This is

This is Scientific American's 60 Second Science. I'm Christopher Intalyata. Got a minute?

This Thanksgiving as you savor your turkey and stuffing

Here's something else to give thanks for. The army of microbes that help you

digest the feast. Because when you eat, you're feeding them too, and triggering an

enormous bloom of gut bacteria. In fact, as many as a billion new E. coli bacteria may come into being during one of those feeding

frenzies. But 20 minutes after that population explosion begins, the bacteria reach critical

mass and put on the breaks. And when they enter

that resting state, they start pumping out a particular suite of proteins.

Researchers harvested those post-prandial proteins from E. Col. coli and added them to the colons of rats.

And the proteins appear to interact with endocrine cells in the gut, flipping on the production

of hormones that tell the brain, hey, stop eating, We're full. Meanwhile, mice injected with the E. coli proteins

over the course of a week ate less at each meal, though they compensated by eating more

often. All of which suggests that the proteins put out by bacteria can influence

and even interfere with our sense of feeling stuffed. The study is in the journal Cell Metabolism.

As far as overeating goes, the researchers say we probably won't

inject people with bacterial appetite suppressants anytime soon, but it might be worth paying

closer attention to the health and composition of our gut bacteria,

since they do appear to play a role in regulating our urge to eat.

So as you're stuffing yourself with stuffing on Thursday, you might ask yourself, what would my gut bacteria want.

Thanks for the minute.

For Scientific Americans 60 Second Science,

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