Obesity: Why are we getting fat? :epizza:

[Michaelangelica]

The fat gene

 

listen now | download audio

 

In the past 10 years, people have become heavier. Carrying more weight causes disease later in life. The best advice is to eat less and run more. But achieving this is difficult. So work is underway to find a pill which controls a recently discovered gene which controls weight. Presently it is unknown how the gene controls body weight.

 

Guests

 

Frances Ashcroft

Professor of Physiology Oxford University

Frances Ashcroft — Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics

The fat gene - Science Show - 8 November 2008

[charles brough]

We agree that there are multiple causes: genetic and viral susceptibility, not enough exercise . . . Other contributing factors: we eat rich, overly-processed junk foods. Still another is that researches show that, in animals, stress causes weight gain. We live with more stress than a half century ago.

[Michaelangelica]

Fast Food: Just Another Name for Corn

Chemical analysis from restaurants across the United States shows that nearly every cow or chicken used in fast food is raised on a diet of corn, prompting fresh criticism of the government's role in subsidising poor eating habits.

. . .

"We have a new President taking his place in the White House. It's a great opportunity to rearrange agricultural policy and to think about obesity," she said. "This study shows that it comes down in a lot of ways to one product."

Fast Food: Just Another Name for Corn | Wired Science from Wired.com

 

Corn is the only plant that cannot reproduce itself without man.

[Moontanman]

Fast Food: Just Another Name for Corn | Wired Science from Wired.com

 

Corn is the only plant that cannot reproduce itself without man.

 

Whats the problem with corn? I love sweet corn on the cob and corn bread and just plain corn, I grew up on a dirt farm in the mountains of WV we grew acres of corn, we feed all the animals corn, even the horse ate corn. Why is corn so bad?

[Michaelangelica]

Whats the problem with corn? I love sweet corn on the cob and corn bread and just plain corn, I grew up on a dirt farm in the mountains of WV we grew acres of corn, we feed all the animals corn, even the horse ate corn.

Why is corn so bad?

Corn syrup is implicated in obesity. Google obesity and 'corn syrup' for many references.

Because industry lobbies are heavily involved in food advertisng and research, and there is much money at stake, there is a lot of 'argy bargy' going on.

But if farmers use corn to make animals fatter quicker; and we humans are animals. . .then. .?

e.g..This article is well worth a read

Almost all nutritionists finger high fructose corn syrup consumption as a major culprit in the nation's obesity crisis

. . .

"One of the issues is the ease with which you can consume this stuff," says Carol Porter, director of nutrition and food services at UC San Francisco. "It's not that fructose itself is so bad, but they put it in so much food that you consume so much of it without knowing it."

A single 12-ounce can of soda has as much as 13 teaspoons of sugar in the form of high fructose corn syrup. And because the amount of soda we drink has more than doubled since 1970 to about 56 gallons per person a year, so has the amount of high fructose corn syrup we take in. In 2001, we consumed almost 63 pounds of it, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

 

The USDA suggests most of us limit our intake of added sugar -- that's everything from the high fructose corn syrup hidden in your breakfast cereal to the sugar cube you drop into your after-dinner espresso -- to about 10 to 12 teaspoons a day. But we're not doing so well. In 2000, we ate an average of 31 teaspoons a day, which was more than 15 percent of our caloric intake. And much of that was in sweetened drinks.

 

Beyond soda

 

So, the answer is to just avoid soda, right? Unfortunately, it's not that simple, because the inexpensive, versatile sweetener has crept into plenty of other places -- foods you might not expect to have any at all. A low-fat, fruit-flavored yogurt, for example, can have 10 teaspoons of fructose-based sweetener in one serving.

Because high fructose corn syrup mixes easily, extends shelf-life and is as much as 20 percent cheaper than other sources of sugar, large-scale food manufacturers love it. It can help prevent freezer burn, so you'll find it on the labels of many frozen foods. It helps breads brown and keeps them soft, which is why hot dog buns and even English muffins hold unexpected amounts.

 

The question remains just how much more dangerous high fructose corn syrup is than other sugars.

. . .

The process of pulling sugar from cornstarch wasn't perfected until the early 1970s, when Japanese researchers developed a reliable way to turn cornstarch into syrup sweet enough to compete with liquid sugar

. . .

fructose ... is about the furthest thing from natural that one can imagine, let alone eat."

. . .

"

Sugar coated / We're drowning in high fructose corn syrup. Do the risks go beyond our waistline?

"Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity". American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 79 (4): 537–543

 

Conventionally raised cows and chicken are generally fed corn that has been ... corn is cheap and high in calories, meaning the animals get fatter faster

I am not making any value judgements about corn. "Just the facts mam"

 

A pity, I think, some of the older varieties with colours and pytochemical anti-oxidants have been replaced by sweeter and sweeter hybrids.

 

The history of the appearance of sweet corn in gardens shows it to be quite modern. In the New England Farmer, Aug. 3, 1822, it is said, "a writer in the Plymouth paper asserts that sweet corn was not known in new England until a gentleman of that place, who was in Gen. Sullivan's expedition against the Indians in 1779, brought a few ears to Plymouth, which he found among the Indians on the border of the Susquehannah."

Zea Mays, Corn, Maize, Gramineae - FOOD RESOURCE - OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

 

Corn has now become a staple food crop for just about everything. The widespread use of corn syrup is highly correlated with rising obesity rates. Not that that proves anything by itself. However animal studies seem to confirm its effects on increasing appetite and fattening animals.

 

What happens when we eat these corn fed animals is another question.

ie

Corn fed animals facilitated the up-sizing of Big Macs and Chicken ...

http://www.dawnazon.com/obesity.doc

[charles brough]

Michaelangelo, you have presented a great case for how the food processing and food service industry is messing up a good product. I forgot if you had also mentioned the genetic engineering, but still, the question asked was what is wrong with corn? Nothing, it is what we are doing to it.

 

After all, it was and still is the staple of the New World and has been for over 2,000 years.

[Michaelangelica]

this links with the 'marijuana as medicine' thread

But when it comes to that middle choice, the most promising class of new prescription medicines for treating long-term obesity has just been wiped out.

 

The three scratched drugs belong to a group called cannabinoid receptor antagonists.

 

They take on the same target in the central nervous system as marijuana. But instead of sharpening appetite — the “munchies” associated with smoking cannabis — they work in reverse, dulling the urge to eat.

The Times - Search for obesity drug is golden

[paigetheoracle]

this links with the 'marijuana as medicine' thread

 

The Times - Search for obesity drug is golden

 

The search for an easy answer - surgery, drugs - rather than give up your drug of choice and stop the reaction yourself, that causes the bloating reaction that makes us overweight. Sadly it cannot be done by those of little will power, especially when others collude with them and their victim mentality...

 

O Tempora! O Mores! (See art thread by me on this subject, in Watercooler section).

[Michaelangelica]

The search for an easy answer - surgery, drugs - rather than give up your drug of choice and stop the reaction yourself, that causes the bloating reaction that makes us overweight. Sadly it cannot be done by those of little will power, especially when others collude with them and their victim mentality...

 

O Tempora! O More

I have spent 39 pages of hypography web space trying to convince people that there is more to it than the prejudicial meme you have just expressed.

 

I think I will give up.:)

[paigetheoracle]

I have spent 39 pages of hypography web space trying to convince people that there is more to it than the prejudicial meme you have just expressed.

 

I think I will give up.:)

 

Why not, I have!;)

[charles brough]

It seems that this thread has been about what CAUSES obesity, why we have this problem---not how to solve it or how the individual can lose weight.

 

Seems to me scattered among the other posts, nearly every cause has been listed.

 

Maybe we should give upon this now as you say!

 

 

charles

[pamela]

Paige, come on here......

Michaelangelica has gone to great lengths to inform us....

Are you svelt? in great shape?

Have you ever had a thyroid problem or been on mood disorder or antiseizure medications? they all cause weight gain

I get tired of people commenting on my son's weight as if he is an overeater or I am a unconcerned parent.His medications have cost him about 25# which is alot for a twelve year old. I feed him very healthy foods and limit overconsumption. His exercise is getting better,it has been difficult due to the weight. Yes, he gets criticized, and you know what i tell him

If you don't like the way i look, then don't look at me. My self esteem does not depend on your views but my own.

It is not about self control-trust me, we strive to control this uncontrollable problem-should i have him skinny and constant seizures all for vanities sake? I think not.

[Moontanman]

Michaelangelo, you have presented a great case for how the food processing and food service industry is messing up a good product. I forgot if you had also mentioned the genetic engineering, but still, the question asked was what is wrong with corn? Nothing, it is what we are doing to it.

 

After all, it was and still is the staple of the New World and has been for over 2,000 years.

 

My grandfather, who was Native American, grew his own special sweet corn. He used seeds from the ears that he thought were the best over much of his life. His sweet corn when dried for seed, would often have large crystals of sugar inside the seeds, the seeds would be clear with sugar. the corn was a deep yellow almost orange. The ears were smaller than commercial corn but no better eating corn was to be found anywhere. He also grew many acres of field corn to feed the animals with but his sweet corn, and tomatoes, and other vegetables he grew from seeds saved from year to year were great tasting and I would assume healthy as well. He developed his own vegetables by simply using his own knowledge and farming techniques known and used for centuries by farmers everywhere. No giant seed companies were needed.

[charles brough]

Yes, we are now doing things to corn and other foods that cause them to have less taste and less healthful. I am particularly concerned about the genetic engineering of the corn.

 

charles

[Moontanman]

Yes, we are now doing things to corn and other foods that cause them to have less taste and less healthful. I am particularly concerned about the genetic engineering of the corn.

 

charles

 

I am not the least bit worried about GM crops. Yes GM has potential risks but it has far more potential good. It's only a faster way of doing what we have been doing with crops since the beginning of agriculture.

[charles brough]

I am not the least bit worried about GM crops. Yes GM has potential risks but it has far more potential good. It's only a faster way of doing what we have been doing with crops since the beginning of agriculture.

 

of course, we know all that.

[pamela]

I am equally concerned Charles, after reading the effects of the flavr savr tomato

I gotta wonder about the plant not dying as a result of over spraying of pesticides and how much of those pesticides have leached into the corn: it just doesn't seem safe to me