A CNN.com reported a recent study by the University of Washington's Center for Genome Sciences [1] has found that "microbial component" appears to contribute to obesity. Basically researchers found that obese humans had a lower percentage of a family of bacteria called Bacteroidetes and more of a type of bacteria called Firmicutes in the gut.

What is still unclear is if the Firmicutes grow as a result of being obese or if being obese is a result of having more Firmicutes, however figuring this out could mean major progress in the fight against obesity in the United States and malnutrition in third world countries.