Post: #1

Obesity in human beings could be caused by bacterial infection rather than eating too much, exercising too little or genetics, according to a groundbreaking study that could have profound implications for public health systems, the pharmaceutical industry and food manufacturers.

The discovery in China followed an eight-year search by scientists across the world to explain the link between gut bacteria and obesity.

Researchers in Shanghai identified a human bacteria linked with obesity, fed it to mice and compared their weight gain with rodents without the bacteria. The latter did not become obese despite being fed a high-fat diet and being prevented from exercising.

The bacterium – known as enterobacter – encourages the body to make and store fat, and prevents it from being used, by deregulating the body’s metabolism-controlling genes.

“This is a very important phenomenon,” said Professor Zhao Liping, who with a team at Shanghai Jiao Tong University carried out the research. “It is the last missing piece of evidence bacteria causes obesity.”

Other academics not linked to the project were quick to seize on its potential implications.

Dr David Weinkove, lecturer in biological sciences at Durham University, said: “If obesity is caused by bacteria, it could be infectious and picked up from some unknown environmental factor, or a parent. It might not be behavioural after all.”

Dr Weinkove said Prof Zhao’s research paved a way to intervene in obesity and could allow new drugs to be developed for treatment.

The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal of the International Society for Microbial Ecology.

Governments around the world are grappling with an obesity pandemic. Chronically overweight people are at a greater risk of suffering from a heart attack, cancer, and diabetes.

According to government and academic studies, nearly 50 per cent of all adults in the US and UK will be obese by 2030.

The UK government estimated that the total cost of obesity – the cost of healthcare as well as the wider burden on the economy – could amount to £50bn a year by 2050 if the pandemic was left unchecked, according to a report by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Although the Shanghai research was on a small scale, it is bound to add to a heated debate between the health profession and food and drink manufacturers and fast-food chains over responsibility for obesity.

Prof Zhao said treatment with a specially developed diet could be cheaper and more effective than surgery for the morbidly obese and could be available within three years.

There are 10 times more microbes than human cells in our bodies and they can be beneficial. There are between 200 and 300 different species in a typical person.

The Shanghai team fed a morbidly obese man a special diet designed to inhibit the bacterium linked to obesity and found that he lost 29 per cent of his body weight in 23 weeks. The patient was prevented from doing any exercise during the trial.

Prof Zhao said such a loss in an obese patient using this diet was unprecedented. The patient also recovered from diabetes, high blood pressure and fatty liver disease.

The diet of whole grains, traditional Chinese medicines and non-digestible carbohydrates changed the pH in the gut which limited the bacterium’s activity.

Enterobacter also release chemicals, called endotoxins, which cause insulin resistance and a slower uptake of glucose from the blood after eating. Patients take longer to feel full, so they eat more.

A control for calorie intake was not possible as administering the diet with normal bacteria would cause unsustainable hunger, as the bacteria stops fat stores being mobilised and satiating the body, Mr Zhao said.

Original article from Financial Times (you need an account to view though)

Other sources:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/articl...ating.html
http://blogs.discovery.com/dfh-sara-nova...esity.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/he...bled=false

You say you have a special diet that will help people lose weight? Tell me more.

Post: #2

So.. Why weren't people obese 2 generations ago? Are these top secret North Korean special agent bacteria, set to kill off the west?

Oh well, buy some stock in BigPharma.

Post: #3

Fuck, now all the fatties will claim to be bacteria experts.

They did the same thing with their 'thyroid.' I hardly know what a thyroid is, and neither do they, but that doesn't stop them from blaming their corpulence on their 'inactive thyroid,' or their 'metabolism.'

I'm predicting it's a lot more complicated than these researchers make it out to be. It may be something like eating the wrong foods, or overeating, causes these bacteria to florish. Then you're just back at square one of telling fatties to eat better. Until that message comes out, all these fatties will be self-styled amateur microbiologists.

Post: #4

(12-23-2012 03:36 PM)basilransom Wrote:  Fuck, now all the fatties are claim to be bacteria experts.

They did the same thing with their 'thyroid.' I hardly know what a thyroid is, and neither do they, but that doesn't stop them from blaming their corpulence on their 'inactive thyroid,' or their 'metabolism.'

I'm predicting it's a lot more complicated than these researchers make it out to be. It may be something like eating the wrong foods, or overeating, causes these bacteria to florish. Then you're just back at square one of telling fatties to eat better. Until that message comes out, all these fatties will be self-styled amateur microbiologists.

This is exactly what it is. It claims that the man lost weight from a diet of whole grains, non-digestible carbohydrates (readily available in fruits and vegetables), and traditional Chinese medicine. So basically he ate healthy and used natural medicine and was suddenly "cured"...as if by some sort of miracle! This "study" just reiterates the negative effects of a bad diet in a way that makes fat people feel better about themselves.

Post: #5

I guess they forgot about the law of conservation of mass. You still have to consume the calories that are turned into fat.

Post: #6

Big boned, genetics, weather, astrology, bacteria, we've heard it all.



SHE MUST HAVE KILLED THE BACTERIA!!!11

Post: #7

Does enterobacter cause obesity or does Obesity cause enterobacter to exist?

Post: #8

I can't be the only one thinking that back when people spoke Latin, 'Enterobacter' meant 'doggy-style'?

Post: #9

I'm sure there are a lot of physiological reasons for why a person can have the propensity to gain great amounts of weight, but they still sit back and allow it to happen, instead of doing something to counteract it.

Post: #10

Post: #11

This makes me want to go out and spray fat bitches with a can of Lysol.

Post: #12

C'mon guys, everyone knows that they pump antibiotics in through gym ventilation systems.

Post: #13

they are offically getting desperate with the scapegoating of obesity. i mean i thoughtl blaming it on thyroid problems was bullshit but bacteria?

Post: #14

Eat more yogurt and drink more vodka and you'll live to over 100 like an old Russian man.

Post: #15

First it was: I'm not fat, I'm big boned!

Then it was: I'm not fat, the patriarchy has affected your perception of healthy body size!

Soon...

I'm not fat, I have fat bacteria!

Post: #16

I saw this like a week ago and got about 1 paragraph in and called bullshit. I've seen firsthand how people get or stay fat: they sit at a desk all day eating candy and drinking soda then they get a meatball parm for lunch. It's beyond disgusting watching these fatties fucking eat two or three times as much as I do in a day then cry for sympathy from everyone because they're fat. Plus they make a huge production about lunch, it takes an hour or more to figure out where they're ordering from and what they want.

I pack a lunch every day. It's boring and I eat mostly the same thing but it's quick and enough to keep me going until dinner and it doesn't put me to sleep. Fatties constantly make fun of my lunch and how I "don't eat" and I just laugh at them. Only fatties give a fuck what other people eat. They must see my lunch and think how they'd be starving if that's all they had.

One chick goes on and on about her thyroid. Does anyone know what the fuck that is? I always want to tell her if the thyroid is a monster that forces you to eat like a pig then I guess I understand.

Post: #17

They must be eating a fuck of a lot of bacteria to get fat off it.

Post: #18

"Bacteria. Because sometimes the thyroid excuse isn't just enough"™

Post: #19

This is the thyroid. http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyroid People can throw around the thyroid excuse all they want but the bottom line is that thyroid disease doesnt make you obese, at most it will only thicken you up just a little bit. What always makes a person obese, regardless of medical conditions, is irresponsible eating habits and a lack of self control, period.

Post: #20

This is ridiculous because it's nothing new. It's just reframing the concepts to make the cause of fatness sounds like an external factor.

It is known that two factors decide your body morphology and physiology:

1. What you eat. The quality and quantity of the food you consume. How much calories, how much fat, what kinds of fats, how much carbs, what kind of carbs, which vitamins, which minerals?

2. How your body processes it. What feedback loop exists between nutrition, hormones, tissues? When are certain kinds of food used, stored or excreted? This depends on genetics, this depends on time of consumption, this depends on needs of the body, on activity.

The funny thing is: When we think of the concept of 'our body' we think of the collection of our human cells and something what feels like a mind in it. However, bacterial and fungal cells are just as much a part of who we are as our human cells.

Each individual human cell means nothing. It harbors no consciousness. It just interacts with other cells by exchanging chemical signals. Bacterial cells do the same. They take up some substances, and they release some. The fact is they outnumber the cells that we feel are 'our cells' and they're definitely a part of the system from where consciousness emerges.

Of course food-and-fat interact with bacterial cells, so of course bacterial cells influence obsesity. But this view is still valid:

Food > Physiological processing (human and bacterial) > Body composition

Post: #21

Thanks for the link Alpha Hunter Zero! I read through pretty quick, didn't see anything that says it makes you obese, which makes sense. It can't add weight to the amount of food you eat so I know this chick is full of shit.

It did say the thyroid is in the throat so guess it's kinda connected to the stomach. Maybe I'll ask her if it helps keep her mouth open so she can eat more than normal humans.

Post: #22

the thryoid is key to your body composition. it regulates your metabolism or the rate at which you consume energy.

3kcal in - minus what you burn (as determined by activity level plus resting metabolism) = energy store or loss

i have a slightly elevated thyroid hormone level which means that my thyroid is kinda fucked and my metabolism is slow.

i'll admit, i have gained some unwanted weight over the last 18 months or so.

i have lost significant weight twice and kept it really low and lean during a period in my life in which i did weight class oriented competitions, about two years ago.

i did that by counting calories

lately, i had falled prey to the notion that that you can eat whatever you'd like so long as it is the right calories...paleo.

i ate paleo for 18 months and gained weight. strict fucking paleo. but what happened to me is that calories snuck in that i didnt really realize. extra handful of macademia nuts here and there once or twice a day. couple extra pats of butter. fuck it, a little extra olive oil, i mean its a "Good fat" right? lets eat a whole thing of guacamole with no chips - paleo right? word. grass fed beef? lets eat two steaks. eggs for breakfast? 5 or 6 every day. and dont forget about BACON.

and all of a sudden i'm way fatter than i want to be (granted, my lifts continue to sky rocket and i'm a total beast in the gym but thats a different story).

i've recently gone back to counting calories strictly, eating a balanced diet including carbs, with hitting my protein goals daily (235 grams) and the weight is already melting off.

all this to say once again, that it is the calories, stupid.

Post: #23

I speak as somebody who lost 6 stones in one year once....the harsh truth is :-

Fat people (generally) - Lack of pride in their appearance, lower(er) standards, lazy in body and mind

Fit people (generally)= Pride in their appearance, high(er) standards, active in body and mind.

It is not the bacteria that is making you fat lardarse it is the 3 Burger King Cheese triple onion ringed rolled in lard, fat burgers your consuming on your way to KFC !