You are what your bacteria eat!

I'm a sucker for research. Some people like shopping, I enjoy strolling through PubMed. Today I'm interested in bacteria.

"Fully 10 percent of our own dry body weight consists of bacteria" That's "dry" weight, after you remove all the water! Who knew?

And some of the little bacterial buggers are actually now being implicated in the development of obesity. Which, naturally, leads me to wonder what we'll learn about anorexia and bulimia.

Turns out diet, exercise, and metabolism have a seething, symbiotic dance partner we know little about.

These wee fellows have the ability to wring every calorie possible out of the food you eat, ironically, getting better and more efficient as your weight rises. Turn this upside-down and what will we find about people who are underweight?

"Just eat" "just stop eating" "calories in - calories out" "just.... not that simple.

Complicated thing, a human body. Come on, B. theta and M. smithii, let's dance!

Comments

  1. That study did not find that bacteria had any causal relationship to fatness or thinness. It was marketing. While the researchers may have received $1.5 million towards the development of such products, the idea of giving people a bacteria to make them lose weight seems...well, sick.

    You might find this look at the study of help:
    http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2006/12/do-fat-people-have-fat-germs.html

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