Individual Responses to High Fat Diets

Research being done in Toulouse with mice eating high-fat diets is very intriguing. Some mice on a high-fat diet get diabetes and remain thin, and others remain thin and do not get diabetes. The difference between the two genetically identical groups is the make-up of their gut flora. When the diabetic mice are fed a diet higher in fiber, their gut flora begins to resemble that of the non-diabetic mice. While this research is intriguing, you can't jump from mice to humans because their gastrointestinal systems are dissimilar. However, we can say that diet affects the gut flora, and that the gut flora does play a role in food absorption, and then possibly metabolism down the line.