Overeating not the cause of obesity

JohnEGreen

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Overeating is not in fact the primary cause of obesity, according to a new perspective on weight gain published by scientists.

"NHS data suggests that more than 11,000 hospital admissions over 2018-19 were directly attributable to obesity - and that admissions where obesity was a factor was around two and half times more likely in the most deprived areas compared to the least deprived areas.

A new paper explaining the causes has been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, claiming there are fundamental flaws in the energy balance model, and tying obesity to the consumption of low-quality food and processed carbohydrates.

The authors argue that an alternate model, the carbohydrate-insulin model, better explains obesity and points the way to more effective and long-lasting weight management strategies.

Lead author Dr David Ludwig, an endocrinologist at Boston Children's Hospital and professor at Harvard Medical School, says that the energy balance model doesn't explain the biological causes of weight gain."

Overeating 'not the primary cause of obesity', claim scientists (msn.com)

They may be onto something, what do you think?
 
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M

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When it comes right down to it, low fat diets caused obesity to skyrocket. I think the insulin model is fairly bulletproof at this stage. It’s only the grain industry and their payroll scientists clinging on for dear life that prevent the truth from bubbling to the surface in the minds of the general population.
 
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lucylocket61

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The next time someone says it’s all about CICO and denies the role insulin plays in obesity, ask them to explain why type 1 diabetics wither away and die no matter what they eat unless you give them insulin.
 
Resurgam

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I was always sneered at when I reported what I'd been eating because it was considered far too little for me to be gaining weight, yet I was always so conscientious about weighing and recording everything I consumed.
 
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In Response

In Response

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Jim Lahey said:
The next time someone says it’s all about CICO and denies the role insulin plays in obesity, ask them to explain why type 1 diabetics wither away and die no matter what they eat unless you give them insulin.
Click to expand...
Nice argument but, without insulin, someone with Type 1 would die of DKA before withering away.
 
M

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In Response said:
Nice argument but, without insulin, someone with Type 1 would die of DKA before withering away.
Click to expand...

Yes of course, but the point stands that declining insulin production results in pretty dramatic weight loss unless you are living entirely on dietary fat. It's very difficult to create body fat from glucose without insulin. I'm aware it's an imperfect argument but it does illustrate that the hormonal influences on energy use and distribution are equally as important as total energy consumed.
 
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LaoDan

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Of course the insulin model doesn’t explain why people stall losing fat on a low carb diet. What’s the next step for this population?
 
Dark Horse

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Dark Horse said:
Worth reading the original paper :-- https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ajcn/nqab270/6369073
Click to expand...
This paragraph is noteworthy:-
"The field of obesity should embrace paradigm clash as an essential step forward. Toward this end, investigators should, first, refrain from hyperbolic claims to have disproven (or proven) alternative explanations of the obesity pandemic; second, clarify the EBM, specifying contrasting causal and testable hypotheses; third, form collaborations among scientists with diverse viewpoints to test predictions in rigorous and unbiased research; and fourth, to facilitate these aims, depersonalize the debate, scrupulously avoiding ad hominem argument."​
 
M

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LaoDan said:
Of course the insulin model doesn’t explain why people stall losing fat on a low carb diet. What’s the next step for this population?
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Dietary fat can be stored directly in adipose tissue independent of insulin. Protein can also be turned into glucose and become insulinogenic. You can also still have hyperinsulinemia on low-carb if you are trying to undo several decades of diabetic pathology, so it won’t always be plain sailing. In the end, calories do matter, so you won’t continuously lose weight forever on low carb. The body won’t allow it. But the salient point is that hormone dysfunction will break the body’s ability to self regulate, ultimately causing obesity and/or metabolic disease.
 
Z

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I tried to read the link but my brain isn't up to it.

Some people undoubtedly do eat too much. I always understood that under nourishment was the problem which causes hunger as the body is crying out for the proper nutrition it needs. Filling up with cheap, junk carbs just creates more hunger for 2 reasons, carbs are addictive and the body is still craving nutrients.
 
M

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zand said:
and the body is still craving nutrients.
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A very good point. Most modern ‘food’ is high in energy and low in nutrition. If the body is seeking nutrients it will make you hungry. Primarily by way of skewing the leptin/ghrelin balance. Leptin resistance is a thing, I think related to excessive fructose. I wonder if hyperghrelinemia is a word :shifty:
 
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