Belly fat is more than just stubborn weight – it plays a complex role in our health, interacting with the immune system and gut bacteria. But could gut microbes hold the key to understanding and managing belly fat?
In this episode, Dr. Suzanne Devkota, Director of the Microbiome Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai, shares groundbreaking findings on how gut bacteria interact with belly fat. Tim Spector, professor of epidemiology and scientific co-founder at ZOE, also joins the conversation to explain how the diversity of your gut bacteria affects weight and overall health.
Together, our guests share surprising ways the microbiome influences fat storage and offer practical tips for supporting gut health.
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Timecodes
00:00 The risks of internal fat
01:45 Quickfire questions
03:12 What is belly fat?
04:30 How dangerous is internal fat?
05:44 How our body uses belly fat
16:20 Groundbreaking study on gut bacteria
21:05 These gut bacteria live in your fat tissue
24:50 Gut health and your immune system
31:58 Why microbes are essential to survive
38:30 Why gut health starts at birth
46:40 The importance of sampling your gut microbes
50:50 Two changes you can make right now
53:02 Easy fermented eating tips
55:10 Why not all pickles are fermented
📚Books by our ZOE Scientists
The Food For Life Cookbook
Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati
Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector
Free resources from ZOE
Live Healthier: Top 10 Tips From ZOE Science & Nutrition
Gut Guide - For a Healthier Microbiome in Weeks
Mentioned in today's episode
Translocation of Viable Gut Microbiota to Mesenteric Adipose Drives Formation of Creeping Fat in Humans (2020), published in Cell
Our extended microbiome: The human-relevant metabolites and biology of fermented foods (2024), published in Cell Metabolism
Effects of a personalized nutrition program on cardiometabolic health: a randomized controlled trial (2024), published in Nature
Heritable components of the human fecal microbiome are associated with visceral fat (2016) published in Genome Biology
Dissecting the role of the gut microbiota and diet on visceral fat mass accumulation (2019), published in Scientific Reports
Have feedback or a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know here.
Episode transcripts are available here.