Obesity

"In 2015, obesity affected 107.7 million (98.7-118.4) children and 603.7 million (588.2- 619.8) adults worldwide. Obesity prevalence has doubled since 1980 in more than 70 countries and continuously increased in most other countries. Although the prevalence of obesity among children has been lower than adults, the rate of increase in childhood obesity in many countries was greater than the rate of increase in adult obesity. High BMI accounted for 4.0 million (2.7- 5.3) deaths globally, nearly 40% of which occurred among non-obese. More than two-thirds of deaths related to high BMI were due to cardiovascular disease. The disease burden of high BMI has increased since 1990; however, the rate of this increase has been attenuated due to decreases in underlying cardiovascular disease death rates."

"We have shown previously that a maternal diet during pregnancy and lactation plays a role in predisposing offspring to obesity. Here we show that rat offspring born to mothers fed the same junk food diet rich in fat, sugar and salt develop exacerbated adiposity accompanied by raised circulating glucose, insulin, triglyceride and/or cholesterol by the end of adolescence (10 weeks postpartum) compared with offspring also given free access to junk food from weaning but whose mothers were exclusively fed a balanced chow diet in pregnancy and lactation. Results also showed that offspring from mothers fed the junk food diet in pregnancy and lactation, and which were then switched to a balanced chow diet from weaning, exhibited increased perirenal fat pad mass relative to body weight and adipocyte hypertrophy compared with offspring which were never exposed to the junk food diet."

"Unhealthy lifestyles and mental health problems are increasingly prevalent globally. Not only are ‘junk food’-induced overweight and obesity risk factors for the development of brain disorders but they are also associated intergenerationally with ill health."

"We evaluated a densely interconnected social network of 12,067 people assessed repeatedly from 1971 to 2003 as part of the Framingham Heart Study. The body-mass index was available for all subjects. We used longitudinal statistical models to examine whether weight gain in one person was associated with weight gain in his or her friends, siblings, spouse, and neighbors. ... Network phenomena appear to be relevant to the biologic and behavioral trait of obesity, and obesity appears to spread through social ties."

"That childhood obesity could inflict considerable pain of the emotional kind on its sufferers was, in fact, a new belief in the twentieth century. It was sufficiently radical an idea that doctors felt the need to tell patients that the jolly fat child was a figment of popular imagination. "I was an obese child myself, and I know that there is genuine mental suffering in being an obese child," said , a famous diet doctor and newspaper columnist. "The fat child is not a happy child." In 1921, this was revelatory and had big implications for how Americans saw themselves and the issue of obesity in childhood."

"Obesity is a double victory for consumerism. Instead of eating little, which will lead to economic contraction, people eat too much and then buy diet products - contributing to economic growth twice over."

"We repeatedly measured 24-hour total energy expenditure, resting and nonresting energy expenditure, and the thermic effect of feeding in 18 obese subjects and 23 subjects who had never been obese. The subjects were studied at their usual body weight and after losing 10 to 20 percent of their body weight by underfeeding or gaining 10 percent by overfeeding. ... The thermic effect of feeding and nonresting energy expenditure increased by approximately 1 to 2 and 8 to 9 kcal per kilogram of fat-free mass per day, respectively, after weight gain. These changes in energy expenditure were not related to the degree of adiposity or the sex of the subjects. ... Maintenance of a reduced or elevated body weight is associated with compensatory changes in energy expenditure, which oppose the maintenance of a body weight that is different from the usual weight. These compensatory changes may account for the poor long-term efficacy of treatments for obesity."

"Corpulence, an excessive development of the bodily fat—an "oily dropsy," in the words of Lord Byron—is a condition for which the physician is frequently consulted, and for which much may be done by judicious arrangement of the diet. The tendency to polysarcia or obesity is often hereditary, and is particularly apt to be manifest after the middle period of life. It may, however, be seen early, and in this country it is not very uncommon in young girls and young boys. A very important factor is overeating, a vice which is more prevalent and only a little behind overdrinking in its disastrous effects. A majority of persons over forty years of age habitually eat too much. In some of the most aggravated cases of obesity, however, this plays no part, and the unfortunate victim may be a notoriously small eater. A second element is lack of proper exercise; a third less important factor is the taking largely of alcoholic beverages, particularly beer."

"Obesity is not normal physiology. It is common, costly, and deadly. Pretending otherwise is not kindness—it is [pseudovirtuous] cultural anesthesia. …Obesity is associated with increased risk for type 2 diabetes, hypertension, fatty liver disease, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, infertility, and several cancers. It shortens lives and drains public resources. To insist that these risks are merely inventions of stigma is to lie to patients under the guise of affirmation. …The obesity epidemic is not an accident. It is [a] product of incentives."