The connection to Gut Microbes and Obesity.

The connection to the gut microbes is quite important.  This study in mice shows that certain intestinal bacteria protect against development of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and pre-diabetic by inducing specific immune cells. High-fat + high-sugar diets promoted metabolic disease by depleting these bacteria, and recovery of the specific immune cells restored that protection. These immune cells afforded protection by regulating fat absorption. Diet-induced loss of these protective immune cells was mediated by the presence of sugar. Eliminating sugar from high-fat diets protected mice from obesity and metabolic syndrome in a manner dependent on these specific immune cells. Sugar promoted outgrowth of Faecalibaculum rodentium (a specific bacteria) that displaced the protective bacteria. These results define dietary and microbiota factors posing risk for metabolic syndrome. They also define a microbiota-dependent mechanism for immuno-pathogenicity of dietary sugar and highlight an elaborate interaction between diet, microbiota, and intestinal immunity in regulation of metabolic disorders.

Kawano et al., 2022, Cell 185, 3501–3519.  This signifies the importance of a good probiotic and suggests the importance of limiting sugar in our diets.

Jason & Rita