MARCYINCNY2's CalorieKing blog
Wednesday, Jan 20 2010 - Can We Program Ourselves To Be Fat?
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Eating lots of cheeseburgers, fries, and sugary snacks makes people gain weightbut not, new research shows, just because these foods are so high in calories. A high-fat, high-sugar diet, say Washington University scientists, changes the balance of bacteria in the gut, and effectively programs peoples digestive systems to make them fat. The human intestinal tract has two main types of bacteria that help us digest food: Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. Research has shown that peopleand micewith a high percentage of Firmicutes in their intestines tend to be fat, because these bacteria are very efficient at converting food into calories that the body then absorbs. Those with a preponderance of the less-efficient Bacteroidetes remain relatively lean. Researchers found that when they transferred intestinal bacteria from obese mice into the guts of previously microbe-free mice, the mice rapidly gained weight. When both types of bacteria were inserted into skinny mice, they stayed leanuntil they began eating a diet high in fat and sugars. Then the count of lean bacteria dwindled, while the fat bacteria proliferated and took over the gut. As a result, the once-skinny mice bulked up. The results, researcher Jeffrey Gordon tells the Los Angeles Times, suggest that our resident microbes play a major role in determining whether were lean or fat; further research may provide new treatments for obesity. THE WEEK 12-4-09
3 comments so far.
3.
a decade ago
Ugh, I like my cheeseburgers. Guess I must have some nasty little gremlins in my gut! Thanks for the info though Marcy. Maybe I'll think twice about pulling into our little neighborhood burger drive-thru.... Best, Cheryl52
by CHERYL52
2.
a decade ago
Wow, that's pretty interesting. That would explain 40 years of eating crappy and now having great difficulty losing it. I've programmed my body to be fat with a lousy diet.
by GOODKAT
1.
a decade ago
Marcy, thanks for posting this. Very interesting!
by FASHIONGIRL