Gut infections keep mice lean

Bacteria can invade one rodent from another, preventing both from getting fat

fat and skinny mouse

MICROBE DIET  Mice fed microbes from obese people tend to gain fat. Microbes from lean people protect mice from excessive weight gain, even when animals eat a high-fat, low-fiber diet.

Kay Chernush/Getty Images; Kuttelvaserova Stuchelova/Shutterstock

Skinniness could be contagious. Gut bacteria from thin people can invade the intestines of mice carrying microbes from obese people.