Do My Microbes Make Me Fat? Potential for the Gut Microbiota to Influence Energy Balance, Obesity and Metabolic Health in Humans

Abstract

In the last two chapters, we have seen that the composition of the gut microbial community responds to dietary change and that the microbiota contribute to the fermentation and transformation of dietary fibre. The gut microbiota also process other dietary components (fats and proteins) and interact with host cells, giving them the potential to influence many aspects of human nutrition and health. The possibility that our gut microbiota influence obesity and metabolic disease (diabetes) has been particularly topical in view of the increasing challenges posed by these conditions. We will start here by looking at the direct contribution of our microbiota to the recovery of energy from the diet, before moving on to consider the more complex interactions that occur with human physiology and metabolism.