Obesity is on the rise in the US and you can’t help but wonder why. We know that eating healthy and exercise are important, but people are still obese. Maybe the problem is actually the food itself. With liters pop full of sugary corn syrup being drunk and Oreos disappearing by the row, maybe we just cant control ourselves. Well as it turns out we have less control over our ability to overeat than we previously thought. Normally as we eat our body produces leptin and insulin to activate POMC neurons and inhibit AgRP neurons to signal that we are no longer hungry. As we begin to overwork our production of leptin and insulin, like in diabetes, we lose the signaling to these neurons and never get the “I am full” signal to stop eating. Even more interestingly, overeating leads to a change in brain makeup. In a similar way that drugs like cocaine effect the brain, highly energetic food increases dopamine release in the brain. The basically means that we get a higher reward from eating foods high in fat and sugar. We may even be predisposed before we are even born. Studies on mice show that mother’s that have a high carbohydrate diet before mating and during pregnancy and weaning produce offspring that are predisposed to high carb diets. A combination of fewer POMC neurons and impaired hypothalmic energy regulation are the cause. Basically if your mother eats and unhealthy diet while pregnant with you, you are predisposed to eat and unhealthy diet. Not only is obesity a self-causing problem, but it also affects the brain in a way that causes a lot of health issues. Overnutrition leads to an increase in production of cytokines. These signaling molecules cause inflammation. The increased inflammation in the hypothalamus leads to problems in insulin regulation, glucose metabolism, and cognition.
The implications of this research show how important diet is throughout your whole life. Not only do you have to actively try to eat healthy, but if you want to have children it is even more important to eat healthy during pregnancy and early life. By eating healthy during your child’s early life and pregnancy, you can get rid of the innate need for high energy foods. So not only would you help the naturally want to eat healthier, but you set them up to avoid obesity-linked diseases like diabetes and metabolic syndrome. We love to blame people for making themselves obese, but in actuality it isn’t all their fault. With food that reacts just like drugs and a disposition towards high carb foods that dates back to pregnancy, obesity is a lot more difficult to deal with that we ever thought.
How Obesity and Eating Cause Each Other
