Obesity is an epidemic. According to the CDC, 34.9% of American adults (that’s 78.6 million people) are obese. The complications of this condition include heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancers. Around 7% of all money spent on healthcare in 2008 was devoted only to obesity.
There is no doubt that this unprecedented rise in obesity rates is a product of the western diet, but a recent study has linked a high fat and calorie diet to chemical changes in the brain. According to the study by Shefer et al., excessive nutrition (a high calorie diet) is linked to reduced brain volume and objective diminished mental status. This occurs through a high calorie diet leading to a breakdown of proteins that construct the blood-brain barrier that protects the brain from pathogens and dangerous elements found commonly in the blood.
The resulting inflammation damages sensitive areas of the brain like the amygdala, hypothalamus, and hippocampus which contain signalling pathways important for learning and emotional processing. Because of this, overeating can become a learned behavior that has many parallels to addiction. Obese individuals have been shown to demonstrate a stronger response to perceived food after fasting, suggesting that obesity warps brain chemistry to reward overeating.
A generalized pathway of overeating
The danger of overeating leading to obesity is that once your brain warps to accommodate the disease it becomes incredibly difficult to remove yourself from the cycle. However, the alternative is dangerous and quite possibly deadly. Obesity is the next leading health problem in the United States and without some drastic changes to the way we deal with food our country might not be able to stomach it.
The Science Behind Obesity
