Matt Whiting wrote:
Rich S. wrote:

I scrounged through the recycle bin until I found last month's Reader's
Digest (July) and re-read the article on "Beating the Urge to Eat" by
Peter
Jaret. Several interesting items caught my attention.

1. A hormone called leptin signals the brain to supress appetite - "Hey,
Dude, quit eating. You're full!".

2. 85 to 90 percent of obese people DO NOT have a deficiency of leptin.
Their bodies have become resistant to its effects. This is much like
Type II
diabetes where the body has plenty of insulin but is insulin resistant.

3. An excess of triglycerides may contribute to leptin resistance.

4. An enzyme called SCD-1 - controlled by leptin - is used by the body to
create fat cells. Delete the gene that makes SCD-1 (in mice) and they can
pig out on Twinkies and beer without gaining weight.

5. Another culprit that may make you chubby is a virus, AD-36.

6. Base level activity can vary up to 500 calories/day. Notice how some
people constantly twitch? Low or high metabolism is hereditary, but
they're
working on metabolism boosting substances.

The article closes with, "Patients used to blame being overweight on
glands
and hormones, and we doctors would say, 'It's not hormones, it's
calories,'
" says Banks. "Now we know hormones *are* involved." . . ."People can
diet
and lose 10 or 15 pounds. But real obesity isn't a willpower problem,.
It's
a medical problem."


I still don't buy it. If it is a medical problem, why did it just occur
in the last 20-30 years and not 500 or 1000 years ago? I believe it is
our sedentary lifestyle combined with simply eating for recreation
rather than sustenance.


Matt


It's a medical problem that has always existed, but we have become much
more affluent in the past 20 or 30 years. We've gone from an average of
one car per family to three. We go to restaurants where we're served
huge, fatty portions, 'cause nobody would spend $50 for a plate of
boring vegetables and a slice of baloney (what you'd eat if you stayed
at home and fixed it yourself). Millenia of evolution taught us that we
better eat when food is available or you'll starve to death tomorrow.
You've gotta get fat in the summer to survive the winter. The instinct
is still there, but the winter isn't, and neither is the need to chase
the food down.

I've done better with my weight lately as I've started getting out of
the kitchen and into the garage, getting so caught up that I miss a meal
every now and again or just eat a bite so that I can get back to work.
I'll lose weight and have an airplane to boot. 8*)

--
http://www.ernest.isa-geek.org/
"Ignorance is mankinds normal state,
alleviated by information and experience."
Veeduber