Obesity and Our Bacterial Friends
One of the persistent arguments in today’s world is whether obesity is in our genes or something that can be controlled by diet and exercise (and a good night’s sleep and low stress and …). On my way drive home from work last week, I heard a very interesting story on NPR about research on the effect of gut bacteria on weight gain/loss.
Studies compared mice born and kept in a sterile environment with no bacteria in their gut against mice born and kept in a non-sterile environment. Both sets of mice were fed the same amount of food. The bacteria-free mice stayed skinny while the mice with gut bacteria gained weight. The reason is that the bacteria in the intestines of the mice raised in a non-sterile environment were able to break down the food and turn it into calories, while the food passed right through the intestines of the bacteria-free mice undigested.
These findings beg the question: can we manipulate the bacteria in our intestines in order to control weight gain or loss? For more information on the research and its implications, check out the printed article on the NPR website here.
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