Obesity

How Is Obesity Caused?

From 1984 to 1991 - in only seven years - the number of overweight persons in the USA increased from 24% to 32%. In Germany too, every third adult is considered too fat!!! 10-20% of the population already weighs too much in childhood.

The reasons for this are changes in eating habits. Around the turn of the century, 70% of food was composed of carbohydrates. Today, the percentage is around 45%. And it is the opposite with fats.

The proportion of animal fats increased from 20% to 45%.

Scientists consider the high fat intake to be the main reason for increasing obesity.

Besides fat food, the other culprit is a lack of physical exercise.

Additionally, hereditary factors play a role in obesity. This was proven by studies with monozygotic twins and studies within families. With the help of genetic engineering, the scientists now want to find out which gene variants promote obesity.

One of the biggest people in the world was Robert Earl Hughes (1926 - 1958) from Missouri, USA. He weighted 534 kg.

Why Does Fat Make You Overweight?

Nowadays, fat is the number 1 fattening food. 1 g of fat supplies twice the amount of calories of 1 g carbohydrates or proteins.

The body is able to react to too much carbohydrates or proteins in the food: It increases the burning of the food and thus utilises some of the surplus calories. With fat it is different. Surplus calories deriving from fat are not burned, but stored in the adipose tissue.

The result: an increasing bodyweight.