Did you know that we have 10x more bacteria in our GI tract than human cells in our body?! We've actually got 100 trillion different little microbiota in our gut, which is equal to the population on the entire earth... 12,500 times. And what's most important about this not so little village of bacteria inside our gut is that we have just the right amount of each type, otherwise there's consequences. For example, when we eat a lot of sugar, we are feeding the bacteria in our gut that LOVE sugar. And so when we stop eating as much, the bacteria panic because they don't want to starve. So what do they do? They literally change our taste buds, influence our opioid and cannabinoid receptors, and alter our dopamine and serotonin so we will do the one thing they need to survive: eat more sugar. Now, this isn't a diss track on sugar. We NEED sugar (aka glucose) to survive and perform bodily functions that help us thrive. However, the amounts that we need and the amount that we ~feel~ like we need might be totally different, and it could be because of the little neighborhood in our gut we've inadvertently allowed to overgrow! If you found this interesting, definitely head over to the Gut Health and Insulin Resistance sections of the Classroom to dive deeper 💕