Job vacancies

This excellent literature review in The Economist surveys recent research into the role of bacteria in your gut (your microbiome) on your personal gravitas. The bottom line appears to be that a high sugar diet (glucose in particular) influences the character of the little organisms residing in your intestines. That character, in turn, influences your propensity to be obese, or to have other metabolic woes like diabetes.

Image credit: Nature Magazine

Dr Gordon of Washington University in St Louis coined the term "job vacancies" to refer to a dearth of helpful bacteria in a (typically obese) person's microbiome. Clearly, its real. Science magazine doesn't make a habit of publishing rubbish. But this avenue of inquiry exposes a massive rift in the collective mind of the typical American -- a rift of which anyone with a Trail Jones is aware.

What is it? The single-minded, obsessive focus on what you eat. You are what you eat. Eat only brown rice. Eat green leafy vegetables. One pill makes you larger, the other pill makes you small. I'm a vegetarian. I'm a vegan. I eat a paleolithic diet! I've given up alcohol. I never eat sugar; Mayor Bloomberg told me not to! You should try a juice fast. Detoxing is so rad.

Folks, you are kidding yourselves. Life requires balance, and the flip side of eating is exertion. Focus only on consumption and it will probably consume you. Focus on consumption AND exertion, maybe you'll find some zen. But exertion may as well be a four letter word for a lot of people. Why else is it a perennial new year's resolution? I'm gonna join the Gym this year. Statistics show you'll be done before the ides of February. That's sad... because getting out on an adventure, in addition to counting as exertion, is a damn good time.

Summary: "Job vacancies" of the microbiome are undoubtedly a correlated and central problem amongst obese people. But its not just "food, bacteria and genetics" as the Economist summarizes. Dig a little deeper and you'll see an even larger number of "job vacancies" in counting the number of people who are prepared to sweat a few drops in their leisure time.

Parting Shot: 18 years old, 5 weeks into a hike on the Appalachian Trail, I rolled into a small river resort in North Carolina. Starving, as usual, down to my last Jackson, I splurged on an over-priced pint of Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia. Did I mention I'm allergic to dairy? The usual result of overexposure for me is a headache, stomach bloating and crankiness. Screw it, right?. As it turned out, it was a phenomenal experience. I didn't know cherries could taste so good. I never loved the dead, but Jerry and I had a moment there, over that pint. I had to lie down for 20 minutes to let it digest. Then I floated on down the trail.

postscript, Dr G, consider putting your caged mice on the treadmill - if not for the mice, for the Nature paper you'll likely get out of it :)