How to become a big eater

The emergence of big eaters became popular after eating broadcasts came into our view, and we will find that many big eaters are girls. They ate huge bowls of food during the live broadcast. People watching felt their appetites whetted at first, but felt full by the end. However, the big eaters continued to eat. We are often impressed by the eating abilities of big eaters, but how are they made into big eaters?

Many studies have shown that obesity is closely related to intestinal flora. As an indispensable "functional organ" of the human body, the intestinal flora contains more than 1,000 species of bacteria, accounting for more than 10 times the total number of human cells. They are mainly involved in the human body's nutrition, metabolism, immunity and other processes. They are one of the most important factors affecting human health. More and more studies have shown that imbalance of intestinal flora can cause diseases such as obesity.

Researchers at the University of Washington in the United States conducted experiments on genetically obese mice and found that compared with lean mice, the intestinal flora of obese mice underwent significant changes, with the number of Firmicutes increasing significantly and the number of Bacteroidetes decreasing[5]. Experiments on diet-induced obese mice also showed that the intestinal flora of mice changed significantly before and after the diet. In addition, high-throughput sequencing showed that among the microbial genes associated with obesity, 75% were from the Actinobacteria phylum and 25% were from the Firmicutes phylum; among the biological genes associated with lean body mass, the Bacteroidetes phylum accounted for 42%[3]. This is consistent with the results of human group experiments, that is, obese patients have an increase in the number of Firmicutes and a decrease in the number of Bacteroidetes.

Does a high-calorie diet lead to changes in intestinal flora, thereby promoting the occurrence of obesity?

To uncover the mystery, researchers conducted experiments on germ-free mice, including high-calorie diet and fecal microbiota transplantation (transplanting fecal processed products from specific mice into the intestines of germ-free mice to enable the latter to establish intestinal flora). The results showed that when fed the same high-calorie diet, the germ-free mice did not gain weight, while the normal mice gained weight and their intestinal flora also changed. After the germ-free mice were transplanted with feces from normal, obese, and malnourished mice, they developed the same weight characteristics as the donor mice [2]. It can be seen from this that the occurrence of obesity seems to have nothing to do with food energy intake, but is related to intestinal flora. Later, Turnbaugh from the University of Washington confirmed that a high-calorie diet would cause changes in intestinal flora. By intervening in the diet of germ-free mice transplanted with healthy human fecal bacteria, switching from a low-fat, plant polysaccharide diet to a high-fat, high-calorie diet, they found that the intestinal flora of the mice changed within 1 day [6]. This shows that there is a close relationship between high-calorie diet, intestinal flora and obesity.