Enviro chemicals and obesity link
Is the obesity epidemic something more than mass gluttony, or mass brainwashing? What if alterations in people's DNA caused by environmental toxins was responsible? Chemicals called obesogens, found in everyday things like our cars, our homes and our food, have recently been linked to obesity, reports Sharon Begley of Newsweek
Over the past decade discoveries have linked sleep deprivation, anti-depressant use, socio-economic status, culture and genes to the obesity epidemic. More recently, however, scientists have been gathering evidence that some hormone mimicking substances as can be found everywhere in our food chain, act on genes in the developing foetus to turn more precursor cells into fat cells, a state that remains throughout life, so the person is predisposed to being fat.
These substances also alter the metabolic rate whereby the body hoards rather than burn calories. This in turn produces an accelerated weight gain in infancy associated with obesity later.
In Japan lab studies found that bisphenol A, a plastic found in baby and drinking bottles, pushed certain cells to become fat cells, and accelerated the growth of existing fat cells. A later US study involving mice given eostrogen mimicking chemicals (such as are leached by all kinds of plastics) showed weight gains regardless of food and exercise.
Pregnant mice exposed to tributyltin, found in marine paints and plastics and which often ends up in drinking water, gave birth to offspring with more fat stored, more fat cells and that later became up to 20% fatter in adulthood.
Tributyltin activates a receptor called PPAR gamma which functions like a switch for cells, turning neutral fibroblasts into fat cells. PPAR gamma is in diabetes drugs and is partly why diabetics are more prone to obesity. Tributyltin became known as an 'obesogen'.
Phthalates (found in toys, food packaging, hoses, raincoats, shower curtains, vinyl flooring, wall coverings, lubricants, adhesives, detergents, nail polish, hair spray and shampoo.), bisphenol A (found in hard plastics, including baby bottles, food-storage containers, water coolers, dental fillings, the lining inside canned goods, sports equipment, CDs, sunglasses) and perfluoroalkyl compounds (non-stick cooking surfaces) also function as obesogens.
Studies in Spain have linked pesticide exposure as children to obesity. More recent studies have shown a connection between exposure to PCBs (used as coolants and lubricants in electric equipment and have also been added to plastics, inks, adhesives, paints, and flame retardants. PCBs are not only in products, but in the air and water, and fish) and DDE (the breakdown product of the pesticide DDT) and the development of obesity.
Excerpted from What if being fat is not your fault? America's obesity epidemic may be fueled by chemicals in everyday products
By Tara Lohan, AlterNet. October 3, 2009.
See also Chemicals in Our Diets Produce Fat People by Kim Evans 14/9/2009 published at NaturalNews.com
For further readings, see also Practical Values - Hard to Break and Toy Story
Related to - Recent health research | Food and Nutrition | Environmental health