Memories of the 28th Century

Note: I had written a blog on how to solve the Middle East Crisis, but that was too controversial, so the following is being posted instead.


I have gotten the impression that there is a great deal of concern with the number of people who are obese; although the people who are concerned with the level of obesity tend not to be obese, and indeed there are obese people who are completely unconcerned with the situation, but the causes and cure for obesity are relativity simple in most cases. While there are some people who have glandular problems that lead to obesity, and there are some other medical conditions that can also lead to obesity, but in most cases it is caused by more nutrients being absorbed in the gut than are used metabolically. While the mix of intestinal flora certainly is not the cause for this in all cases, but changing the mix of intestinal flora can cure obesity in many cases, and this cure would require little or no change in eating habits.

It has been shown scientifically that different sets of flora will result in different amounts of various nutrients being absorbed. A twin study in Africa found that one of a pair of twins developed Kwashiorkor, while the other, who had different flora did not develop Kwashiorkor. The two had the same diet and living conditions, and after flora were transferred from the unaffected twin to the other, he recovered from Kwashiorkor. Obese people could be treated similarly.

We would introduce to the guts of the obese flora that are known to consume nutrients and leave residue that could not be retained by the body. The procedure would be as follows: First, we would have to kill off most of the regular flora. This could be done with a synthetic antibiotic or with garlic or another dietary antibiotic. When the gut was cleared of flora we would introduce a collection of flora that would contain flora that would consume carbohydrates, sugars and starches, before they could be absorbed, and the residue would be CO2 and C2H6O; neither of which can be converted to fat. The CO2 would be voided, while the C2H6O would be metabolized immediately and the residue would be more CO2 and H2O.

Admittedly there would be a drawback to this method, all that CO2 would be vented as gas, and most people find that embarrassing and unpleasant, but a little embarrassment is a small price to pay compared to a life being obese. On the other hand there would be that advantage of having all that C2H6O, ethyl alcohol. One could arrange one's eating habits to take advantage of the byproduct of the obesity cure at convenient times. In fact, it is possible that some people have been using this method for generations.

Alas, this method for curing obesity may be subject abuse, because C2H6O can cause intoxication. Alternatively, it could be looked upon as a cheap way to get drunk. Because of the nature of this method, there would be no drinking, so one could become drunk without anyone noticing the process, and it probably would cost considerably less than buying alcoholic beverages. The two items that would have to be taken to prepare the gut would be fairly inexpensive, perhaps five dollars each, and the rest would simply be eating a meal. One might want to change one’s eating habits a little, because a high carbohydrate diet would result in more alcohol.