When Sylvia Miles played a real estate agent in the 1987 film "Wall Street," she counseled Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) about location, location, location:

"Everybody tells you they hate the Upper East Side . . . But believe me, when it's resale time, the East Side moves all the time."

Location can make or break the value of a house or apartment. The same could be said of the microbes in your gastrointestinal tract. If they end up in a bad neighborhood, your health can plummet.

A study in the journal Nature Metabolism reveals that in people with obesity, bacteria or their products can migrate through the gut wall into other tissues  –  especially the liver and belly fat.

Once there, the bacteria trigger inflammation that changes how your metabolism functions, keeping insulin from doing its job of regulating blood glucose levels. That causes Type 2 diabetes.  

Another team of international researchers recently set out to discover which gut bacteria protect against diabetes.

They found that certain types of bacteria synthesize a molecule called Cresol-4, a metabolite that stimulates insulin-producing beta cell production. Cresol-4 levels are low in people with diabetes.

So we're beginning to learn how obesity triggers diabetes. It's smart to know that Cresol-4 is found in low levels in tomatoes, asparagus, coffee, and tea.

Those are good foods to eat in order to maintain a healthy weight and avoid diabetes. Use them in the recipes from Dr. Mike's "What to Eat When Cookbook" and Dr. Oz's System 20 plan.