There was an interesting article in Monday's LA Times. The article attributed the obesity epidemic to the habits of mothers in the 1950s and 1960s.
The reasoning goes like this:
-- women of this era were told by doctors to limit weight gain during pregnancy. This resulted in undernourished babies who were likely to over compensate and get fat.
-- many women of the era also smoked -- the nicotine disrupted mechanisms in their babies body that control appetite, metabolic rate and fat storage.
-- use of formula also spiked -- combining with hungry undernourished babies with metabolic issues -- result more fat people.
The next generation then passes down obesity via a totally different mechanism. A generation later, in the 80s and 90s, mothers are now fatter. Fatter mothers are more likely to have gestational diabetes. Such mothers tend to have large fat babies. Thus the increased prevalence of obesity perpetuates itself.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/19/health/la-he-obesity-causes-20111219
I'm not convinced but its nice to see creative research instead of boring old energy balance platitudes.
The reasoning goes like this:
-- women of this era were told by doctors to limit weight gain during pregnancy. This resulted in undernourished babies who were likely to over compensate and get fat.
-- many women of the era also smoked -- the nicotine disrupted mechanisms in their babies body that control appetite, metabolic rate and fat storage.
-- use of formula also spiked -- combining with hungry undernourished babies with metabolic issues -- result more fat people.
The next generation then passes down obesity via a totally different mechanism. A generation later, in the 80s and 90s, mothers are now fatter. Fatter mothers are more likely to have gestational diabetes. Such mothers tend to have large fat babies. Thus the increased prevalence of obesity perpetuates itself.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/19/health/la-he-obesity-causes-20111219
I'm not convinced but its nice to see creative research instead of boring old energy balance platitudes.
