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Sewage Bacteria Reveal Cities' Obesity Rates
benonemusic writes A new frontier in data mining: Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts surveyed bacteria from human waste in the municipal sewage systems. Surprisingly they found different proportions of bacterial species in cities that correlated with obesity rates in those municipal areas. The researchers believe that these bacterial samples can yield city-level information on other diseases as well. Hopefully this isn't just a messy case of spurious correlation.
The news here for me isn't "here's a way to analyse a city's obesity rate", it's just yet another piece of evidence for "obesity is caused primarily by gut fauna". This would seem to add up with the obese population's assertion that losing weight is incredibly hard, while the non-obese population asserts "just eat less, it's trivially easy". The only way these two assertions can add up is if the two populations have some very different environmental factor going on. Gut fauna making obese people absorb much more of the energy from their food would seem to add up as just that kind of environmental factor.
I agree, but, perhaps what a person eats shapes their gut fuana to best digest their diet. If you spend years eating only twinkies and ho-hos...
Health problems, including obesity, may be caused by what's in (or missing from) gut bacteria.
Sorry, no. Obesity is not caused by bacteria (or genetics, or "conditions"). Obesity is caused by consuming more energy than you actually use. Hunger queues may be affected by bacteria, but those are something you can adjust to. The actual weight gain, however, is nothing more complicated than eating more than you need to sustain your body.
Honestly, how a site full of self-professed science geeks keeps ignoring basic thermodynamics continues to blow my mind...
If you put on weight, you eat more than _your_ body needs. The amount of calories needed depends on your body and your activity level. Someone who runs around all day and takes the stairs and will burn more calories than someone who sits on their butt all day and always uses the elevator.
Don't just monitor your intake, reduce it until you find that point where _your_ body loses weight. That point exists for everyone, go find yours. That might mean you need to eat less than other people if your gut flora is more efficient. If I eat like my body would like me to, I'd be at least 30 pounds heavier. Since I've been there and don't like it, I don't eat that much. In the end It comes down to willpower.
So far all people I have seen trying but unable to lose weight said they don't eat more than others, but if you watch them they do. Here a bit extra, there a larger serving, soda instead of water, a snack during the afternoon... Everytime I ask them to stick to what I eat and match my amount they complain about being hungry and needing something to eat. Well, I feel some hunger to, but I don't act on it. That's where the willpower comes in.
Unfortunately the human body is not your average ICE. It doesn't "just" work on basic thermodynamics.
It all starts with the fact that we not only consume "fuel". We actually consume quite a bit of stuff we cannot process. We actually MUST consume that stuff for without we start to get reeeeeally messed up. I dimly remember a NASA experiment where they tried to reduce astronaut food to the nutritious stuff. You know, to eliminate ... erhm ... waste. Guess what: Astronauts still shit. Because it didn't work out. The test people got REALLY sick. Sure, they got all the nutrition they needed, But I guess human can't really work if he doesn't poop.
Which gets to part 2 of the problem: We shit stuff that is still quite nutritious. Ask your local fly population. Our "waste" is not just waste. There's quite a bit of stuff in there that could still be "digested".
In a nutshell, the human body is not the best kind of engine. I'd actually be interested in how good our energy conversion rate is, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is really, really shitty, even compared to the engines we build. And I'm not even talking about us using a good deal of the energy we consume just for heating. I'm talking about the energy we consume that goes out right our exhaust without us actually using it sensibly.
And then there's of course the different metabolisms that will have different effects on different foods. Because 1000 KJ from one food source is by no means the same as 1000 KJ from another. And even the same food eaten by two different people will not be metabolized in the same way to the same efficiency.
Sorry, but the law of thermodynamics alone won't cut it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If obesity is purely a moral failing, then gut flora must be purely a moral failing too.
As for being able to do it. It's a matter of wanting and therefore motivation. That motivation can come from different sources.
That, and exactly what you are being asked to do. If your body absorbs 80% of the glucose in food (thanks to bacteria in your gut that break down starches into glucose), while an average human only consumes 60% (thanks to a lack of those bacteria), you are being asked to eat a significantly smaller amount of food. The result is that even if you have motivation, and more willpower than the other person, you may still not be able to control yourself, as you are being asked to control a greater urge than they are. You are being asked to keep your stomach less full than that less efficient human.