The Truth About Fat (BBC2 Horizon)

kyle4jem

Just watched a fascinating Horizon documentary on BBC2 The Truth About Fat.

It looked at obesity from a scientific angle and ponder the following four studies:

1) how the hormones that make you feel hungry and full are different in fat and normal weight individuals

2) genetics may not be the be all and end all (looking at identical twins who are not identical weights) and how critical events in a person's life may trigger the activation of the "fat gene"

3) how our predisposition to overeating may start in the womb if our mothers were under-nourished

4) how gastric by-pass surgery seems to alter the patient's perception of food and not just the volume of what the patient can eat.

It was presented in a way that gave food for thought (pardon the pun) and I could certainly relate to 1 and 3.

I just wondered if anyone else watched this programme and what your thoughts were.

gtfcnat

I'll have to try and catch this on Iplayer

ETA - link for later http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01dzfgb/Horizon_20112012_The_Truth_about_Fat/

stphnstevey

Cool it's on iplayer, will watch it later on Virgin catch up

gidgeclev

I read about this on the BBC website and will have to catch it on I player - the undernourished mother thing is interesting, obviously those of us of a certain age were born only a few years after the end of food rationing to women who had probably been undernourished for their teenage years. I never feel full either but maybe that will change now that I am officially no longer overweight. I hope so.

beduffbrickie

I watched it, bit of a let down I thought, not enough evidence in my eyes to support what there saying, personally I still think its the whole westen world diet, and lack of exercise. I can see what there getting at though.

gidgeclev

It's the inability to feel full that intrigues me. I can seriously overeat and I won't know that I have overdone it because I don't feel full until maybe an hour or more later. Then I can be very uncomfotable because I have eaten far too much. It means constant vigilance and portion control and never doing any diet plan where any foods are 'free' because they assume that you will stop eating when you are full.

Tari_D

It's the inability to feel full that intrigues me. I can seriously overeat and I won't know that I have overdone it because I don't feel full until maybe an hour or more later. Then I can be very uncomfotable because I have eaten far too much. It means constant vigilance and portion control and never doing any diet plan where any foods are 'free' because they assume that you will stop eating when you are full.

I watched it last night on iplayer following this thread and I found the same big intruiging. I watched it with my very skinny boyfriend and we were discussing it and I do eat a lot without really feeling full (at least not until a while after I've eaten) where as he will eat a bit (a lot less than me) and then not be able to continue. I have to be sickenly stuffed before I stop.

The part about the brain activity before and after gastric bypass surgery was facinating as well but I don't felt that they explained (or maybe i just missed) why that was.

The same goes for the idea of the 'fat gene' being switched on by a stress event in your life, I found that very interesting,

It was facinating to see all the different factors that make some people more likely to be obese and if these could be tackled then it would really reduce the obesity problem. I think it is important that people still take responsibility for trying to be more healthy themselves but not to entirely blame an overweight person who is trying and compare them to someone who happens to be skinny but due to the luck of the factors discussed in the progrramme such as their experiences in the womb and their genes.

Leo_Joy_HG

I found it very interesting. I could relate to a lot of it - never feeling full, always being a bit hungry, etc.

And i suppose i was viewing it from a bit of a different viewpoint - as i have been overweight but never obese but i am a recovering bulimic. Looking at the brain activety very interested me, as with bulimia food massively effects your emotions and behavior so that you crave stuffing yourself.

Well worth a watch.

kyle4jem

It's the inability to feel full that intrigues me. I can seriously overeat and I won't know that I have overdone it because I don't feel full until maybe an hour or more later. Then I can be very uncomfotable because I have eaten far too much. It means constant vigilance and portion control and never doing any diet plan where any foods are 'free' because they assume that you will stop eating when you are full.

Yes, this was something that I recognised in myself. I can often go for hours and hours and not feel hungry, but there are times when I start to eat I just shovel food into my mouth at such an alarming rate that I've another fork/spoonful ready to go in before I've even swallowed the first mouthful. Afterwards, I'd get up from the table and my stomach would be visibly distended and I'd be in physical pain from over-eating.

Even now, that I am training myself to eat in moderation, not to snack between meals and to make better choices, I still don't feel hungry and generally eat because I believe it's time to eat and also to try and get into the rhythm of three meals a day.

The other interesting aspect of the programme was the relationship between the expectant mother's nutritional well-being and the propensity for her off-spring to become fat. Due to a medical condition, my mother suffered during pregnancy and she often had to be hospitalised for blood transfusions. She was less than 8st when I was born and I weighed in at 9½lbs!!!

I liked the bit about the triggers for the fat gene and I too would have liked more of an explanation for what was going on with the gastric by-pass patients and whether or not lap-banders also experience the same loss of appetite for certain foods. Perhaps the research is still in its infancy.

I don't think the programme was trying to find excuses for over-eating or for our inherently unhealthy western diet, and the Doctor who presented the programme made that abundantly clear, I thought, but she too had to acquiesce to the evidence that there is more to it than just genetics or personality traits.

squishy82

i saw most of it, thought it was well good would like to watch it again without the kids lol

yesiamaduck

I don't know, I understand the inability to feel full but that only happens to me after I've been eating above the odds for a few days... then I find it harder to feel full to the point I never feel full... eat sensibly for a few weeks then I get full incredibly easily. Is that being considered?

MogwaisGrandma

I watched it after seeing the link on here. It was interesting as I could associated with the not feeling full switch in me being dodgy and making the wrong choices when I am screaming at myself on the inside to pick up the apple over the cream cake.

The unborn child being affected was one thing that made me not too convinced as my mother was well fed through all 3 of her pregnancies and I turned out as the chubby kid but my brothers were all thin. We were brought up the same and ate the same.