HEALTH & SCIENCE

STUDIES SHOW IT'S MORE THAN CALORIES

ELIZABETH WEISE, USA TODAY - You are what your microbes eat. Two new
studies show that there are different colonies of bacteria in the
intestines of the obese than there are in the innards of the slim. The
research, published in today's edition of the journal Nature, finds that
the microbes in an overweight body are more efficient at extracting
calories from food.

"Not everyone sitting down to a bowl of cereal will necessarily absorb
the same number of calories from it," says Jeffrey Gordon, lead author
of the papers and a professor of medicine at Washington University in
St. Louis. . .

About two-thirds of adults, about 136 million Americans, are overweight
or obese, the government says. These findings open up a new area of
research, says Sam Klein, a study co-author and professor of
gastroenterology at the university. "It's not just your brain and your
body fat and your body organs involved in your energy balance equation,"
he says. "It may also be the bugs that are in your body as well.". . .

When obese people lost weight, virtually all the bacteroidetes
increased, while the firmicute group shrank, Gordon says.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-12-20-obesity_x.htm

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