Obesity pill
Posted On July 13, 2010
How many times have we heard the promises of the miracle pills that will cure our obesity epidemic?
How many times have we been disappointed, or learned that this panacea causes more problems than it fixes?
How long until we devote our full attention to solving a behavioral problem with a behavioral solution?
Obesity pill works but safety is a concern: FDA | Reuters
About The Author
Will Clower
4 Comments
I certainly agree that a pill isn't the solution. But I disagree that obesity is primarily "a behavioral problem." I have come to see obesity primarily as a metabolic disorder related to long term hormonal disturbance. The cause of that disturbance is less "behavioral" than it is "environmental," insofar as our society, our government, our food industry, and our culture of dishealth all recommend, produce, provide, and accustom us to eating precisely the wrong things. Processed foods. Sugars and sweeteners. Refined carbohydrates. Dense starches. Highly processed vegetable oils. Study after study of the obese shows that, once their weight stabilizes, they quite often eat FEWER calories than the lean. But they hang on to the fat because fat burning has been excluded in their insulin resistant and leptin resistant bodies. I recommend Gary Taubes' survey of scientific obesity research in "Good Calories Bad Calories" as a great place to start dispelling the unhelpful notion that obesity is primarily behavioral.
Hi Matthew!!
I LOVE your thoughtful comment. Thank you.
If I hear you correctly, I think you're saying that, although the acquisition of overweight and obesity is caused by poor eating behaviors (including both WHAT to eat … food choice … and HOW to eat … eating habits), losing that weight is hampered by the condition itself.
In other words, they've dug themselves into a metabolic hole.
I agree wholeheartedly with you that our culture of health includes the factors you mentioned. And those factors make it easier for us to slide into poor health.
The balance of the argument, I would respectfully add, is that no one really believes that PEEPS are benign; nor Ho Hos; nor Twinkies; nor Pepsi. The consumption of those (just as you said) "Processed foods. Sugars and sweeteners. Refined carbohydrates. Dense starches. Highly processed vegetable oils" reflects the eating habits that I was referring to.
In our hands, we have clearly seen the reversal of obesity, overweight, and their physiological correlates, by also reversing eating behaviors. The principles, Eat real food, eat in control, represent a behavioral change that leads to physiological changes.
Matthew, I would love to get your comments on this. Looking forward to your thoughts.
Will
By the way Matthew, I also responded to your comment on my radio program:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8291452
Great stuff. Looking forward to your thoughts.
Will
Nicely put… "they've dug themselves into a metabolic hole."
People need to understand that every gram of added sugar, and every gram of nutritionally empty refined starch in our diets has the potential to push our insulin levels abnormally high, leading to calories being stored and locked away as fat in the body.
In my own (rather informal, but extensive) consulting with obese individuals about diet, weight loss, and exercise, I have seen that the metabolic hole remains in place well after the behavior changes. How long it remains, I don't know for sure. I believe, along with you, that ultimately, eating whole foods, in control, can fix the problem. But what if the metabolic damage caused by the earlier dietary habits are in fact permanent or semi-permanent?
Many obesity researchers despair when it comes to the idea of curing obesity by changing eating behavior. Their studies all show the vast majority of the obese who lose weight returning to their former size and then some. Hence their interest in pills. (Also… pills pay the bills in ways that behavior modification does not).
But I wonder whether anyone will ever pay to scientifically test a comprehensive behavior modification approach to obesity (i.e. including teaching people how to eat appropriately, choosing the right quality and quantity for their needs, eating at the right frequency, and exercising well). What do you think?