Diversity of Bacteria reduces risks for the obese

[Pilili]

Making an attempt to translate a Flemish article for you.
This was published in "De Standaard", which is considered one of the better and more trustworthy newspapers in Belgium.

Diversity of Bacteria reduces risks for the obese (http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20130828_047?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=dso&utm_content=article&utm_campaign=seeding)

The number of different bacteria in the intestinal flora plays an important role in the possibility of health problems due to obesity. This is the conclusion of an international study, of wich the VUB-Research team makes part.

Obesity, one of the most frequent "modern" ailments, affects approximately 14% of the Belgian population, according to the High Health Council's numbers published last month. It is expected that the number of overweight people will increase to over 700 million by 2015 (as apposed to 400 million in 2005).

The past years several studies have demonstrated the connection between bacteria in our intestines and our health. New research, to which the Belgians Falk Hildebrand, Gwen Falony and Jeroen Raes of the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology contributed, is concentrated on the link between the intestinal flora and obesity.

Diversity of bacteria is essential

The study demonstrates that the intestinal flora plays a major part in the development of medical complications in people suffering from obesity. Everything appears to depend on the diversity of the intestinal flora. People who have many different kinds of bacteria in their intestines, have a reduced possibility of complications such as cardiovascular diseases. Obese people with a less varied intestinal flora have an increased chance of developing obese-related ailments.

The more different bacteria, the better, so it appears. Jeroen Raes (VUB), who is the leader of the Flemish research group, says the results are amazing. He thinks that the study, which was published in "Nature", a prestigious periodical, contains important findings for the treatment and perhaps even prevention of obesity. He stresses: "More research is needed however, in which we follow up on people over a longer period of time".

Wanted: Flemish intestinal flora

The study is based on research done on 292 Danes, of whom 169 suffer from obesity. To find out if the results persist in our country, Raes has started the "Flemish intestinal flora project". As from September volunteers will send in stool samples to contribute to the research.

[zanjabil]

So what to eat to promote good bacteria? Fermented foods? Soluble fiber? Probiotics? Did they make suggestions?

[teaser]

http://coolinginflammation.blogspot.ca/

I'm hoping this won't be Art Ayer's only post this year. If it is, it's a good one.

This part is why this article reminded me of it;

Sea Voyages Damage Gut Organisms
The hundred of different species of bacteria in the gut change in proportions to adapt to different foods in each meal. If the diet is fairly constant, then the diversity of the population gradually increases, just as the diversity of species in a tropical rain forest is greater than in a temperate forest. This also explains why gut flora diversity is far less in the USA than in other parts of the world. Americans are encouraged to eat diverse diets in the search for vitamins and superfoods. Each dramatic change in diet makes it hard for the gut flora to adapt and the remaining bacteria are those that are generalists. It might also be expected that early sailors who changed their diets dramatically when they went to sea, ended up with a highly compromised ship-board gut flora (and fauna.)


The idea of a less varied, staples-based diet increasing gut bacteria diversity is interesting.

[LosingMe16]

My question, though, is if this is a "which came first, the chicken or the egg" kind of thing. Example: most people assume that being sedentary causes people to get fat (calories in, calories out); the opposite is generally more true -- people are sedentary BECAUSE they are fat.

This could very well be that, because they are fat, their intestinal flora is totally different and less varied than those people that are lean rather than the intestinal flora having ANYTHING TO DO with them being fat in the first place.

Hope that made sense... :)

[teaser]

This could very well be that, because they are fat, their intestinal flora is totally different and less varied than those people that are lean rather than the intestinal flora having ANYTHING TO DO with them being fat in the first place.

Hope that made sense... :)

Absolutely. Leptin deficient mice have a different gut biome than wild-type mice. And much of what the immune system does, in its job of handling infection, is directly related to the gut bacteria--so there's a chicken and the egg sort of thing, where a healthy immune system might tend to give you a healthy gut bacteria population, and vice-versa. In a living organism, cause and effect aren't so easily separated, because things tend to work in cycles.

And of course all the enzymes the pancreas puts out, it seems logical to assume, will tend to alter the digestive system so that different species will thrive in the gut than might otherwise.