Common convention has each of us believing that being overweight or obese as a sign of being lazy, apathetic, or even just slovenly. When we walk down the street and see an individual who is severely overweight, we tend to pass judgment without a second thought. We automatically assume that they don’t care, eat everything in sight, refuse to exercise, and pretty much don’t care. Here is a shocker; maybe it’s not that simple! There are so many more factors involved with being overweight that we don’t even know to think about. There are many factors that play a role in obesity, but for this post I will focus mainly on genetic predisposition, pre-birth factors, and most importantly for us in America, our food policies.
Lets take a look at the first two, genetic predisposition and pre-birth factors. There is not one individual in the world that is able to control either of these, but both have strong impacts on our lives – the great nature or nurture debate. Some things I didn’t know prior were for example the importance of leptin. Leptin is a hormone that is secreted to tell us we are full, and the gene is located on chromosome 7. The way it works is it binds to Neuropeptide Y (NPY) and inhibits its actions. NPY is the peptide that causes fat growth and increases our food intake. A decrease in leptin increases our weight. Well then, why is there a decrease in leptin? If your dad was overweight when you were created is one factor. Poor diet in men has been shown to change the molecular make up of the semen in mice leading to overweight offspring. If that’s not enough to question what we already thought, how about looking at the mother. Pregnant rats on a restricted diet had the remaining nutrition supplemented by either a high carbohydrate or high fat diet. Not surprisingly, the high fat offspring were heavier at birth. Surprisingly, the high carb babies had a higher level of NPY. Over 20 weeks, the high carb rats surpassed the other rats in weight, fat, and fell behind in metabolism.
Our food policies and regulations tend not to be regulatory regarding content of the food, but rather making sure everyone has food. Take a look at our school lunch programs, where the main factors are not necessarily what is on the plate, but making sure everyone has a plate. The regulatory agencies such as the FDA approve anything that meats the safety standard, but not much else. It was only a few years ago that trans fats were removed from public diets. The amount of calories are very seldom regulated, and the nutritional content is definitely not regulated more than just identifying what is in there. Take for example this video showing Irish people trying American snacks, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vjd4YtAImM. It clearly shows how we have conditioned our culture to accept anything. And you never know, it may tie into how we as individuals become addicted to the things like simple sugars and fats.
So is obesity a neurological or biological disease. I wish the answer is as simple yes or no. What I just finished writing about only scratches the surface of obesity. There are factors that are definitely within our control that I didn’t mention, such as exercise, consciously choosing foods that are healthier for us, and remaining educated about all the factors involved.
Source:
https://moodle.cord.edu/pluginfile.php/390940/mod_resource/content/0/obesity%20a%20brain%20disease.pdf
Are we predisposed to being obese?
