12 more possible triggers for obesity

[nancylebov]

Here's 10 from NPR with my comments in italics:

Day to Day, July 10, 2006 · New research suggests that lack of sleep and environmental toxins are just as likely to cause obesity as eating fast food or failing to exercise. Dr. Sydney Spiesel, a Yale Medical School professor and a contributor to Slate, talks with Madeleine Brand about new research that lists other possible causes of obesity.

1. Inadequate sleep -- average amounts of sleep have fallen among Americans, and many studies tie sleep deprivation to weight gain.
I've heard about various studies on this one, including that lack of sleep causes carb cravings. Of course, it runs counter to the idea that fatness is a matter of low-status self-indulgence (junk food and tv), but then, so do the rest of these.

2. Increased consumption of endocrine disruptors, substances in some foods that may alter fats in the body.
I have no details on this one. I wonder if it's hormones in meat.

3. Climate-controlled environments. Air conditioning and heating limit calories burned from sweating and shivering.
Does sweating burn more calories than being in a cool environment? On the other hand, people may eat less when they aren't cooled.

4. Decrease in tobacco use. Smoking is often linked to appetite suppression.

5. New prescription medicines that promote weight gain.
This is a big one.

6. Changing demographics -- there are now more middle-aged and Hispanic Americans, groups that have higher obesity rates.

7. Women giving birth at an older age, which correlates with heavier children.

8. Genetic influences during pregnancy -- a so-called "fetally-driven positive feedback loop."

9. Natural selection -- heavier people tend to survive tough times better than skinnier humans.
Presumably just a claim that some people are naturally fatter than others.

10. Assortative mating, or "like mating with like" -- meaning fat people procreating with others of the same body type, gradually skewing the population toward the heavy end.
I think this translates as fewer medium-sized people. I don't know whether there's any evidence of that happening.

Source: International Journal of Obesity

And two more from me:

11. Dieting--there are a lot of anecdotes about people gaining back an extra 25 pounds or so every time they lose significant weight, and maintaining a stable weight when they stop dieting. While afaik there isn't evidence that dieting slows metabolism, there is evidence that it increases the background level of hunger. In any case, it ien't rare for people to do serious dieting three or four times--and if they're in this pattern, it's enough to move them from somewhat fat to definitely fat.

12. Stress--I've read somewhat that stress makes it hard to lose weight. This seems reasonable--a fight or flight reaction is precisely about being ready to handle emergencies fast and putting off maintenance until life gets calmer. Taking calories out of fat storage might be one of those slow things compared to just finding some carbs and eating them. Fat people are apt to be stressed by the prejudice against them.

Comments

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

Great list, and I can't believe no one else has commented to it. I know that the more stress I have at work, the less sleep I get and the more I nibble.

The suggestion that indicated that high-fructose corn syrup is more fattening than glucose has been mostly discarded, by the way.

Corn is matablies faster

[wolfdancer.livejournal.com]

by some. and absored faster. some forms.
Keeping a food Intake list, I am not eating as much as my husband, but am taking in juice carbs. same amount of "count" but am gaining. sigh.

Re: Corn is matablies faster

[wolfdancer.livejournal.com]

so sorry and way tired. and LD is hitting me way hard.
Am Looking for Erick the flute Number or contact info a old friend Freff is looking to get hold of him.

[anitra.livejournal.com]

Here from a comment you made on bradhicks. Hope you don't mind. Personally, I'd give a lot of credence to numbers 1,2,3,& 5.

Climate-controlled environments, especially. If you eat less calories than you need, your circulation slows and body temperature drops slightly... it sucks when you're dieting in an air-conditioned environment, but I'll bet that this is a useful feedback mechanism that leads to eating less when the body is too warm.

Stress is double-edged with regard to eating/losing weight, in my opinion. If I am stressed in a productive way (i.e. too much work to do), I am so occupied with other things that I don't take time to eat (I don't "forget to eat" as some skinny people claim). If I am stressed about something I can't change (i.e. family problems, health problems, etc.), eating sugary/starchy foods becomes a comfortable escape from stress.

[lysystratae.livejournal.com]

I've never really bought into the decrease in smoking having anything to do with it, since I was smoking just as much when I was what I consider my correct size as I was when my system went haywire. I'm smoking less the past 3 years (my husband hates cigarettes so I've cut down quite a bit), but I haven't had any weight gain during that time. No loss, either, but that's nothing new :)
I know a lot of fat smokers, and a lot of skinny smokers, and a lot of in the middle smokers.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I'm seeing this so late, because you linked to it from Making Light.

>9. Natural selection -- heavier people tend to survive tough times better >than skinnier humans.
>Presumably just a claim that some people are naturally fatter than others.

This is not just a claim that some people are naturally fatter than others, but that there is a significant selection pressure *killing* skinny people now or in recent generations. (Or killing young people who have some genetic trait that is likely to make them thin in later life, or likely to cause them to have thin children.) Cancer treatment tends to involve significant weight loss. If a person is thin to start with, he or she is less likely to survive. All the studies of this phenomenon say something about, "it is very important not to regard this as an excuse to be fat, even though fat people have better cancer survival rates." Considering the increase in cancer rates in recent generations, it might be a significant selection pressure.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

The article and my take on it were about why individuals are fat rather than why the proportion of fat people might be going up.

I can believe that it takes an environment that makes it easier to get fat will have a stronger effect on people with thrifty genes.

And as for why Americans tend to be fatter than Europeans--we're mostly descended from people who left where they were because it wasn't such a good deal for them there. It wouldn't surprise me if we have a higher proportion of people with thrifty genes.