Washington, March 8 (IANS) Excess caloric consumption is not only a result of indisciplined eating but intestinal bacteria contribute to changes in appetite and metabolism, says latest research.

It was found in a research that increased appetite and insulin resistance can be transferred from one mouse to another via intestinal bacteria.

The finding strengthens the case that intestinal bacteria can contribute to human obesity and metabolic disease, since previous research has shown that intestinal bacterial populations differ between obese and lean humans.

'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,' says senior study author Andrew Gewirtz, associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Emory University School of Medicine.

'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,' Gewirtz says, according to an Emory release.

These findings were published online by Science.