Obesity involves excessive body fat which increases the risk of many other diseases. This can cause a variety of complications in an individual’s life regardless of age. It is a very common disorder that affects many individuals throughout the world. In the United States, there are more than 3 million cases per year (“Obesity”).As Dr. Beschel mentioned in her presentation, the obesity crisis has twice as many projected deaths than Covid-19. She also mentioned that zero countries have succeeded in decreasing obesity in the past 33 years. These increasing numbers inspire many researchers to look into the environmental and genetic factors that contribute to obesity.
Dr. Jennifer Beschel spoke about how obesity can be caused by both environmental and genetic factors. In the article, “A Leptin Analog Locally Produced in the Brain Acts via a Conserved Neural Circuit to Modulate Obesity-Linked Behaviors in Drosophila”, the researchers studied weight gain in common fruit flies. They looked at the upd1 gene which has a similar function to leptin. First, they addressed if modifications in the brain differed in weight gain from the flies that were not modified. They found that the flies with modifications had more weight gain which demonstrates that obesity can be caused by genetic factors. Next, they experimented with the environments that the flies were placed into. The knockout flies had high sugar and high-fat diets in the obesogenic environment. The flies with the normal environment did not show as much weight gain as the flies in the obesogenic environment which showed a drastic increase in weight. This relates to the human population because individuals that have a healthy diet are less likely to be obese than individuals with high-sugar and high-fat diets.
In the research article, “Family food environment factors associated with obesity outcomes in early childhood”, the researchers studied the environmental factor of family food by looking at the eating behaviors of Australian children. Behaviors such as enjoyment of food and approaching food are positively linked to obesity and the opposite behaviors such as avoiding food and eating slowly are negatively linked to obesity. They found that children with non-responsive feeding practices had a strong relationship to childhood obesity. The article does consider that there may be other reasons such as family climate which can contribute to non-responsive behavior. However, they were able to conclude that the family food environment influences the risk of obesity and obesogenic behaviors. This article correlates to Dr. Beschel’s research because they both present how unhealthy foods influence obesity risk.
Although both Dr. Beschel and the other article acknowledged that there are many factors related to obesity, they both presented compelling data about unhealthy foods and how they are positively associated with obesity. The flies gained weight when they were put into the obesogenic environment with high fat and high sugar diets. Similarly, the children showed responsive behavior for unhealthy foods. Both of these lead to an increased chance of developing obesity. Thus, research needs to be conducted on obesity and individuals need to be informed of the results. This allows them to learn about the dangers of obesity so they can control their diets accordingly.
Works Cited
Beshel, Jennifer, et al. “A Leptin Analog Locally Produced in the Brain Acts via a
Conserved Neural Circuit to Modulate Obesity-Linked Behaviors in
Drosophila.” Cell Metabolism, vol. 25, no. 1, 10 Jan. 2017, pp. 208–
217., doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2016.12.013.
Boswell, N., Byrne, R. & Davies, P.S.W. Family food environment factors associated with
obesity outcomes in early childhood. BMC Obes 6, 17 (2019).
“Obesity.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research,
15 Feb. 2020,
www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/obesity/symptoms-causes/syc-20375742.
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