What fat really does to us

If we are going to make any progress in fighting the obesity crisis, we have to take a fresh look at what fat really does to us. According to an article published in the BMJ. Gary Taubes, co-founder of the Nutrition Science Initiative, argues that understanding of the cause of obesity may be incorrect. Rectifying this mistake is “absolutely critical” to future progress. “What we want to know is what makes us gain weight. Not whether weight loss can be induced under different semi-starvation conditions.”

Research

The history of obesity research is a story of two rival hypotheses of energy balance and endocrinology, Taubes writes. Since the 1950s, conventional wisdom about obesity has been caused by a positive energy balance. In other words, we gain weight because we eat too much. The alternative hypothesis – that obesity is a hormonal disorder or regulatory. But Taubes believes that hypothesis is wrong. Energy balance took over and this hypothesis, along with shoddy science, has fueled the obesity crisis and related chronic diseases. He argues that attempts to blame the worldwide obesity epidemic on increased calorie availability “generally ignore the fact that these increases are largely carbohydrates.” And, as such, these observations “do not shed light on whether it is the total calories to blame or the calories from the carbohydrates.” Nor do they shed light on the more fundamental question of whether individuals or populations become fat “because they are eating more, or eating more because the macronutrient composition of the diet is promoting fat accumulation… in effect, leading to an increase in appetite.” Taubes also points to “deficient” research that is “unable to answer the question of the causes of obesity.”

Nutrition Science Initiative

As a result, the Nutrition Science Initiative has been founded. A non-profit organization to “fund and facilitate rigorously controlled experimental trials, conducted by independent, skeptical researchers.” Our hope, he says, is that these experiments definitively answer the question of the causes of obesity. It will help us finally make significant progress against them. If we are to make progress in the fight against obesity and related chronic diseases, he believes we must accept the existence of alternative hypotheses of obesity. He refuses to accept shoddy science, and find the will and resources to do better. The burden of obesity is now estimated at more than $150bn (£100bn, €118bn) a year in the US alone. Virtually any amount of money is spent on doing proper nutritional research. It can be defended on the basis of long-term savings for the health system. “Also for the health of individuals to offset the costs of research by several orders of magnitude.”