Pages

December 14, 2006

Calorically Challenged

I've been thinking about this for a long time. My weight has bounced around like my floundering blond mentality. I haven't obsessed on the weight thing; it is just interesting to observe the changes and to try to connect the dots of the roots of the causes creating the changes. (See what I mean about the blond mentality).

There is an interesting article at nature.com
"Scientists have identified a key microbe in our guts that helps us glean more calories from food. The discovery backs the idea that the type of microbes in our gut help to determine how much weight we gain, and that seeding the intestine with particular bugs could help fight obesity."

What I found just as interesting were some of the comments:

"Obesity is a problem of global importance, indeed, yet famine continues to be a significant human condition as well. M. smithii could then perhaps have a therapeutic role for the calorically-challenged at both ends of the spectrum: lack, as well as excess."

[...]
"Very interesting research with implications not just in obesity, but also for efficiency of feed disgestion in farmed animals. It would have been good to include the results obtained with the same diet fed to mice with a normal gut microflora."

[...]
"Research like this holds great promise that we will someday better understand the complex ecology of our internal microflora and be able to apply that knowledge to aid the health of those from both ends of the weight control spectrum."

[...]
"When I read this article, the effect of M.smithii on obesity did not register very much on my mind. By far the more important function of this organism is to my mind, its ability to render the gut environment conducive to the growth of normal flora which, by occupying that environment inhibit the growth of pathogenic transient flora. By understanding the activity of this organism we bring forward the time when 'friendly' organisms rather than the more 'violent' antibiotics can be prescribed for the treatment of GIT infections."

On a lighter side:

Too many people confine their exercise to jumping to conclusions, running up bills, stretching the truth, bending over backward, lying down on the job, sidestepping responsibility and pushing their luck. Author unknown.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting research, ha,ha..
And it means..
My weight is fluctuating as well but I thought it had to do with testing the Christmas baking. Who would have known it was just the lack of the proper microbes in my stomach..

carina said...

Interesting. Although, no matter how one slices and dices it (so to speak), absent an endocrine problem, the solution to losing weight is ALWAYS just consuming fewer calories. And exercising more (the last one is cute.) Mind you, some people are luckier, and can get away with eating more without gaining, all other things being equal.
My weight has always been pretty stable, but I do have to work at it, even moreso that I am post menopause! I cannot get away with near as much as I used to eat. Mind you, I am exercising less. Since moving from CO to MI, in over five years I have yet to make a single friend who enjoys hiking, biking, just walking, whatever. So apart from walking the dogs, I don't do much of that any more and I should but it's nicer with company! Michigan is one of the top three fattest states in the nation, and I know why.