Bacteria may eat what we don’t! A recent study shows that gut microbiome may play a role in the effectiveness of weight loss.  Each person has their own unique microbiome community. An individual’s microboime makeup exerts a powerful influence over weight loss success or not.

In this study, the participants with an increased amount of the gut bacteria, Phascolartobacterium, were more successful in loosing the weight than participants with the bacteria, Dialister, who had a greatest risk of failure. 

The study suggests that certain gut bacteria may digest parts of food that we are unable to and create a byproduct. The byproduct then turns into additional calories. “Somewhere between 5 to 15 percent of all our calories come from that kind of digestion, where the microbes are providing energy for us, that we couldn’t [otherwise] get,” Blaser explains.

Although the study was small, it raises an interesting question, are those extra byproduct calories an unwanted gift? As research continues and results discovered are similar, this may mean more gut bacteria tailored diets in the future. 

“What we would hope to do is to be able to individualize care for people,” Kashyap says. “And we’d also try to develop new probiotics, which we could use to change the microbial makeup.”

To learn more – “Diet Hit A Snag? Your Gut Bacteria May Be Partly To Blame” by NPR

Level 4 – New Horizons – Getting to the Gut 1.0 CE – $29

Join us to learn about the exciting advances in our understanding of the pathology of diabetes and novel approaches to prevention with our New Horizons – Gut Bacteria webinar.

We will discuss trends in diabetes diagnosis and classification.  The role and importance of gut bacteria in the pathology of type 1 and type 2 will explored. A detailed discussion on emerging research and clinical trial on interventions to delay or prevent diabetes is also included.