Here's something interesting to think about. Dr. David Allison, an obesity researcher at the University of Alabama, has recently published a paper on the fact that all kinds of species, not just humans, have been getting fatter over the last several decades. Not just lab rats, but even wild rats!
He looked at eight different species and more than 20,000 animals and found that the percentage of obesity has risen over the last several decades. Laboratory mice gained 12 percent per decade, chimps had a 34 per cent increase in obesity per decade, and pet cat's weight increased ten percent per decade on average.
Those alley rats had a 21 per cent increase in obesity as well. Always a critic of the "we eat too much and exercise too little" explanation for America's increasing obesity, Dr. Allison says that lab and wild animals haven't been guilty of watching more TV and eating more junk food and yet their weight continues to go up just like their human counterparts. By the way, there's an epidemic of obesity in babies under six months of age, as well. Are they more sedentary? Are they stuffing themselves with twinkies? No. So is weight control really more than just "calories in and calories out?" It might be.
New research now shows that the kind of bacteria that naturally live in your gut can affect how many calories you extract from the food you do eat. Two people eat the same food, one gets more calories out of that food than the other. We also know that not getting enough sleep increases blood levels of the appetite-stimulating hormone called ghrelin. It also reduces levels of the satiety hormone called
leptin. The average American used to get nine hours of sleep a night, now it's about seven. There's even a suggestion that a virus called adenovirus-36, which can cause obesity in lab animals, might have something to do with it in humans, too.
Well, stay-tuned. We've got a lot more to learn. This new viewpoint on obesity is NOT an excuse to forget exercise and the importance of nutrition. It does tell us there may be more to the story, however.
By the way, surveys show that some 20-30% of dogs in the US are overweight or obese. The FDA has recently approved a new diet drug made by Pfizer for your pet dog, called Slentrol. Possible side effects include vomiting, loose stools, and diarrhea.
Or....you and your dog might both just want to take an extra walk around the block.
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