Obesity: Ten Things You Thought You Knew

Dr. Robert Baron, UCSF Professor of Medicine, is an expert on obesity and related topics in nutrition and chronic disease. Here he explores ten things you thought you knew. Series: UCSF Mini Medical School for the Public [7/2009] [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 16713]

Category:

Education

Tags:

• health
• obesity
• medicine
• chronic
• disease

[vcool]

All diets and calories are not the same. A calorie from a high-glycemic source as HFCS is much worse than a calorie from complex carbs. Watch "Sugar: The Bitter Truth".

[XPronger]

No, when they have identical height and weight, their BMI must be by definiton identical as well.

It is true though that BMI and muscular people doesn't work well.

[obits3]

On BMI and races. Asians tend less bone weight and blacks tend to have more. That is the most logical explanation for 18:20

[Satarack]

@danhantheman So I think everyone would agree that a doctor should diagnosis each individual to know what the cause is for them; but what they are advocating is for general advice to the population; effectively a question of public policy. So going again to Dr. Lustig; he's advocating the reduction of fructose consumption in the general population. There will still be those with other causes for obesity, but he's advocating that this is the primary cause of the current obesity epidemic.

[Satarack]

@danhantheman Certainly anyone that says insulin is always the culprit is wrong, and perhaps "debunked." But I don't think anyone in the scientific community actually advocates that. Dr. Lustig, who advocates fructose reduction, will point to leptin resistance caused by insulin; but he also has performed research on children with systemic leptin resistance from chemotherapy treatments of brain tumors, which has nothing to do with insulin. So I don't think he's saying insulin is the only cause.

[danhantheman]

@Satarack There are definite many variables that interplay between leptin, insulin and our diet/exercise. But a simplified overview is this: insulin is what drives food in the short-term into muscle/fat cells. if leptin works correctly, the body will decrease appetite/burn off stored fat, it regulates the long-term fat cell status. however, if leptin does not work properly, fat builds up in the cell, automatically leading to insulin resistance as a defense mech to stop more input of fuel

[Satarack]

@danhantheman That said, it appears that fructose and other chemicals may be the ultimate cause for why so many people now have higher insulin levels and liver problems, and thus the cause of leptin resistance in most of the overweight population. Insulin may not be the final cause; but it certainly doesn't seem irrelevant or "debunked." It has a role in this, certainly for fructose if not other problem chemicals as well.

[Satarack]

@danhantheman I may be wrong, but isn't insulin itself a cause of leptin resistance? I wouldn't say then that insulin has been "debunked." What I understand is that insulin triggers the same satiation signals as leptin, although slightly differently. The brain of a person with chronically high insulin levels will learn to make this elevated signal it's new reference point; but this in turn causes the leptin signal to appear smaller by contrast to what it actually is.

[danhantheman]

@MichaelnChristine True but if you're obese, obv dont do the Kitavan diet of 70% carbs. lol

Also i see you talk about high insulin. insulin is not the real problem (thought it damn sure seems like it). alot of guys like Chris Masterjohn and other paleo researchers are debunking insulin as the culprit. it's starting to shift onto high carbs/sugars (fructose)/PUFA's causing inflammation and LEPTIN resistance. My bible is Mastering Leptin by Byron Richards, a must read u won't regret.

[MichaelnChristine]

@danhantheman Paleo is a free -eating system and doesn't say it has to be "Low-Carb' (though Sisson's Primal prefers it). Katavans eat "Paleo" but aren't low carb.

[MichaelnChristine]

@ccjuju Yes because a video about obesity must relate directly to a body-builders. Be real....