208
videos
Topic summary contributed by volunteer(s): Linda
The Mayo Clinic defines obesity, a common U.S. condition, as having an excessive amount of body fat. The U.S. National Institute of Health defines obesity as a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or more. One in three American adults is obese, seven times the rate of China and eight times more than Japan. If the current trend continues, virtually 100% of Americans will be obese by the end of the century.
The annual cost attributable to obesity among full-time U.S. employees is estimated at $70 billion. Obesity is associated with serious health problems including heart disease, diabetes, heart attack, prostate enlargement, reduced female fertilization rates, gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and cancer. Obesity can both stress a person’s joints and degrade a person’s cartilage. A form of low-grade systemic inflammation called metaflammation is associated with obesity.
The U.S. obesity epidemic extends to children. Only 1 in 1000 American children eats a healthy diet, a likely cause of the childhood obesity epidemic and the dramatic rise in childhood diabetes. The availability of large portions of junk food appears to be linked to this obesity trend. Babies who are fed milk formula have a higher obesity rate than babies who are breastfed.
The food industry has helped promulgate the erroneous message that inactivity, rather than consumption of manufactured, calorie-rich, nutrient-poor foods, is the prime cause of obesity. Food and beverage intake along with calorie overconsumption are actually more important than physical activity in weight maintenance and loss. Intake of chicken meat, which has over ten times the calories and fat of chickens a hundred years ago, may contribute to obesity risk. Consumption of milk, refined grains, meat, and fish contaminated with industrial pollutants may also raise obesity risk. Dairy, meat, eggs, and junk foods all raise the activity of the TOR enzyme, which appears to be linked to obesity risk. Industrial pollutants that may build up in our body fat from diet may help explain the link between obesity and diabetes. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals in foods and increased uric acid levels from meat and sugar intake may increase obesity risk. Not getting a good night’s sleep is another potential risk factor. A review of common slimming supplements showed that they were not effective for weight loss.
A plant-based diet can help prevent and treat obesity and other serious health conditions. Plant-based diets appear to protect against metabolic syndrome and may foster the kinds of gut bacteria linked to reduced obesity risk. Breastfeeding infants may help protect them against subsequent obesity for over 30 years. Green tea, beans, whole grains, and fiber from various sources may also help lower obesity risk. Fiber-consuming bacteria in the gut create the compounds propionate and butyrate, which appear to have an anti-obesity effect. Research has associated nut and dried fruit intake with lower obesity risk.
Image Credit: Pixabay. This image has been modified.
The common explanations for the cause of the obesity epidemic put forward by the food industry and policymakers, such as inactivity or a lack of willpower, are not only wrong, but actively harmful fallacies.
How to treat the cause by preventing the emergence of pandemic viruses in the first place (a video I recorded more than a decade ago when I was Public Health Director at the HSUS in Washington DC).
A review of reviews on the health effects of tea, coffee, milk, wine, and soda.
A list of “specific recommendations for the prevention of obesity by improving the circadian system health.”
Randomized, controlled trials of phototherapy (morning bright light) for weight loss.
What shift workers can do to moderate the adverse effects of circadian rhythm disruption.
Bright light exposure synchronizes the central circadian clock in our brains, whereas proper meal timing helps sync the timing of the clock genes throughout the rest of our body.
The same meal eaten at the wrong time of day can double blood sugars.
Why are calories eaten in the morning less fattening than calories eaten in the evening?
Harness the power of your circadian rhythms for weight loss by making breakfast or lunch your main meal of the day.
Given the power of chronotherapy—how the same dose of the same drugs taken at a different time of day can have such different effects—it’s no surprise that chronoprevention approaches, like meal timing, can also make a difference.
Breakthroughs in the field of chronobiology—the study of our circadian rhythms—help solve the mystery of the missing morning calories in breakfast studies.
