The Chemical Cause of obesity

grassette · October 2011

http://www.mpbn.net/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3478/ItemId/18497/Default.aspx

This interview gives some indicators as to how certain chemical contaminants in our food supply might be causing endocrine balances that are making us obese.

SiltyPigeon · October 2011

Hmmm.... Here I thought it was because we ate too much and exercised too little. Silly me!

cheshirequeen · October 2011

mick, thats funny, and love your quote.

shreddin_mama · October 2011

non gmo just label it

raevynn · October 2011

... just one of the reasons to eat Organic, non-GMO, and really low on the food chain - i.e., vegan.

Much less chemical residue that way.

koosdel · October 2011

Somebody was absent the day they taught human physiology....

Gigi_licious · October 2011

Thanks for sharing ....wouldn't there be other indicators if a food is throwing us off balance? Eating excessive amounts of any food will make us fat. For example: if I eat too many carbs I will feel horrible. My body will hurt, my stomach will hurt, I will have severe mood swings, I am grumpy, I am lethargic, I am depressed, I am anxious, I am just all around not feeling good. Obviously it throws me off balance. BUT I can still eat nothing but bread and ice cream all day and as long as I'm eating at a deficit, I still lose.

And to that one person that commented, it IS possible to be healthy and NOT vegan or only eat organic. That's bunk.

d2footballJRC · October 2011

Here all this time I thought it was for a completely different reason!! **runs and hides**

Gigi_licious · October 2011

adjones5 · October 2011

Alright... is anyone else annoyed that people are constantly trying to find excuses for overweight? Now its in the food... yeah of course its in the food, its called calories and when you eat more than your body needs then you become obese. Its called math.

servilia · October 2011

This!

cmriverside · October 2011

Oh, good. Now that we know, we can all get on with finally losing that pesky weight.

tross0924 · October 2011

Lol

Exactly!

ninerbuff · October 2011

Yeah, get an environmentalist to say that chemicals are causing issues and he'll get a grant from the government to study it more..........................

Elizabeth_C34 · October 2011

servilia · October 2011

LMAO!!!

HonkyTonks · October 2011

That image is bothersome. It's LOSE not LOOSE.

Obesity is a complex issue - I don't pretend to understand it entirely and unless you're an expert with peer reviewed research papers on the issue maybe you shouldn't either

d2footballJRC · October 2011

Incorrect! Obesity isnt complex. It's simply calories in vs calories burnt. Countless studies have shown that from the McDonald's to junk food diets even. Now being healthy is a complex answer.

grassette · October 2011

English spelling varies by country. LOOSE is probably the British spelling. If not, it makes for a great pun.

grassette · October 2011

I am not so skeptical. women who take the birth control pill gain weight. It's one of the normal side effects of the hormone. Plastic contains estrogen-mimics that have an impact on the endocrine system. Given that everything is packaged in plastic, it is totally impossible to get rid of the effects, unless we make massive changes to the way plastics are used in our society. The Romans used lead to line their pipes. We make ours out of plastic.

However, I might make small changes: store left-overs in glass containers, make sure my water bottle isn't plastic, use glass in the micro-wave, stuff like that. And there is also the possibility of joining those activists trying to raise public consciousness of the down side of using plastics.

If science can inform our daily routine for the better, I am all for it.

RobynC79 · October 2011

I assure you that those of us speaking and writing British English make a clear distinction between loose and lose. It's lose, unless you can't spell.

On the original topic - yes, there is quite good evidence that some chemicals, notably the estrogen disrupting compounds (EDCs) can affect metabolism and a host of other bodily functions. EDCs find their way into the environment via waste water contaminated with excreted artificial hormones taken by both humans and animals. There is a large and well-supported literature on this. However when it comes to obesity, I like to apply the adage 'hear hoofbeats - think horses not zebras' - it is far, far more likely that any given obese individual is that way because of simple caloric excess. Not evil chemicals hidden in the otherwise perfectly normal amount of food they are eating.

SueGremlin · October 2011

Michael Pollan's "In Defense Of Food" is an extremely informative and interesting book about how complicated the whole food situation is in the US. Yes, it's as simple as eating better, but that's not always so simple itself.
I recommend this book highly.

Silverkittycat · October 2011

Precisely.

thankyou4thevenom · October 2011

Oh look another excuse for people to use on why they're fat and then stuff their faces with chips. It's not the chips, it's the chemical contaminants.

I've recently been watching a few weight loss programmes on TV for motivation and one of them takes fat families and puts them through tests that debunks all their 'I'm fat because I'm big boned' or 'I'm fat because of genetics' and shows them that really they're just lying to themselves over the bad food choices they are making.

Stuff like this really annoys me.

SueGremlin · October 2011

Okay, so. What about the availability of healthy food? The expense of it?
Calorie for calorie, it's often easier to get crappy food and a lot cheaper. Especially in urban settings. McDonald's, until recently, had a pretty big presence in school cafeterias, complete with super-sized HFC-filled sodas. It's about culture. Not everything is that simple, it's a very complex problem. YES, it's about making healthy choices, but there are often a lot of obstacles in the way.

thankyou4thevenom · October 2011

Yes and no.
Yes some people can't afford the best kinds of food.

And here's the no.
Here's a newsflash, not all of them are fat. Why? Because they don't eat too much.

tross0924 · October 2011

Speaking from experience I've found it's MUCH cheaper to eat one serving of broccoli, one serving of chicken, and one serving of brown rice, compared to the 3 or 4 servings of each I was having before.

The argument that it's more expensive to eat healthy doesn't hold water. My broccoli, chicken, rice meal costs about $4. Ever seen an obese person spend less than $4 at McDonalds. I never did.

d2footballJRC · October 2011

Yeah I was going to say carrots, rice, celery, peanut butter, and lettuce are all very cheap. A lot of the problem is people don't cook anymore, they eat out so often.

grassette · October 2011

grassette · October 2011

Plus, other than weight gain, there are other good reasons to avoid plastics. Because they are estrogen mimics, they are leading to the decline of the male principle in nature. Estrogen and estrogen mimic pollution in the Thames river is causing a decline sperm count in men. In the St Laurence river, downstream from the Great Lakes and the big industrial cities, fish and whales are inter-sex. This means that their gonads are both male and female at once. Male gonads are full of eggs, for example. I have a personal suspicion that the growth of gay culture may have a biological base in a supply of drinking water loaded with estrogen. Studies documenting this stuff are all available by doing a search on google.

It's interesting to see that it has an impact on fat as well, though I agree with most posting here that the supersize phenomenon is also a great cause of obesity.

koosdel · October 2011

Umm... McDonald's combo seven bucks maybe? The grilled chicken breast and rice I'm planning for dinner 1.15$. What does an urban setting have to do with anything? Are brains smaller there?

The Chemical Cause of obesity

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