Cargando…

Understanding Human Physiological Limitations and Societal Pressures in Favor of Overeating Helps to Avoid Obesity

Fat gain in our United States (US) environment of over-abundant, convenient, and palatable food is associated with hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and increased mortality. Fuller understanding of physiological and environmental challenges to healthy weight maintenance could help prev...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Borer, Katarina T.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6412691/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30678194
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu11020227
_version_ 1783402664609972224
author Borer, Katarina T.
author_facet Borer, Katarina T.
author_sort Borer, Katarina T.
collection PubMed
description Fat gain in our United States (US) environment of over-abundant, convenient, and palatable food is associated with hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and increased mortality. Fuller understanding of physiological and environmental challenges to healthy weight maintenance could help prevent these morbidities. Human physiological limitations that permit development of obesity include a predilection to overeat palatable diets, inability to directly detect energy eaten or expended, a large capacity for fat storage, and the difficulty of losing body fat. Innate defenses resisting fat loss include reduced resting metabolism, increased hunger, and high insulin sensitivity, promoting a regain of fat, glycogen, and lean mass. Environmental challenges include readily available and heavily advertised palatable foods, policies and practices that make them abundant, less-than-ideal recommendations regarding national dietary macronutrient intake, and a frequently sedentary lifestyle. After gaining excess fat, some metabolic burdens can be mitigated though thoughtful selection of nutrients. Reduced dietary salt helps lower hypertension, less dietary sugar lowers risk of cardiovascular disease and obesity, and reducing proportion of dietary carbohydrates lowers post-meal insulin secretion and insulin resistance. Food intake and exercise should also be considered thoughtfully, as exercise in a fasted state and before the meals raises glucose intolerance, while exercising shortly after eating lowers it. In summary, we cannot directly detect energy eaten or expended, we have a genetic predisposition to eat palatable diets even when not hungry, and we have a large capacity for fat storage and a difficult time permanently losing excess fat. Understanding this empowers individuals to avoid overeating and helps them avoid obesity.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6412691
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2019
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-64126912019-04-09 Understanding Human Physiological Limitations and Societal Pressures in Favor of Overeating Helps to Avoid Obesity Borer, Katarina T. Nutrients Review Fat gain in our United States (US) environment of over-abundant, convenient, and palatable food is associated with hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and increased mortality. Fuller understanding of physiological and environmental challenges to healthy weight maintenance could help prevent these morbidities. Human physiological limitations that permit development of obesity include a predilection to overeat palatable diets, inability to directly detect energy eaten or expended, a large capacity for fat storage, and the difficulty of losing body fat. Innate defenses resisting fat loss include reduced resting metabolism, increased hunger, and high insulin sensitivity, promoting a regain of fat, glycogen, and lean mass. Environmental challenges include readily available and heavily advertised palatable foods, policies and practices that make them abundant, less-than-ideal recommendations regarding national dietary macronutrient intake, and a frequently sedentary lifestyle. After gaining excess fat, some metabolic burdens can be mitigated though thoughtful selection of nutrients. Reduced dietary salt helps lower hypertension, less dietary sugar lowers risk of cardiovascular disease and obesity, and reducing proportion of dietary carbohydrates lowers post-meal insulin secretion and insulin resistance. Food intake and exercise should also be considered thoughtfully, as exercise in a fasted state and before the meals raises glucose intolerance, while exercising shortly after eating lowers it. In summary, we cannot directly detect energy eaten or expended, we have a genetic predisposition to eat palatable diets even when not hungry, and we have a large capacity for fat storage and a difficult time permanently losing excess fat. Understanding this empowers individuals to avoid overeating and helps them avoid obesity. MDPI 2019-01-22 /pmc/articles/PMC6412691/ /pubmed/30678194 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu11020227 Text en © 2019 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Borer, Katarina T.
Understanding Human Physiological Limitations and Societal Pressures in Favor of Overeating Helps to Avoid Obesity
title Understanding Human Physiological Limitations and Societal Pressures in Favor of Overeating Helps to Avoid Obesity
title_full Understanding Human Physiological Limitations and Societal Pressures in Favor of Overeating Helps to Avoid Obesity
title_fullStr Understanding Human Physiological Limitations and Societal Pressures in Favor of Overeating Helps to Avoid Obesity
title_full_unstemmed Understanding Human Physiological Limitations and Societal Pressures in Favor of Overeating Helps to Avoid Obesity
title_short Understanding Human Physiological Limitations and Societal Pressures in Favor of Overeating Helps to Avoid Obesity
title_sort understanding human physiological limitations and societal pressures in favor of overeating helps to avoid obesity
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6412691/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30678194
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu11020227
work_keys_str_mv AT borerkatarinat understandinghumanphysiologicallimitationsandsocietalpressuresinfavorofovereatinghelpstoavoidobesity