Description

Eat less, move more. That’s been the mantra of the weight loss movement for decades. But as those who have fought the battle of the bulge will tell you, there’s a lot more to obesity than just too much junk food or too little willpower. Even when genes are taken into account, scientists have struggled to explain why one person can eat cake and stay skinny, while another munches on carrots and can’t shed a pound.Now, exciting new research reveals there is a missing piece to the obesity puzzle, one that is highly complex and intensely personal: gut microbes.Inside our intestines, there’s an entire ecosystem – our own “inner rainforest” – made up of microorganisms so small that millions could fit into the eye of a needle. But these tiny bugs that live in our gut are proving key to human health and the obesity epidemic.In It Takes Guts we’ll explore the links between microbes, diet and weight. We’ll discover surprising new information about the food we eat, and the food our microbes love to munch on. And we’ll meet the researchers who are applying what they’ve learned in the lab to their everyday lives, and experimenting on themselves.Web page: http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episodes/it-takes-guts