NPR’s “The Gut Response to What We Eat”
Caught an interesting piece on NPR’s Morning Edition today.
Microbes live in our intestines, helping us to digest foods that we can’t digest on our own. A recent experiment revealed that what we eat influences what kind of microbes become dominant in our intestines, and therefore, what we get out of our food.
Researchers used microbe-free mice and fed them the bacteria found in human intestines, resulting in mice with an intestinal environment similar to that of humans. Then the researchesrs fed the mice healthy, low-fat, plant-rich mouse food. Next they switched the mice to a high-fat, high-sugar diet. In less than 24 hours, the bacteria in the animals’ guts had changed significantly: The community of bacteria restructured itself so that certain members became very dominant and others less so.
Next the researchers put these new altered communities of bacteria into different mice and fed them the healthy, plant-rich mouse food. Despite their healthy diets, these mice gained body fat over the next two weeks.
The reserachers tentatively concluded that the types of microbes in a person’s body may predispose that person to obesity, and even influence what that person gets out of his food. That is, the nutritional facts label found on all foods may not be so absolute. Instead, it may be relative somewhat to what kind of bacteria is dominant in your intestines!
What I would like to know is, what would happen if the study were reversed? What if mice who had the altered bacteria were fed a healthy diet? Or what if the mice who were given the altered intestinal bacteria continued to eat their healthy diet? Wouldn’t their intestinal bacteria again restructure itself, back to its original demographic, so to speak? My education and exeprience with helping people change their diets and lose weight suggests this would be the case, but I can’t say with certainty.
This study begs other questions: What kind of diet did the person eat whose bacteria was originally given to the first set of mice? You may have noticed that men typically have an easier time losing weight than women (not always, but typically); is that partially related to gender-specific bacteria?
Funny how scientific experiments almost never result in an absolute answer, but instead just reveal more things we don’t know. 
Nevertheless, this study may shed some light on why it can be difficult for some people to lose weight, or why it requires some people so much more effort than others in order to achieve the same amount of weight loss. It also adds to that list of reasons to consume a healthy diet, based on vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains and nuts–which is naturally low in fat and refined sugar!
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