Obesity: Why are we getting fat? :epizza:

[Mercedes Benzene]

It's weird. I do not usually feel full until I have finished eating. It could be 5 minutes or an hour, and isn't really dependant on how much I eat. That isn't to say that I don't ever feel "stuffed" or "full", but it seems that my body adapts to the time it takes me to eat a particular meal.

[HydrogenBond]

There is a principle in science called the conservation of energy. Energy can neither be created or destroyed. Relative to obesiety, being over or under weight, if the energy input is greater than the energy output one will put on weight.

Something like a virus or a sedate life style can cause the metabolism to slow down such that average energy output can decrease relative to other people. But one can balance this by adjusting the energy input. In other words, if I eat 1500 calories and burn 1500 calories it is physically impossible to gain weight (besides something like water weight).

If one does not want to adjust their energy input, because of all the tasty vittels, than they need to increase their energy output. This can be done via increasing the proportion of lean muscle tissue.

Let give me an example. Picture a pickup truck towing a gas storage tank. The overflow to the pick-up goes into the storage tank. If I have a 20 gallon tank but add 22 gallons every time I fill, I will begin to collect gas in the tank. This makes the pickup and tank heavier with time, causing my mile per gallon to drop. This means I have to fill up more often because I burning more gas ( I am hungry more often), overfilling with each fillup. The collected gas is saved fuel. One needs to run another line from the tank back to the pick-up. Just underfill for a while to use up the stored gas. This will make one lighter requiring fewer and fewer fillups

[Michaelangelica]

Omega 3 ADHD
Just a few years ago, no one was paying much attention to a polyunsaturated fatty acid called Omega-3. But then we found out that a lack of it could be making us fat. High Omega-3 means a rapid metabolism and a slim waistline. Low Omega-3 on the other hand means a sluggish metabolism, and an ensuing battle of the bulge. And you guessed it: Western diets are low in Omega-3.

But now researchers are posing an even more momentous question: could a lack of Omega-3 not only be making us fat, could it be making us sick as well? Studies going on right now are testing whether taking doses of Omega-3 can reduce symptoms of diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, ADHD, depression, and cardiovascular disease to name just a few. So far preliminary results have been encouraging.

REPORTER: Maryke Steffens

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/promo.htm

[ronthepon]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

Omega 3 ADHD
Just a few years ago, no one was paying much attention to a polyunsaturated fatty acid called Omega-3. But then we found out that a lack of it could be making us fat. High Omega-3 means a rapid metabolism and a slim waistline. Low Omega-3 on the other hand means a sluggish metabolism, and an ensuing battle of the bulge. And you guessed it: Western diets are low in Omega-3.

But now researchers are posing an even more momentous question: could a lack of Omega-3 not only be making us fat, could it be making us sick as well? Studies going on right now are testing whether taking doses of Omega-3 can reduce symptoms of diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, ADHD, depression, and cardiovascular disease to name just a few. So far preliminary results have been encouraging.

REPORTER: Maryke Steffens

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/promo.htm

Interesting, about the Omega-3. I have come across some cooking oils here that boast a high level of Omega-3

[HydrogenBond]

Another angle on obesity is the efficiency of the digestive system. For example, if one eats 2000 calories, but the body only takes 1500 before the waste is expelled, that person would gain less weight than someone who has a more effeicient digestive system so it can get the whole 2000 calories. Obese people may have very efficient digestive systems.

This may be a new weight loss angle. Somehow lower the efficiency of the digestive system so one can gain less caloric value from eating.

Along those lines, there are certain foods that the body tends to retain longer because of their concentrated food value. The slow digestion of such food objects, may cause other foods, eaten at the same time, to be more fully processed than normal.

The rate of absroption is also dependant on how fine the food is chewed or preprocessed. If one gulps down large chunks this could have two affects. If a perseon is on a digestive time cycle, they will get less food value. If their body is very efficient, this will slow the whole works, maybe even giving enough time to digest some otherwise indigestable things.

This is a crappy subject, but even constipation and laxitives will have an impact on the amount of time allowed for digestive processing. If one at a laxitive after every meal they would gain low food value from food.

If anyone wants to research the angle, they are welcome to it.

[InfiniteNow]

Wouldn't one then need to eat more to receive the same nutritional value, hence negating the benefit of having a less efficient nutritional system?

I'm not sure, but thought it was worth pointing out.

[HydrogenBond]

A less efficient digestive system could lead to less nutritional value from food, but a simple multiple vitamin suppliment would solve that. Extra weight is not stored nutritional value, but energy value.

The energy value of being overweight raises an interesting consideration. Under conditions of famine an efficient digestive system and plenty of extra weight would give one selective advantage. This would suggest another aspect of obesity, i.e., body is sensing famine, in a time of plentiful food. This situation is similar to a bear that gouges during time of abundance so it has food reserves for hybernation (state of famine).

Often the unconscious mind works in symbols, with the famine meaning something figuratively the same. The symbol comes to the surface as one thing, but is really referring to something analogous in the environment.

The orginal question of why we are getting fat, may symbolize the affects of modern culture of people. Society is fairly shallow with superfiscial trimmings more important than inner worth like character. If knowledge was food, the superfiscial trimmings are essentially fast food or junk food. It is all prepared for us for quick eating, the goal of which is ego-inflation.

We are in an information age. But information is data. Data is useless unless it is processed further into useful correlations. Culture appears to be generating so much data, that it can only massage the data fast food style. Part of the fast food appeal is the entertainment factor. The food is prepared as much to entertain us as it is to inform us. It is not natural food but processed food. People may be sensing a famine of good thought food. This is becoming conscious by gaining weight, which is a symbol in anticipation of a intellectual hybernation approaching. Or normal mental activity to process one's metal food is being replaced by prepared food with too much sugar (entertainment) and fat (fluffy data).

Most of the fat is coming from statistical studies. Although statisticc has value in science, in the social arena it often leads to useless results. A good example are polls. They rarely reflect the reality but can be manipulated to get the result someone wants. That makes good entertainment, i.e, fat and sugar.

[Michaelangelica]

[QUOTE=HydrogenBond]Another angle on obesity is the efficiency of the digestive system.
The rate of absroption is also dependant on how fine the food is chewed or preprocessed.
If their body is very efficient, this will slow the whole works, maybe even giving enough time to digest some otherwise indigestable things.
If one at a laxitive after every meal they would gain low food value from food.
[QUOTE]
I agree
That means the fattest people have the most efficient digestive system
-all else being equal.

I think laxatives do more harm than good.
In the first half of last century it was common for children to be given laxatives to "clean them out' or 'keep them healthy'.
The philosophy still lingers on in colonic irrigation.

People who suffered this regime as a child often have stuffed, slow digestive systems now.

[EWright]

But you all realize that gastric bypass surgery cuts that old virus right out of there... so it must exist in the lining of the stomach! So therefore maybe if obese people get a stomach replacement from a dead skinny person who donated their organs, they'll be cured!!!

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by EWright

But you all realize that gastric bypass surgery cuts that old virus right out of there... so it must exist in the lining of the stomach! So therefore maybe if obese people get a stomach replacement from a dead skinny person who donated their organs, they'll be cured!!!

LOL!!
m