We tend to look at the big picture and miss the simple things that really count when it comes to health and fitness. For instance, all health really begins in the mouth. It’s that simple, keep your mouth healthy and your body will follow. Flossing regularly and brushing twice a day can actually keep you at a normal weight and bodyfat percentage. When we eat, enzymes in your mouth begin the process of breaking down food to be digested in your large and small intestines. If your mouth isn’t healthy and clean, it makes the rest of the process harder to complete.

Once we get the food past your mouth, it goes to the stomach where acid processes it even more, mixed in with myriad bacteria, some good and some bad. Scientists have been able to pinpoint a good balance of both, which is found in individuals that maintain a healthy weight and body composition, which is the ratio between your lean body mass and your fat mass.

As it turns out a simple 3 day juice fast can bring balance back to the imbalance in your gut that is caused by a typical western diet.

“The two most abundant bacterial phyla in humans are Firmicutes (40–60%) and Bacteroidetes (20–40%). Relative proportional abundance of Firmicutes has been associated with increased body weight and that of Bacteroidetes with low body weight. The 3-day juice based diet of only drinking 6 bottles of fruit/vegetable juice blends induced significant changes in the intestinal microbiota. The proportional abundance of the phylum Firmicutes was significantly decreased, while Bacteroidetes was significantly increased when comparing end of juice based diet (day 4) to baseline”

Health benefit of vegetable/fruit juice-based diet: Role of microbiome

Sci Rep. 2017; 7: 2167.

Published online 2017 May 19. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-02200-6