Is your gut bacteria making you fat? Common microorganisms may contribute to obesity

"There are billions of microorganisms in the human gut, and according to a recent study, they may be triggers of obesity.

A study published in Science Transnational Medicine indicates that when these common microorganisms encounter a Westernized diet high in carbohydrates and sugar, the microbial environment shifts and results in weight gain.

According to HealthDay, researchers at the Center for Genome Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis observed the microbial changes in the guts of mice. They started with mice who, by way of genetic manipulation, had no bacteria in the gut. They then transplanted human microbes into the mice.

'When we switched these humanized animals [from a low-fat] to a junk-food diet, high in fat with lots of simple sugars, the structure of the microbial community changed dramatically and very rapidly,' study senior author Dr. Jeffrey I. Gordon told HealthDay Reporter. 'These mice also became obese on Western diets.'

Because the human body is made up of 10 times more microbial cells than human cells, researchers believe it’s vital to know how the food we eat affects microbial activity.

While it would be easy to blame the mice’s weight gain on the high-fat diet, scientists also transplanted microorganisms in several mice and fed them a low-fat diet, but yielded the same results...

Perhaps the most vital conclusion out of this study, however, is that there is a direct correlation between dietary habits and microbial activity that may lead to new treatments for obesity."