“it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
why?
causes of obesity
it’s not, as comedian bill maher recently put it
,
because people are “eating like a–holes.”
try to lose weight and the brain fights back, aggressively. higher levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin are released, sending a single-minded message to the nerves in the hypothalamus: “get food.” at the same time, the brain blocks satiety, or “i’m full,” signals from the gut and slows down the rate at which calories are burned.
this “famine” effect can last a year or longer as people struggle to keep the lost weight off.
“it is an incredible and efficient response to weight loss,” obesity specialist dr. david macklin says with awe.
but maher’s fat-shaming quip taps into a common misperception:
that obesity comes down to some kind of moral failing
, a lack of discipline and self-control, and that the solution is as simple as “finding the right diet and working out a ton,” macklin says.
in fact, it goes much deeper.
“we now have great clarity that obesity is a chronic and complex, progressive, primarily genetically conferred, centred-in-the-brain, environmentally influenced, real medical condition,” sums up macklin, the medical director of a weight management program for high-risk pregnancies at toronto’s mount sinai hospital.
the dna of obesity
the tendency is to blame obesity primarily on poor food choices — sugary drinks, salty, greasy processed foods, staggering portion sizes. but a growing body of research suggests that the appeal of these foods, as well as the drive to overeat, is rooted in our dna
.