It is hard to lose weight, that’s for sure. It seems that
nothing really helps shed those extra pounds. There is new research that offers
hope from an unexpected area: bacteria. It may be possible to lose weight
through a small change to our diet and an equally small change to our stomach
bacteria!
Scientists have known for decades that bacteria play a
key role in digesting our food. Although
we are born without any stomach bacteria at all, we quickly take in hundreds of
different bacteria, some good and some bad. These bacteria process the food we
eat into energy for our body, plus fat. Ah, there’s the rub!
A new study was recently published in the prestigious
journal Science that examines the role of bacteria in our body weight.
A graduate student at Washington University found four pairs of twins, where
one twin was thin and the other twin was
obese. These eight people were the volunteers to determine if body weight could be impacted
by a change in bacteria.
The stomach bacteria were transplanted into mice that had
been raised in a sterile environment. That meant that they did not have any
stomach bacteria before receiving bacteria from a human twin. Their body weight
and overall health was monitored over time.
The mice that received bacteria from thin twins remained
thin. The mice that received bacteria from obese twins gained weight and
developed metabolism-related health issues. This was despite all of the rats
having exactly the same amount of food.
Next, the thin mice and the obese mice were placed into a
single cage. This allowed the bacteria to be shared between mice (don’t ask).
Surprisingly, the thin mice stayed thin, but the obese mice became thin, too.
This only happened when the food source was low in fat and high in fiber. When
the food source was high in fat and low in fiber the obese mice remained obese.
What does that mean for us? It could be possible at some
future time to take a bacteria-laden pill to shift the stomach bacteria population
from obese bugs to skinny bugs. Bring on the skinny bacteria!
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