Turns out human infants are the fattest of any mammal, even more than marine seal pups! Click on the image to read Chris Kuzawa’s “Adipose Tissue in Human Infancy and Childhood: An Evolutionary Perspective”

Here is a video lecture by Chris Kuzawa that he delivered at Yale in 2008. I recommend you watch this.  If you want to watch it (click the link and go to April 17 10:00-12:00 section), you will need Real Player or Media Player to watch the videos. Click here and scroll down on this site and click on Chris Kuzawa’s Talk. As an extra bonus you can also watch David Haig’s excellent lecture on genetic imprinting on Prader Willi syndrome and Angelman syndrome. 

For your writing assignment you should read Cani and Delzenne. For your writing assignment, please answer the following question:

Writing assignment: Evidence suggests that a high fat diet changes the composition of the gut microbes. Please explain the effect of eating vegetables and whole grains (high fiber diet) on gut bacteria and the gut’s ability to keep bacteria and their breakdown products where they belong (in the gut).  Explain also why eating a double meat double cheese Lotaburger with fries might be bad for your gut.

1 point extra credit (no more than 1/2 page): We have discussed how maternal delivery of resources to the fetus  (resulting in a big baby or a small baby) can result in developmental programming that can lead to diabetes and obesity down the line. It is also true that maternal nutrient transfer to offspring does not end with birth; it continues with breastfeeding. Knowing this, speculate on the effect of breastfeeding on a baby’s likelihood of developing later obesity and diabetes. Defend your answer.

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Joe Alcock

Emergency Physician, Educator, Researcher, interested in the microbiome, evolution, and medicine