by Arleigh Aldrich

More and more studies are surfacing with the argument that it’s not just how much we eat that is fueling obesity, but what we’re eating. For years, scientists and nutritionists have adhered to the “calories in, calories out” model, in which one loses weight by burning more calories than they intake. Now researchers are asking if pollutants that make their way into our food affect that model.

The culprits on trial are called “obesogens,” a new term coined to describe organic pollutants such as pesticides for crops and slimicides for water purification. Here’s the question: If I consume a diet with ingredients exposed to obesogens containing X amount of calories, will it cause me to gain more weight than if my diet didn’t contain those pollutants?

Bruce Blumberg, professor of developmental and cell biology and pharmaceutical sciences at the University of California, says yes. Blumberg coined the term obesogens and claims they have an effect on how the body responds to calories and stores fat. In his study, one group of rats was fed a diet which contained the pollutants tributyltin and triphenyltin, and the other fed a diet with the same amount of calories, sans the pollutants. He found the rats who were fed the pollutants were found to have larger and higher quantities of fat cells.

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The power of the internet never ceases to amaze. Robert Gibbs, a morbidly obese man, loaded a video to YouTube on Friday, March 2, which was his 23rd birthday. In the video, the nearly 650-pound man from Livermore, California pleas for help for his weight and health.

Within a few days the video had gone viral, garnering over 750,000 hits. Gibbs’ words were desperate in the home video.

“This is my last chance, my last hope. I’m really scared I’m not going to be able to watch my niece and nephew grow up and I’m not going to get to have a family of my own,” he says in to the camera. “My birthday’s tomorrow, I turn 23, I’ve never had a life. I’m asking for somebody’s help.”

Gibbs made the video on the eve of his birthday as he reflected over his life. The young man has diabetes and bed sores and has landed in the hospital more than once. He admits to being trapped in his own prison and in an interview said, “why would anybody choose to be like this?”.
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At a time when obesity rates are at an all-time high and continuing to grow, doctors are bumping up their recommendations for patients to increase their physical activity. The CDC reports that in 2010, one in three adults that saw a doctor or other health care professional was advised to increase their physical activity to improve their health. This is a vast increase to the recommendations in 2000 when less than one in four consultations resulted in a recommendation of more physical activity. This dramatic change over 10 years shows that members of the medical community are increasing their efforts to recommend lifestyle change to boost health benefits.

This development is important because patients typically listen to advice given by their doctors. According to a study done in 2008, overweight patients were nearly five times more likely to exercise if their doctors counseled them to do so. They were even more likely to keep active if their doctor followed up with them after the initial prescription.

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In his book I Can Fix America, author and entrepreneur Dave Duley explores the ways individual Americans can take stewardship of the privileges that come with U.S. citizenship. One of the major premises of the book is that Americans need to take responsibility for their personal health, because the government simply cannot afford the costs entailed by our current obesity crisis. “In my analysis, one of the major issues that jeopardizes the finical stability of our country is our rising health care costs,” Duley tells DietsInReview. He concludes that obesity is unpatriotic.

To further his point, Duley compares the costs of obesity to the cost of the War on Terror. “More people have died in the past ten years from obesity than terrorism. More money has been spent to treat the obese than to engage in the War on Terror, on both the Afghan and Iraqi fronts.” The direct costs of the War on Terror amount to $1.3 trillion, while the costs of obesity amount to $1.5 trillion from 2001 to 2011. The tally of deaths makes for an even more dramatic disparity over the same period of time: the war caused the deaths of 6,850 Americans, while obesity is responsible for the deaths of over one million (see Duley’s sources here). Then there are indirect costs associated with obesity, such as lower productivity and increased numbers of sick days.

“This behavior is hurting America. It’s jeopardizing our whole medical infrastructure system. It’s creating this burned for future generations,” Duley says. “How can we justify that to our grandchildren? We’re doing them a disservice by not taking care of ourselves and ratcheting up this debt.”

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Modern studies are now linking the obesity and diabetes epidemic to modern chemicals, not necessarily our diet and exercise habits.

Scientists are arguing that synthesized substances that are found in things like pesticides and water bottles are actually scrambling hormone signals. These disturbances are being blamed for tricking fat cells into taking in more fat. Another proposed result of hormone disruption is that the pancreas is being mislead into secreting excess insulin, causing interference in the  regulation of carbohydrate and fat breakdown. The main culprit being blamed is bisphenol A, known as BPA. This chemical is found in plastics and food-can linings.

The so-called endocrine disruptor has been the center of a recent Spanish study. “When you eat something with BPA, it’s like telling your organs that you are eating more than you are really eating,” says Angel Nadal, a BPA expert at the Miguel Hernandez University in Spain.

Nadal’s research also finds that BPA triggers the release of almost double the insulin needed to break down food. High insulin levels can desensitize the body to the hormone, which in some people may lead to weight gain and type 2 diabetes. These are arguable findings. The fact that a chemical, not our super-size fast food and sedentary lifestyles, is to blame for the insurmountable numbers of obesity and diabetes cases seems ridiculous, but is there truly merit?

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