The Surprising Link between Your Microbiome and Obesity

Read time: 2 mins 30 sec.

Tell me a little bit about microbes and microbiomes.

The human body has been symbiotic with microbes since the beginning. In this situation, the human body is an example of a community of microorganisms living together. The human microbiome can consist of various bacteria, viruses, and yeast. Most of these microbes are present in our gut than in any other organ. They are involved in digestion and immune system support. The microbiome also produces short-chain fatty acids (SFCA), drug metabolism, and bile acid metabolism.

What influences the microbiome?

Age affects it, as do the diet, birth mode (vaginal vs. c-section ), antibiotics, and other medications, and where you live.

The most critical influencer yet effortless (ok, it does take effort, but a discussion for another day) change we can make in the first few years of life is the diet to change the microbiome. The fiber content, protein content, and amount of fat content in the diet do influence your microbiome.

The different types of diets also upregulate or downregulate certain microbes in your gut. So, for example, they saw that in a vegetarian diet, there was an upregulation of the Bacteroidetes and a downregulation of microbes such as firmicutes, E.coli, and Enterobacteriaceae. In contrast, a diet consisting of a high-fat diet upregulates Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio. And some studies show Bacteroides are low in obese patients, whereas Prevotella Bacteroidetes are high.

One study showed no change in WEIGHT gain when exposed to micro-doses of antibiotics from consuming a diet such as meat. Still, it reported an increase in FAT mass in those exposed to antibiotics, and the percent body fat also increased. The low-dose antibiotic exposure in the diet, of course, changed the population of the bacteria in the gut, which in turn can lead to fatty liver disease due to the upregulation of specific metabolic pathways that leads to fatty acids and lipids in the liver.

As a parent, I also wonder how I can influence my child's odds of not getting obese. One study, in particular, studied exposing a child to antibiotics and their BMI; there was a direct correlation, which means the more significant the exposure to the number of antibiotics a child has, the greater the chances of obesity. So that means the more exposure you may have had as a child with antibiotics could be a part of the puzzle of your body fat.

Am I understanding you correctly that the microbiomes that reside in me could be part of the puzzle of obesity?

Gut microbes are involved in aiding the extraction of energy from the food consumed. A study in 2008 found that consuming obesity inducing diet, which consists of high fat and sugar contents, decreases the variety of microbiota. And microbiota in obese is even more efficient in extracting this energy. Furthermore, one study saw that transplanting stools from obese and lean twins into recipient mice, they became obese mice and lean mice, respectively though having identical diets. The study concludes that the microbiome is involved in obesity disorder.

In conclusion, our microbiota is essential when it comes to maintaining our fat composition in the body. The research is ongoing but has shown composition of the gut flora is different in obese patients vs. lean patients and has been studied in humans and mice. So what we feed ourselves matters and benefits these microbiotas in our gut or detriments the same. The choice of eating the rosy red apple (high in fiber) vs. the glazed pink rosy donut (high in sugar) does matter at a micro level. Next time we will get into all about the probiotic's pros & cons.

Until then, stay safe by washing your hands and keeping the gut microbes alive and happy.