As Xmas approaches, with end of year celebrations and festivities it is very easy to put on weight. But it may not solely be just what you eat and drink. Recent research reported in Nature (2006) has found that living human gut microbes are associated with weight gain.

Did you know that
* As many as 500 different species of bacteria live in your body, primarily your colon.
* About 100 trillion bacteria exist within your body.
* Some of these bacteria are referred to as “good”, but others provide very little benefit. The ideal balance between them is 85% beneficial and 15% "other".

This ratio between "good" beneficial bacteria and “other” bacteria becomes one of the critical factors determining your optimal health.

Scientists have found that the type of bacteria, which help to break down food, differ in lean and obese people. The bacteria of obese people are better at absorbing calories from food. An abundance of these bacteria may mean that obese people are taking up more calories out of their food than lean people, possibly adding on kilos. When obese participants went on a year long diet, their type of gut bacteria, as they started to lose weight, began to look more like the gut bacteria of lean people.

When samples of the gut bacteria from obese and lean mice were transferred into two groups of microbiota-free mice, the mice given the "obese" bacteria extracted more calories from their food than those given the "lean" bacteria. They also found that the bacteria in obese mice seemed to assist their host in extracting extra calories from ingested food that could then be used as energy. These results could change views of what causes obesity and how we depend on gut bacteria.

If the results of the mice experiment can be confirmed in humans, the bacterial profile of digestive systems may be used in future as a means for treating obesity.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if managing your weight was as simple as making sure you have a large amount of 'good' bacteria as found in Probiotics?

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