We always seem to come back to the subject of obesity. Why? Because it never goes away! We live in a fat world that is getting steadily fatter. It is a global pandemic and does not seem to be related to developed or developing countries. One third of US adults over 20 are considered obese. This is an alarming figure and nutritionists are justifiably alarmed. It is the leading cause of death, producing heart diseases, stroke, type 2 diabetes and several cancers such as colon, endometrial and breast cancers. What defines obesity? Obesity is a condition of excess body fat or Body Mass Index (BMI), a simple weight to height ratio. To determine your BMI simply divide your body weight in kilograms by your height in metres squared. If you are 1.6m tall and weigh 58 kg your BMI is 58 divided by 2.56 (1.6 x 1.6). If the result is less than 25 you are normal. Between 25 and 30 you are overweight and above 30 you are obese. The formula applies to both genders and while it is not a perfect measure for all body types, it is the best science has to offer. The problem is rampant and needs urgent attention throughout the world for men, women and children. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), almost 2 billion out of a population of approximately 6 billion are overweight or obese. Five of the 10 global diseases are caused by obesity. It is no longer a Western affliction and lowering your fat, salt and sugar intake is too simplistic an answer. Obesity has been with us throughout history, but efforts to cure it, have only surfaced in our modern times. Until the 19th century the relationship of foods to health was not well understood. Why some people become fat and others do not, was never a pre-occupation. It was only in the late 1800s that chemist Wilbur Atwater began to study how foods were made up of nutritional components, specifically fats, proteins and carbohydrates. He examined the components by the amount of heat that raised the temperature of one gram of water by one degree centigrade. That is how the calorie was born. The first diet book was written by an Englishman William Banting... a chronicle how he reduced his size, published in 1862. He followed a low- carbohydrate diet, one of protein, vegetables, fruit… no sugar, starch or desserts, a regimen popular to this day. Hundreds of thousands of diet books, programmes, plans and reasons for obesity have been followed, with the same results. You lose the weight at first, but soon it is reversed. The truth is, diets do not work, and most probably they are the same people who go from diet to diet, with little result. A new discovery, the subject of the most recent scientific research, may well be the new obesity secret. Scientific evidence indicates that gut bacteria may alter the way we store fat, how we balance levels of glucose in the blood and how we respond to hormones that make us feel hungry or full. The wrong mix of microbes sets the stage for obesity and other diseases. Important hidden players literally lurk in our bowels; billions and billions of gut microbes whose roles are not limited to digestion. The wrong mix of microbes is responsible for obesity. Jeffrey Gordon of Washington University, St Louis, Missouri, a pioneer in gut research says: “Keeping our gut microbes happy could be the elusive secret to weight control.” Human intestine flora is colonised by millions of bacteria. Microbes outnumber our cells 10 to 1. Of course we must keep them happy, but how? From the moment of birth we acquire our mothers' bacteria and continue to gather new members from the environment throughout life. Lean individuals tend to have a wider variety of bacteria… a large tribe of microbes that specialise in breaking down bulky plant starches and fibers into shorter molecules that the body can use as a source of energy. Transplanting gut bacteria from obese people into mice, led to the animals' obesity, while bacteria from lean people kept the mice slim. Both groups were fed the same amount. The study of bacteria is the next weapon in the war against obesity. The surprise is that artificial sweeteners which have been around since 1897, appear to change the population of intestinal bacteria that direct metabolism—the conversion of food to energy—or the storage of food. They pull energy away from our food turning that food into fat. They favour the growth of bacteria that make more calories available to us that end on thighs, hips and midriff. Those who use sweeteners are more likely than others to be obese. Down the road they may come out with a pill that will adequately deal with the digestive system. Until then, what are we to do? Certain fermented foods adjust the flora in our intestinal environment. Stock up on yoghurt, cheese, sauerkraut, pickles, wine, cider, non-pasteurised milk, pickled cabbage, turnips, eggplant, cucumber, onions, squash , carrots or any fermented foods that contain lactic acid bacteria—a type of beneficial gut bacteria which according to this research can help you stay slim. That is the theory of the season. Who would have thought pickles and yoghurt will help you get rid of unwanted fat, or that artificial sweeteners are the enemy? “To eat is human, to digest divine” Charles T Copland (1860-1952)
