Have you ever counted calories, sworn off dairy, or purchased an Atkins meal only to find that your diet of choice had little to no effect? These bacteria outnumber human cells by 10 times and have 100 times as many genes as the entire human genome. In 2007, the completion of Human Microbiome Project, a five-year endeavor aimed at identifying microbial communities and the relationship between the microbiome and human health, greatly expanded our knowledge of the human microbiome. For example, one key study inoculated mice with microbes from the guts of lean and obese humans. The mice given obese microbes gained weight, while those given lean microbes did not.

Source: Forbes November 23, 2016 15:51 UTC