Download 7 Science Secrets About Bacteria and Weight Loss

7 Science Secrets
About Bacteria
and Weight Loss
UBIOME—7 SCIENCE SECRETS ABOUT BACTERIA AND WEIGHT LOSS
Contents
Why bacteria and weight loss?
3
1. Overweight people have less bacterial variety
4
2. Eat beans to get bacteria like a skinny person
5
3. Meat that contains antibiotics can lead to weight gain
6
4. Cut your risk of Type 2 diabetes by boosting bacterial diversity
7
5. Fool your brain into believing you’re not hungry
8
6. Taking fiber supplements can work as well as fiber from food
9
7. Stop your bacteria from eating into your gut lining
10
Pulling it all together
11
Who is uBiome?
12
References
13
UBIOME—7 SCIENCE SECRETS ABOUT BACTERIA AND WEIGHT LOSS
Hello!
ulcerative colitis; irritable bowel
1. Many people (perhaps
depend on what you eat and the
syndrome (IBS); esophageal reflux
amount of exercise you do?
and esophageal cancer; Clostridium
including you?) would like to
What if your weight didn’t only
What if there was another factor
at play? A factor that might be
stopping you from losing weight no
difficile infection; colorectal cancer;
and liver and biliary tract diseases.
2. There are many scientific
This ebook, though, focuses on
studies which suggest links
matter how little you eat, or how
yet another aspect of your
much exercise you do?
physiology in which your bacteria
Enter the human microbiome.
Over the past ten years science
play a part, and that’s your weight.
For years it was believed that an
has begun to investigate the richly
individual’s body weight was solely
diverse community of bacteria,
driven by the caloric value of the
known as the microbiome, that each
food they ate and the amount of
and every one of us carries in and
physical exercise they did.
on our bodies.
Your microbiome contains ten
However this didn’t seem to
The book aims to address this,
getting the latest information into
helpful!
however little they exercise, while
somewhere around three to six
others appear to put on weight (or
The uBiome Team
pounds of your total weight.
be unable to lose it) even on strict
dieting and exercise regimes.
that the types of bacteria in the gut
physicians. The reader should regularly
otherwise be able to digest. Other
can play a big part in weight loss or
bacteria enable your body to
gain.
synthesize vitamins.
However, less benign microbes
However, new research suggests
As research on the human
microbiome is ongoing and rapidly
may play a part in all sorts of health
developing, it would be just about
conditions, some of them very
impossible to produce an up-to-date
serious, such as Celiac disease;
book covering the world of weight
If you are concerned about a medical issue,
inflammatory bowel disease (IBD),
and bacteria in its entirety, but for
please see your healthcare provider.
including both Crohn’s disease and
us three important things stood out:
test and cannot predict your future health.
make it into the mainstream.
your whole body, and it accounts for
your gut digest foods that it wouldn’t
Note also that uBiome is not a diagnostic
time for scientific findings to
your hands. We hope you find it
substitute for the medical advice of
medical attention.
3. It can often take a long
stay lean whatever they eat and
of vital jobs. For example they help
symptoms that may require diagnosis or
and weight loss.
times more cells than you have in
Please note: This book is not intended as a
health and particularly with respect to any
between the microbiome
allow for the fact that some people
Your bacteria perform all sorts
consult a physician in matters relating to
lose weight.
3
1.
Overweight
people have
less bacterial
variety
UBIOME—7 SCIENCE SECRETS ABOUT BACTERIA AND WEIGHT LOSS
Let’s begin with a fascinating
Furthermore, the fatter mice
While these have to pass
experiment that was done at
were found to have a less diverse
through the strongly acidic
Washington University in St Louis
microbial gut community.
conditions of the stomach before
in 2013. When bacteria from obese
humans was transplanted into
mice that had been specially bred
What can we take from these
findings?
It certainly seems to be the
to be germ-free, the mice started
case that an obese person’s
putting on weight.
microbiome differs from that of a
The study recruited pairs of
lean individual, and that bacteria
human female twins in which one
in the gut may play a part in
woman was obese, while the other
weight gain.
was lean.
So-called “humanized mice”
evidence that a proportion of
these helpful bacteria will make it
through.
Fermented foods include
sauerkraut, pickles, kefir, live
yoghurt, and kimchi. Yum!
While it’s not yet possible to
identify a “fat bacterium”, it’s worth
(mice which carry functioning
noting that obese people appear
human genes, cells, and tissues
to have less bacterial diversity,
are often used in scientific
suggesting that there could be
research) had their guts populated
weight-loss benefits from
with microbes from either the lean
introducing a wider variety of
or obese sister.
microbes into the gut.
Although the mice then
reaching your gut, there is some
One way this could be
received the same amount of food,
achieved is by eating a diverse diet
those which had been given
which includes fermented foods
bacteria from the obese twin put
containing live microbes.
on more body weight and grew
heavier than the mice that
received the flora of the lean
woman.
4
2.
Eat beans to
get bacteria
like a skinny
person
UBIOME—7 SCIENCE SECRETS ABOUT BACTERIA AND WEIGHT LOSS
Dysbiosis is a term which is
Back in the land of bacteria,
This could be highly significant.
used to describe a microbial
the equivalent to kingdom would
imbalance on or inside the human
be Eubacteria and the phyla in
known people who can apparently
body.
question are, as we said,
eat trayloads of cake without
Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes.
putting on a pound, and it may be
The bacteria in your gut plays
a vital part in your health and wellbeing, but problems can result
when this careful balance is
disturbed.
For example, the two most
useful bacteria “phyla” are
Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes.
If it sounds complicated to
you, you’re not the only one.
For now, however, let’s just
focus on the ratio of Firmicutes to
Bacteroidetes.
Obese individuals have fewer
Bacteroidetes and more Firmicutes
Phyla?
than their lean equivalents: we’re
Phyla is the plural of phylum,
back to dysbiosis again.
which in biology means the
Something intriguing happens
Anecdotally, we’ve probably all
that this ability to consume
without gaining weight could be
explained in part by having more
Bacteroidetes in the gut.
Can this be hacked?
Is it possible to increase your
Bacteroidetes levels?
One way could be to eat
more beans, a great source
taxonomic (naming) rank below
when the gut becomes imbalanced
of dietary fiber, because
kingdom and above class.
in this way: the gut actually
bacteroidetes just love fiber.
One way to make sense of this
is to consider animals. The
kingdom would be Animalia.
One class could be Mammalia
(mammals).
In between these comes the
becomes more efficient at
extracting energy from food.
When the microbiomes of mice
are changed in this way, tilting the
bacterial balance in favour of
Firmicutes, they absorb more
phylum Chordata, which means
calories even though they eat the
animals with backbones.
same amount of food.
5
3.
Meat that
contains
antibiotics
can lead to
weight gain
UBIOME—7 SCIENCE SECRETS ABOUT BACTERIA AND WEIGHT LOSS
Antibiotics are incredible, lifesaving medicines.
Today, however, overuse of
them is a major cause for concern.
When antibiotics are overused,
The result?
of calories as mice in a control
The antibiotic-dosed recruits
group.
gained more weight than a control
group.
Unfortunately antibiotics can
What to make of this?
While it’s not always easy to
know whether the meat you’re
their effectiveness decreases, as
end up in humans even when they
eating contains antibiotics, many
bugs learn to adapt to them, and
haven’t been prescribed.
supermarkets do label products
they can also wipe out the gut’s
healthy bacteria.
But there may also be a
connection between the use of
antibiotics and obesity, which is
perhaps not so surprising when
you stop to think that antibiotics
This happens through the
simple process of eating meat
from animals that have been given
antibiotics as a growth agent.
Weight gain can occur even at
these low levels of exposure.
In a study at the New York
helpfully.
Look for “Antibiotic-Free” for
example.
A crowd-sourced website
at realtimefarms.com/
fixantibiotics shows retailers,
have been used to promote
University School of Medicine,
farmers’ markets, and
growth in the livestock industry, a
researchers injected mice with a
practice the Centers for Disease
“subtherapeutic antibiotic
eateries which sell meat
Control has condemned as not
treatment” (antibiotics at a level
necessary, by the way.
low enough to have no health
If antibiotics can fatten a cow
dose of antibiotics that
a similar effect on a human?
humans often
experiments have shown this to be
so. For instance a 1954 study fed a
Bon appetit!
benefits) containing the same low
or chicken, why wouldn’t they have
Actually they do, and
without antibiotics.
unknowingly consume in
animal meat.
Over time the result
daily diet of antibiotics to several
was that these mice
hundred Navy recruits for seven
became fat, despite
weeks.
eating the same amount
6
4.
Cut your
risk of Type 2
diabetes
by boosting
bacterial
diversity
UBIOME—7 SCIENCE SECRETS ABOUT BACTERIA AND WEIGHT LOSS
Lots of microbiome-related
The study also found that
Another way to up your
studies are based on mice. There’s
among the obese participants,
microbial diversity is to eat
nothing wrong with that, unless of
those who had a low diversity of
fermented foods (probiotics) on a
course you’re a mouse.
gut bacteria gained substantially
regular basis – things like pickled
more weight over a nine year
veggies, kombucha, kimchi and
period.
sauerkraut.
It wasn’t always so but in fact
these days lab mice get treated
pretty humanely.
However it’s always nice to
If your goal is to increase the
When you do, accompany
diversity of your own gut bacteria,
them with the type of fiber-
come across a good gut bacteria
experts suggest a number of ways
containing foods (called prebiotics)
experiment carried out on human
to do so that.
that provide nourishment for the
subjects, and for this particular
one we have the Danes to thank.
In a paper published in Nature
One is to stop over-doing
things with personal cleanliness.
Soap and water now and then
probiotics you’re consuming.
Useful foods considered
in August 2013, an international
are fine, but by depending on
prebiotics include asparagus,
team of researchers examined
hand-sanitizer at multiple points
stool samples from 123 lean and
every day we may be denying our
artichokes, onions, garlic,
169 obese Danish adults.
bodies exposure to a wide
What did they learn? For a
assortment of microbes, many of
start, individuals with less diversity
which could actually do us good.
oats, and beans.
of bacteria in their microbiomes
were more likely to suffer from
inflammation, and also to show
greater resistance to insulin.
Insulin resistance can lead to
high blood sugar and may
ultimately contribute to a
diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes.
7
5.
Fool your
brain into
believing
you’re not
hungry
UBIOME—7 SCIENCE SECRETS ABOUT BACTERIA AND WEIGHT LOSS
The brain talks to the gut, and
the gut talks back.
Thanks to a remarkable aspect
Bifidobacteria in their guts, which
more onions, bananas, garlic,
in turn led to increased
chicory, and wheat, and look for
fermentation and decreased food
oligofructose supplements. Also
of physiology called the brain-gut
intake, fat mass, and hepatic
check for oligofructose when you
axis, microbes in your gut can
steatosis (less fat build-up in the
buy manufactured foods such as
send information to your brain
liver). Oligofructose is a dietary
frozen desserts, fruit yogurt,
which then controls your body’s
fiber found in vegetables such as
cereal, cookies, and dairy
response to insulin, how quickly
onions, bananas, garlic, chicory,
products.
gastric emptying takes place, and
and wheat, as well as being
how full you feel after eating
available as a supplement.
Fun Facts
(satiety). All these factors can have
Manufactured foods such as
A Probiotic is a food or dietary
an influence on weight gain and
frozen desserts, fruit yogurt,
supplement containing live
obesity.
cereal, cookies, and dairy products
bacteria that replace or add to
also commonly contain
the beneficial bacteria
the brain in two ways: through the
oligofructose. It acts as a
normally present in the
nervous system (neural pathways)
“prebiotic”, providing nutrients for
gastrointestinal tract.
and the endocrine system. The
the good bacteria in your gut.
The gut communicates with
endocrine system is a network of
A small study at the University
glands which controls many
of Louvain, Brussels, Belgium,
important bodily functions by
showed that human participants
producing and releasing
who consumed 8 grams of oligo-
hormones. Much of the work in
fructose twice a day (breakfast and
this area has made use of germ-
dinner time) showed increased
free rats, and as we’ve already
satiety (they felt fuller) and also
shown, experiments on mice and
experienced reduced hunger,
rats pretty much mimic the effects
being less likely to wish to eat
that can be expected when the
more food after dinner.
same investigations are carried
out on humans.
Rodents who were fed
A Prebiotic is a nondigestible
food ingredient which
promotes the growth of
beneficial microorganisms in
the intestines. Prebiotics are
like food for Probiotics.
Since oligofructose passes
through the body without being
metabolised, it’s lower in calories
something called oligofructose
than other kinds of carbohydrates.
ended up with higher levels of
You may want to try eating
8
6.
Taking fiber
supplements
can work as
well as fiber
from food
UBIOME—7 SCIENCE SECRETS ABOUT BACTERIA AND WEIGHT LOSS
Increasing the amount of fiber
in your diet is a good thing for
many reasons, but what do you do
when it’s difficult to make
substantial changes to what you
eat?
Can supplements help?
Well, according to research
conducted by a team at the
University of Illinois at Urbana
Champaign, eating fiber-enriched
snack bars may do the job almost
as well.
Kelly Swanson, a Professor of
nutrition, led a team which worked
with 20 healthy men.
A control group ate a snack
bar with no fiber content twice a
day for 21 days and a second
group consumed snack bars
containing 21 grams of
polydextrose, a common fiber
food additive.
A third group ate bars with 21
grams of soluble corn fiber.
Poop samples drawn from all
participants before and after the
experiment were subjected to DNA
analysis.
What most surprised the
researchers was a shift in the ratio
of two bacterial phyla –
Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes –
towards more Bacteroidetes and
less Firmicutes.
Having more Bacteroidetes
may be beneficial because the
higher its proportion, the leaner
that individual tends to be.
With higher Firmicutes, an
individual is inclined to be obese.
The soluble corn fiber bars
outperformed the polydextrose
ones very slightly.
Of additional note was the fact
that the gut balances of the
participants returned to normal at
the end of the experiment,
strongly suggesting the need to
maintain increased fiber
consumption rather than having
periodic fiber binges.
Soluble corn fiber is also
known as corn syrup (the fiber is
water-soluble), not to be confused
with high fructose corn syrup in
which some of corn syrup’s
glucose has been enzymatically
converted to fructose.
It’s complicated, but in general
terms glucose is better for you
than fructose, even though they’re
both sugars.
Find fiber supplements
containing polydextrose or
soluble corn fiber.
9
7.
Stop your
bacteria from
eating your
gut lining
UBIOME—7 SCIENCE SECRETS ABOUT BACTERIA AND WEIGHT LOSS
A single bacterium is truly a
enough of is fiber, which you feed
derived toxins are able to get in to
sight to behold. Through a
them whenever you eat whole
the bloodstream. A breached gut
powerful microscope you’d see
grains, legumes (beans etc), fruit,
barrier can also lead to adiposity,
that most bacteria are one of
and vegetables.
where fat gets stored in your fatty
three different shapes. Some are
Eating fiber keeps your bowel
tissues, and weight gain.
spherical (coccus), others are
movements regular and also helps
“rods” which look something like
you feel full after a meal, making it
too little fiber. The Institute of
medication capsules (bacillus),
less likely that you’ll overeat. But it
Medicine recommends that
while the third type are spirals –
also plays a vital part in keeping
women should get 25 grams per
imagine a twisty pig’s tail (spirillus).
your gut bacteria healthy.
day and men should consume 38
And they’re really small. Take
E. coli, for instance. If you were the
size of an amoeba, an E. coli
Without it, your bacteria may
start seriously misbehaving.
Researchers at the University
bacterium would be about as big
of Michigan Medical School
as an ant to you.
discovered that the microbes of
Amoebas are tiny themselves,
mice who were fed a fiber-free
Most adults in the West eat far
grams, but the average daily intake
is just 15 grams. Eating fiber as
part of a weight-management
program makes a lot of sense.
Check labels in the store,
of course. To give you an idea of
diet began to eat away at the gut’s
and add whole grains, beans,
scale, though, under the right
protective mucus lining, potentially
conditions they’re sometimes just
triggering inflammation. Systemic
peas, fruits, and vegetables
about possible to see with the
inflammation has important
unaided eye.
implications for many aspects of
So what do these miniscule
health, leading to cardiovascular
creatures eat? Well, it varies. Some
illness, dementia, gastrointestinal
have extraordinarily weird dietary
disorders, Type 2 diabetes, and
preferences. One particular strain,
plenty of other conditions. It may
for instance, eats radioactive
also be the cause of weight gain.
waste. Another likes to tuck into
When inflammation interferes
steel. Fortunately the bacteria in
with the gut barrier (which among
your gut have more conservative
other things keeps pathogens out
tastes. One thing they can’t get
of the bloodstream), bacteria-
whenever possible.
10
UBIOME—7 SCIENCE SECRETS ABOUT BACTERIA AND WEIGHT LOSS
Pulling it all
together
Here’s what we know about bacteria and weight loss. Why not print this page and
post it in your kitchen as a reminder?
1
Increase your gut’s bacterial
5
When you shop for manufactured
diversity by eating fermented foods
foods like frozen desserts, fruit
like sauerkraut, pickles, kefir, live
yogurt, cereal, cookies, and dairy
yogurt, and kimchi.
products, look for a prebiotic called
oligofructose.
2
Avoid meats containing antibiotics,
which can lead to weight gain.
6
If you choose a fiber supplement it
can help to look for one containing
3
Eating more dietary fiber, such as
polydextrose or soluble corn fiber.
beans, can give you the microbiome
of a skinnier person.
7
Avoid inflammation by eating a
variety of fiber-rich foods such as
4
Feed the bacteria in fermented
wholegrains, peas, fruits,
foods by eating prebiotics like
vegetables, and (of course) beans,
asparagus, artichokes, onions,
whenever possible.
garlic, and oats.
11
UBIOME—7 SCIENCE SECRETS ABOUT BACTERIA AND WEIGHT LOSS
Who is
uBiome?
uBiome is the leading
microbial genomics company. It
was founded in 2012 by UCSF
scientists and technologists from
Stanford and Cambridge after a
crowd-funding campaign raised
more than $350,000 from citizen
scientists, triple its initial goal.
uBiome is now backed by
2. Answer a Simple Survey
Our online survey lets you
answer questions about your
health and lifestyle. Then you can
see how you correlate with others.
We tell you how you match up to
other users, to existing peerreviewed studies, and to your
2. Analyze
We compare the ‘fingerprints’
we find to our bacterial reference
library, to determine which
bacteria they came from.
3. Compile Your Results
We make your results easy to
previous samples.
understand. You can compare
Y Combinator, and other leading
We Get Up Close and Personal
groups: vegetarians, people on
investors. The company’s mission
With Your Samples
antibiotics, or athletes, for
Andreessen Horowitz,
is to use big data to understand
the human microbiome by giving
consumers the power to learn
about their bodies, perform
experiments, and see how current
research studies apply to them.
How It Works
1. Sample Your Microbiome
A uBiome kit contains
everything you need to swab and
submit your microbiome sample.
Whether for your mouth, ears,
nose, gut, or genitals, your kit will
allow you to learn more about the
uBiome is a microbiome
sequencing service that provides
information and tools for you to
explore your microbiome. Based
your graphs to those of other
example.
Get your microbiome tested now!
www.ubiome.com
on research from the NIH Human
Even better, get 10% off by
Microbiome Project, we've
entering the discount code:
perfected the technology to
SECRETSCIENCE7
perform large-scale microbiome
studies. Once we receive your
sample, it goes in the lab and the
magic happens.
What Happens In The Lab
1. Sequence
We extract the bacterial DNA
bacteria in your body. You just
out of the sample you’ve sent us.
swipe the sample swab back and
Then we read the DNA sequences.
forth across the corresponding site
It’s a little like dusting a scene for
and send the kit back to us.
fingerprints.
12
UBIOME—7 SCIENCE SECRETS ABOUT BACTERIA AND WEIGHT LOSS
References
Antibiotics in early life alter murine colonic microbiome and adiposity
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22914093
Obesity and Overweight – Achieving Permanent Weight Loss
http://raphaelkellmanmd.com/specialties/obesity-overweight/
Brain–Gut–Microbe Communication in Health and Disease
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3232439/
Obesity via Microbe Transplants – The Scientist Magazine
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/37367/title/Obesityvia-Microbe-Transplants/
Build A Better Microbiome – 7 Ways to Embrace More Microbes
http://www.drfranklipman.com/build-a-better-microbiome/
Diet, gut microbiota and immune responses – Nature Immunology
http://www.nature.com/articles/ni0111-5.epdf
Fat-Fighting Bacteria Show the Microbiome’s Therapeutic Potential
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/536376/microbes-engineered-toprevent-obesity/
Fix Antibiotics
http://www.realtimefarms.com/fixantibiotics
Genetically Altered Bacteria Prevent Mice From Getting Fat – Popular
Science
http://www.popsci.com/article/science/genetically-altered-bacteriaprevent-mice-getting-fat
Obesity, Bariatrics and the Microbiome
http://www.laparoscopic.md/bariatric/microbiome
Oligofructose promotes satiety in healthy human – a pilot study
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16340949
On communication between gut microbes and the brain
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23010679
Richness of human gut microbiome correlates with metabolic markers
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v500/n7464/full/nature12506.html
?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20130829
Shift in gut bacteria observed in fiber supplement study
http://news.aces.illinois.edu/news/shift-gut-bacteria-observed-fibersupplement-study-may-offer-good-news-weight-loss
How Gut Bacteria Help Make Us Fat and Thin – Scientific American
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-gut-bacteria-help-makeus-fat-and-thin/
The Fat Drug – The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/opinion/sunday/the-fatdrug.html?_r=0
How the gut’s “microbiome” affects weight gain – CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-the-guts-microbiome-affects-weightgain/
The Gut Microbiome Influences Whether Or Not You’re Fat
http://science.time.com/2013/08/29/you-are-your-bacteria-how-the-gutmicrobiome-influences-health/
How You Can Help Prevent Antibiotic Resistance
http://www.healthline.com/health/antibiotics/how-you-can-help-preventresistance
The Role of the Gut Microbiome
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4030605/
Influence of intestinal microbiota on body weight gain
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25511750
Intestinal microbiota during infancy and its implications
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Reinhardt+C,+Reigstad+CS,+
Backhed+F.+Intestinal+microbiota+during+infancy+and+its+implications+f
or+obesity.+Journal+of+Pediatric+Gastroenterology+and+Nutrition+2009;
48:249%E2%80%9356.
JCI – Incorporation of therapeutically modified bacteria into gut
microbiota inhibits obesity
http://www.jci.org/articles/view/72517
Weight Gain After Fecal Microbiota Transplantation
http://ofid.oxfordjournals.org/content/2/1/ofv004.full.pdf+html
Western diet destroys healthy bacteria – The Times
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article4459954.ece
What Is the Difference Between Sucrose, Glucose & Fructose?
http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/difference-between-sucrose-glucosefructose-8704.html
Why Your Gut Microbiome Could Hold the Key to Solving Obesity
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerard-e-mullin-md/gutmicrobiome_b_7548632.html
13