Research the effects of Epigenetics

Grandparents short of food likely to affect metabolism of grandchildren

Overnutrition and lack of physical activity are the key problems in the obesity epidemic. In addition, the type of diet is very important. Too many animal products and process foods are core obesity drivers. Walter Willett, Chairman of the Nutrition Department at Harvard, says we should cut red and processed meats, focus on a plant based diet, avoid sugar and fruit juices and cut salt intake. Simple carbohydrates and starches should also be minimized.

Obesity starts with birth weight according to many researchers. Big parents, taller height and excessive food intake create

bigger babies. Bigger babies tend to become overweight or obesity in adulthood because body size tends to track from infancy to young adulthood.

If you are interested in learning more about obesity and the harmful ramifications of increasing body height and weight, see the book: Samaras (Ed) Human Body Size and the Laws of Scaling. Also see blog: http://samarasbodyheightweight.blogspot.com

Also see website: www.humanbodysize.com

Overnutrition, lack of physical activity, insulin problems, psychology problems. (Fast social changes, etc.)

Surely lack of physical activity couldn't affect weight-gain to a significant degree. It takes about an hour of brisk walking to burn up the calories in a packet of crisps. The amount grossly obese children consume would require them to be as fit as Olympic athletes to burn up their excess intake. Prolonged education and psychological input ( eg. similar to anti-Smoking Campaigns ), combined with rewards for children would probably have an effect. Subliminal messages on children's TV and computer games would help. Due to school input our kids are all aware of the need for ecology and " Healthy Eating " but not " Stop Eating " !

A significant proportion of nurses working in Britain's NHS are over -weight. It's not for lack of exercise, it's boredom, the "I deserve it mentality ", lack of will power and snack vending machines that are to blame. Water only vending machines would be a start.

Psychological well-being makes better choose what you eat and you move.

I fully agree with you. One has to be cautious about their eatables. It should be your physiology friendly.

Anti obesity campaingn is a must and shold be made a compulsory in most schools rather than education only at home,

Yes. Not only that we should aware our children about gene and behaviour, appropriate diet.

Hello,

Anti obesity campaign would be nice .... if we would tell them what it is all about .... What could be the real cause of overweight and obesity..???

Why is there such a worldwide problem ..... once you know the cause a solution is around the corner.

Start by asking the most important question of all ......

Does our body do something useless ....

More next time ....

enjoy

yves

Intergenerational effects and impaired fat oxidation (these individuals are metabolically challenged) are known effects- specially in developing countries.

Thank you all for contributing to the topic of obesity, it glad to note that a lot of contribution is being made to the question of obesity. Interesting matter related to the health of individuals is now being overtaken by the food industry, making all sorts of food, harmful, and leading to a silent pandemic of obesity in turn causing a huge expenditure on maintenance of health, scores of aniti obesity clinics, liposuction , etc all just because of one reason ....... Eating more than what you need.

A six week trial in UK with professional rugby team showed a correlation between hydration level and body fat mass. Group was 30 professional athletes. Average fluid loss during games was 40kg !!!! for 21 athletes. After six weeks of proper rehydration drink the fluid loss was reduced to 14kg !!!

These people eat the same food and train on average four to sic hours a day.

1% dehydration gives an increase of 1,3% in body fat mass....

1% rehydration gave a 1,2% decrease in body fat mass....

For more detailed info contact : [email protected]

yves

The problem relates to lack of involvement by those who should care (parents, teachers, even business people and government officials). There is a need for a total approach in any community, as suggested by the collaborative effort, Community, Health, Exercise and Nutrition for All (CHEN4All).

http://abc4all.net/chen4all.htm

In the past, when we were children normally we play in the street. We went door by door to look for aur friends. We run, jump, and play with many physical exercise. We were alone in the street, but now it's impossible. The children cannot be alone in the street and normally plays in the house with a machine and sitting. It is a big change for our body for the future. To play with our friends directly is very good for the mental health. To be alone can lead to depression. The lack of mind can lead to eating disorders, physical inactivity, and more depression. (A pernicious circle). Relationships and be happy are very important in obesity for me. To eat well depends on the psychology (and have a little more time to cook...)

I had my first carbonated drink when i was 17 years old ....!!!! Now they get them from birth nearly ....

H20 plus CO2 equals H2CO3 simply carbonic acid..!!!

Why give drinks with pH levels as low as 2.4 for Coke

Most hydration drinks are max 3.4 pH same pH value as regular vinegar .

CO2 is what our lungs exhale in order to de acidify our blood....!!!!! Why do we allow drink manufacturors to add waste gas to our drinks ???????

Acids are waste product from our metabolic system ..... it takes 8 glasses of alkaline water to neutralize one can of Coke !

All the processed sugars will turn into even more acid...

Obesity will continue to exist, so long as man has his tongue glued to the taste of fried foods.

Can someone ask a school going kid not to eat chips, not to eat chocolates, swiis chocolates are craze.

There is not a singke risk factor responsable for obesity, is it a set of individual and social conditions, therefore in order to stop and start reducing obesity worldwide, it is necesary to develop an integral strategy, which includes the manufactors of food.

Can be true .... only my research shows me with such precision that I can predict hydration level up to decimal for any person when you give me 1° gender : 2° seize in cm : 3° weight in kg .....4° age

I don' need any other information to give you precise body composition.

From perfect hydration with 12% BFM (body fat mass) down to 34% TBW (total body water) with close to 70% BFM I have people with decrease in hydration level by 0.1% all the way down ....

750 people and more then 7000 measurements .

Dehydration, fried foods, lack of exercise, acidic beverages, over eating, psychological problems, epigenetics, fast foods, chemical additives: are any or all of these factors sufficient to explain the obesity epidemic? Not really. The global obesity epidemic is part of a larger problem created by wholesale, industrial tampering with the food supply. That larger problem includes diabetes, noncommunicable diseases and mood disorders such as depression. The major components in the food supply that give rise to these health issues are added sugars and omega-6 industrial seed oils(1). Yet for nearly 60 years, most nutrition experts were taught that obesity was caused by lack of exercise coupled with high fat intake. Moreover, since saturated fats supposedly cause arteries to clog, consumers were admonished to replace natural sources of saturated fat with omega-6 industrial seed oil products(2).

So now we have a massive global public health disaster that began about a hundred years ago with the introduction of seed oil substitutes for butter, lard, beef tallow, and coconut oil(3). In 1953 an influential, overzealous scientist named Ancel Keys claimed that saturated fats were the cause of clogged arteries. The edible oils industry threw their support behind the notion which remained controversial until 1977 when the United States Department of Agriculture declared saturated fats a health hazard(4). 25 years later, science journalist Gary Taubes resurrected the saturated fat controversy with an 8,000 word article published in the New York Times entitled "What if it's all been a Big Fat Lie." Since then, saturated fats have been all but exonerated(5,6,7) but the world's most prominent obesity experts still don't get it. For example, in a 2009 book entitled "The World is Fat" global obesity expert Barry Popkin wrote this on pages 165-166:

"Many other foods are certainly linked to poor health, perhaps none more directly than saturated fat. While trans fats are the most pernicious of the saturated fats, all saturated fat is linked with adverse health effects. Foods that contain a high proportion of saturated fat include butter, ghee, suet, tallow, lard, coconut oil, cottonseed oil, palm kernel oil, dairy products (especially cream and cheese), meat, chocolate, and some prepared foods. Some people suggest that we tax saturated fats(8), but this can be a confusing issue when it comes to obesity. While most scientists acknowledge that saturated fats do affect heart disease, there are meat-rich diets such as the Atkins plan, that have been linked to weight loss despite the high content of saturated fat in the food consumed."

There are several mistakes in this paragraph but I'll just point out the most glaring one. Trans fats are, by definition, unsaturated(9). In fact, most often they are omega-6s and, to a lesser degree, omega-9s and 3s.

The amazing thing about the above paragraph is that none of Popkins's colleagues caught that mistake. For example, on the back cover Walter Willett was quoted: "Those interested in the future of mankind should read this book." Did Willett read the book? I Wonder.

References

1. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2003-09-28/news/0309270148_1_overweight-or-obese-women-were-overweight-south-africa

2. http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Nutrition/Supplements/omega-3_fatty_acid_0112120715.html

3. http://180degreehealth.com/2010/01/david-brown-on-omega-6-fats

4. http://freepressonline.net/content/what-has-government-done-our-health

5. http://blogs.webmd.com/heart-disease/2010/03/low-fat-diet-trojan-horse-of-heart.html

6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRe9z32NZHY

7. http://www.foodandbeveragepeople.com/cm/news/saturated_fats

8. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/349682

9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fat

Olive oil is the better.

The natural food is expensive. The milk isn't milk, good oil is changed for bad oil, and proteins are replaced by flours (sugar)... Food quality is worse, exercise is less and psychological problems are more... Many risk factors more.

My point was that the major factors driving the current epidemic of obesity, diabetes, chronic inflammatory disease, and depression are the excess fructose and omega-6 in the food supply. If industrial foods were reconfigured with more saturated fat and less omega-6 there would be a noticable improvement in the public health. And while olive oil is benign, it does not equal the health benefits of saturated fats. http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/saturated-fat/the-best-low-carb-book-in-print/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+drmikenutritionblog+%28The+Blog+of+Michael+R.+Eades%2C+M.D.%29

There are necessary all tha fatty acids for the body, the essential we must eat, but w-6 in excess can inhibit the endogenous formation of EPA and DHA (w-3). And all fatty acids are necessary, satured too. (In the right measure). I think the same than you David.

If the body has sugar on blood it does not use the lipids as an energy source (to make ATP). Without lipolysis you cannot less weight. (It's cheaper to make ATP from Glucose than fatty acids, and the body choose the cheapest to save ATP, when is making it). If you have sugar all time in blood, for the eating, you cannot lost weight.

Hello friends, world over there has been a rise in the treatment of obesity by radiofrequency machines which claim to bring about lipolysis and there by weight loss. Given the complex nature of weight gain is loosing weight so simple. Bariatric surgery , liposuction, are all temporary means of battling weight gain. Is there a process to suggest or predict weight gain by the amount of food intake, age and work pattern

It's not only people who are gaining excess weight, but animals: lab animals in controlled conditions, feral rats in both urban and rural areas, even grass-fed horses. Six month old babies are overweight. Environmental chemicals are one of the few things that could account for all of these trends. Yes, overeating and an unhealthy diet can cause weight gain, but can't fully explain the obesity epidemic in multiple species and in human babies. Endocrine disrupting chemicals can disrupt metabolism, cause insulin resistance in animals, and are associated with diabetes and obesity in humans as well. They can also have epigenetic effects that could be passed down to subsequent generations.

See:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21106594

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21425440

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22249005

Fast Foods

Excess of sugar (and energetic food)- resistant insulin- more parasympathetic- sedentary- low energy expenditure- less muscle use- less gluconeogenesis- lost of spending-reserve balance- fatigue- discouragement.

"Which endocrine disrupting chemicals do you feel are the most significant problem in developed nations in regard to appetite and insulin dysregulation?"

I vote for omega-6s http://www.nutritionjrnl.com/article/S0899-9007%2810%2900391-6/abstract and added sugars http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/637430.html .

Sugar--> sense of reward (dopamine?) --> rest

Some of the environmental risk factors are listed at http://www.polygenicpathways.co.uk/childob.htm

Sitting,lying,thinking,Eating.

No doubt, more eating, more sitting, less or no exercise are responsible for the obesity but in my view the main reason is the accumulation of pesticides, fertilizers, residues, chemicals, antibiotics in our food chain. And now GMOs, BT etc. Who knows what can happen next. Every fourth person is either diabetic, cancer or heart patient. I have seen the cases with slim bodies and heart attacks.

Agro-ecosystem farming, organic/biological food production, less processing of the natural food and no doubt eating according to need and proper physical activities can help to cope with this epidemic obesity.

Quote from article by Emily Greene:

I have long suspected that the best way to lose weight was to eat rich food in moderation, not diet food in abundance. During the last 52 weeks, I put that idea to the test. And I lost 52 pounds. To my knowledge, not a single low-fat food passed my lips. Nothing beginning with those dread syllables non-, un-, de- or low-. No "nonundelows."

For me, the result of this diet was not simply weight loss, not simply fresh delight in rediscovering good, simple things; it was vigor. My eyes are brighter, my skin is better and--to the astonishment of my neighbors--I now bound out of the house in the morning wearing a sweatsuit. Which brings the story to the exercise part. I didn't lose weight just by eating all this good stuff and tossing back Pinot Noir. I lost weight eating good, nourishing food that gave me energy to exercise.

http://articles.latimes.com/2002/mar/13/food/fo-52-13

Sugar is worse than pesticides.

Too much sugar can be addictive: http://www.jonbarron.org/weight-loss/bl100424/natural-health-alternative-junk-food

Too much carbohydrates and fats of bad quality (excess of Omega6 and scarse of Omega 3) plus sedentarism.

Diet options? Pronokal(r) Method. Is present in 8 countries (Spain (since 2004), Portugal, England, Belgium, Mexico, Argentina,Canadá and soon in Brasil and Uruguay)

There´s a real adiction to the carbohydrates, very difficult to fight against but we should declare the war to the simple

carbohydrates definitely.

See these links:

http://www.pronokal.com

www.centremedic-equilibirum.es (I am a trainer of physicians for the Method)

Eat as much as you need not as much as you want. Proteins alone is not sufficient for the body. Accumulation of fat is aan end result of intake, of food, type of food, quantity of food, quality, sedentary activity, depression, state of mind, interpersonal relation ships, ability to reach goals, effort on the part of an individual to follow a rigid routine, saying no to packed food, restriction of consumption of alcohol, avoiding high fat diet, restricting your dates with feast, and the last but not the least sugar in all forms and sweets intake and probably the most important restricting chocolates

Satyaprasad, I agree will all your points. In addition, most people are unaware that scientists, such as Colin Campbell, Cameron, and Rollo, believe that we should keep our protein close to 10 or 12% to avoid obesity, chronic disease, and reduced longevity. Campbell would add that minimizing protein from animal sources is also a good idea. The 2007 report by the World Cancer Research Fund also identified that IGF-1 promotes cancer and IGF-1 tends to rise with protein intake according to Hoppe, Fontana and other researchers. Barzilai also noted that over 1500 studies have found that caloric restriction promotes longevity. Needless to say, most of us won't go on a 30% lower calorie diet, but even a 10% lower calorie is beneficial unless we are already underweight. Willcox found that elderly Japanese Hawaiians experienced a progressively reduced mortality with lower caloric intake down to 970 kc. However, 970 kc are probably too low for young or middle aged people who are taller and bigger than elderly Japanese males in Hawaii. http://www.humanbodysize.com

Hi Thomas, thank you for your reply. world will never go hungry if people are aware of just one thing. How much of food they waste every day. the problem of obesity reaching pandemic proportions is basically man made. umpteen researches have pointed out just one thing. the alteration of hormones within your body resulting in obesity. one question that always raises in my mind is what can be done to put forward the theme eat healthily but not plentily

To eat healthy one needs two things; access to high quality food and the ability to tell the difference between high quality food and poor quality food. Currently, the world is awash in poor quality food and is being admonished to avoid the very sorts of foods that furnish protection from non-communicable diseases and infections. For example, the Harvard School of Public Health advises consumers to reduce intake of saturated fats replacing them with omega-6s(1). Food manufacturers take government and academia seriously and, fat wise, configure their products accordingly with, I'd say, disastrous consequences for the public health. Here are some of the problems with omega-6s:

1. They encourage overeating. http://www.cannabis-med.org/english/bulletin/ww_en_db_cannabis_artikel.php?id=367

http://www.nutritionjrnl.com/article/S0899-9007%2810%2900391-6/abstract

2. They promote inflammation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgU3cNppzO0

3. They promote abdominal obesity. http://www.susanallport.com/newsletter728511.htm

4. They can damage the liver. http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/06/fatty-liver-reversal.html

Circumstantially, omega-6 industrial seed oils and added sugars seem to be the most worrisome food components where obesity, diabetes, non-communicable disease, and depression are concerned(2,3).

Sadly, dietary advice from the highest levels of nutritional authority promotes excessive omeg-6 consumption. How this came about? Here's a quote from "The Modern Nutritional Diseases: And How to Prevent Them" by Fred and Alice Ottoboni, 2002, (4):

"The current relentless pressure to convert the entire population to a low-fat, high carbohydrate dietary regime seems to be driven by a curious set of circumstances. It began with an idea aimed at inducing the public to buy and eat foods that are profitable to the agricultural and food industries as opposed to foods that man was designed to eat. With judicious use of public relations, advertising, pseudo science, and political prowess, this idea has grown into a sophisticated and powerful movement that is changing eating habits throughout the world. Concurrently, the national priority aimed at the treatment of the modern nutritional diseases, rather than their prevention, has focused medical research on patentable new drugs rather than on preventive methods...The consequences are sobering. Older adults suffer premature disabilities and shortened life spans; younger adults, and even children, are increasingly affected by early signs of atherosclerosis, obesity, and type-2 diabetes. Enormous prescription drug and medical care costs have nearly reached the point of overwhelming the national budget. And tragically, a growing body of evidence suggests that the bizarre and increasingly common behavioral problems among young children and teen-agers are related to the combined effects of high sugar intakes and the virtual absence of omega-3 essential fatty acids in the American diet."

References

1. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-full-story/

2. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201103/your-brain-omega-3

3. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2003-09-28/news/0309270148_1_overweight-or-obese-women-were-overweight-south-africa

4. http://books.google.com/books?id=wPrfdvM5V4gC&pg=PA199&lpg=PA199&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false

Hi Satyaprasad,

As long as we think it is good to promote higher birth weight babies that grow fast and get tall, it will be difficult to control obesity. Many parents thinks that promoting fast growth in their children through high protein and energy intake is the way to go. We all need to educate the public that this is not true. Moderate protein and energy intake appears to be the best route based on over 1500 animal and human studies that show reduced caloric and protein intake promotes lower chronic disease and a longer, healthier life. Unfortunately, this type of thinking goes against popular medical opinion and the media down play this approach.

Mr David, thank you very much for your excellent reply. you literally have taken the words out of my mouth. ancient Indian medicine had wonderful remedies for common ailments. and living longer and healthier was just a part of life.there are two sections of society one a vegetarian and the other a non vegetarian. weight gain in both these sections need to be evaluated. as you have explained the role of essential fatty acids needs a more critical angle.

It is believed that in the near future hydrogen will change our lives from their

very foundation.

Something that is attracting a great deal of attention at the moment is the fuel

cell automobile. The fuel cell vehicle is based on the principle of running on the

energy generated by the chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. This would be

the ultimate eco-car because the only byproduct of this reaction is water.

Another reported idea is the use of this same principle for an electrical power

generator to be installed in homes as a power source for lighting, heating as well as

mechanical application. When this happens, the world would literally change because

each household would have its own power station and there would be no more need for

thermal, hydro and atomic power plants, as well as power lines and steel towers.

What interests me in particular is that this time comes , it will be extremely simple

for every household to produce its own Hydrogen Rich Water.

When Hydrogen Rich Water can be obtained simply, reliably and cheaply, I think the

world will change dramatically in a different sense from that mentioned above.

That is, maintaining good health and preventing disease will no longer be considered

topics worth discussing, and people will not constantly be making a fuss of diseases

(“It’s cancer!” ”It’s diabetes!” ”It’s hay fever!”) as is presently the case.

Also, if you have drunk a little too much alcohol or smoked a little too much, or don’t

feel well, or seem to be catching a cold, or have caught influenza, it would be easy to

get rid of the symptoms simply by consciously increasing your intake of Hydrogen Rich

Water.

I would like to end with the philosophy I have learned from Hydrogen Rich Water

during these past eighteen years.

I think hydrogen should be called “ the source.” That is to say, hydrogen, the element

with the atomic number One, is the “source” of all the other elements, and the sun, which

nurtures all things with its solar energy, is actually a big ball of hydrogen.

At the same time it is hydrogen atom, or active hydrogen, that protects us living

organisms from disease.

My conclusion follows below.

I propose that the Creator of the universe, and the Creator of all living things,

created hydrogen as the first element in order to protect all its living creatures

from disease.

By :

HAYASHI,Hidemitsu.M.D.

What do we do to help our body to cope with the waste from our digestive system is more important then what we actually eat. Neutralizing all the toxins produced is more important to health then anything else... Remaining toxins will be stored somewhere in the body or they do what they are good at... doing damage...

http://www.water-institute.org/world/index.html

The damage is what precisely the toxins do and that is the basis of ancient or ayurvedic medicine.

I don't think you can improve much on three of Michael Pollan's food rules. 1. Eat real food; 2. Mostly plants; 3. Not too much

Yes sir . Do we call this as vegetarianism. Why are people obsessed with meat chicken and fish. Today agriculture is a dying profession. What do men eat if all the land iss converted to concrete, undergroud metros. Big cities with wide roads no trees forests being a small group of collection of trees. Mountains reduced to mole hill by bulldozers. Oceans and barren land exploited for oil. What does a man eat when there are no plants to eat.

Food is essential for us,but in excess is always dangerous. Has the human mind and taste one awry, or are they lured by the captivating advertisement or are they simply lazy to cook a good food.

Processed food industry is booming in its business robbing the common man the pleasure of eating healthy food.

Processed food industry is not only robbing man the pleasure of eating healthy food ....they simply turn it into pure poison.!! All the value is gone, loaded with preservatives for longer shelf life, turned into pure acids....

Nothing wrong with eating meat as long as you do it the way our ancestors did it..... meat needs an acidic stomach to digest and carbohydrates need an alkaline stomach to digest , we should not eat them together....and they only had meat when the hunt was a success and that was not always the case....

Microwave ovens are even worse..... they rob the food from all incapsulated free hydrogen, the most effective anti oxidant and our source of energy.

Given the present scenario where men and women equally fight for existence job and earning capacity with much education on par with each other cooking has to be shared by both. after all we eat what we cook. single families and loss of elders in the family takes the biggest toll. its time that people unite with their families and live as a joint family. may be this will answer the inner desire of man to be living together

The counties that have easy access to fast foods like Mc Donald's, Taco Bell, Burger King, Jack in the Box, and many other fast food restaurants, are countries who have enough disposable income to use these restaurants as stress relievers. Over eating is an emotional activity, and the easier it is to access these addictive types foods, the easier it is to pile on the calories. China is the recent country who is bombarded by these fast food chains. They are dealing with heart disease, diabetes, and many other fat related diseases. Making a profit over health has been the dominate way of business of the world.

over eating is an emotional activity. addictive foods, stress reliever.

well John im happy that you have identified the problem, how much does a man likes his stomach being filled due to emotional activity. what is that emotional dependence that leads to over eating.and why is he /her after these fast food giants. are they druggig people.

The nutritional education is very necessary. The mix of food with high glicemic index and bad lipids are disastrous. (For me is good to dissociate the energetic food, or sugar or lipids, but no together). If you eat 1 kg of sugar every day you are making bad, and we cannot prohibit selling sugar. You choose what you eat, for that you need education in food.

In order to combat unhealthy habit patterns, all segments of a community need to be involved. hence Community, Health, Exercise and Nutrition for All (CHEN4All): http://abc4all.net/chen4all.htm

Yes I agree with most of if not all of the comments above but we are missing one basic factor and that is the global levels of physical activity are falling dramatically. This is not simply structured exercise but daily living activity. We rely more on automated transport, less active jobs and screen based leisure time.

As noted in an earlier comment, food quality is important. Apparently, fabricated foods do not contain enough supportive nutrition to satisfy the appetite. Some observations regarding animal feeding behavior suggest that mineral deficient food reduces metabolic efficiency. For example:

"It has also been observed that when given high Brix grass, cows eat only half of the amount of grass they would eat when fed low Brix grass. The pasture, which had a high Brix, consisted of various grasses including fescue and timothy. In this case, the cost of forage fed to the cows was immediately reduced by half." http://www.abcarticledirectory.com/Article/Why-Higher-Brix-Readings-in-Forage-Makes-Animal-Raising-More-Profitable-/473386

"There is an old farmer’s saying: 'You can starve a horse to death quicker by feeding him straw than by feeding him nothing at all.' That saying only buttresses the idea that a horse trying to digest non-nutritive straw is going to come up short as he wastefully expends whatever digestive energy he had to start with. I think that poor quality fruits and vegetables create a similar situation in our bodies. It seems to me that when our systems expend minerals, energy and enzymes to break down 'food' that doesn’t even have enough value to replace what is expended, then we will lose the battle for life at some point." http://www.westonaprice.org/farm-a-ranch/nutrient-dense-food-high-brix-farming-gardening

"People like the idea of being able to determine quality in their food. Measuring Brix also has some fun geek-appeal, e.g. carrying a scientific instrument in your purse or pocket that can graphically show the difference between a sweet orange and one not worth tasting. When Chefs de Cuisine start meeting food deliveries at the back door with a refractometer in hand, the game changes. When the shopper at the local fruit stand pulls out a refractometer, the game really changes. It's no longer just about having pretty produce. Two green peppers may look identically perfect, but the pepper that "Brixes" 12 is likely going to taste like a green pepper; the one that Brixes 4 is only going to look like the real thing." http://thenewagriculture.blogspot.com/2010/03/part-v-is-high-brix-enough.html

Recently came across some research that suggested that even in countries where the people are not able to over eat due to the lack of food supply, they are still becoming over weight. The research suggested that it may be due to the use of antibiotics, particularly as a second consumer as antibiotics remain in our meat supplies. Sorry I can't supply the article or researcher at this time, but it seemed to be very accurate. I grew up on a farm and know first hand that animals gain weight much faster and easier if they are feed a constant supply of antibiotics; super-sized cows, pigs, and chicken may just result in super-sized people.

Good observation, Bobby. I think this article may shed some light on your hypothesis:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/30525645/Dieting-with-Microbes-Using-Probiotics-for-Weight-Loss---My-Experience

Increased refined food intake and comparatively low physical activity level

The universl shift to bottle feeding at the expense of breastfeeding, let alone exclusive breastfeeding is an important factor to cosider in the global epedimic of

obesity. Behavior that leads to inactivity and to uhealthy food or unhealthy eating pattern is another factor to consider.

I have compiled a list of genetic and environmental factors related to childhood obesity at http://www.polygenicpathways.co.uk/childob.htm