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Obesity Treatment
Obesity is defined by excessive fat accumulation or distribution that presents a health risk. It’s a neuroendocrine disease, which means that body weight is highly regulated by interaction between the nervous and endocrine systems and hormones from many tissues, including the gut. The brain regulates this interaction, resulting in how food intake affects metabolism.
Obesity … It’s Complicated!
But what causes obesity? Why is it a global epidemic? Most people believe it’s just from eating too much, especially “junk food.” But it’s not that simple. Despite varied treatment and prevention efforts, the global prevalence and severity of obesity continues to increase at an alarming rate, and the reasons for this are still not completely understood. What has changed in the past 50 years that led to the obesity epidemic, especially since national data do not indicate higher levels of food intake since the year 2000?
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If this sounds confusing, you are not alone! A recent scientific meeting was organized at the Royal College in London to focus on the causes of obesity. The takeaways from that meeting brought us no closer to understanding why obesity has become so prevalent
in the past 50 years.
Obesity Theories
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An article published in the January 2024 issue of the International Journal of Obesity, titled "Obesogens: A Unifying Theory for the Global Rise in Obesity,” seeks to unify all the major current models of obesity. Obesogens are ingested or internalized chemicals that alter energy metabolism, increasing the tendency for obesity. They are in our food and everywhere in our environment.
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The Energy Balance Model holds that obesity is a disorder of energy balance, where obesity
results from a chronic imbalance between energy intake (how much we eat)
and expenditure (how many calories we burn).
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The Carbohydrate-Insulin Model maintains that the obesity epidemic coincides with the 1970s government guidelines and food industry promotion of the low-fat diet, which automatically increased the amount and type of carbohydrates eaten, with an increase in refined carbohydrates and sugar. With this increase in carbohydrate consumption comes rising insulin levels, increasing fat storage, insulin resistance and the disease Metabolic Syndrome.
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The Energy Reduction-Oxidation Model focuses on how cells store fuel and use energy. People with obesity and those consuming large quantities of ultra-processed food appear to have lower antioxidant capability, meaning their cells don’t properly convert fuel to energy.
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The Obesogen Model believes that chemicals in our food and environment may alter endocrine signals that regulate energy intake, expenditure, nutrient handling and obesity.
What We Do Know
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We do know that managing diet has a huge impact on obesity. Insulin resistance happens over time as the body becomes less able to metabolize carbohydrates in a safe, healthy way. Our Therapeutic Carbohydrate Reduction plan greatly reduces carbohydrate intake and ensures consumption of adequate protein and healthy fats. This guides the metabolism back on track and helps reverse insulin resistance.