A new research has disclosed that excess consumption of calories is not only the outcome of indisciplined eating but intestinal bacterium lead to changes in hunger as well as metabolic process.

It was discovered in a study that augmented hunger and insulin resistance can be shifted from one mouse to another through enteric bacteria.

The discovery reinforces the case that intestinal bacteria can cause obesity in human beings and also leas to metabolic disease, since previous study has shown that intestinal bacterial populations are different between overweight and lean humans.

Senior study author Andrew Gewirtz, associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, said, "It has been assumed that the obesity epidemic in the developed world is driven by an increasingly sedentary lifestyle and the abundance of low-cost high-calorie foods."

"However, our results suggest that excess caloric consumption is not only a result of undisciplined eating but that intestinal bacteria contribute to changes in appetite and metabolism," Andrew added.

The study findings were released online by Science. (With Input from Agencies)