Focus On Your Eating Habits
It is very important to focus on your eating habits and make certain lifestyle choices to make the best out of it. Weight gain is often related to a person’s week willpower, but it’s not true as apart from overeating there are other genetic disadvantages along with other factors that can be the cause for a person to gain weight.
Genetics: The children of people suffering from obesity are more likely to be obese, but obesity is not completely predetermined as what a person eats majorly affects their genes. But some people have a genetic susceptibility to obesity and weight gain.
Junk Food: Processed foods have refined ingredients and mixed with a lot of additives. They are cheap and tasty but ends-up promote overeating. They are engineered and designed in a way to get people hooked to them and are very hard to resist.
Food Addiction: Sugar and high-fat junk food stimulate our brain in a certain way with having the same effects on our brain as alcohol, nicotine, cocaine, etc. Junk food addiction is common in today’s society, where people lose control and struggle with their eating behaviour, similar to a person struggling with nicotine or alcohol addiction. Food addiction and cravings are difficult to overcome for high fat and sugary foods.
Marketing: Unhealthy products are aggressively marketed as a healthier option with misleading claims about the product with their main target being children. Childhood obesity is common these days and children are addicted to junk foods as they lack the knowledge and easy to mislead.
Insulin: Insulin resistance and high insulin levels are linked with being overweight and obesity. So, it’s important to manage and lower the insulin levels by eating a diet high in fibre with reducing the intake of refined carbs.
Medications: Some drugs can cause and promote weight gain as they tend to reduce the no. of calories burned, also increase appetite. Examples: antidepressants, antipsychotics, etc.
Leptin Resistance: It is the appetite-reducing hormone produced by the fat cells. High leptin levels are directly linked to a reduced appetite, but in obese people, the leptin does not work properly as it is not able to cross the blood-brain barrier. This leptin resistance is a leading factor in weight gain and obesity.
Sugar: It is a contributor to obesity and increased energy storage.
Obesity is not solely caused by only lack of willpower but due to the other factors contributing to this global problem. So, modern food eating habits must be revised and changed to solve this problem.
References :
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15181085
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21774992