Why is the prevalence of obesity increasing so much? Why does it seem like your weight can increase, even if you are not changing anything? Why does it seem like you can reduce calories and move more and nothing happens? Obesogens may be part of the answer for some. What are they, and what can you do to protect yourself from them?
Obesogens are a group of endocrine disrupting chemicals that lead to unhealthy fat accumulation in the human body. They are getting into our body through exposures through things that we come into contact with and through ingestion in food. They change the way our body works, sometimes permanently, and even can change the way our offspring’s physiology functions. Exposure early in life or in utero can cause permanent physiologic changes.
There are many prescription medications that are obesogenic, or cause weight gain. These are most commonly antidepressants, pain medications, mood stabilizers, and some blood pressure medications. These are examples of chemicals that change metabolism. But, there are also chemicals that are known to cause metabolism changes in the body of every human on earth. They come from plastics, pesticides in the soil that grows the food we eat, and hormones given to the food we eat. This is why it is not just the number of calories that you eat, but where those calories come from that matters. The food industry is constantly trying to produce more food at a lower cost and make it more shelf stable. This means that much of the food we eat has chemicals added to the food itself, or to the soil or plant or animal as it is produced. It can then be stored in plastic for years before we eat it.
Humans are already heavily exposed to environmental obesogens in the forms of plastics, pesticides, herbicides, industrial products, personal care products, compounds intentionally added to foods such as artificial sweeteners, phytoestrogens, preservatives, added sugars (e.g. corn syrup with a high fructose content), and the animals and plants we eat. Here are some things you can do to minimize your exposure to obesogens:
Consume organic foods.
Use organic self care products.
Avoid foods with added sugars.
Minimize fructose in the diet.
Minimize soy in the diet.
Leave your shoes at the door.
Do not store food or water in plastic. Even if it says “BPA free”, it may have a plasticizer not yet studied.
Do not heat food up in plastic.
Review your medication list with a physician trained in obesity medicine.
Obesogens are just one piece of the puzzle of the increasing prevalence of the obesity epidemic and the worsening of the severity of the disease. Overwhelmingly, our food supply, food intake, and lifestyle has changed rapidly and is actually making humans less healthy. If you can “turn back the clock” on some of these things, and eat food that is as close to plain food as you can, and engineer your lifestyle to be sitting less, it will make a huge difference. Much of our health is by our daily habits and routines. Changes in daily habits add up immensely over time. Not sure what to do? We are here to guide you.
Want to read more? Here is the article on which this blog was based:
Take Back Your Endocrine System,
Valerie Hope-Slocum Sutherland, MD
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