Monday, August 28, 2006

Fat Factors - New York Times

Fat Factors - New York Times

I read this at the beach this weekend, while the magazine was resting on my food baby. It's a long article, naturally, since it's in the NYT Magazine, but fascinating - especially the part about how the mice with no microbes in their system weighed 30% less than the ones who had the natural amount. Also, the bacterial population of those who have had many courses of antibiotics is drastically different, and in a negative way, than of those people who have maintained their original set of microbes. And the obese woman who was participating in a study in the 1970's when she weighed 348 pounds? For a week they fed her exactly the right number of calories that would mathematically support 348 pounds at her activity level, and no more or less; she gained 12 pounds and they accused her of sneaking in food. She never ate that many calories in a day, and had a hard time losing weight for some mysterious reason. AHA!

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