Obesity: Why are we getting fat? :epizza:

[HydrogenBond]

I was not being hateful. Like I said, at one time overweight people were the envy of their culture, because it meant propsperity or money for excess food. Nowadays, with food so cheap and plentiful, it does not pack the same level of prestige. Science has also broken the prosperity myth by pointing out that it is counter productive to health.

I used the silly virus analysis because I was trying to show the something for nothing or nothing can be done mentality that is preventing people from taking responsiblity for their health. There is a tendancy to use these as excuses to do nothing until someone comes up with something that allows one to do nothing and still get results.

Energy in = energy out + weight gain. This is a simple energy balance. Energy out has many factors; exercise level, rate of metabolism, digestive effeciency, etc. Things one can control in the equation is energy in and exercise so the equation ends up with zero weight gain or weight loss. Metabolism and digestive effecinecy are harder to control due to factors like virus and DNA. But the equation still has many parameters under the control of the individual.

[Southtown]

People can eat all day long and still die of malnutrition.

Processed foods have all the nutrition stripped out because that part is perishable. Shelf-life is of course more important that people-life.

Preservatives cease to be beneficial once they are digested. Sodium nitrate, which is in every piece of meat you buy, is injected into lab mice so that they will get cancer, which scientist then try to cure.

Animals that die of disease are ground up and fed to others of the same species. (I lived in Texas when the ranchers sued Oprah.) Not to mention the hormones: early pubescence? behavioral disease?

http://www.honestfoodguide.org/downl...tFoodGuide.pdf
http://www.mostuff.net/pdfs/GroceryWarningv2.pdf
http://www.cnn.com/US/9802/26/oprah....ref=sitesearch

[Michaelangelica]

NOW for the good (?) news!
http://rudicusreport.com/?p=313

But now we have a new miracle on the horizon, resveratrol.
In a study by Harvard and the National Institute on Aging, resveratrol(the key compound in Red Wine) was found to counteract health problems in obese mice.

In other words, they could eat whatever crap they like and still be healthy.

The kicker was that while their disease rate plummeted, they were all still fat.

[Michaelangelica]

The bad

One bag of potato chips (approximately 226 grams) has roughly 1,217 calories. That's 60 per cent of the suggested 2,000 calorie per day diet from one bag of chips alone - beer and whiskey not included.
The 78.5 grams of fat is close to what the Canada Food Guide recommends as a daily intake (65 grams for women and 90 grams for men). For a 170-pound man, it would take three hours of vigorous exercise just to burn off one bag of chips.

and the good

But enough chip bashing.
Instead, let's look at why apples are so darn good for you. Apples, much like other fruits and veggies, contain disease-preventing phytochemicals.
In two separate studies produced by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, researchers found that the old "apple a day" adage held true with regards to prevention of lung cancer.

http://www.excal.on.ca/index.php?opt...=2371&Itemid=2
Good article, worth a read

[Michaelangelica]

Metabolic syndrome helped by Malaria Drug (herb)

Scientists know relatively little about metabolic syndrome, which is linked to a range of symptoms that include obesity, insulin resistance, high blood pressure, low levels of good cholesterol and high blood sugar levels.
The number of adults and children with the condition is rising sharply in industrial countries, and diagnoses are also increasing in developing countries like India and China as they adopt Western standards of living.

In findings published in the November issue of Cell Metabolism, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis,
Tenn. report that a small dose of the malaria drug chloroquine eased many symptoms of metabolic syndrome in mice, reducing blood pressure, decreasing hardening and narrowing of the arteries and improving blood sugar tolerance.

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/525024/?sc=mwtn

[Michaelangelica]

This reseach is very similar to the "Hungerwinter' research, I mentioned earlier. Maternal mal-nutrition in early pregancy can lead to obese male ofspring.
This reseach seems to take it a step further by linking it to overeating as well as to the 'on/off switch' of genes

http://www.ecanadanow.com/science/he...andmother-ate/

New research has shown that you are what your mother and grandmother ate
. . .

This new research from Australia was tested on mice by Sydney researchers. It has shown that food eaten during pregnancy affects at least the next two generations of offspring.

“It’s known that children can be affected by how healthy their mothers are - if she gets too much or too little nutrition during pregnancy, this can have long-reaching effects on their health,” said lead researcher Dr Jennifer Cropley.

“Recent evidence suggests that these effects can also be passed on to the grandchildren, too - but until now, nobody knew how it worked.”

They experimented by adding extra vitamins to the diet of pregnant lab animals.

Tests on offspring found that a gene that causes obesity and diabetes when turned on had been switched off.

Another interesting article:-
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/mo...d/16016401.htm
I will try to find the original research

The idea that we're too fat because we eat too much and exercise too little is based largely on "circumstantial evidence," according to a recent report in the "International Journal of Obesity." Investigators from the University of Alabama point to at least 10 other possible reasons why we are getting too big for our britches. Here are the top three:

• We don't get enough sleep. Studies on animals and humans have shown that too little sleep increases the appetite.. . .. Other studies have found that fewer hours of sleep at night are associated with being overweight.

• We have more air conditioning. As the temperature goes up, appetite goes down and we tend to burn more calories, sa. . In the South where it can get really hot, researchers note that the number of homes with central air conditioning rose from 37 percent to 90 percent over the last 20 years... right along with skyrocketing rates of obesity.

• Disrupted hormones. DDT, PCBs and other industrial chemicals can mess up our metabolism, say scientists. Maybe that's why we're too fat.

I cant' get to the original journal article but there is this:-
http://www.dmt123.com/diet-fitness/1507-dmt123-3.html

10 Causes of Obesity

The researchers put forth these 10 "additional explanations" for obesity:

Sleep debt. Getting too little sleep can increase body weight. Today's Americans get less shut-eye than ever.

Pollution. Hormones control body weight. And many of today's pollutants affect our hormones.

Air conditioning. You have to burn calories if your environment is too hot or too cold for comfort. But more people than ever live and work in temperature-controlled homes and offices.

Decreased smoking. Smoking reduces weight. Americans smoke much less than they used to.

Medicine. Many different drugs -- including contraceptives, steroid hormones, diabetesdiabetes drugs, some antidepressants, and blood pressure drugs -- can cause weight gain. Use of these drugs is on the upswing.

Population age, ethnicity. Middle-aged people and Hispanic-Americans tend to be more obese than young European-Americans. Americans are getting older and more Hispanic.

Older moms. There's some evidence that the older a woman is when she gives birth, the higher her child's risk of obesity. American women are giving birth at older and older ages.

Ancestors' environment. Some influences may go back two generations. Environmental changes that made a grandparent obese may "through a fetally driven positive feedback loop" visit obesity on the grandchildren.

Obesity linked to fertility. There's some evidence obese people are more fertile than lean ones. If obesity has a genetic component, the percentage of obese people in the population should increase.

Unions of obese spouses. Obese women tend to marry obese men. If there are fewer thin people around -- and if obesity has a genetic component -- there will be still more obese people in the next generation.

On the polution thing there is a theory that the body deals with toxins by wrapping them in fat and storing them away. Clorinated Hydrocarbons seem to be especially associated with fat cells. This is why DDT etc can be excreted by females but not by males. The CH's are excreted though the fat in breast milk (see "DDT should it be used" thread)

[Michaelangelica]

Some more research on the foetal environment.
Links up with "hungerwinter" and other posts
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2006/s1793506.htm

Research finds obesity starts in womb
AM - Tuesday, 21 November , 2006 08:14:00
Reporter: Nance Haxton
TONY EASTLEY: Findings from the University of South Australia show that childhood obesity begins much sooner than previously thought, with pregnant mothers potentially programming their children to be predisposed to obesity.

The University's Early Origins of Adult Health Laboratory has conducted research on sheep for the past five years to come to the conclusion that being overexposed to high levels of nutrition before birth can be as damaging as being undernourished.

Nance Haxton spoke to one of the researchers, Beverly Muhlhausler, about the findings.

BEVERLY MUHLHAUSLER: There's a strong relationship between the environment that you're exposed to during ... as a foetus, as a developing foetus, and the risk that you have of developing obesity in later life.

And that increased risk of the babies themselves becoming obese and then becoming pregnant and transferring that risk of obesity to the next generation, is really a very significant issue, and likely to have a major impact on the obesity epidemic that we're seeing at the moment.

NANCE HAXTON: What does this mean for pregnant women? What really do they need to be conscious of?

BEVERLY MUHLHAUSLER: One of the key issues is the levels of glucose in the maternal circulation. So, maternal sugar levels basically.

[Michaelangelica]

Excellent article from Time suggesting the hype about Obesity is being generated by Pharmaceutical companies.

But obesity—defined as a BMI of 30 or greater—is no more a disease than is cigarette smoking or sedentary living. People can be obese but healthy, just as they can be thin and sick.
"It really doesn't make sense to call obesity a disease—it's a risk factor," says Stephen MacMahon, principal director of The George Institute for International Health, in Sydney.
Moreover, it's a risk factor for maladies—heart disease, stroke, and even type 2 diabetes—that strike thin people, too.

So why is it being called a disease? Here, many analysts see the fingerprints of the pharmaceutical industry, which worldwide has more than 20 weight-loss drugs in clinical trials and another 30 in the pipeline.

Bent Out of Shape - TIME South Pacific Magazine, Sep. 18, 2006
Social and genetic factors:-

Skeptics argue that far from being a fact, the obesity epidemic is a potpourri of scientific, moral and ideological assumptions.
One of these—that fat is bad and will eventually make you sick—ignores evidence that high BMI is associated with lower incidence of numerous diseases and syndromes, including some cancers, emphysema, anemia, bronchitis, osteoarthritis and hip fracture.
It also skirts the evidence for fat, in many cases, being little more than a benign marker of an individual's genetic predisposition to carry it

[Michaelangelica]

Now THIN people can be FAT
The World Today - Inner fats pose risk for outwardly thin

GARRY JENNINGS: It's not just the amount of fat that you have overall in your body, it's where you carry it, and we've known for a little while now that there's two kinds, the one that's inside your tummy and the one that's on � the kind that's on the outside. And it's the first that seems to be related to various metabolic diseases and heart disease.

EMILY BOURKE: While the scans were able to identify fat more clearly, the Vice President of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Choong Siew Yong, says the new technology is unlikely to be used on a widespread scale.

CHOONG SIEW YONG: What will happen is that there will be ongoing work to try and find out which sort of people might need to be looked at in this way. So trying to identify which people might be at risk, who aren't obviously obese, but still have high risk factors for diabetes or heart disease, and those people might benefit from having this sort of scanning

.

[Michaelangelica]

Gut microbes may make you fat

Reuters


Thursday, 21 December 2006

Overweight
The way your gut microbes digest food could influence your body weight, scientists say (Image: iStockphoto)
Bacteria in your gut may determine whether you are skinny or obese, according to scientists who say that food, exercise and genetics may not be the only things to influence body weight.

US scientists have discovered that levels of two types of good bacteria in the gut that help to break down foods are different in obese and lean people and mice.

The finding, reported today in the journal Nature, could lead to a better understanding of why some people may be prone to obesity and help find new ways of preventing or treating it.

News in Science - Gut microbes may make you fat - 21/12/2006