In principle, it sounds simple: eat less and move more. Yet, despite all the calorie counting, dieting and exercising, worldwide obesity (肥胖) rates just keep speeding up. People in the US were heavier in 2021 than they were in 2020, placing many more people at risk from serious diseases.
So why hasn't this approach to weight control worked? One possibility is that we haven't tried hard enough. Or perhaps the problem is the focus on "calorie balance" itself. In a recent paper, my colleagues and I question the basic assumption of whether taking in more calories than you burn really is the chief cause of obesity. We argue that the evidence actually points the other way: we are driven to overeat because we are getting fatter.
As their growth rate speeds up, teenagers may eat hundreds of calories more each day than they used to. Does this "overeating" cause the rapid growth? Or does the rapid growth, which requires more calories to build new body tissues, make teenagers hungrier so they eat more? Clearly the latter, as adults won't grow taller, no matter how much they eat.
The key to how this works in obesity is hormones (激素), especially the fat-storage hormone. Processed, rapidly digestible high-carbon foods like potato chips and sugary drinks raise our hormone level too high. A few hours after eating a high-carbon meal, the number of calories in the bloodstream falls rapidly, so we get hungrier sooner after eating.
Therefore, in order to prevent and treat weight problems, the emphasis should be placed on what to eat instead of how much we eat Replacing processed high-carbon foods with high-fat foods-such as nuts-lowers the hormone obtainable for the rest of the body.
Although much more research will be needed to test this idea, it is time to question the basic assumptions about cause and effect, calories and weight gain that have dominated our thinking for decades.
A. Weight control becomes a battle between dieting and exercising.
B. This may seem incredible but consider the rapid growth of teenagers.
C. The dietary advice for dealing with obesity has been around for decades.
D. We have lacked willpower to maintain healthy dietary and exercise habits,
E. A low-calorie diet further restricts an already limited supply of energy to the body.
F. This causes our fat cells to store too many calories, leaving fewer for the rest of the body.
G. In fact, high-fat foods may help decrease body fat, a possibility supported by medical practices.
