Fat bacteria

[rh]

Fat Bacteria in Human Guts Tied to Obesity

by Nell Boyce

All Things Considered, December 20, 2006 ·

Many people worry about putting on a few pounds during the holiday season. But when you reach for a Christmas cookie, keep in mind that you're not the only one who's going to enjoy that tasty treat: It will also get eaten by the bacteria living in your gut.

And it turns out that the kind of bacteria living there may affect how much weight you gain. Until a couple of years ago, scientists didn't have the tools to figure out exactly what lives in a person's digestive tract. But with new genetic probes, they can do a kind of census.

The researchers found that "obese bacteria" might lead to more weight gain. The bacteria have genes that make them better at harvesting calories from food.

Jeffrey Gordon studies bacteria at Washington University in St. Louis. He says that the trillions of bacteria help us break down food that, otherwise, we couldn't digest.

"They're able to persist in the gut despite this continuous flow of Diet Coke, burgers, whatever," Gordon says, "in this very dynamic ecosystem, called our gut."

Gordon and Ruth Ley, a member of his lab, compared the gut bacteria of fat and skinny mice by testing mice that had a gene for obesity -- and their siblings that lacked the gene.

It turned out that the obese mice had a smaller proportion of a kind of bacteria known as Bacteroidetes.

Next, Ley looked at twelve obese people. The results, she says, were "just like the mice." And as the 12 people lost weight over a year, their gut populations changed, becoming more and more like those in skinny mice.

full story at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=6654607

[Nanohedron]

The new P.C.-ism for "fat": bacteriodete-deprived.

[fearfaoin]

Wow. Soon we'll see the "antibiotic diet". And then we'll develop
resistent bacteriodetes and grow to twice our original size...

[chrisoff]

another excuse.

"It's not that I eat too much crap and don't excercise, I just have fat bacteria"

[Congratulations]

another excuse.

"It's not that I eat too much crap and don't excercise, I just have fat bacteria"

Yeah, because that's all there is to it, right? There couldn't possibly be any nuance or complexity to the situation, because then it wouldn't fit into your black-and-white view of the world.

Seriously, what a ridiculous thing to say. The article is very clear that this might be a factor in weight gain, but that it's too early to tell how much an impact it has on obesity, or whether it could be applied as a treatment. To come in here with your ignorant attitude, throwing around non sequiturs, is unhelpful and offensive.

[CountryKitty]

another excuse.

"It's not that I eat too much crap and don't excercise, I just have fat bacteria"

LOL! My sentiments exactly! Those same bacteria have been with us for how many millenia? Obesity has only been a widespread problem in mainstream America for the last couple-three generations. The problem is that we haven't adapted to the changes in lifestyle in that time, NOT that the bacteria (or other explanations) have recently surfaced.

I read that story about the bacteria in the news last night, along with a story about a young man who, at 300#, was unable to fulfill his dream of becoming a Deputy. So he, with the support/reinforcement of his now bride, became a svelt 175#...by limiting his fat intake to just 30 grams/day.

Another case---a few nights ago, on a program about gastric reduction, they mentioned a man who had to lose wight BEFORE he could be considered for surgery (obesity is a serious risk factor for any form of surgery). His doctor put him on a diet and supervised him--he lost so much that he now no longer needs the surgery. (I have a classmate who had it--she now has serious trouble regulating her blood sugar--had an attack of hypoglycemia at school and had to leave class to get a snack because she was on the verge of passing out. I sat with her to keep an eye on her; she was sweating, had the shakes, the whole nine yards.)

Also know of a man who lost 100# in a year---by simply eliminating SODAS from his diet. Without the sugar and sodium in the soft drinks, he started losing pounds.

Best advice: if you want to lose, look at WHAT you are eating in what AMOUNTS. Limit your portions and substitute better choices for the worse ones. (Small portions of grilled meat rather than large portions of battered and deep fat fried. Ham or turkey sandwiches with a little mustard rather than bologna with mayo. Milk, OJ, or iced tea instead of soda. A little salt and pepper on your veggies instead of a ton of butter. Instead of a big slice of sugary cake with sugar/shortening {i.e. lard} frosting, have a small bowl of banana pudding--layers of mildly sweet vanilla wafers and sweet/nutritious banana slices, with fat-free vanilla pudding poured over it...lot less calories and loaded with potassium and calcium.)
Stop looking for reasons you can't lose and start looking for the ways you CAN.




Ummm...kinda got carried away, huh? Getting off the soapbox now.

[The Weekenders]

Aw go on, take a fat bacteria pill and keep supporting Mickey D. Works for the corporations, now, doesn't it??

I remember the slogan of Edwin Newman's documentary about Marin in the 70s: "I want it all now."

[peeplj]

Despite what you may now read, people have always come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.

Look at actual photographs from the mid-1800's on up, and you'll see what I mean.

--James

[Congratulations]

Ok, wow. Did anyone read the article? At no point does the article say that this is being groomed as a way to lose weight. At no point does it assert that this is a cause of obesity. The article presents some early findings that tie weight gain to a bacteria in a very vague way. Have a look:

The issue, then was to determine which came first: the fat, or the bacteria.

Notice that the article never sets the bacteria up as a cause of (or, in the words of some people in this thread, an excuse for) obesity?

It remains unknown how much of a difference microbes might make to obesity and fat levels when compared to, say, exercise.

And here the article directly addresses the issue of the new findings' usefulness comparitive to more traditional methods of weight loss, such as excercise and dieting. So for you people to come in here and bash every overweight person in the world as a lazy bum who can't get off his ass long enough to do a chin up is, as I have already said, unhelpful and offensive.

--Congratulations, who is down to 210 lbs after losing 35 lbs with diet and exercise.

[djm]

Well I'm an overweight lazy bum, and I can't be bothered to do a chin-up (...um...which chin?), and I say, if your bacteria are overweight, well that's just too damned bad about them. I saw those cookies first and they're mine, I tell you! All MINE!!!!!

djm

[Nanohedron]

Ok, wow. Did anyone read the article? At no point does the article say that this is being groomed as a way to lose weight. At no point does it assert that this is a cause of obesity. The article presents some early findings that tie weight gain to a bacteria in a very vague way.

Yes, I did read it, but I never let the hard facts get in the way of a good excuse.

So for you people to come in here and bash every overweight person in the world as a lazy bum who can't get off his ass long enough to do a chin up is, as I have already said, unhelpful and offensive.

Bashing? Please to refer to my above post. By the way, good for you in losing weight. Keep at it.

Seems like I'm going well on the other direction these days.

Pudgeohedron.

[rh]

i think it would make a neat band name: Fat Bacteria.

let's play around with the spelling a bit, like the kids do nowadays:

PHat BaKteria

there. that's swell.

[crookedtune]

I may be a cynic, but I don't think anyone's playing around with spellings. They're all doing their best, which speaks to a bunch of stuff. And they get so incensed when you spell their childrens' names wrong! (OK, I'll shut up).

[peeplj]

I may be a cynic, but I don't think anyone's playing around with spellings. They're all doing their best, which speaks to a bunch of stuff. And they get so incensed when you spell their childrens' names wrong! (OK, I'll shut up).

I read your post...and then it hit. Now I've got tears in my eyes from laughing so hard.

Nice rant. Way too true.

--James

[fearfaoin]

Ok, wow. Did anyone read the article? At no point does the article say that this is being groomed as a way to lose weight. At no point does it assert that this is a cause of obesity. The article presents some early findings that tie weight gain to a bacteria in a very vague way.

Excuse me for wildly speculating. That's how we get science
fiction, you know.

Those same bacteria have been with us for how many millenia?

We don't know that for sure. Bacteria evolve fast. They could only
have been around for a century, brought about by changes in our
collective diet.