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Japanese Guts Are Made For Sushi

Posted by samzenpus on from the weed-eaters dept.

cremeglace writes "Americans don't have the guts for sushi. At least that's the implication of a new study, which finds that Japanese people harbor enzymes in their intestinal bacteria that help them digest seaweed, enzymes that North Americans lack. What's more, Japanese may have first acquired these enzymes by eating bacteria that thrive on seaweed in the open ocean."

1 of 309 comments (clear)

  1. population sample by networkzombie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Czjzek's team compared the microbial genomes of 13 Japanese people with those of 18 North Americans.
    If I used this many test subjects in my job I would get fired.