Obesity Causes

Most doctors and nutritionists say that the increased incidence of overweight and obesity has a simple explanation — we eat too much and exercise too little.

But, as a UK article recently pointed out,

“The current wave of obesity in the US began in about 1980. Back then, only about 5 percent of the population was obese. Now, the figure is six times greater. But the Western diet hasn’t become noticeably more calorific in the past 26 years. Nor do people exercise markedly less or drive more.”

The article asks the question “could something else be contributing to the epidemic?”

I can tell you the answer has to be YES. There’s just too much evidence that our dietary habits and physical activity levels haven’t changed enough to explain the population’s increase in weight.

Allen Oelschlaeger
Author of Finally, the Straight Scoop About Weight, Nutrition, and Fitness

Yesterday I listed some reasons obesity researchers are putting forth for why there is a higher incidence of obesity.

One of their explanations is that people are getting too little sleep.

There have been a number of studies demonstrating a link between less sleep and increased weight over the last few years. The most recent was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

In this study researchers followed 68,000 women over a period of 16 years — tracking weight and sleep patterns.

Here is what they found.

Women averaging less than five hours sleep per night were 32 percent more likely to have a 7 pound weight gain over the 16 year period than women sleeping seven hours or more.

No one knows why this association occurs but some guess that sleep deprivation somehow alters the hormones that affect appetite and metabolism.

So, there you have it — a very good reason to sleep in a bit.

Allen Oelschlaeger
Author of Finally, the Straight Scoop About Weight, Nutrition, and Fitness

With the increased incidence of obesity worldwide there is an enormous effort to try to figure out the cause.

The reality is that no one really knows — but a lot of people are certainly making guesses.

Here’s a list from the International Journal of Obesity of what 20 obesity experts believe are the 10 most plausible explanations of this epidemic.

1. Better indoor climate control (so we sweat and shiver less)
2. Less people are smoking (nicotine is an appetite suppressant)
3. Overweight people have more kids (who are genetically programmed with the tendency to gain weight)
4. Higher percentage of the population are older people (who are generally heavier than younger folks)
5. People are taking more prescription drugs which can lead to weight gain
6. Increased pollution which ends up disrupting the hormones that control weight
7. Women are giving birth at a higher age (which seems to be an independent risk factor for obesity)
8. Overweight people marry each other and then have kids who are genetically prone to be overweight

The evidence supporting any of these reasons is pretty flimsy.

But, here’s the bigger problem — we can’t or, in some cases shouldn’t, do anything about these explanations. We aren’t going to stop heating and cooling our homes, ban overweight people from having kids, stop people from taking needed prescription drugs, keep older women from having children, or require overweight people to not marry each other. And we certainly aren’t going to suggest that people should continue to smoke so as to keep their weight down. And there’s nothing we can do about the national demographic trends of our population getting older. And, sure, we should be trying to reduce pollution levels for many reasons beyond its possible impact on obesity incidence — but that’s a very long process.

But, wait a minute — there are only 8 reasons listed above. What about the other two?

Yep, I left two out because, if they prove to be valid, we might actually be able to do something about them.

The first one is there’s evidence that what women eat during pregnancy can contribute to an increased incidence of obesity. High fat diets, diets that cause high-blood sugar levels, and starvation have all been implicated. Women are already told to not drink alcohol, not smoke, take a multivitamin with folic acid, and avoid certain drugs during pregnancy. Maybe it also makes sense to educate women on the best diet practices during pregnancy. Right now, no one knows exactly what the best advice would be — but, if this was ever determined, we could certainly put such an educational program in place.

The second explanation is that people are getting too little sleep. This reason is the first one listed by the obesity researchers and is the most intriguing.

Over the last few years several well-executed studies have shown a link between less sleep and an increased incidence of obesity — and separate research has demonstrated that most people are sleeping less than they used to. In a future blog I’ll review some of this research.

So, ten explanations for the increased incidence of obesity, but only one we can do something about in the short term — get a good night’s sleep.

Allen Oelschlaeger
Author of Finally, the Straight Scoop About Weight, Nutrition, and Fitness

Obesity has been implicated as a contributor to almost every disease known (not always correctly).

Now, one blogger is suggesting that obesity actually contributes to global warming.

Here’s the logic:

* People eat in excess and get bigger
* Overweight people ride instead of walk and, thus, contribute to the greenhouse effect
* The greenhouse effect leads to more rain which causes more grass to grow
* Cows eat the grass and increase in size and number which results in lower beef prices
* Lower beef prices result in people eating more — and the cycle starts again

Obviously, this is a joke. But the logic isn’t too much worse than the explanation of how obesity contributes to 400,000 deaths per year in the US.

Recently, a researcher reviewed the rationale for this huge number and concluded that actual number is more like 26,000 deaths.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Obesity is a real problem and we should be trying to lower its incidence. I just don’t think we need to overstate the statistics in order to get obesity classified as a disease.

Yep, I’m pretty sure that’s what is happening here. See, pharmaceutical and weight-loss companies don’t get reimbursed for drugs/procedures which change appearance. Health insurance companies only want to pay for the treatment of a real disease.

Allen Oelschlaeger
Author of Finally, the Straight Scoop About Weight, Nutrition, and Fitness

One of the most controversial areas of nutrition research is related to salt intake.

Some researchers think that consuming too much salt creates all sorts of problems, while others think the concern about salt is overstated.

However, in general, most agree that a comprehensive reduction in salt consumption would not produce significant health benefits for a population.

Now a recent study suggests otherwise. Two Finland professors reported recently that a 30-35% reduction in salt intake over the last 30 years in Finland was associated with a 75-80% decrease in stroke and heart disease mortality in the population under 65 years.

The key word here is “associated.” These professors don’t have any data demonstrating that reducing salt intake causes these health benefits. Instead, they just discovered a relationship between salt intake and stroke/heart disease. It could be that the salt intake reduction had nothing to do with the improved health of the population in Finland.

However, they also discovered that the salt intake in the US increased 50% between the mid-1980s and the late-1990s — during which time the prevalence of high blood pressure increased. Doesn’t that prove that increased salt intake is a bad thing?

Well, in fact, no it doesn’t.

But, we hear this kind of misleading stuff all the time. Goofy associations are discovered by researchers and it gets presented by the media as cause and affect.

In fact, what was the headline for the article about this study? “Salt intake strongly associated with obesity.”

Yep, it turns out this same study found a link between salt intake and obesity in Finland. How do the researchers explain this finding? Their hypothesis is that increased salt intake causes increased thirst — and that this results in people drinking more sugary beverages, causing a marked net increase in calorie consumption.

And guess what? Until 1983, salt consumption in the US was pretty stable. But, since then, salt intake has increased and so has the prevalence of obesity.

So, there you have it — the answer to our obesity epidemic. All we need to do is cut back on using the salt shaker and we’ll all get skinny.

Allen Oelschlaeger
Author of Finally, the Straight Scoop About Weight, Nutrition and Fitness

Over the last few years there has been some compelling evidence that too little sleep contributes to obesity.

No one is quite sure why but, each time a study is done on this, the people who sleep the least seem to weight the most.

Now, a British study has extended this finding to children.

In reviewing data on 13,000 children followed since birth, it was found that short sleep duration at age 30 months was associated with obesity at age 7 years.

How did the researchers explain this finding? Two possibilities:

* Too little sleep might affect body hormones which, in turn, affect hunger.
* Less sleep may result in kids spending less time outdoors and active.

For Dr. Shahrad Taheri, one of the researchers on the study, said the results were so dramatic that he thought poor sleep may be a prime reason behind the growing epidemic of obesity among kids.

I think there is something to this. I certainly notice that I seem hungrier when I haven’t gotten much sleep. Also, I’ll take any excuse I can get to sleep in on Saturday.

Allen Oelschlaeger
Author of Finally, the Straight Scoop About Weight, Nutrition, and Fitness