In Immune-Altered Mice Intestinal Bacteria Drive Obesity And Metabolic Disease

Bacteria (heart) making you overeat.

Increased appetite and insulin resistance can be transferred from one mouse to another via intestinal bacteria, according to research being published online this week by Science magazine.

The finding strengthens the case that intestinal bacteria can contribute to human obesity and metabolic disease, since previous research has shown that intestinal bacterial populations differ between obese and lean humans.

"It has been assumed that the obesity epidemic in the developed world is driven by an increasingly sedentary lifestyle and the abundance of low-cost high-calorie foods," says senior author Andrew Gewirtz, PhD, associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. "However, our results suggest that excess caloric consumption is not only a result of undisciplined eating but that intestinal bacteria contribute to changes in appetite and metabolism."

It has to be about the gut bacteria.

What else could possibly explain fat humans?

Studies have proven that bacteria talk to each other. Now we know that they are conspiring to make you eat more.

Proof positive!