Gut Bacteria From Thin Humans Can Slim Mice Down

But doctors are part of a complicated system that prevents wild-ass medical experiments from being tried on humans. If you go in front of a review board [1] and say, "Hey, we'd like to try experimenting on live humans by giving them an unknown collection of microorganisms in hope that unspecified good things will happen", I can't imagine that it will go well.

Like it or not, the best currently proven treatment is the band. To prove that something else is better is a lot of work. I strongly share your suspicion that fecal transplants would be better, and if I were desperate that's what I'd try with my own body. But medical history is littered with treatments that looked promising but didn't work out, often because of hideous unexpected side effects.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_review_board

I don't think you're unique in your aversion to the knife (I know people who have risked serious long-term health issues by avoiding surgery), but maybe not many people are weird enough to prefer the fecal enema.

> wonder how much of this is actually in our direct control, and about the quality of the simple answers we give to shame people into exercising or dieting.

There's a contingent of people who find this attitude morally offensive. They worked hard for their health and are disgusted by those who want an easy way... and also people who didn't work hard to stay thin and are thin anyways like the self-congratulatory notion that they're doing something right.

Every time a new weight-loss tech appears you get people ranting about diet and excersize and the offensive nature of this "shortcut".

I'm reminded how Socrates was offended by the growth of writing because it was somehow morally inferior to memorization.

Edit: Oh, and by the way, I've lost 40 lbs since I started :-)

As an example: every single sandwich on the menu at Applebees, including the grilled cheese and the veggie burger, has more calories than the 12oz New York strip steak. The BLT has nearly 3x as many calories!

Another reason is that because it has such specific dietary guidelines, it tends to encourage people to prepare their own food rather than eat out. This alone drops more calories than people think, because of how most restaurants prepare food (with a ton of sugar, butter, fat, and oil).

I do agree that it delivers more nutrients than packaged food, which would improve health and make people feel better. It's easier to continue putting up with inconvenience if we feel better.

"The investigators discovered that given a chance, and in the presence of a low-fat diet, bacteria from a lean twin will take over the gut of a mouse that already had bacteria from a fat twin. The fat mouse then loses weight. But the opposite does not happen. No matter what the diet, bacteria from a fat mouse do not take over in a mouse that is thin."

Second, the context (described later in the article) is among co-habitating mice that eat each other's droppings, allowing their gut flora to commingle. When the mice were kept separate, the mice that had received gut flora from a fat human twin ended up 10-15% heavier even on the identical low-fat diet as the mice that received flora from a thin human.

(Aside, because it's personal: I have no trouble controlling my weight through diet and exercise. When I ate poorly and exercised little I was as heavy as 190 lbs. With exercise and being mindful about my diet I have no trouble maintaining 150 lbs. My wife, otoh, has struggled with her weight almost her entire life. To lose weight she has to weigh and track every ounce of food she consumes. It is a constant battle for her. Sadly, I see this dichotomy playing out in our son and daughter. My son will never struggle with his weight; I fear my daughter always may. And we eat well in this house. Real food, mostly plants, not too much.

So yeah, I think some people are thin almost no matter what they eat, some struggle with weight almost no matter what they do, and some are more in between. But a holier than thou attitude about being thin helps no one.)

Making the assumption that the average obese person eat diets largely consisting of processed food (which though is not always high glycemic index is almost always accompanied by something which is), someone who is eating a diet of unprocessed foods should have a greater diversity in their gut bacteria.

One thing I have not seen mentioned is the use of anti-biotic medicine and gut bacteria. I now know of multiple friends who have undergone a regimen of heavy anti-biotic medicine, only to have digestive problems for anywhere from 6 months to well over a year and beyond.