Obesogens: Chemicals in Food that add to Obesity

[Mari333]

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6197433n&tag=cbsnewsSectionContent.1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesogen

I kind of figured this out a while back. with all the hormones and crap and pesticides being dumped into and onto food, it will play havoc with one's metabolism and endocrine system.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. It kind of makes sense

I'm old enough to remember the old American meat and potatoes diet. It was meat, potatoes or rice, and a boiled vegetable or two, almost always with dessert. Whole milk.

There were fat older people, but hardly any fat young people. I look at my grade school pictures, and there is ONE fat kid in a class of thirty.

[Mari333]

3. me too...I have old school photos

one fat kid. thats it.

[avaistheone1]

7. We also walked everywhere in those days.

Our parents did not chauffeur us around so much, and we were not glued to the front of PCs either (because of course we didn't have them yet).

[Love Bug]

10. My grade school photos look the same as yours

30 kids with one that I wouldn't even call fat, but a bit chunky. His mom probably bought him "husky" jeans from Sears. That's it. The first time I attended one of my grandson's school plays I was astonished to see how many fat kids there were. At least a third of the kids were overweight, some significantly. Yet we ate meat and potatoes, white bread and drank gallons of whole milk.

This obesity problem can't all be just carbs and lack of exercise. We used to rot in front of the tv, too.

[SoCalDem]

20. and we also had homemade cookies, cakes & pies

dessert was pretty common..even after a hearty meal..

but we did not have bags & bags of "snack-foods" and we also did not haveBIG Gulps.. we had sodas rarely and in 6 oz bottles, when we did..

[Mari333]

21. I remember meals of macaroni and beef and cheese and milk

and loads of wonder bread. my parents were both THIN until the 80's....when my mom got huge, and I wonder why? it makes no sense.

[SoCalDem]

26. a typical menu at my grandparents' house

breakfast:
home made waffles or pancakes
AND
eggs, bacon or sausage
hashbrowns
coffee/juice/milk etc

lunch
mashed potatoes & gravy
corn on the cob
pork chops
and a big ole piece for fresh-baked apple pie

and my grandfather would grab a handful of cookies on his way out the door:)

they were lean people too..

supper would often be:
mashed potatoes & gravy
roast beef
fresh veggies (whatever they had)
more pie:):)


and before bedtime?

iced cream :)

[4_TN_TITANS]

42. "husky" jeans from Sears...

I was a 'husky' kid, most uncomfortable things on the planet but Mom liked them because they were tough. A generation later, there's no way we could have raised our girls with all new clothes from Sears. Goodwill has been our staple since they were young.

[pipi_k]

35. I never saw a fat kid until, oh, 7th grade...

And even then, there were like maybe three or four in the entire school.

That was back in 1965.



We ate mom's home cooked meals, and we played outdoors whenever we could.


things have really changed

[rd_kent]

2. True, but portion sizes and lack of self control also play a big part.

We, as Americans, have grown too used to "value meals" and excessive portion sizes. We really do not know how to eat properly anymore. Couple that with our desire to "clean the plate" and its a recipe for obesity.

[gateley]

8. Yes, but the same size portion of a piece of beef loaded with weight-inducing

hormones will not affect me as the same size portion if the piece of beef is grass fed and hormone-free.

[rd_kent]

14. True, but if portions got smaller, so would the amount of chemicals taken into the body.

Its all related.

[Missy Vixen]

19. The chemicals are still there

It doesn't matter if there's "less". It's STILL THERE.

We have no information on how these chemicals and additives affect the human body. As long as the "you're just eating too much" naysayers continue their narrow-minded approach to health and our food supply, we're never going to get any answers.

One of the interesting facts about our childhood (well, at least anyone over 40,) is that most of us ate whole foods, due to homemaker mothers who cooked and stretched that food dollar as far as they could. It was also possible to raise a family on one salary, so that mom had time to at least put out a bowl of cereal for breakfast, make our lunch, and make a dinner every day.

[gateley]

32. BUT :-) a smaller portion that's organic would mean NO chemicals taken into

the body! So even better!

[tinrobot]

12. A lot of the 'lack of self control' is the body begging for nutrition

Eating a value meal gives you a crapload of calories, but little nutrition.

The body craves nutrients over calories, so even after gorging yourself on a Double Whopper and fries, the body still asks for the vegetables it wanted in the first place. It will create more hunger, and most people just feed that hunger with more empty calories.

I used to eat crap like that, and I would find myself having overwhelming cravings all the time. Once I realized that eating was about nutrition first, calories second, my eating habits changed. When I got the proper nutrition, my self control came back and I didn't need to eat a lot of calories.

[rd_kent]

15. Yup, people just do not know how to eat "properly" anymore.

[ginnyinWI]

13. I think the empty calories make us want to eat more.

Your body isn't stupid; it knows when the food is nutrient deficient so it says "more!".

[rd_kent]

16. The body does know, but we have become stupid about our eating habits.

[avaistheone1]

4. Good stuff.

Main stream media is catching up with the alternative press.

[gateley]

11. I remember a recent study concluding that organic food was no more healthful

than non-organic foods. I'm thinking they were comparing nutrient values, etc. (not that I believed it).

So my sister-in-law was in my face saying -- see??? And I told her it was the pesticides, fertilizers, hormones, etc., that I wanted to avoid. None of that crap in organic.

[ananda]

5. Corn is a huge culprit.

Just high fructose corn syrup alone causes serious
metabolic problems.

[gateley]

9. Yep. And it's everywhere. nt

[gateley]

6. When I was eating TOTALLY organic, the weight was just melting off me --

this makes so much sense. Thank you for posting!!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

17. Oh, no doubt about it.

Sugars, oils, and fats, mostly.

[SalviaBlue]

29. Yea, but these aren't your momma's sugars, oils, and fats

these are the new and improved sugars, oils and fats. ;-)

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

31. Nope. Same old sugars, oils, and fats.

[Emit]

18. Mari333, you may be interested in this piece on BPA re "Slow Death by Rubber Duck"

Diane Rehm interview with Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie: "Slow Death by Rubber Duck"

The FDA issues a warning about a chemical often found in baby bottles and food containers. Two Canadian environmentalists describe what their own experiments reveal about BPA and other chemicals used in everyday foods and products.

Link:
http://wamu.org/programs/dr/10/01/20.php

Audo:
http://wamu.org/audio/dr/10/01/r2100120-29308.ram

The Book:
Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1582435677/wamu-20

[SoCalDem]

23. Everyday things..

That's what's really changed in a short time..

think back to what was in your grandparents' houses..

wood furniture
wool/cotton/leather upholstery
cotton/linen curtains
wool carpets
wood floors
metal cooking utensils
stainless steel/cast iron pots & pans
glass left-over containers
crockery/stainless steel mixing bowls
glass glasses
porcelain coffee cups & dishes

clothing was cotton/silk/wool/linen

shoes were leather

baby furniture was wooden

toys were cloth, wooden, metal ..dolls had cloth bodies with porcelain heads & hands

tricycles were metal with hard rubber tires..

diapers were cotton


we were "in touch" with natural...now everything is petroleum based:(

[Mari333]

25. WW2 changed it all..the chemical war companies had new technologies

and after WW2 they needed to go with plastic because there was no war needs for it anymore..and they did..they marketed it into everything

now we are suffering the after effects

[farmout rightarm]

22. Sounds like somebody selling a book.

...

[Echo In Light]

24. Thanks for posting

[coyote]

27. I am always amazed when I come back to the US

and see the size of chicken breast when I go to the local supermarket. The chicken breasts is at least 2x the size of anything you can buy in Germany. They must stuff those birds with all type of hormones to get a chicken breast that big.

[pipi_k]

36. Those things are humungous!

I cook one for the two of us, and even then we often can't finish...

[Codeine]

37. And people eat the whole fucking thing.

Nothing more repellant than watching someone eat ten times more food than they need in a sitting. Portion sizes consumed by the average person are ridiculous.

[dustbunnie]

47. Chickens don't get growth hormone. That's beef only. n/t

[Scout]

48. they may not get growth hormones, but they are getting something....

those chickens with breasts that huge literally cannot stand up. chickens are not designed to have huge breasts.

the chickens we get from our local harvest farm that are raised on pasture and supplemented with feed do not have those huge breasts.

[dustbunnie]

50. Lots of factory farms feed antibiotics to chickens.

The environment is so filthy, feces-laden and disgusting the antibiotics bolster the chickens against all the stresses of living in their horrible prisons. It makes them grow faster so they can be slaughtered quicker -- the chickens couldn't hold out against their environment for long periods of time. I don't know if that's what causes the growth of big breasts or if they're just bred that way.

[tonysam]

28. More hogwash trying to turn body size into a "disease."

The real disease is bigotry against those who are different.

[Mari333]

30. I love everyone

but I saw what happened to my mother when she could barely breathe as her weight took her down over the years, and how her legs became ulcerated, and her lungs filled up with water and she was on oxygen . she was not happy. I know many large people who are wonderful and loving and delightfully healthy people..but this is about obesity, when it gets out of hand and becomes dangerous.

[DevonRex]

44. Mari, you and I disagree on many things but I wanted to thank you for posting this.

It's important that we have the information we need in order to live long, healthy lives. Just think of all the children out there who are already obese through no fault of their own but because of the pesticides and hormones in their food and even because of the damned packaging of healthy foods.

It's like playing Russian roulette. Some obese people are surprisingly healthy. But many are not. Who wants to play that game with their children's health?

[Codeine]

38. One note orchestra, aren't you?

Obesity kills. The FA movement makes zero sense from a public health perspective.

[DevonRex]

43. What you said and what Mari posted are not mutually exclusive.

Some people are just different and our society doesn't handle "different" very well. But some people are obese because they react so strongly to the chemicals and hormones put in our food supply.

Some people are surprisingly healthy when overweight. And some people have serious consequences from being overweight. None of us knows which category we fit in until there IS a consequence or until we live well and healthy into old age.

[LeftyMom]

49. That's just stupid.

A family friend is dying. She's not even 40, she's got a pacemaker, she gets MRSA infections in the diabetic sores on her legs, and she walks, to the extent that she can at all, with a cane or a walker. She can only go to stores that have a scooter or wheelchair available, so she's nearly homebound.

She's not half-dead in what should be the prime of her life because of bigotry based on size. She's GOING TO FUCKING DIE sometime in the next few years because she's too fat to walk. And out of some misguided sense of sensitivity nobody treated her weight like a big deal as she went from a chubby kid to a heavy adult to a morbidly obese woman, until she finally got to the point where she was in and out of the hospital. Once she couldn't use the toilet without assistance, and her heart couldn't beat without assistance, and her legs couldn't hold it all up, all the sudden her weight was a problem. Really, her weight had been a problem for a long time before that point, and nobody said a damned thing.

She'd have had a long, healthy life ahead of her if somebody had treated her weight like a potentially very serious health problem, and not an unavoidable difference to be delicately overlooked, 200 lbs ago.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

33. Autoimmune diseases are widespread now.

Including diabetes and the most common form of hypothyroidism (Estimated 40 million people in the US with a thyroid problem, either hyper or hypo).

All the dieting and eating right and exercising won't help you lose weight when you're not burning calories properly due to a metabolic disorder. And they are quite common.

[Mari333]

34. everyone in my family is on synthroid including me

[Manifestor_of_Light]

46. You're lucky if synthroid works for you.

A lot of people have to take Armour Thyroid to feel better. I've taken Armour for over forty years now. Synthroid doesn't work for me.

Informative website:
www.stopthethyroidmadness.com

[Mari333]

52. so far so good.

thanks for the link!

[Pavulon]

39. Countered by bicycleogens..

eat lots, exercise lots..

[Codeine]

41. Requires way to much effortogens for most folks.

Much easier to make vague scientific claims about blamogens.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

51. easy for you to say.

[earth mom]

40. Thanks for posting this.

:thumbsup:

Between the hormones, pesticides, GMO's, corn syrup, and other poisons that are being dumped into our food supply it's no surprise the human body can't handle it.

[Little Star]

45. Thanks for posting. k&r