telling you to search out fuel to feed the confused gut which has tragically been overtaken by yeast  And the sugar addiction cycle continues. This messaging is being relayed to the brain which creates cravings that are stronger and stronger, continuing until you relent and give into the sugar cravings. 

It’s not if; It’s when.

Falling off the Wagon, Again

‘Why do I fail and have cravings that allow me to fall off the wagon?’ 

Talk about the million dollar question. The big idea is to control yeast at its source because without that, you’ll never win. Within only the last 3 or 4 generations, our society had to work hard physically. The foods that create yeast were burned up through hard physical labor. 

Today, we no longer have that call for hard physical labor with the advent of computers, increased communication, improved socioeconomic norms and technology in general. There is no longer an increased metabolic necessity. Cravings are more easily attached to individuals that have been assaulted by this current nutritional model where we are heavy on yeast producing grains and very light on protein and fat. This all contributes to an abnormal drive towards the wrong foods, or in other words, anything that increases the yearning for yeast or sugar. 

Breaking the Cycle: Addressing Yeast Overgrowth

Our Candida treatment works as a yeast cleanse to provide a comprehensive approach to restoring the balance in your gut and supporting proper health against a wide range of ailments.** It’s essential to provide all of the nutrients and vitamins needed to promote proper healing. Our Yeast Redux provides an all-in-one approach as a leaky gut supplement by:

Stopping the growth of bad bacteria. 

Enhancing your health with powerful ingredients will not help if the yeast continues to run rampant. Materials such as dandelion root are helpful in detoxing the liver and increasing bile production, helping your body to fight fungal issues and Candida overgrowth.

Restoring levels of good bacteria. 

Ingredients such as burdock root and FOS (Inulin) foster the proper balance for health bacteria to grow back. As a prebiotic, FOS encourages growth by acting as a sort of fertilizer for the good bacteria in your gut.

Healing damages to the digestive system.

 The damaging effects of Candida overgrowth can cause continual problems for you after the bad bacteria is equalized. Our all-natural ingredients aid in the healing process, plugging holes and healing weak spots caused by the overgrowth.*

Skinny Up!® Yeast Redux has been created to meet this challenge at its core. If we don’t address the yeast in this equation, the cravings never really go away and we never really have a chance to win the battle. Other components include:

•  Acai Extract 

• A digestive enzyme blend

• Spinach

• Green tea extract 

• Grape seed root

• Jerusalem artichoke 

• Garlic 

These components have been added, creating a powerful synergistic blend aimed at slowing down cravings immediately while beginning the difficult task of reducing yeast activity. 

Welcome to the new era of life; one without the constant plague of cravings. We’re here to help guide you through the difficult challenge of returning to the reality of controlling yeast in the body and therefore, stopping the vicious cycle of falling off the wagon. 

Here’s to empowerment!