According to a new study, not only food makes you heavy but bacteria present in gut can also make you gain pounds.
This happens when wrong bacteria takes over causing a low-level inflammation. This further leads to a pre-diabetic condition that increases the appetite.
Senior author Andrew Gewirtz of Emory University School of Medicine said, "It has been assumed that the obesity epidemic in the developed world is driven by an increasingly sedentary lifestyle and the abundance of low-cost, high-calorie foods.”
The results stated that extra calories consumed was not only due to unregulated eating but also because intestinal bacteria contribute to changes in appetite and metabolism.
Gewirtz and his colleagues had conducted a study on a mice that were made deficient in a key immune system protein TLR5 by genetic engineering. TLR5 enables cells sense the presence of bacteria.
TLR5 knows which bacteria is good and is needed and doesn't harm them.
Immune system is also capable of regulating the bacteria but is not very good in doing so as a result there is a change in the bacterial composition that leads to a low level inflammation and insulin receptors are desensitized.
It was noticed that the mice put to test ate about 10 per cent more food and ended up about 20 per cent heavier.
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