A while back I listened to an interview with Steven Guyenet of Whole Health Source blog where he mentioned a study where the gut bacteria were transplanted from obese mice to normal mice that had no endogenous bacteria. The normal mice gained more weight. Microflora differences have been identified between normal and obese humans and normal and anorexic humans. This has led to much speculation that changes in microflora could be a causative agent in obesity.
This is one such study: An obesity-associated gut microbiome with increased capacity for energy harvest
I look at such studies and consider them to be interesting, but of all the alternate theories out there, I'm probably most skeptical of this one as being a significant cause of obesity. I'll deal with the energy balance aspects and some related math in future post. This post will focus on the differences between rodent and human digestion that lead me to believe that the observations in mice may well not translate to humans.
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