Great!  This is just what America, the fattest country in the world, needs.  Now we have a brand new excuse for being tubby!  A recent edition of “Nature” magazine published an article in which were released the results of a study on the connection of certain types of intestinal bacteria, and obesity among human and rodent test subjects.  Apparently, the ratios of two premier types of intestinal microbes have been linked to obesity.  According to the study, the intestines of obese people have a higher ratio of Firmicutes, whereas the guts of the thin have a higher content of Bacteroidetes.  The Firmicutes tend to extract more calories from the food we eat, and these excess calories are absorbed by the body, often being deposited as fat.  In mice, it was discovered that when the intestinal microbes of fat mice were transplanted into the intestines of skinny mice, the skinny mice became fat.  These mice also began to absorb more calories from the same amount of food.  Tests subjects who dieted were found to have an increasing ratio of the Bacteroidetes in their guts, which was relative to the amount of weight lost.

The good news is that you can’t catch the fat bug from your fat friends.