Monday, April 18, 2016
Will Engineered Super Bacteria Help Even Gluttons to Stay Lean Vanderbilt Scientists Produce Anti Obesity Bacteria to be Administered in the Drinking Water
From the microbe engineers petri dishes into your guts. Its not unlikely that we are about to see "anti-obesity" bacteria being sold in a year or two. |
The principle appears to be hilariously simple. The scientists "manufactured" a type of E. coli Nissle bacteria (1917), that produces so-called N-acylphosphatidylethanolamines (NAPEs). These "NAPEs" are precursors to the N-acylethanolamide (NAE) family of lipids, which are synthesized in the small intestine in response to feeding and reduce food intake and obesity.
You can learn more about the gut & your health at the SuppVersity
Fiber for Female Fat Loss
Sweeteners & Your Gut
Foods, Not Ma- cros for the Gut
Lactulose For Gut & Health
Probiotics Dont Cut Body Fat
The Macrobiotic MaPi2.0 Diet
Figure 1: Weight gain (g) and fat mass (g) in rodents on high fat diet, with water, placebo (vehicle), regular E. coli (pEcN) and NAPE-produce E.coli in the drinking water (Chen. 2014) |
Figure 3: Food intake (top) and efficacy (bottom; Chen. 2014) |
The notion that the bacteria may be eating away all your food and you could / must eat all-day just to maintain a normal body weight is thus flawed. There is an effect on feed efficacy (Figure 3, bottom), but it is not the main reason the rodents staid lean... but lets be honest: That wouldnt be ideal, either - right?
Whether its making you eat less or helping you to use the energy more efficiently, in the end, the study at hand confirms that the "wrong" gut bacteria could make the difference between obese and sick and lean and healthy. An insight no one would have been dreaming of ~10 years ago!