Wan-Hui Liao’s Paper in Cell Metabolism

Diet-induced thermogenesis (DIT) has often been argued to be a physiological defense against obesity, but no empirical proof of its effectiveness in limiting human body weight gain is available. We here propose an immune explanation of DIT, i.e., that it results from the coevolution of host and gut microbiota (especially Firmicutes) that ferment ingested food and proliferate, causing periodic, vagally-mediated increases in thermogenesis aimed at curtailing their expansion. Because of this evolutionary adaptive significance related to the immune system, DIT is not effective as an “adaptation” to maintain a certain body mass. See the figure for a graphic summary of the proposed mechanisms and read the paper on external page PubMed.