Why Do People Become Obese?
There can be various reasons which lead to obesity. One among them is bad diet. It depends upon the food habits i.e., if someone intakes excess amount of fructose corny syrup on a regular basis, then they are dragging themselves towards obesity. Fast foods contain high amount of fructose in them. Our daily food contains a variety of ingredients, if the same is not properly processed by our body, it might lead to rise in weight. Moreover, if one doesn’t have a habit of regular exercise then they might be affected by obesity in the future. Apart from these causes, certain diseases like hypothyroidism affects the body weight adversely. In hypothyroidism, the hormones from the thyroid gland get affected. During this time the metabolism of the patient gets affected and they tend to gain weight. Hence, it can be well said that there are factors leading to obesity which are beyond our control.
Few Causes of Obesity
Consuming too many calories
Now a day’s people eat more than before. Previously this used to seen only in developed nations however; gradually it spread to the entire nations. Every year billions of dollars are invested on the awareness program against obesity, however a lit is done out of that as we still continue to over eat. In year, 1980 near about 14% of the adults in USA were found to be obese and the same percentage reached 31% in the year 2000.
As per a statistics it showed that in USA, the calorie consumption for women raised from 1542 per day in 1971 to 1877 per day in 2004. The same statistics for men was like 2450 in 1971 which went to 2618 in 2004. Looking at this data people would think that the cause for this rise would be fast food but the actual reason is carbohydrates from sugar. Parallel to the same increased intake of soft drinks and carbohydrates among the young generations are leading to obesity among this age group. To these the consumption of fast food has tripled the score.
Many other reasons have contributed to the obesity of the people of America which are like calorie and carbohydrate consumption. In the year 1984, the Reagan administration in an advertisement on fast food and sweets put its regulations. Differ agricultural policies are brought forward so as to provide cheaper food to the people. According to the US bill the source of the processed food were subsidized corn, wheat and rice. Hence, the price of corn, wheat and rice were much lower than that of fruits and vegetables.
Leading a sedentary lifestyle
With the arrival of televisions, computers, video games, remote controls, washing machines, dish washers and other modern convenience devices, the majority of people are leading a much more sedentary lifestyle compared to their parents and grandparents. Some decades ago shopping consisted of walking down the road to the high street where one could find the grocers, bakers, banks, etc. As large out-of-town supermarkets and shopping malls started to appear, people moved from using their feet to driving their cars to get their provisions. In some countries, such as the USA, dependence on the car has become so strong that many people will drive even if their destination is only half-a-mile away.
The less you move around the fewer calories you burn. However, this is not only a question of calories. Physical activity has an effect on how your hormones work, and hormones have an effect on how your body deals with food. Several studies have shown that physical activity has a beneficial effect on your insulin levels – keeping them stable. Unstable insulin levels are closely associated with weight gain.
Children who have a television in their bedroom are much more likely to be obese or overweight than kids who do not, researchers from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, LA, reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine(December 2012 issue).
Not sleeping enough
If you do not sleep enough your risk of becoming obese doubles, according to research carried out at Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick. The risk applies to both adults and children. Professor Francesco Cappuccio and team reviewed evidence in over 28,000 children and 15,000 adults. Their evidence clearly showed that sleep deprivation significantly increased obesity risk in both groups.
Professor Cappuccio said, “The ‘epidemic’ of obesity is paralleled by a ‘silent epidemic’ of reduced sleep duration with short sleep duration linked to increased risk of obesity both in adults and in children. These trends are detectable in adults as well as in children as young as 5 years.” Professor Cappuccio explains that sleep deprivation may lead to obesity through increased appetite as a result of hormonal changes. If you do not sleep enough you produce Ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite. Lack of sleep also results in your body producing less Leptin, a hormone that suppresses appetite.
Endocrine disruptors, such as some foods that interfere with lipid metabolism
A team from the University of Barcelona (UB) led by Dr Juan Carlos Laguna published a study in the journal Hepatology that provides clues to the molecular mechanism through which fructose (a type of sugar) in beverages may alter lipid energy metabolism and cause fatty liver and metabolic syndrome.
Fructose is mainly metabolized in the liver, the target organ of the metabolic alterations caused by the consumption of this sugar. In this study, rats receiving fructose-containing beverages presented a pathology similar to metabolic syndrome, which in the short term causes lipid accumulation (hypertriglyceridemia) and fatty liver, and eventually leads to hypertension, resistance to insulin, diabetes and obesity.
Poorly balanced diets and the lack of physical exercise are key factors in the increase of obesity and other metabolic diseases in modern societies. In epidemiological studies in humans, the effect of the intake of fructose-sweetened beverages also seems to be more intense in women.
Although there appears to be a consensus on the negative effects of fructose-sweetened beverages there is still some debate over the effects of fructose versus high fructose corn syrup – two studies of note are:
Fructose effect on the brain may promote obesity
Researchers from Yale University School of Medicine compared the effects of fructose and glucose on the brain with MRI scans and found that high fructose diets may be behind the current obesity epidemic.
In an article published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), the authors said they found that.When those regions become active, they release hormones that produce feelings of satiety (fullness) – in other words, the hormones tell you to stop eating.
Lower rates of smoking (smoking suppresses appetite)
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) “Not everyone gains weight when they stop smoking. Among people who do, the average weight gain is between 6 and 8 pounds. Roughly 10 percent of people who stop smoking gain a large amount of weight – 30 pounds or more.”
Medications that make patients put on weight
According to an article in Annals of Pharmacotherapy, some medications cause weight gain. “Clinically significant weight gain is associated with some commonly prescribed medicines. There is wide interindividual variation in response and variation of the degree of weight gain within drug classes. Where possible, alternative therapy should be selected, especially for individuals predisposed to overweight and obesity.” (The Annals of Pharmacotherapy: Vol. 39, No. 12, pp. 2046-2054. DOI 10.1345/aph.1G33)
Is obesity self-perpetuating?
The longer a person is overweight, the harder it becomes for them to lose weight. Researchers from the University of Michigan and the National Council of Science and Technology (COINCET) in Argentina, reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation that in animal experiments, obesity seems to become a self-perpetuating state.
They found that the “normal” body weight of mice that become obese starts going up; their bodies’ perception of normal weight becomes a heavier than before, regardless of whether they are made to go on diets which had made them lose weight.
Senior author, Malcolm J. Low, M.D., Ph.D., said “Our model demonstrates that obesity is in part a self-perpetuating disorder and the results further emphasize the importance of early intervention in childhood to try to prevent the condition whose effects can last a lifetime. Our new animal model will be used in pinpointing the reasons why most adults find it exceedingly difficult to maintain meaningful weight loss from dieting and exercise alone.”
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