Study: Brain injury from high-fat foods may be why diets fai

Sorry but I think we dont need any more excuses in being overweight. I personally am owning up to it and making the right choices.

Well, they talk about obesity as being the cause..........yet haven't actually proved anything, yet go on to say that a high fat diet is the cause.........useless article, like most journalistic diatribe on nutrition.

This is a really interesting study. If anything, the write-up in the newspaper does it a bit of a disservice. The authors show elevation in inflammatory makers in the brains (and other body areas) of rats after consumption of a high-fat diet (HFD). They carefully address the confounding factor of obesity here: (this is a direct copy from the original scientific article, so it's science-speak)

"Since rats fed the HFD for 4 weeks gained more than 50 g more body weight and more than 10% more fat mass than chow-fed controls over the same time frame (data not shown), it remains possible that hypothalamic inflammation at this time point is a consequence of obesity. To address this question, we analyzed hypothalamic proinflammatory gene expression in rats during the initial phase of HFD feeding. Relative to that of chow-fed controls, rats placed on the HFD exhibited a transient but robust (50%–100%) increase of food intake (Figure 1, G and H) that gave rise to a small but significant increase of body weight and fat mass by day 7 (Figure 1F). In this cohort, gene expression analysis revealed a complex “on-off-on” pattern, with elevated hypothalamic levels of Il6, Tnfa, Socs3, Ikbkb, and Ikbke mRNA observed within the first 3 days of HFD exposure, followed by a decline to baseline values from days 7 to 14 and a subsequent return to elevated levels by day 28 (Figure 1I). Thus, increases of hypothalamic proinflammatory gene expression closely mirrored changes of energy intake during the first days of HFD feeding, and both occurred prior to significant expansion of body fat mass"

What they show here is that eventually the rats are obese, and at that point it is difficult to distinguish whether the pre-existing obesity or the HFD is causing the inflammation. However in the early stages, before rats gain a substantial amount of weight, the HFD has a similar effect. Thus it is likely (although not conclusive at this stage) that the diet itself, not the resulting obesity is responsible for the brain changes.

Please don't conflate poor science journalism with poor science. Most of these studies are done very carefully and to a high standard. I am aware that for non-scientists getting access to the original reports is hard, but please bear in mind that generally if you think a study is crap, it's probably because it's poorly reported rather than poorly conducted.

Unfortunately the diets used for rats and humans differ a great deal showing no true scientific data of any real value to people. Some drugs tested on rats work great but not so much in humans. The human body is quite capable of using fat for energy but alas that is not what makes us fat. Over consumption of carbs, fats, and other macros make us fat in other words overeating makes us fat. It is not right for anyone to demonize any macros like fat, protein, etc when none of them is directly responsible for being fat. The biggest problem these days though is that everyone demonizes either fat or carbs when we need both to shed fat effectively. Healthy fat intake suffers and in most cases saturated fats can aid in fat loss to a degree when on low fat diets. On low carb diets the body initially will shed more fat but it will adapt over time. There is no magic bullet to fat loss other than eating a better diet, sensible caloric intake and exercise although it can take up to 6 months of exercise to impact fat loss. Cutting cals to aggressively will result in muscle loss, so losing it slowly makes the most sense if we want to make it last.

Unfortunately the diets used for rats and humans differ a great deal showing no true scientific data of any real value to people. Some drugs tested on rats work great but not so much in humans. The human body is quite capable of using fat for energy but alas that is not what makes us fat. Over consumption of carbs, fats, and other macros make us fat in other words overeating makes us fat. It is not right for anyone to demonize any macros like fat, protein, etc when none of them is directly responsible for being fat. The biggest problem these days though is that everyone demonizes either fat or carbs when we need both to shed fat effectively. Healthy fat intake suffers and in most cases saturated fats can aid in fat loss to a degree when on low fat diets. On low carb diets the body initially will shed more fat but it will adapt over time. There is no magic bullet to fat loss other than eating a better diet, sensible caloric intake and exercise although it can take up to 6 months of exercise to impact fat loss. Cutting cals to aggressively will result in muscle loss, so losing it slowly makes the most sense if we want to make it last.

The thing about rats is only part true. You are right that we can't know with certainty that something in mice/rats is also a factor in humans. And you are right that drugs tested in rats do not always work so well in humans. However, I've noticed people devalue animal studies when it's most convenient for them and cling to them like a child to his favorite blankie when it's not convenient. Animal studies have their place in science. The work needs to be verified in humans. But it should never be dismissed out-right.

About the macros issue- I personally think it's OBESITY that is the problem, not the macro being consumed in large quantities. But that is my personal opinion. I am not an expert on nutrition and would need to do some more research before I felt comfortable crusading for my opinion.

Sorry but I think we dont need any more excuses in being overweight. I personally am owning up to it and making the right choices.

I don't think this is about making excuses for being overweight. This is about the science of weight gain and loss. I'm interested in the hows and whys because it leads to better decision making on my part. Isn't that part of calorie counting anyways? The science aspect. Most dieters know not all calories are equal, but the reason why is just as important as knowing the basic idea.