4 ms·

Over the many years of assisting people seeking treatment for excess body weight, I'm constantly amazed by the endless complexity of the condition, not surprisi

by jrapdx3 11y ago

Over the many years of assisting people seeking treatment for excess body weight, I'm constantly amazed by the endless complexity of the condition, not surprising given the crucial importance of energy intake and regulation for biological survival. Unfortunately the research full report is behind a paywall, and the abstract/summary leaves out a lot of info. However the findings are interesting in linking the dysregulated eating behavior to childhood SES. The details of the full report are needed to clarify some questions, like the demographic composition of the sample populations. It's been observed for a long time that some minority groups (e.g., black and Hispanic) have higher rates of obesity. The fact that these groups are also over-represented in lower SES population segments could be a factor in the results. It's not clear how such variables were accounted for. Perhaps a key was the last experiment discussed in the article, where there was reduced response to blood glucose level. Ordinarily increased glucose acts as a feedback signal of nutrient status turning off the drive to keep eating. Problems with satiety (sense of fullness) are common in obesity, though how it works is incredibly intricate and poorly understood. There are dozens of genetic elements and a vast array of hormones and other body messenger systems implicated, ultimately it involves most every part of the body. No wonder theorizing about causes of eating/metabolic disturbances is frustrating and unsatisfying. I'll take a stab at it anyway. IMHO nutritional factors should be a major suspect. A big change in diet over the last few decades has been the substantially increased intake of sugars put into processed/convenience foods. Fructose in foods has increased the most and thought to play a prominent role in higher rates of obesity. It's conceivable that early life exposure to high levels of sugars could bring about enduring abnormalities in body systems responsible for metabolic regulation.

pm90 11y ago
If the last part is true, it is rather shocking! It really should be better publicized.
- jrapdx3 11y ago
  As usual the facts are messier than any single assertion will ever be, even my own. Here's an interesting review, more or less reflecting "the state of the art": Okręglicka K, Health effects of changes in the structure of dietary macronutrients intake in western societies. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26024397 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26024397
lukeschlather 11y ago
It's important to consider the effect of early life exposure to low levels of sugar. I think much the contrary, if you're exposed to high levels of sugar in utero and in early childhood, you will develop a fast metabolism and have little trouble with obesity or anything. The Dutch Hunger Winter studies show quite conclusively that if your mother was literally starving while pregnant with you, and you have access to abundant sources of food, you're more prone to obesity and all the accompanying ailments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_famine_of_1944#Legacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_famine_of_1944#Legacy
- jrapdx3 11y ago
  Research indeed shows connection between maternal nutritional status and health outcomes of children. However it's a complicated, non-linear relationship. There is evidence that individuals born to mothers overweight during pregnancy will as adults be more likely to have metabolic markers of health risk. IOW maternal over-nutrition can lead to offspring having greater chance of being overweight or having related health problems in early adulthood. You might be interested in this review article: Amudha Poobalan and Lorna Aucott, Obesity Among Young Adults in Developing Countries: A Systematic Overview http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4796326/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4796326/
akovaski 11y ago
I think you can find the article for free, hosted by one of the authors, at this link: http://personal.tcu.edu/sehill/Hill_Prokosch_PsySci_2016.pdf http://personal.tcu.edu/sehill/Hill_Prokosch_PsySci_2016.pdf A version with the paper which seems to have supplemental information at the end is available at this link: http://personal.tcu.edu/sehill/SES_Hunger_4_Nov_15.pdf http://personal.tcu.edu/sehill/SES_Hunger_4_Nov_15.pdf
- jrapdx3 11y ago
  Thank you! I'll take advantage of the author's generosity, making it available is a good thing to do.
dcposch 11y ago
> over-represented in lower SES population segments Just say "disproportionately poor". Euphimisms suck.
- EliRivers 11y ago
  > Euphimisms suck. Just say "are bad". :)
fpoling 11y ago
My personal and anecdotal observations is that it is not sugar alone that causes weight gain but a combination of a lot of sugar or starches and a lot of oil or animal fat. This is what processed/convenience food typically contains. With that pretty much all the fat is stored for later as body has strong preference for using glucose and carbohydrates in general over fat to produce energy. Also compared with, for example, pigs, humans and apes are very inefficient at converting carbohydrates into fats for storage resulting at up to 30% loss of energy on the process.
- jrapdx3 11y ago
  It is very difficult to disentangle the role of various nutritional elements in the rising tide of obesity. A number of factors have been occurring at the same time, such as, alterations in amount and sources of protein, changing proportion and composition of dietary fat, and of course, large increases in the amount of sugar (and to lesser extent, other carbohydrate) consumption. So in a sense you are right, consuming more sugar while continuing to have high intake of saturated, trans and n-6 fat is certainly a recipe for producing metabolic disease. However the level of unhealthful fat intake has been fairly steady in recent decades while the proportion of sugar increased. This is the basis for the focus on reducing sugar intake as a way to improve the health of populations.
  - fpoling 11y ago
    I am not so sure about steady fat intake. One of the recent tendencies was replacing animal fat with oil in various bakeri products as a way to reduce price. As a vegan I should welcome that, however one typically needs much more cheap oil in calories than butter to get a product with about the same properties. So we get increase in calories when all of them are stored as fat. Again, as a vegan I am very aware of that as I gained about 4 kilos before I realized my mistake with bakery with too much oil. It is true that to compensate for the worsen taste with cheap oils in bakery products, the producers add more sugar. However medical experiments that I am aware showed that humans are very bad at converting excessive sugar into fat. The body rather generates heat from extra carbohydrates than converts them to fat for storage unless one eats really way too much of sugar. That level is still well above what is found in a typical current western diet.

by jrapdx3 11y ago

pm90 11y ago

If the last part is true, it is rather shocking! It really should be better publicized.

jrapdx3 11y ago
As usual the facts are messier than any single assertion will ever be, even my own. Here's an interesting review, more or less reflecting "the state of the art": Okręglicka K, Health effects of changes in the structure of dietary macronutrients intake in western societies. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26024397 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26024397

lukeschlather 11y ago

It's important to consider the effect of early life exposure to low levels of sugar. I think much the contrary, if you're exposed to high levels of sugar in utero and in early childhood, you will develop a fast metabolism and have little trouble with obesity or anything. The Dutch Hunger Winter studies show quite conclusively that if your mother was literally starving while pregnant with you, and you have access to abundant sources of food, you're more prone to obesity and all the accompanying ailments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_famine_of_1944#Legacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_famine_of_1944#Legacy

jrapdx3 11y ago
Research indeed shows connection between maternal nutritional status and health outcomes of children. However it's a complicated, non-linear relationship. There is evidence that individuals born to mothers overweight during pregnancy will as adults be more likely to have metabolic markers of health risk. IOW maternal over-nutrition can lead to offspring having greater chance of being overweight or having related health problems in early adulthood. You might be interested in this review article: Amudha Poobalan and Lorna Aucott, Obesity Among Young Adults in Developing Countries: A Systematic Overview http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4796326/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4796326/

akovaski 11y ago

I think you can find the article for free, hosted by one of the authors, at this link: http://personal.tcu.edu/sehill/Hill_Prokosch_PsySci_2016.pdf http://personal.tcu.edu/sehill/Hill_Prokosch_PsySci_2016.pdf A version with the paper which seems to have supplemental information at the end is available at this link: http://personal.tcu.edu/sehill/SES_Hunger_4_Nov_15.pdf http://personal.tcu.edu/sehill/SES_Hunger_4_Nov_15.pdf

jrapdx3 11y ago
Thank you! I'll take advantage of the author's generosity, making it available is a good thing to do.

dcposch 11y ago

> over-represented in lower SES population segments Just say "disproportionately poor". Euphimisms suck.

EliRivers 11y ago
> Euphimisms suck. Just say "are bad". :)

fpoling 11y ago

My personal and anecdotal observations is that it is not sugar alone that causes weight gain but a combination of a lot of sugar or starches and a lot of oil or animal fat. This is what processed/convenience food typically contains. With that pretty much all the fat is stored for later as body has strong preference for using glucose and carbohydrates in general over fat to produce energy. Also compared with, for example, pigs, humans and apes are very inefficient at converting carbohydrates into fats for storage resulting at up to 30% loss of energy on the process.

jrapdx3 11y ago
It is very difficult to disentangle the role of various nutritional elements in the rising tide of obesity. A number of factors have been occurring at the same time, such as, alterations in amount and sources of protein, changing proportion and composition of dietary fat, and of course, large increases in the amount of sugar (and to lesser extent, other carbohydrate) consumption. So in a sense you are right, consuming more sugar while continuing to have high intake of saturated, trans and n-6 fat is certainly a recipe for producing metabolic disease. However the level of unhealthful fat intake has been fairly steady in recent decades while the proportion of sugar increased. This is the basis for the focus on reducing sugar intake as a way to improve the health of populations.
- fpoling 11y ago
  I am not so sure about steady fat intake. One of the recent tendencies was replacing animal fat with oil in various bakeri products as a way to reduce price. As a vegan I should welcome that, however one typically needs much more cheap oil in calories than butter to get a product with about the same properties. So we get increase in calories when all of them are stored as fat. Again, as a vegan I am very aware of that as I gained about 4 kilos before I realized my mistake with bakery with too much oil. It is true that to compensate for the worsen taste with cheap oils in bakery products, the producers add more sugar. However medical experiments that I am aware showed that humans are very bad at converting excessive sugar into fat. The body rather generates heat from extra carbohydrates than converts them to fat for storage unless one eats really way too much of sugar. That level is still well above what is found in a typical current western diet.