Gut Bugs Again
Back in May the Boston Globe introduced us to an alternative cause for obesity—gut bugs. To be more specific, the trillions of bacteria that live in the human digestive system. And now, a new report in The Washington Post shows that some obesity researchers are excited by the potential of the gut bug study. Not all of them. Others are still pretty skeptical. Rob Stein has more:
And since every news agency in the country picked up this story, I decided to run it by our resident expert. So tells us Dr. Fuhrman, how do you feel about the gut bugs:
"This is very exciting," said Barbara Corkey, an obesity researcher at Boston University. "We don't know why the obesity epidemic is happening. People say it's because of gluttony and sloth. I think there must be something else. It's exciting to see some work being done on alternative explanations…"Now, you don’t have to be a genius to know that the human body is inhabited by all sorts of bacteria—you learn that in grammar school! So I’m not wowed by these findings. And I certainly don’t think it’s a good idea to blame your particular type of digestive bacteria for you being overweight. It’s more likely that package of Double-Stuffed Oreos has something to do with it.
"…This is extremely interesting," said Hans-Rudolf Berthoud of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge. "But lifestyle and the environment are still the major factors in the obesity epidemic."
And since every news agency in the country picked up this story, I decided to run it by our resident expert. So tells us Dr. Fuhrman, how do you feel about the gut bugs:
This is interesting but nothing new. Antibiotics have been used in farm animals for years to promote rapid weight gain, so they can be slaughtered quicker. We also already know that when people eat a healthy diet, rich in natural plant materials the bacteria in the gut are different from those eating refined sugars and refined flours. So to peg the difference only on being fat or thin is a little bit misleading. It is all in the slant of how they reported the findings. They could have also found that a diet rich in junk food promotes different bacteria than a diet rich in vegetables. If you note, as the participants ate healthier the bacteria quality changed.
I do not believe these findings will translate into any hope for overweight individuals. And it is misleading to give the impression that manipulating the bacteria will cause weight loss or that this is a major finding that will enable us to solve the obesity epidemic. It boils down to this, stop stupid diets of all description and eat healthy.
