Posts Tagged ‘obesity causes’

While many researchers are having scholarly debates about their competing models for obesity, they focus primarily upon how food is doing it to us. Is it the excessive supply of hyper-palatable, ultra-processed food? Or is it all about carbs and insulin? But nowhere in these lovely models is there any focus on factors that go […]

All models are wrong, but some are useful. Quite a distinguished collection of obesity researchers are working hard to prove that these words of a great statistician – George Box – were precisely correct. One group, led by David Ludwig, suggests that their carbohydrate-insulin model (CIM) for obesity “better reflects knowledge on the biology of […]

Our food environment has changed to contribute to the rise in obesity over the last half century. People disagree about many things in the effort to find policies to reduce obesity. But this presumption is one that most of us can agree upon. The real question, though, is how to define these changes. Are ultra-processed […]

What is going on here? Why is this happening? What is the cause? The struggle to discern causality bedevils anyone who is serious about understanding obesity and how to overcome it. But the line between cause and effect can be very blurry, and fuzzy thinking ensues. And thus, the progress toward reversing the relentless increase […]

“The etiology of obesity is multifactorial. However, the root cause is energy imbalance: more calories consumed than expended.” This was the explanation for obesity that Dariush Mozaffarian offered in 2008. Today, he writes in AJCN that obesity is “an unexplained epidemic.” We count this as a flicker of curiosity about obesity. If it spreads, perhaps […]

Why? This is the basic question that remains unanswered after four decades of rising obesity. Why do we see such a persistent rise in obesity prevalence – all over the world? Broadly, we can lump the suspects into four groups: food, stress, physical environment, and chemicals. Of course, the most common presumption is that it’s […]

The drumbeat is growing louder. “Ultra-processed foods are trashing our health – and the planet,” say four nutrition scientists from Deakin University. It would be hard to find a clearer definition of these products as our enemy. Yet another set of distinguished nutrition scientists argue that ultra-processed alternatives to meat and dairy can offer valuable […]

It seems pretty clear. Increased screen time correlates with a higher risk of obesity. In children and teens, for example, a recent systematic review and meta-analysis told us the risk goes up by two thirds with more than two hours daily. Recent prospective research links high screen time with BMI going higher a year later. […]

Authors of a new study in PLOS Medicine tell us that they have encouraging new evidence for an effective anti-obesity policy. They conclude “These findings provide support for policies that restrict HFSS [high fat, salt, or sugar] product advertising as a tool to reduce purchases of HFSS products, as a way of improving population diet […]

For insight into the notion that something is wrong with our food environment, consider the case of Hank the Tank. Hank is a bear of size in South Lake Tahoe, California. Living large with obesity in a posh gated community, this bear is wreaking havoc. All because he found an ample supply of food. California’s […]