Obesity Microbes

I have some problems with this article. I'm not crazy about the "faceless, clueless government is misleading the world" tone. The figures he's citing are based on solid science, they're not pulled out of the air by some clueless bureaucrat. It's the stuff of jr. high class projects. The caloric deficit an individual has to run to lose one pound is very easily determined by tracking weight and calories consumed on a daily basis for a couple weeks. I doubt many people would have a variance greater than 5% from 3500 calories.

Of course there are all kinds of factors involved. For some people it's medications, for others weight gain is secondary to another health problem. For others it's an injury that suddenly limits their mobility leaving them with a lot of free time and the same appetite. For others it's a personal tragedy, or maybe a long bout of depression that leads to a period of overeating. For some it's a family and social environment that makes being overweight more acceptable than being fit. For some it's just a matter of being too lazy to not go to McDonalds every day. And for some, their metabolism and internal microbial environments are probably obstacles as stated in the article. For most people it's probably a complicated mix of some or all of those reasons and more. The human body is endlessly varied and complex in it's subtle variations.

What "Current public-health messages" are these? The article makes it sound like all of them. I've never heard one that claimed this. I don't think I've ever read or heard a single message advocating weight loss that didn't recognize that it's hard, except for infomercials and blurbs on the covers of magazines at the supermarket checkout.

The writer does a disservice with this oversimplified message. Anyone who's tried to lose weight knows it's hard. Anyone who's ever researched it or has watched a friend or family member struggle with obesity knows it's hard. There are many causes, and it's a complicated subject. It's personal responsibility, public health, environment, personal relationships, mental and emotional health and more.

Obesity is increasing at a frightening rate in this country. Is he suggesting that a microbial population explosion in American intestines is responsible?

And as the article states, the primary source and expert cited stands to make a lot of money by pushing this theory.

Our civilization has spent the past couple centuries trying to increase the caloric resources available to us and to reduce the amount of physical work the average person needs to do on a daily basis. All of a sudden in the last few decades we succeeded beyond previous generations imaginations. Unfortunately it was with calorically dense but nutritionally sparse foods, a service economy and no personal exercise machine out of the Jetsons. These things are not going to change. Our economy just works this way.

The cause of the sudden rise of obesity in American society is not a government cover up about the microbes in our digestive systems and the solution is not this guys $450 antibody test.

Maybe I'm being overly cynical but it'll be hard to get me to endorse anything beyond diet, excercise, education, support, compassion, and encouragement for preventing and reversing obesity in most people.

Did you read the article?  The parts are snipped may be out of context.

Basically, the author outlines the various experiments (simplified example:  give a certain virus to mice and they get fat)  and does describe the theory as something certainly on the fringes of science, something that other scientists dismiss as you have.

 But anyway, I found it pretty intriguing.  There ARE people - not all overweight people, but some - who, when given a diet that is supposed to "maintain" their current weight, GAIN weight rapidly.  In other words, they use FEWER calories more effeciently.  There is a certain BTer who went through this with a nutritionist -- she gave BTer a nutrition plan with X number of calories based on BTer's BMR and level of activity (BTer was ironman training at the time), and the athlete's weight quickly shot up.  This was a person who had already lost significant weight tri training; in other words, someone with a propensity towards obesity -- for WHATEVER reason. 

Some of the examples in the article reminded me of that.  That's all.  It's an interesting read, it got me thinking.  (Watch out for reading, it can do that to you. )

Similar thread in the Triing for Weightloss forum:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=51837&posts=4&start=1

From my perspective (microbiology), the parts of the article pasted aren't really the most interesting.  And, the writer of the article doesn't do that great of a job.  It'll be interesting to see if any of the data get published.