Alternate Causes of Obesity

[mongers]

My exhaustive research Tim, has led me to believe you might be on to something here.

Shit, now google will be publicising us for an interesting in girls dolls, again instead of our sparkling whit and historical wisdom.   

[viper37]

Seems like a "It's not my fault I'm fat."

They are quick to assure us that 'science says' obesity is caused by individual choices about food and exercise.

true.  it's not my fault, it's my glands.  They react badly to greasy food, sugar and inactivity.

[Malthus]

As for viruses, bacteria, plastics (!), etc. - any (or none) may have some effect. The fact that so many alternatives have been proposed indicates that their effect, if any, is pretty minor compared with the obvious and observable effect that North Americans in particular are simply eating more than they ever have before.

[jimmy olsen]

As for viruses, bacteria, plastics (!), etc. - any (or none) may have some effect. The fact that so many alternatives have been proposed indicates that their effect, if any, is pretty minor compared with the obvious and observable effect that North Americans in particular are simply eating more than they ever have before.

If it was that simple though, it would be easy to lose weight, and for most people it isn't. And there's the lab animals, that eat the same diets as ever and yet their weight has significantly increased.

[Iormlund]

It's a very interesting read, though it's hard not to think that many of those examples put forward might fit the correlation == causation fallacy. For example instead of a virus that makes you fat, being fat makes you vulnerable to contagion. Or drinking more sugary drinks more makes you not only fat but also pee higher concentrations of X, present in beverage containers.

[garbon]

As for viruses, bacteria, plastics (!), etc. - any (or none) may have some effect. The fact that so many alternatives have been proposed indicates that their effect, if any, is pretty minor compared with the obvious and observable effect that North Americans in particular are simply eating more than they ever have before.

If it was that simple though, it would be easy to lose weight, and for most people it isn't.

I don't think most people find it easy to eat less.

[Malthus]

As for viruses, bacteria, plastics (!), etc. - any (or none) may have some effect. The fact that so many alternatives have been proposed indicates that their effect, if any, is pretty minor compared with the obvious and observable effect that North Americans in particular are simply eating more than they ever have before.

If it was that simple though, it would be easy to lose weight, and for most people it isn't. And there's the lab animals, that eat the same diets as ever and yet their weight has significantly increased.

No. There is where you make your mistake. There is nothing "simple" or "easy" about changing your whole lifestyle to eat less and exercise more.  Some people can do it but most can't, because what you change is not simply "food choice", but a whole lifestyle. I know because I've done it. I've also quit smoking. What could be easier than simply "chosing" not to smoke, hmm? Is there some magic smoking fairy who literally *forces* folks to smoke? Perhaps some chemical in the enviromnent that *makes* people smoke? No, it is just very hard to stop doing it, because of the chemicals in the smoke itself, and their effect on the brain, and because not smoking involves tons of attitude and environmental changes - even up to choosing one's friends - that are very, very hard to make. Same with over eating.

The "animals is fat too" argument made in the article is incoherent. There can be no explanation that sensibly explains why animals, some of which live in tightly controlled environments and some of which are feral, show the same pattern of weight gain, as these animals have, literally, nothing in common - not environment, not food, nod diseases, not light levels, not temperature, nothing that the artcle cites as "alternatives" holds true for both lab and feral rats. This leads me to suspect that the evidence gathering here has been ... selective. 

[Legbiter]

Malthus is on point.

The current journal of nutrional biochemistry has an interesting article bearing on this issue.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955286313000545?np=y

Here's the abstract.

In this review, we focus on lifestyle changes, especially dietary habits, that are at the basis of chronic systemic low grade inflammation, insulin resistance and Western diseases. Our sensitivity to develop insulin resistance traces back to our rapid brain growth in the past 2.5 million years. An inflammatory reaction jeopardizes the high glucose needs of our brain, causing various adaptations, including insulin resistance, functional reallocation of energy-rich nutrients and changing serum lipoprotein composition. The latter aims at redistribution of lipids, modulation of the immune reaction, and active inhibition of reverse cholesterol transport for damage repair. With the advent of the agricultural and industrial revolutions, we have introduced numerous false inflammatory triggers in our lifestyle, driving us to a state of chronic systemic low grade inflammation that eventually leads to typically Western diseases via an evolutionary conserved interaction between our immune system and metabolism. The underlying triggers are an abnormal dietary composition and microbial flora, insufficient physical activity and sleep, chronic stress and environmental pollution. The disturbance of our inflammatory/anti-inflammatory balance is illustrated by dietary fatty acids and antioxidants. The current decrease in years without chronic disease is rather due to "nurture" than "nature," since less than 5% of the typically Western diseases are primary attributable to genetic factors. Resolution of the conflict between environment and our ancient genome might be the only effective manner for "healthy aging," and to achieve this we might have to return to the lifestyle of the Paleolithic era as translated to the 21st century culture.

Here's a rather relevant quote as well:

"Coherence between lifestyle factors, including the composition of our diet, is quite obvious from an evolutionary point of view. After all, there was first an environment, and from this environment originated a genome that was adapted to that environment: it is the substrate (environment) that selects the organism, not vice versa. This is exactly what Darwin meant with "conditions of existence," as the most important driving force in evolution. In other words, our only slowly changing genome is indissolubly linked to a certain environment and lifestyle. However, we have changed this environment since the agricultural revolution and continue to do so with still increasing haste. The resulting conflict does not generate acute toxicity, but acts as an assassin in the long term. Probably, the conflict does not exert much selection pressure either, because its associated mortality occurs mainly after reproductive age.

...to solve the conflict, it is virtually impossible to study all of the introduced errors in our lifestyle..."

^ Yet this is exactly what Western medicine tries to do, find all the errors induced from living a life outside of the environment to which we are adapted, and marketing a drug for it.

[garbon]

And legbiter makes another paleo plug.

[Legbiter]

And legbiter makes another paleo plug.

[garbon]

I guess everyone needs some sort of religion. I wonder what mine is.

[Malthus]

I guess everyone needs some sort of religion. I wonder what mine is.

Bitchiness isn't a religion! 

[Caliga]

And legbiter makes another paleo plug.

The new guy on the IT team at work is into that paleo stuff.  He has three of those Big Green Egg smokers at home and brings... meat to work every day for lunch.  Took him to a steakhouse in Chicago and all he ate was a bigass rare steak and a wedge salad, but he had them leave everything off the salad other than the lettuce and crumbled bacon.

[crazy canuck]

And legbiter makes another paleo plug.

The new guy on the IT team at work is into that paleo stuff.  He has three of those Big Green Egg smokers at home and brings... meat to work every day for lunch.  Took him to a steakhouse in Chicago and all he ate was a bigass rare steak and a wedge salad, but he had them leave everything off the salad other than the lettuce and crumbled bacon.

Absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I want to get a Green Egg.

[Caliga]

Me too.  My 'conventional' offset smoker is starting to rust out.