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HomeGI-DigestiveGut Bacteria May Promote Weight Gain

Gut Bacteria May Promote Weight Gain

In a lab animal model, booming gut flora spawned by the Western diet is linked to obesity.

In that diet and nutritional status are among the most important modifiable determinants of human health, and the nutritional value of food is influenced in part by a person’s gut microbial community (microbiota) and its component genes (microbiome), Jeffrey I. Gordon, from Washington University School of Medicine (Missouri, USA), and colleagues conducted studies on mice, feeding them the animal equivalent of a Western diet filled with sugars and carbohydrates.  The researchers observed a near-instantaneous change in the gut flora, whereby the structure of the microbial community changed dramatically and very rapidly, not only in terms of species of organisms but their proportional representations.  As a consequence, the mice became obese on Western diets. 

Peter J. Turnbaugh, Vanessa K. Ridaura, Jeremiah J. Faith, Federico E. Rey, Rob Knight, Jeffrey I. Gordon.  “The Effect of Diet on the Human Gut Microbiome: A Metagenomic Analysis in Humanized Gnotobiotic Mice.”  Sci Transl Med  11 November 2009: Vol. 1, Issue 6, p. 6ra14; DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3000322.

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