12 replies to this topic

[rwac]

The animals around us are getting fatter

The obesity epidemic is not just confined to Homo sapiens. According to the biostatistician Yann Klimentidis of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, rhesus monkeys, meerkats, blue monkeys, chimpanzees, mice, rats, cats and dogs are all getting fatter and fatter. So maybe our increasing girth is not due to constantly eating too many Pringles in front of the tube, suggests Klimentidis. Maybe there’s more at hand.

http://www.ergo-log....malsfatter.html

[churchill]

Well for animals associated with humans like rats, mice, cat and dogs it is unsurprising that they are getting fatter. If someone eats more then they also feed their animals more. More food means more waste so the rats have more to gorge themselves on. For the monkeys it would be good to see what monkeys they actually studied, if it was ones near human settlements then it could just be a case that the monkeys are being fed from the human population or that the monkeys natural predators have been wiped out by humans.

[niner]

Good points by churchill, but still, this is a pretty alarming result that deserves a harder look. I'd rather not see it in the popular press though, because I can just imagine the overweight people who'd say 'Well, losing weight is obviously hopeless; even meerkats are getting fatter! I might as well have another Krispy Kreme.' OTOH, our bodies still respond to diet, at least mine does. I was fatter than I wanted to be for years while eating a typical crappy high carb diet. When I started eating right, I lost weight. Does that mean I haven't caught the infection yet? As I recall, fat people have a distinctly different intestinal microbiome than thin people. Whether that's cause or effect, I don't know.

[churchill]

Well less calories in means weight loss, when I missed one meal a day for a couple of weeks I dropped weight quite quickly. Problem is of course that people tend to underestimate how many calories they eat and lack the required willpower to reduce their calorie intake. Also what happens is people exercise then think that this means they can eat more than they usually do, but this does not work well as exercise tends to burn less calories than people think it will.
Another interesting factor is that your friends also have an influence on weight gain, e.g. if your friends are overweight, you will tend to be overweight also. So many factors involved in weight it is hard to know what is important and what is not important.

[johnross47]

Good points by churchill, but still, this is a pretty alarming result that deserves a harder look. I'd rather not see it in the popular press though, because I can just imagine the overweight people who'd say 'Well, losing weight is obviously hopeless; even meerkats are getting fatter! I might as well have another Krispy Kreme.' OTOH, our bodies still respond to diet, at least mine does. I was fatter than I wanted to be for years while eating a typical crappy high carb diet. When I started eating right, I lost weight. Does that mean I haven't caught the infection yet? As I recall, fat people have a distinctly different intestinal microbiome than thin people. Whether that's cause or effect, I don't know.

There's an article in 31st March New Scientist (pp 8-9)on research suggesting that the different microbiome results from use of antibiotics and that the change of microbial population is causing obesity.

[churchill]

Good points by churchill, but still, this is a pretty alarming result that deserves a harder look. I'd rather not see it in the popular press though, because I can just imagine the overweight people who'd say 'Well, losing weight is obviously hopeless; even meerkats are getting fatter! I might as well have another Krispy Kreme.' OTOH, our bodies still respond to diet, at least mine does. I was fatter than I wanted to be for years while eating a typical crappy high carb diet. When I started eating right, I lost weight. Does that mean I haven't caught the infection yet? As I recall, fat people have a distinctly different intestinal microbiome than thin people. Whether that's cause or effect, I don't know.

There's an article in 31st March New Scientist (pp 8-9)on research suggesting that the different microbiome results from use of antibiotics and that the change of microbial population is causing obesity.

People consume more calories than they used to and do less exercise than they used to, what other explanation do you need?

[johnross47]

Good points by churchill, but still, this is a pretty alarming result that deserves a harder look. I'd rather not see it in the popular press though, because I can just imagine the overweight people who'd say 'Well, losing weight is obviously hopeless; even meerkats are getting fatter! I might as well have another Krispy Kreme.' OTOH, our bodies still respond to diet, at least mine does. I was fatter than I wanted to be for years while eating a typical crappy high carb diet. When I started eating right, I lost weight. Does that mean I haven't caught the infection yet? As I recall, fat people have a distinctly different intestinal microbiome than thin people. Whether that's cause or effect, I don't know.

There's an article in 31st March New Scientist (pp 8-9)on research suggesting that the different microbiome results from use of antibiotics and that the change of microbial population is causing obesity.

People consume more calories than they used to and do less exercise than they used to, what other explanation do you need?

Many people are actually consuming less calories.but they do less exercise.

[churchill]

Good points by churchill, but still, this is a pretty alarming result that deserves a harder look. I'd rather not see it in the popular press though, because I can just imagine the overweight people who'd say 'Well, losing weight is obviously hopeless; even meerkats are getting fatter! I might as well have another Krispy Kreme.' OTOH, our bodies still respond to diet, at least mine does. I was fatter than I wanted to be for years while eating a typical crappy high carb diet. When I started eating right, I lost weight. Does that mean I haven't caught the infection yet? As I recall, fat people have a distinctly different intestinal microbiome than thin people. Whether that's cause or effect, I don't know.

There's an article in 31st March New Scientist (pp 8-9)on research suggesting that the different microbiome results from use of antibiotics and that the change of microbial population is causing obesity.

People consume more calories than they used to and do less exercise than they used to, what other explanation do you need?

Many people are actually consuming less calories.but they do less exercise.

I presume you have something more than anecdotal evidence to back this up with?

[niner]

People consume more calories than they used to and do less exercise than they used to, what other explanation do you need?

I think you're missing the point of the thread. Are meerkats consuming more calories and doing less exercise than they used to? Lab rats? All the other species that were looked at?

[churchill]

People consume more calories than they used to and do less exercise than they used to, what other explanation do you need?

I think you're missing the point of the thread. Are meerkats consuming more calories and doing less exercise than they used to? Lab rats? All the other species that were looked at?

I thought the point of this thread was to find out why humans are getting fatter.

[niner]

I thought the point of this thread was to find out why humans are getting fatter.

That might be one reason for us to be interested in it, but the real point of the thread is that all animals seem to be getting fatter, including wild animals. This suggests that there is more to the picture than our diet and exercise habits (bad as they are) alone. Maybe there's an infectious agent, maybe it's the result of a chemical we've put into the environment, or maybe the agents of Fidel Castro are zapping us with a fat ray. I think we ought to figure out if there's a real effect here, and if so, determine the cause, because it's distinctly ungood.

[Hip]

People consume more calories than they used to and do less exercise than they used to, what other explanation do you need?

That is the sort of lazy explanation that politicians fob off the general population with.

[Hip]

Maybe there's an infectious agent, maybe it's the result of a chemical we've put into the environment, or maybe the agents of Fidel Castro are zapping us with a fat ray. I think we ought to figure out if there's a real effect here, and if so, determine the cause, because it's distinctly ungood.

An infectious agent is highly likely:

From Wikipedia:

Obesity is associated with adenovirus 36, which is found in 30% of obese people, but only in 11% of non-obese people. It has further been demonstrated that animals experimentally infected with adenovirus 36 (or adenovirus 5, or adenovirus 37) will develop increased obesity. Adenovirus 36 induces obesity by infecting fat cells (adipocytes), wherein the expression of the adenovirus E4orf1 gene turns on both the cell's fat producing enzymes and also instigates the generation of new fat cells. Evidence suggests that obesity can be a viral disease, and that the worldwide obesity epidemic that began in the 1980s may be in part due to viral infection.

The obesity epidemic may or may not be caused by an adenovirus, but the adenovirus research amply proves that a viral infection can cause obesity.

Many infectious agents can also jump species, so this would explain why wild animals are also getting obese.

Edited by Hip, 17 November 2013 - 05:27 AM.