Obesity: Why are we getting fat? :epizza:

[maikeru]

Obesity Associated with High Rates of Diabetes in the Pima Indians

 

Study of the Pima Indians.

[Vox]

We eat too much Calories and burn too few Calories , let`s focus on these issues first

[Michaelangelica]

Subway Sandwiches' Secret Ingredient: High Fructose Corn Syrup

Think you’re doing yourself a favor by eating at Subway? Think again.

 

Your nine-grain bread is a fake.

What you’re really downing is a bunch of high fructose corn syrup and…get this…plant fertilizer.

 

Over at Slashfood today, Nichol Nelson broke down what your Subway sandwich really means. And it's not pretty.

 

For starters, the "nine" grains in the bread are technically in there, but that doesn't mean you're getting much of them. In fact, they make up less than 2 percent of the ingredients.Just like white bread, the nine grain bread at Subway is mostly...white flour. Beyond white flour, there is more high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in the bread than the "grains" it's named after. (If you don't know what HFCS can do to your bod, check out this TakePart post.)

 

With all that white flour, how'd the bread get to be so golden brown? Well, with the help of a little compound called ammonium sulfate, added to nourish the yeast until it turns the same shade as Paris Hilton. But at what health cost does your bread look good?

 

Ammonium sulfate is also in plant fertilizer. That can't be good. Kind of makes you worry for Subway dieter Jared's digestive tract...

Subway Sandwiches' Secret Ingredient: High Fructose Corn Syrup | TakePart Social Action Network: Important Issues, Activism, Environmental, Human Rights, Political News

[Michaelangelica]

Weight gain due to antidepressants

 

This is a major problem with almost all currently available antidepressant agents, with a small number of exceptions.

 

The antidepressants available from the 1940s to the 1980s were fundamentally the group of chemicals known as tricyclics. Tricyclic antidepressants are notorious for causing weight gain, especially the antidepressants which simultaneously calmed people down or helped them to sleep. It is very common for people taking this group of antidepressants to gain one to two stone in weight (6 to 12 kilos)!

 

The other old group of antidepressants, known as the irreversible MAO Inhibitors, also caused weight gain, but usually to a lesser degree. However, people taking these medications have to be very careful about eating certain foodstuffs, such as cheese, or taking various other medications, especially cough and cold mixtures, to avoid having a blood vessel burst in their brain.

 

 

 

In the past 20 years, a number of new antidepressants have appeared on the market. The best known group are the SSRIs (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors), of which Prozac is the best known member. Other members of the SSRIs include Lexapro, Zoloft, Aropax, Cipramil and Luvox. However, while it was initially believed that patients taking these antidepressants did not gain weight, experience over the years has shown that about half the people taking these substances will gain weight, and have breast enlargement. The same findings apply to the agent known as an SNRI (serotonin and noradrenaline/ norepinephrine re-uptake inhibitor), sold as the agent Efexor.

. . .

patients describe how their weight increases even when they are extremely strict about their intake of calories / kilojoules. It does seem that antidepressant medications change metabolic pathways within our bodies, so that fat is produced rather than the food simply being used as an immediately available source of energy for daily activities.

Weight gain

At any one time, about 2-3% of the population are taking anti-depressants

We found that patterns of antidepressant utilisation vary according to sociodemographic characteristics. Overall use increased with age, and female utilisation was higher than male utilisation after the age of 15 years. Most notably, SES differences in antidepressant utilisation varied between age groups.

eMJA: Sociodemographic correlates of antidepressant utilisation in Australia

 

Anti depressants also cause IBS

[Vox]

Here are a couple of things to consider - are wild animals fat? What about domesticated animals and civilized humans?

 

Could it be that it is this civilization that is the cause in two major ways?

 

Firstly, we use manpower less and machinery more than even fifty years ago. People use to walk - now they take taxis, buses, trains and drive their own personal vehicles, even to go a few hundred yards down the street. A job once done by a team of men is now done by one person with mechanical assistance. Animals that would have run for miles or scoured over a large area, are now restricted to pens, paddocks and sheds. All of this makes us and our livestock less exercised.

 

Then there is what we imbibe - not only the food we eat but the air we breathe and the liquids we drink, which all draw pollutants into our systems, either accidentally or deliberately (industrial by products or additives). Then there is all the imported foods, spices, supplements etc. (Again our ancestors would have been restricted to local forms of sustenance and even recent agricultural advances have caused intolerances and allergies, in the form of wheat and diary products). The Pima Indians are known to have reacted badly to this change of diet by putting on weight, so why not the rest of the Western World, especially coupled with restricted exercise as per modern man? (Combined diet/ mobility cause).

 

I agree your comments

 

I would also highlight the change what has happened expecially in "Western world". Our stress has been consentrating more and more to the mental stress category and natural stress release mechanisms in physical side (due hardly no excercise) is not in place. Also reduction of sleep is playing role here. Increased Levels of stresshormones in bloodstream is known to increase fat accumulation / storage as body fat

[Michaelangelica]

Gut flora study gives insight into obesity

A UQ academic's research into whether nature or nurture influences the development of gut flora has been published in Nature and may hold the key to understanding obesity.

 

Dr Florent Angly said the fundamental research was significant since some forms of obesity could be caused by the action of microbiota.

 

“It is necessary to include phages, or viral predators, in the discussion of microbial communities to get an accurate understanding of how gut flora complements the digestive process.

 

“This study represents an early step in this direction.

 

“In the future, it is very likely that our improved understanding of the viral and microbial communities residing in our guts will result in better, personalised dietary advice or the creation of nutritional complements such as pro-biotics to improve our health and wellbeing,” Dr Angly said.

 

Dr Angly, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow from UQ's Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC), was part of a team based in California who studied viral (phage) communities in the digestive tracts of mothers and their twin children.

 

Dr Angly said the study showed environmental factors largely shaped viral gut flora, as twins displayed large inter-personal variations.

 

“Twins have an identical genome, so including twins in the study was designed to find out what is more important to determine gut flora, nature (the genome of an individual), or nurture (one's health and dietary habits).

 

Dr Gene Tyson, Senior Research Fellow at the Advanced Water Management Centre, said Dr Angly was an extremely talented researcher and this publication represented another significant contribution to the field of microbial ecology.

 

“Dr Angly joined my group in the AWMC in January and will be our first postdoctoral researcher in a new centre dedicated to environmental genomics and microbial ecology, the Australian Centre for Microbial Systems Ecology," Dr Tyson said.

 

“We are excited to have Dr Angly as a part of our team and look forward to generating further high impact publications.”

 

Director of the AWMC Professor Jurg Keller said this accomplishment confirmed the strength of the staff at the AWMC.

 

“The publication also demonstrates that the research at the AWMC is indeed at the leading edge of scientific discoveries," Dr Keller said.

 

“Getting a publication in Nature is a major achievement for any researcher, and is particularly rewarding for a young scientist such as Dr Angly.

 

“Our strong focus is to foster such ground-breaking scientific discoveries and utilise them to help understanding and addressing practically relevant challenges in the water and environmental biotechnology fields.”

 

Dr Angly's collaborators included Alejandro Reyes, Matthew Haynes, Nicole Hanson, Andrew C Heath, Forest Rohwer and Jeffrey I Gordon.

 

The abstract is online at: Viruses in the faecal microbiota of monozygotic twins and their mothers : Nature : Nature Publishing Group

 

Media: Dr Florent Angly on [email protected] or 07 3346 7211; Abby Campbell at the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology on [email protected] or 07 3346 7696.

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[Michaelangelica]

According to the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),

• America's over- weight/obesity epidemic now affects more than two out of three adults and 16% of children.
  
• Its obese population is now greater than its overweight population with more than 34% of American adults obese.
  

 

These findings are significant and indicate that an individual following a popular diet plan as suggested, with food alone, has a high likelihood of becoming micronutrient deficient; a state shown to be scientifically linked to

an increased risk for many dangerous and debilitating health conditions and diseases.

. . .one study that found an 80.8% increased likelihood of being overweight or obese

in micronutrient deficient subjects [1-4]. In addition, sub- optimal intake of certain micronutrients is an established factor in a multitude of dangerous health conditions and

 

Research article Prevalence of micronutrient deficiency in popular diet plans

JB Calton - 2010

... Centers for Dis- ease Control and Prevention (CDC), America's over- weight/obesity epidemic now ... uniformly raised or lowered, as necessary, so that each plan's unique macronutrient ratio ...Micronutrient deficiency has been shown to cause an 80.8% increase in the likelihood of ...

[Michaelangelica]

Shiftwork, yet another neglected cause of obesity

ABSTRACT

 

Purpose: This narrative review examines the hypothesis that shift work contributes to the major public health problem of obesity and suggests ways in which weight gain might be prevented in those who must work at times outside of the conventional 8-hour daytime work period.

 

Methods: A comprehensive literature review was performed using several relevant electronic databases and print journals.

 

Results: Those who do shift work are at a greater risk for weight gain than those who work daytime hours. The exact mechanism by which this occurs is unknown, although eating and exercise habits as well as the disruption in circadian rhythm appear to contribute.

 

Conclusions: It is imperative that clinicians be aware of the relationship of shift work to obesity and of interventions that can help prevent obesity in those who must work during unconventional hours.

Obesity and Shift Work in the General Population

[Michaelangelica]

Recently the number of obese people on earth exceeded for the first time the number of people who do not get enough to eat [1].

Because the obesity crisis is most dramatic in nations that have escaped from hunger, it is tempting to think of obesity as a consequence of wealth, affecting people who can afford excess food, who do not walk long distances or do physical labour.

Within developed nations, however, obesity is strongly associated with socioeconomic disadvantage [2], [3], [4], [5], and low socioeconomic and educational status seem to have particularly strong effects on obesity rates among women [6], [7], [8].

 

There are enormous differences among countries in obesity rates, from less than one percent of adults in Ethiopia and Cambodia to more than sixty percent of adults in Nauru and the Cook Islands [9].

Much of this variation is associated with differences among countries in economic development and associated phenomena like medical care, urbanisation, education, leisure time and sedentary work.

. . .

far more women are obese than men. As far as we are aware there are no published studies that attempt to explain why countries differ in the size of the male-female obesity gap.

. . .

Our results are consistent with smaller-scale studies that document an association between low income, material deprivation, food insecurity or minority status and increased obesity in women but not (or less often) in men [6], [8], [11], [19], [20].

. . .

Several recent studies across a variety of countries and circumstances from rural Iraqi women to middle-income Mexicans to Americans of all ethnicities and incomes suggest that parity (the number of times a woman has given birth) is positively associated with increased obesity risk [21], [22], [23], [24], [25], [26].

. . .

Our results also suggest that high income inequality within countries may elevate the incidence of obesity in women but not in men,

. . .

our results are also consistent with a recent proposal that selection since the advent of agriculture may have favoured metabolic traits that put women at elevated risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, polycystic ovary syndrome and diabetes [32]. The historic dependence of agrarian societies on a few key seasonal crops exposed them to seasonal food shortages and occasional famine. Strong fertility selection may have made women, particularly pregnant women, more resistant to insulin, thereby protecting the foetus in times of chronic food shortage. As societies have escaped from the severe periodic food shortages typical of agrarian lifestyles, insulin resistance has begun confer a net fitness disadvantage via the metabolic syndrome and obesity.

. . .

PLoS ONE: Sex Differences in Obesity Associated with Total Fertility Rate

[Michaelangelica]

Gut biota affected by diet

Tuesday, 03 August 2010

ABC News

istock_food-junk.jpg

Researchers point to the paradox arising in the

Western world between advances in medical

technology and the rise of conditions induced

by a poor diet.

Image: iStockphoto

 

The researchers compared intestinal bacteria from children in the European Union and young villagers in remote Burkina Faso, and found enough differences to help explain disparities in chronic disease and obesity.

The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may support the development of probiotic products to help restore the ancient balance and keep humans leaner and healthier, the researchers say.

 

"Our results suggest that diet has a dominant role over other possible variables such as ethnicity, sanitation, hygiene, geography, and climate, in shaping the gut microbiota," says Paolo Lionetti of the University of Florence in Italy and colleagues write.

 

"We can hypothesise that the reduction in richness we observe in EU compared with Burkina Faso children, could indicate how the consumption of sugar, animal fat, and calorie-dense foods in industrialised countries is rapidly limiting the adaptive potential of the microbiota."

Gut biota affected by diet*(Science Alert)

 

The study builds on a body of evidence that human health relies heavily on the trillions of microorganisms living in and on our bodies. Only a fraction cause disease directly - many more help digest food, affect other bacteria and may influence hundreds of biological functions.

 

Several recent studies have found that certain bacteria cause inflammation that can affect appetite as well as inflammatory bowel conditions like Crohn's disease and colitis, including a study published in Science in March.

Trading one for another

 

"Western developed countries successfully controlled infectious diseases during the second half of the last century, by improving sanitation and using antibiotics and vaccines," the researchers write.

 

"At the same time, a rise in new diseases such as allergic, autoimmune disorders, and inflammatory bowel disease both in adults and in children has been observed," they add

 

Lionetti's team studied the DNA of the gut bacteria of children in Burkina Faso, who are breast-fed up to age two and eat a diet rich in whole grains such as millet, legumes such as black-eyed peas, and vegetables. They eat very little meat.

 

The Western diet, in contrast, is heavy in meat, processed grains, sugar and fat.

 

The Italian team found the African children had many bacteria that help break down fibre, but the European children were lacking these microbes. The ratios were similar to studies comparing the gut bacteria of lean people to obese people.

 

This bacterial balance could even be causing obesity, the researchers say. It may also be useful to test children for these bacteria to see if they are at high risk of becoming obese, they add.

 

"Reduction in microbial richness is possibly one of the undesirable effects of globalization and of eating generic, nutrient-rich, uncontaminated foods."

Western diet changing gut biota › News in Science (ABC Science)

There is a growing science on the neurobiology of the gut.

We have very recently discovered some amazing tings like:-

1 the gut has its own neuronal system same as the brain

2 the gut brain can act independently from the brain, in fact it can actually countermand instructions from the brain. No other bodily system can do this

3 while the gut brain does not appear as big as the brain, size may not matter.

for example there is growing evidence that the gut communicates with gut biota, these in turn communicate with each other, and again communicate with the gut. A symbiotic system of infinite complexity. So suddenly you have trillions of cells communicating with a phone system that makes the brain look like the first Alexander Grahme Bell Phone, not the iPhone4

 

it is all very fascinating

Does the brain sort the chemicals it wants from our food. ie is it an active rather than a passive force to be acted on only by what we put into it?

If so why does it excrete the vitamins pills we give it-- after it has taken what it needs?

 

with our love of corn there may be problems

The American Indians always ate corn as part of the "Tree Sisters" Diet -corn squash and beans which apparently provides all the amino acids needed by the body. However corn by itself is difficult for us to digest. It may be that it is best digested when taken with squash and beans-- probably rarely done today.

[Michaelangelica]

glutathione homeostasis and obesity

Dysregulation of Adipose Glutathione Peroxidase 3 in Obesity Contributes to Local and Systemic Oxidative Stress

Yun Sok Lee, A Young Kim, Jin Woo Choi, Min Kim, Shintaro Yasue, Hee Jung Son, Hiroaki Masuzaki, Kyong Soo Park and Jae Bum Kim

 

Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics (Y.S.L., A.Y.K., J.W.C., J.B.K.) and Department of Biological Sciences, Research Center for Functional Cellulomics (Y.S.L., A.Y.K., J.W.C., J.B.K.), Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea; Department of Internal Medicine (M.K., K.S.P.), Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 110-744, Korea; Department of Medicine and Clinical Science (S.Y., H.M.), Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan; and Samsung Medical Center (H.J.S.), Seoul 135-230, Korea

 

Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Jae Bum Kim, Ph.D., Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Department of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, San 56-1, Sillim-Dong, Kwanak-Gu, Seoul 151-742, Korea. E-mail: [email protected].

 

Glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPx3) accounts for the major antioxidant activity in the plasma. Here, we demonstrate that down-regulation of GPx3 in the plasma of obese subjects is associated with adipose GPx3 dysregulation, resulting from the increase of inflammatory signals and oxidative stress. Although GPx3 was abundantly expressed in kidney, lung, and adipose tissue, we observed that GPx3 expression was reduced selectively in the adipose tissue of several obese animal models as decreasing plasma GPx3 level. Adipose GPx3 expression was greatly suppressed by prooxidative conditions such as high levels of TNF{alpha} and hypoxia. In contrast, the antioxidant N-acetyl cysteine and the antidiabetic drug rosiglitazone increased adipose GPx3 expression in obese and diabetic db/db mice. Moreover, GPx3 overexpression in adipocytes improved high glucose-induced insulin resistance and attenuated inflammatory gene expression whereas GPx3 neutralization in adipocytes promoted expression of proinflammatory genes. Taken together, these data suggest that suppression of GPx3 expression in the adipose tissue of obese subjects might constitute a vicious cycle to expand local reactive oxygen species accumulation in adipose tissue potentially into systemic oxidative stress and obesity-related metabolic complications

 

Obesity, asthma, and oxidative stress

Fernando Holguin1 and Anne Fitzpatrick2

 

1University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and ; 2Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia

 

Submitted 1 July 2009 ; accepted in final form 17 November 2009

 

Obesity is associated with increased systemic and airway oxidative stress, which may result from a combination of adipokine imbalance, comorbidities, and reduced antioxidant defenses.

While obesity-mediated increased oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathogenesis of vascular disease and nonalcoholic hepatic steatosis, little is known of how it may affect the lung. Contrary to what has previously been thought, the combination of obesity and asthma, both chronic inflammatory diseases, does not necessarily result in a synergistic effect, leading to even greater oxidative stress. However, most available studies have compared the levels of oxidative stress biomarkers on stable asthma patients, and it is possible that the interaction of oxidative stress between obesity and asthma is not readily detectable under basal conditions.

We propose that obesity-mediated oxidative stress, which may affect the lung function of asthmatic subjects by increasing airway inflammation and reducing the effectiveness of inhaled corticosteroids, may become evident during exposure to an aggravating factor or during periods of asthma exacerbation. Understanding whether obesity-mediated oxidative stress has a mechanistic role in the association between obesity and asthma will help in the formation of public health policies and increase our capacity to develop therapeutic interventions that improve the life of obese asthmatic subjects.

[Michaelangelica]

HFCS

In the first study, published in the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, researchers from Princeton University found that rats consuming high fructose corn syrup gained more weight and developed more cardiovascular risk factors than rats consuming equivalent amounts of sucrose.

 

"Some people have claimed that high-fructose corn syrup is no different than other sweeteners when it comes to weight gain and obesity, but our results make it clear that this just isn't true, " researcher Bart Hoebel said.

 

In a followup experiment, the researchers compared metabolic changes in rats fed only rat chow with rats fed chow plus a high-fructose corn syrup solution. All the rats consumed the same amount of calories.

 

After six months, the rats in the corn syrup group had gained 48 percent more weight. They also underwent an increase in fat deposition (especially in the abdomen) and a drop in circulating triglycerides. These changes are consistent with metabolic syndrome, a cluster of symptoms that predispose humans to cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

HFCS - the poison that promotes obesity and liver damage

[JoeRoccoCassara]

We are mainly getting fat because anyone can provoke dopamine food cues, which trigger cravings for food as opposed to a need to eat. There is no limit to how potent these cravings in dopamine food cues can become over time with constant consumption of salt and sugar.

 

There rare cases of virus and thyroid problems, but the neurological/dopamine food cues are the real problem.

[Michaelangelica]

Green tea

Do you not see a lot of obese Asians/Chinese because they drink green tea?

 

Mol Nutr Food Res. 2006 Feb;50(2):176-87.

Anti-obesity effects of green tea: from bedside to bench.

 

Wolfram S, Wang Y, Thielecke F.

 

DSM Nutritional Products, Department of Human Nutrition and Health, Basel, Switzerland. [email protected]

Abstract

 

During the last decade, the traditional notion that green tea consumption benefits health has received significant scientific attention and, particularly, the areas of cardiovascular disease and cancer were subject to numerous studies. Due to the ever-growing obesity pandemic, the anti-obesity effects of green tea are being increasingly investigated in cell, animal, and human studies. Green tea, green tea catechins, and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) have been demonstrated in cell culture and animal models of obesity to reduce adipocyte differentiation and proliferation, lipogenesis, fat mass, body weight, fat absorption, plasma levels of triglycerides, free fatty acids, cholesterol, glucose, insulin and leptin, as well as to increase beta-oxidation and thermogenesis.

Adipose tissue, liver, intestine, and skeletal muscle are target organs of green tea, mediating its anti-obesity effects.

Studies conducted with human subjects report reduced body weight and body fat, as well as increased fat oxidation and thermogenesis and thereby confirm findings in cell culture systems and animal models of obesity.

There is still a need for well-designed and controlled clinical studies to validate the existing and encouraging human studies. Since EGCG is regarded as the most active component of green tea, its specific effects on obesity should also be investigated in human trials.

 

PMID: 16470636 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Anti-obesity effects of green tea: from bedside to... [Mol Nutr Food Res. 2006] - PubMed result

 

Some other interesting reseach

Balázs A. 'Role of phytotherapy in the prevention and treatment of obesity'.,Orv Hetil. 2010 May 9;151(19):763-73.[Article in Hungarian]

Edited August 10, 2010 by Michaelangelica

[paigetheoracle]

A few other thoughts have occurred to me, in relation to my last post on this subject:-

 

Snacking is less likely to lead to fat storage as opposed to heavy meals that the body has difficulty dealing with. Fast food and boredom eating (leisure entertainment, which our ancestors and those in third world countries don't have the luxury of) means we eat more and more often as well as exercise less (The emotional side of eating as opposed to Bulimia). On top of this mothers in the UK it seems equate fat babies with health and wealth as do some African states.

 

I pointed out the introduction of foreign substances and intolerance, including steroids (big animals, big people - a coincidence?) as well as infant inoculations (All that junk being pushed into babies bodies, including mercury and other fillers/ stabilizers, can't be helping). Has anybody studied whether the countries with the highest incidences of disease inoculation has also the highest incidence of childhood bloating (Not just overweight but so fat the arms cannot hang at the sides of the body: Michelin Man effect).

 

Virus? Possibly in some cases but man-made action/ inaction seems the biggest culprit in my opinion.

[maikeru]

with our love of corn there may be problems

The American Indians always ate corn as part of the "Tree Sisters" Diet -corn squash and beans which apparently provides all the amino acids needed by the body. However corn by itself is difficult for us to digest. It may be that it is best digested when taken with squash and beans-- probably rarely done today.

 

I want to note there are significant nutritional differences between standard white and yellow corn varieties and heirloom or more ancient Indian corns. Indian corns can have more protein, which slows digestion and encourages satiety, and they may have more antioxidants as seen in their bright, vibrant colors, usually anthocyanins or carotenes. I've been using Indian corn flour for polenta. It tastes a bit different and doesn't seem to spike my insulin or blood sugar. I know when my blood sugar gets too high, because I feel nauseous, and sometimes that happens after eating too much white or yellow corn or eating things that have a lot of corn syrup.

[HydrogenBond]

One possible answer is the power of suggestion. This is big business which creates jobs and the fat people are doing their civic part.