Obesity: Why are we getting fat? :epizza:

[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

[Racoon]

Apparently having Kids will make you fatter. Being too busy running around and buying pre-packaged convenient foods, spurred on by creative brand advertising the kids love, will affect which pant or dress size you'll be wearing... :)

 

Having a kid in the house makes you fatter - Diet & Nutrition - MSNBC.com

 

Adults living with young children eat significantly more fat than grown-ups with no kids at home, a new study shows.

 

Adults with kids consumed nearly 5 more grams of fat and 1.7 more grams of saturated fat every day, the equivalent of an individual pepperoni pizza a week, Dr. Helena Laroche of the University of Iowa in Iowa City and her colleagues found. Adults living with children younger than 17 also ate more salty snacks, cheese, beef, ice cream, cakes and cookies, pizza, and processed meats like bacon.

 

&

 

“These findings suggest that food advertising aimed at children may influence not only the child’s diet but also indirectly affect parents’ diets,” they note in their report.

 

What ever doesn't kill you makes you fatter,

Racoon

[InfiniteNow]

Fat's the new Hitler...

[maikeru]

Fat's the new Hitler...

 

Perhaps. I'd say it isn't a curse as everyone makes it out to be, but it isn't a blessing, either.

[Michaelangelica]

i would have thought having kids would make you thinner!

 

Living in the intestine of all humans are trillions of bacteria that assist our own stomach acids and enzymes in breaking down food. Two groups - the Firmicutes and the Bacteroidetes - together account for more than 90 per cent of intestinal bacteria.

 

U.S. researchers compared the gut bacteria of obese and lean people, and found that obese people had fewer Bacteroidetes than their slender counterparts.

. . .

The researchers took this discovery further in experiments with mice, finding that the gut bacteria of obese mice not only had fewer Bacteroidetes than their skinny counterparts, but also that their bacterial genome was rich in genes that broke down hard-to-digest foods more efficiently

. . .

To make certain that the difference in gut bacteria was the reason behind the obese rodents' digestive prowess, the team actually transferred the gut microbes from obese mice to skinny mice. Notably, the skinny mice that received the transfer gained weight..

Bacteria might make you fat | COSMOS magazine

[gribbon]

What no-one else has mentioned is the Atkins diet: it was found that the only reason why people lost weight was because they were forced to eat protein rich foods which made them feel far less hungry than sugary or fatty foods. Therefore only people who overeat on sugar lose weight. (Which is most of the population). :)

 

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

 

:) :) (only joking) :D ;) ;)

[maikeru]

As I understand it, the Atkins diet works primarily because the body does not normally use protein as its primary source of energy, and turns that preference around. Normally some of the protein we eat is used for "building materials" and "maintenance" and some is converted and stored as energy Typically, the body prefers: carbs > fats > protein.

 

Even in a starving person, first the body will use up glycogen stores in the liver (1 day's worth, or about 1500-2000 kcal); second, it will move on to stored fat reserves (1 month's worth or more); and finally protein as the body cannibalizes muscle and other protein-rich tissues. So I think the body is pretty "reluctant" to use protein as a major energy source. To get usable energy out of protein, it's usually converted into glucose, and a lot of energy is wasted in the process.

 

In the Atkins diet, the body may have to draw upon additional energy reserves to supplement the "energy deficit" that the protein-rich diet creates, and the most available reserves probably would be liver glycogen and stored fat. As the body uses these up, a person gets slimmer. Seems to come with a price, though. Too much protein in the diet can cause ketosis, which is caused by ketones from the breakdown of amino acids, and these can lower blood pH, making it acidic, and create extra burden on some organs like the liver and kidneys. Would this be wise for people who might be ill or having problems related to weight?

 

All in all, the Atkin's diet always struck me more as personal torture (by limiting food choice and putting the strain on the body) than as a real diet.

[Bec]

so wait,

all those fat people

caught a virus???????

 

:shade: ;)

 

Really I think any excuse for why they are fat will be welcomed. Although it does sound possible that this virus can cause someone to gain weight more readily, I don't believe thats the reason for obesity as if those people were eating healthily and exercising regulary, regardless of how easily they put on weight, they would not be obese (unless of course this virus is extreme which the article does not seem to say).

 

Excuses, excuses.

[Michaelangelica]

http://www.pulpnoir.com/?p=93

One of the most surprising news items of 2006, at least to me, was the announcement that there are now more overweight people in the world than hungry ones.

 

Say what? It was not that long ago that all the experts were predicting that our skyrocketing human population would soon outstrip its food supply, leading directly to mass famine. By now millions were supposed to be perishing from hunger every year.

It was the old doom-and-gloom Malthusian mathematics at work: population shoots up geometrically while food production lags.

It makes eminent sense. I grew up with Malthus’s ideas brought up-to-date in apocalyptic books like The Population Bomb.

 

Who defused the bomb? Instead of mass starvation, we seem to be awash in food. And it’s not just the United States.

Obesity is on the increase in Mexico. Fat-related diabetes is becoming epidemic in India. My parents used to tell me when I didn’t eat my dinner to think about the hungry children in China. Today one in five people in China is overweight, 60 million are obese, and the rate of overweight children has increased 28-fold since 1985. Everywhere you look, from Buffalo to Beijing, it’s ballooning bellies.

 

Instead of going hungry, humans around the world on a per capita basis are eating more calories than ever before.

Perhaps it’s time for Walt Disney to update his theme ride. It’s not a small world, after all. It’s a big, fat world. And it’s getting fatter.

[Monomer]

(Further, it is fact that genes do cause fatness in some races, like us Indians. This is because in the recent times there have been devastating famines in India, leading to 'natural selection' of those individuals who could store food best.

Now that food is surplus, this food storage mechanism is killing us.

 

Well, according to this article, the reason obesity is on the rise is because those who survived the ice age had the genes to store fat and metabolise it sparingly. The climate has changed, but the genotype remains in some cultures, hence the increasing number of obese people.

 

Darwin's Revenge: Why Are We Getting Fat? - Newsweek: International Editions - MSNBC.com

 

Apparently it's the protein ghrelin that allowed the body to gain weight quickly so there would be a good supply when food was sparse. That function is no longer needed, so scientists have developed a vaccine to neutralise the effects of ghrelin, which will hopefully prevent the rise in obesity.

 

Vaccine Stops Big Eaters Getting Fat

 

 

And it's something in the genes again:

 

Obese individuals often suffer from the metabolic syndrome, which is a combination of medical disorders that increase an individual's risk for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Deregulation of a protein known as mTOR (which is a nutrient sensor that when activated increases energy expenditure by the cell's of the body) has been implicated in the development of obesity and the metabolic syndrome in humans.

 

ScienceDaily: Two Proteins Stop Mice Getting Fat

[Racoon]

Darwin's Revenge: Why Are We Getting Fat? - Newsweek: International Editions - MSNBC.com

 

Apparently it's the protein ghrelin that allowed the body to gain weight quickly so there would be a good supply when food was sparse. That function is no longer needed, so scientists have developed a vaccine to neutralise the effects of ghrelin, which will hopefully prevent the rise in obesity.

 

Vaccine Stops Big Eaters Getting Fat

 

ScienceDaily: Two Proteins Stop Mice Getting Fat

 

 

Great Post Monomer..

 

But I need fat people! Its good for business.

If everyone was thin some food companies would go out of business, Doctors would have less patients, magazines that manipulate self-consciousness will die out...

People wouldn't need a fitness trainer as much. :)

 

Gotta move towards Physical Therapy,

Racoon

[Monomer]

But I need fat people! :hyper: Its good for business.

If everyone was thin some food companies would go out of business, Doctors would have less patients, magazines that manipulate self-consciousness will die out...

People wouldn't need a fitness trainer as much. :)

 

Ah, so true!

 

There's always a postivie side to the "bad" things - profits and jobs!

[Monomer]

Would you please post this on the "Why are we getting fat" thread It is very interesting

 

Okay, here it is...

 

i dont knw, it sounded like he was sayign that there was a chemical that "ate" away fat, it was the same thing that creatine is suppose to counter. ascorbic-acid? i don't know.

 

Ascorbic acid is basically Vitamin C, and Vitamin C is important in the synthesis of an amino acid carnitine which is important in the oxidation of fats, which then allows fats to be used as an energy source, and therefore there is less fat deposited in the body.

 

Vitamin C could lower body fat levels

 

Vitamin and Supplements > Vitamin C Depletion Correlates with Lower Body Fat

[Michaelangelica]

So, so far I have shown that eating too much and exercising not enough are not the causes of obesity.

 

Yet this is still the generally accepted societal belief or 'meme"

 

Why do you think we continue to believe things that are so patently disproved by science?

[Fatstep]

They are just trying to find a way to blame nature for us being fat, figures.

We are fat as a nation because everything is becoming too easy, there isn't much hard labor anymore, and robots are taking over industry jobs. We have too much easy access to cheap food that is calorie-laden and foods tat are good for us are often twice and some times three times as expensive as the foods that are soaked in fat such as fast food and processed foods.

[Michaelangelica]

They are just trying to find a way to blame nature for us being fat, figures.

We are fat as a nation because everything is becoming too easy, there isn't much hard labor anymore, and robots are taking over industry jobs. We have too much easy access to cheap food that is calorie-laden and foods tat are good for us are often twice and some times three times as expensive as the foods that are soaked in fat such as fast food and processed foods.

 

No that is the cultural meme or urban myth . The real reasons are a lot harder

EG:-

Antipsychotic Drug Causes Weight Gain

By Lucy Williams, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent

 

ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Some patients undergoing treatment for mental illness gain so much weight they develop life-threatening health complications.

 

Clozapine (Clozaril), a common treatment for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, can cause massive weight gain in patients.

 

"This is so severe of an issue that patients refuse to take the drugs," Solomon Snyder, M.D., professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, told Ivanhoe. "They'd rather be schizophrenic than have such a terrible weight gain."

14 WFIE, The Tri-State's News Leader: Antipsychotic Drug Causes Weight Gain

[Fatstep]

I know drugs can cause weight gain, but when we sit on our butts and don't do anything what do you expect. You explain to me how someone can break the 1000lb barrier without being lazy and I'll believe you.

 

I also know that Depakote, Respirdol, Lithium Carbonate, Geodon, Lamictal, and many other anti-psychotics cause weight gain. I gained almost 25 pounds when I was on Depakote, in 2 weeks, and it was because it's a side effect, but I wasn't doing anything either, but I learned I could control it actually lost weight, what did I do, I went and worked out 4 times a week for an hour, so in the end it is all laziness, and until you have been exposed to it YOURSELF, you cannot argue differently. Science only goes so far, then comes common sense.