Weight Maven

So here’s a new study that is interesting in the context of David Kessler’s theory in The End of Overeating. Kessler proposes that foods high in sugar, salt, and fat can affect brain chemistry in a way that compels people to overeat.

So how about this possible double whammy? This newer study suggests:

that foods high in fat and sugar stimulate a known opioid receptor, called the kappa opioid receptor, which plays a role in fat metabolism. When this receptor is stimulated, it causes our bodies to hold on to far more fat than our bodies would do otherwise.

Well, hmm. I like how Science Daily so quickly extrapolates the research done on mice to “our bodies.” Though I like the concept. Like the Kessler theory, it relates to what Tom Naughton attributes to Gary Taubes in Fat Head: that “we aren’t getting fat because we’re eating more, we’re eating more because we’re getting fat.”

But this is the part that really irks me. They write:

Most immediately, this research provides more proof that high-fat and high-sugar diets should be avoided. In the long-term, however, this research is even more significant, as it provides a new drug target for developing therapies for preventing obesity and helping obese people slim down.

Given the problems with obesity medications (e.g., fen-phen and Meridia), I’m not sure that a new drug target is ideal.

Consider this from Zoe Finch Totten regarding the Full Yield program to increase health through whole foods:

We need to put food back in the heart of health care. … It’s the cheapest way to deal with health and the simplest, and definitely the most pleasurable. … People overeat Doritos because those foods are designed to trick the body’s beautiful ability to be able to self-regulate. … When you eat primarily health-supporting foods you will recover those protective mechanisms.

Not a panacea by any means (I know, it’s hard to give up the Ho-Ho’s), but sure makes more sense!