Fresh start needed on obesity
Wednesday April 17th, 2013
Obesity needs to be seen as a hormone problem, not an energy imbalance, an expert says today.
Gary
Taubes of the Nutrition Science Initiative, San Diego, California, USA,
writes in the British Medical Journal today
that: "We have to look again at what really makes us fat."
The accepted hypothesis on obesity, together with substandard science, has exacerbated the obesity crisis and related chronic diseases, he warns. The conventional wisdom since the 1950s, that obesity is caused by a net positive energy balance, suggests the cure is to undereat or exercise more.
But this approach is "remarkably ineffective", he writes, not because people do not follow the advice, but because it is incorrect.
It results from the alternative approach - that obesity is a hormone-based disorder, put forward by a German diabetes expert - being rejected due to anti-German sentiment after the Second World War.
Applying the laws of thermodynamics to living organisms "tells us nothing", says Taubes, as does not explain the cause of increased appetite.
He believes that the problem lies with refined grains and sugars (sucrose and high fructose corn syrup, in particular) triggering obesity via raised insulin levels.
These foods are "uniquely fattening, not because we overeat them but because they trigger a hormonal response that drives the partitioning of the fuel consumed into storage as fat,” he says.
However, early proponents of the low-carbohydrate solution faced a backlash from nutritionists and obesity researchers because it was high in saturated fat at a time when the medical community linked high fat diets and heart disease. It was written off as a "dangerous fad" and "routinely dismissed ever since" despite showing the best short-term results in weight-loss trials.
Ultimately, Taubes wants to see a thorough examination of the different potential causes of obesity, rather than a focus solely on its cure.
Taubes, G. The science of obesity: what do we really know about what makes us fat? BMJ 17 April 2013 doi: 10.1136/bmj.f1050 [abstract]
Tags: Diet & Food | Fitness | North America
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