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It’s no secret that people who move to the U.S. from other countries are likely to experience a something bigger than the American Dream – an expansion in their waistline. Food is everywhere, our serving sizes are huge and we eat on the run, wolfing down copious amounts of sugar and fat in the process. As if the empty calories weren’t enough, these foods may turn on a genetic switch to obesity.
A recently published study in The FASEB Journal found that high fat and high sugar foods stimulate the kappa opioid receptor, one that causes our body to hold on to more fat than we otherwise would. It’s like a double-whammy. You get all the calories and your body holds onto them for dear life.
In this particular study they took mice and divided them into two groups. In one group, the scientists blocked the kappa opioid receptor. Both groups were fed a high fat, high sugar diet for 16 weeks and ate the same total amount of calories, respectively, over the course of the study. The group of mice that didn’t have the receptor blocked gained a significant amount of weight and fat while the other group of mice, the one with the receptor blocked, experienced a blunting of trigylceride synthesis in the liver, better glycemic control and at the end of the 16-week period they had a 28% lower body weight and 45% lower fat mass when compared to
the other group of mice.
Though the scientists expressed the common “more work needs to be done in this area,” they are onto something. This study gives companies a starting point for developing drug therapy aimed at this receptor, therapy that may keep people from eating themselves to obesity, obesity-related diseases and sky-high insurance costs. In the meantime, this should be a no-brainer: avoid a high fat, high sugar diet. Put the candy bar down.
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