You’ve been working on a project this past weekend and you have an exam tomorrow. You’ve been in lectures all day and need to grab a quick bite to eat before holing up in the library until the early morning studying for your exam. Grabbing a quick bite to eat usually means finding food fast that will fill you up as soon as possible so you can power through your study session. It can also mean taking advantage of food delivery services, such as UberEats or Postmates. As you’re waiting in line to be checked out for your slice of pizza and fries, you decide to check your bank account to see if you have enough on there to get a drink, too. To your surprise, your balance is lower than expected and after reviewing your spending history, you see that your last 11 charges are for food from the past week alone.
Many millennials find themselves in this position, with 54% of them “eating out at least three times a week or more.” This accounts for meals eaten out and doesn’t consider those big coffee consumers that we can’t even talk to until they’ve had their morning coffee (and mid-afternoon coffee, and evening coffee). The convenience and dependence that people have developed for fast food is alarming. When people are asked to share what comes to mind when they hear “America”, one of the top responses is “obese”, “fat”, or any other similar word.
Obesity is an epidemic that is sweeping the world with very few countries safe from it. Although the United States doesn’t have the highest percentage of the population that is obese (most Pacific Islands have a higher percentage than the US), about 36% of the population is currently obese, according to a report from World Atlas. The constant bombardment with advertisements and fast food locations on every street corner, mixed in with the hectic, fast-paced life of the majority of Americans (not just millennials), leads to an alarming obesity percentage in the US. Obesity is now one of the leading causes of preventable deaths in the US. The convenience and low-cost of fast food is what’s so appealing to potential victims.
For some, it may be an issue with the satiety or hunger hormones (leptin and ghrelin, respectively) and their receptors, but for others, it’s an issue of addiction— an addiction to fast food. Research from Dr. Beshel at Loyola University Chicago exhibits the fact that our brain is the center for food consumption regulation. According to her research, deletion of the Drosophila leptin homolog, upd1, in cortical neurons leads to typical obese characteristics and behaviors. Upd1 in flies binds to domeless receptors to mediate satiety; prevention of this binding consequently leads to obesity. Pinpointing the precise issues that may lead to this inability to bind is a growing area of research in order to find a way to promote binding, and therefore promote satiety in flies and hopefully people.
Expanding past the molecular cause of obesity and into the behavioral facet, recent studies from the University of Michigan show that withdrawal from highly processed foods (like fast food and other junk food) create withdrawal symptoms (irritability, tiredness, depression, etc.) similar to those that drug addicts display when quitting drug use. The same reward and pleasure systems that are activated in drug use are activated when junk food, particularly sugar, is consumed. The study itself focused on the reduction of sugar intake, not other processed, fatty junk foods; considering that many junk foods are carbohydrates, these results would apply to a large portion of junk food. However, the same article did report that a research team from the University of Montreal found that mice that were put off of a high-fat diet also showed withdrawal symptoms, such as depression and anxiety.
The adverse effects of withdrawal could be the deterrents to swearing off fast food forever, or at least minimizing its consumption. Another study from the National Center for Health Statistics found that nearly 40% of the American population (a little over 130 million people) eat fast food on any given day; think about all of the fries, pizza, fried chicken, and burgers it takes to feed 130 million people!
The only way to put a stop to the obesity epidemic and to the healthcare costs associated with the #1 killer in the United States (and soon the world) is to target people where it hurts—their wallet. The taxation of tobacco products has been an effective method in decreasing the amount of tobacco consumption and could be a way to decrease the consumption of junk food and lower the obesity rate in America. In fact, Ireland, who is seeing obese children as young as three years old, is on the verge of a fast food tax, just like its sugared beverage tax.
If the US wishes to see a decrease in the percentage of obese citizens, it needs to move quickly to initiate effective preventative methods. If it’s possible to intervene behaviorally, that would be preferred, but if behavioral intervention doesn’t suffice (due to extreme cases or other factors), then molecular and pharmacological intervention may be necessary; in the case of the latter, Dr. Beshel’s work can come in handy.
Footnotes:
No comments:
Post a Comment