[Jessiegirl]

Hi all! I got this off of the webmd website. Very interesting..... :-k

10 Causes of Obesity

The researchers put forth these 10 "additional explanations" for obesity:

1)Sleep debt. Getting too little sleep can increase body weight. Today's Americans get less shut-eye than ever.

2)Pollution. Hormones control body weight. And many of today's pollutants affect our hormones.

3)Air conditioning. You have to burn calories if your environment is too hot or too cold for comfort. But more people than ever live and work in temperature-controlled homes and offices.

4)Decreased smoking. Smoking reduces weight. Americans smoke much less than they used to.

5)Medicine. Many different drugs -- including contraceptives, steroid hormones, diabetesdiabetes drugs, some antidepressants, and blood pressure drugs -- can cause weight gain. Use of these drugs is on the upswing.

6)Population age, ethnicity. Middle-aged people and Hispanic-Americans tend to be more obese than young European-Americans. Americans are getting older and more Hispanic.

7)Older moms. There's some evidence that the older a woman is when she gives birth, the higher her child's risk of obesity. American women are giving birth at older and older ages.

8)Ancestors' environment. Some influences may go back two generations. Environmental changes that made a grandparent obese may "through a fetally driven positive feedback loop" visit obesity on the grandchildren.

9)Obesity linked to fertility. There's some evidence obese people are more fertile than lean ones. If obesity has a genetic component, the percentage of obese people in the population should increase.

10)Unions of obese spouses. Obese women tend to marry obese men. If there are fewer thin people around -- and if obesity has a genetic component -- there will be still more obese people in the next generation.

"We do not claim that all of the additional explanations definitively are contributors [to obesity] but only that they are as plausibly so as are the 'big two' and deserve more attention and study," Allison and colleagues conclude.

And the researchers' list of 10 doesn't exhaust the possibilities. There may be even more explanations, including: a fat-inducing virus; increases in childhood depressiondepression; less consumption of dairy products; and hormones used in agriculture.

[flgirlie73]

Jess- I read that the other day and just rolled my eyes, its like the researchers are trying to find anything to explain the obesity problem in America, well anything other than personal responsibility. And before I get jumped on, I know medications, different illnesses and genetics can cause weight gain but are most people really being honest about what caused them to gain weight?

Why isn't fast food and super-sized meals on that list?
How about the fact that many schools no longer have physical education and so kids sit there all day, then come home to $300 game systems and play them for hours on end, eat fattening food, then go to bed?
What about the fact that we have just gotten downright lazy as a society?

I just want to say this for MYSELF, ME, NO ONE ELSE......
I am responsible for ME being overweight, not the air conditioning, not because I didn't get enough sleep, not pollution....I spent a lot of time eating crap, fried foods, big portions, tons of carbs and not exercising, I'd look for the close parking spaces at the mall, and I would use that great excuse that I didn't have time to exercise but oddly enough I would find 3-4 hours a night, every single night, to watch tv or play on the computer

ok I'm done ranting for now :-D