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After reading these articles:

  1. http://news.discovery.com/human/children-drug-antibiotic-obese-fat-weight-120821.html

  2. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21428625.100-gutmicrobe-swap-changes-eating-habits.html

  3. http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20120726194302data_trunc_sys.shtml

I am inclined to think that obesity COULD BE caused by altered gut flora. By taking antibiotics, ingesting grains and sugar as well as other processed foods we are 1. reducing our beneficial bacteria 2. helping our pathogenic bacteria to multiply (and kill off our little friendly guys).

So, if this is the case, the solution must be to isolate the types of bacteria that help skinny people to stay skinny and figure out how to re-populate the gut flora of people who want to lose weight with it. It can be added to everything - burgers, sweet potato fries, ice-cream...

Can I have my Nobel prize now? :)

I actually saw a brand of ice-cream with probiotics - they sell it our local pharmacy. At $20 per a very small container people are not buying it.

No, really, how plausible is this GAOS (Gut and Obesity Syndrome) theory?

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4 
 Ohh And genetically modified foods, seems to be causing a host of diseases geneticroulettemovie.com – Robert Sep 16 at 21:21
Thanks for the video. It is scary... – VB Sep 16 at 21:34
1 
 I'm dubious about a lack of gut flora causing obesity. I would expect that the loss of digestive biota would result in loss of weight and appetite. But good luck, maybe Mayo will fund your research. Interesting theory. – thhq Sep 17 at 2:31
@Thhq - I am too sick right now to do any research. On some days I just hope to survive. Thanks for your positive message though. – VB Sep 17 at 6:29

3 Answers

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HFCS, Big Gulps, Anything in cellophane, video games, Tv, Our mind-body dissociation, wheat, O6 seed oils, reduced dependence on movement, DRUGS, our current medical paradigm, pain, mental, physical, and emotional dysfunction.

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2

Bill said in his answer: "Every fat person got there the same exact way. Waaay too much sugar and fat combined. McDonalds, Big Gulps, Snickers Bars and Grease - together = 'Insidious Fat Gain"

Such a diet has made many quite rotund. Most wouldn't disagree on this. But what about the people who don't become obese on such a diet? I know many who haven't. With such a diet it's hard to eat only your basic calorie needs, but some people do. How? A hardy metabolic rate helps. I also suspect some people have quite the capacity for unconscious regulation of appetite. In the context of this question, perhaps a good micrbiome contributes to the production of short chain fats like buytric acid which may strongly modulate body weight:

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/12/butyric-acid-ancient-controller-of.html

Conversely, what about people with severe gut dysbiosis? Could increased intestinal permeability allow psychoactive substances to pass into our blood stream and disrupt satiety signals? I wouldn't be surprised. Could bacterial toxins contribute to liver damage, raising triglycerides, thereby increasing leptin resistance? It's speculative, but maybe.

I support calories in calories as the determining factor in weight gain/loss, but to say CICO is the whole story is like saying "It was the best of times it was the worst of times" is all there is to A Tale of Two Cities.

I think future research will continue to unravel the complexities of our microbiome and reveal to us how truly important our gut bacteria is in making us sick or healthy.

For anyone interested, Lucas Tafur writes a lot on this particular subject: http://www.lucastafur.com/2012/03/nutritional-immunotherapy-overview.html

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On part I of this question I said "The cause of obesity is surely a complicated question for which there are lot of contributing answers". I believe this is one of those contributing answers. – Mscott Sep 17 at 0:19
But what about the people who don't become obese on such a diet? They (almost) don't exist. You can maintain or even lose weight eating like that as long as your eating less than your TDEE, in fact I have seen it plenty of times. Its that the vast majority of people eat more than their TDEE. Its really quite that simple. – Bill1102inf Sep 17 at 1:47
I got my PR for downvotes here for calling high fat/carb junk food the atom bomb of the obesity epidemic. Some people here hate hearing the obvious, but their exceptional cases don't falsify what's happening with most people. – thhq Sep 17 at 2:22
Bill-I'm not denying weight is about calorie balance, I'm saying gut flora affects our inherent ability to feel satiated when we reach our TDEE. I wasn't trying to attack or be critical of your answer btw, I was using it as a jumping of point, as an example of how the fattening diet you described might cause less weight gain depending on the context of healthy gut colonization. – Mscott Sep 17 at 2:40
thhq-See my response to bill. I didn't downvote either of you and my answer was not an attempt to critique the idea that high fat, high carb junk food influences obesity. – Mscott Sep 17 at 2:49
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Giving little Fat People even more food and HFCS is what is causing obesity, AND video games.

Every fat person got there the same exact way. Waaay too much sugar and fat combined. McDonalds, Big Gulps, Snickers Bars and Grease - together = 'Insidious Fat Gain'

Typical fat kid diet: Rice Krispies with whole milk, high fat sausuge, bagel, orange juice for breakfast. Pizza or some crappy noodle dish slathered with fat for lunch. Snack - HFCS, Doritos, and or fried chicken fingers with insulin blasting sauce of some kind. Dinner, whatever their fat parents are eating, but guaranteed, its fat+lots of carbs.

THAT is what is creating these humongous 200-300-400-500 lbers.

And "Finish your plate or sit there til its gone, there are starving children is Africa" - Parents who use guilt make me sick.

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7 
 Bullshit. I don't know what actually caused my obesity's root but I was eating veggies, rice, fruit, etc...as a vegitarian and went from an average if stocky teen to morbidly obese and I DID NOT FUCKING EAT McDonalds, Big Gulps or Candy. I would however make an entire rice maker of rice for "the week" and end up eating it in 1 day. What an asshole. – Satchmo Sep 17 at 0:01
2 
 Bill, what is up with you?? – January Sep 17 at 0:17
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 I call BS too. I ate exactly what my nutritionist said, never strayed and was running 50+ miles per week. I could barely break 200 at 5'9". I was FAT. Very FAT. And it didn't matter what diet/exercise/etc I did, I could not break that weight. And I would cycle, get up to 210, and then eat 1500 calories (while running 50+) just to get back down to 190. When I found the primal blueprint, it took 22 weeks, I dropped 40 lbs, and I've kept it off for 18 weeks without effort (and without being able to workout for the last 8 weeks). I did not fit your profile. – CD Sep 17 at 0:25
Some of us are legitimately sick, actually. We can lose the weight, but then it comes back with a vengeance, making the game of losing weight dangerous (because it leads to a net increase in weight). If something is wrong, better to fix it than to fight yourself the rest of your life and wreck your health in the process. Certainly, not everyone is sick in such a way, but it does describe a fair number of people who "do the right thing" yet still struggle to lose weight or maintain weight loss. – Sara S. Sep 17 at 0:28
1 
 I'm surprised to see someone with 7,000+ points trolling so hard. Do you honestly believe what you wrote? Offensive beyond belief, dude. Seriously. – invisible ink Sep 17 at 1:26
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