Blame Pollution for the Diabetes and Obesity Epidemics?

Back in the era when milk and soft drinks came in glass bottles, and meat and produce were wrapped in paper, and nobody ever popped a frozen meal into a microwave, type 2 diabetes was a very rare condition. Less than 10% of the population was obese. In the modern era, almost all bottles and jars are made of plastic, and even cans and tin foil packages are closed with a plastic sealant. Plastic trays are used to hold food that goes into microwaves in homes, in offices, and even in restaurants. Nearly 300,000,000 people world wide have type 2 diabetes. In some countries over 50% are obese.

Do you suppose that the nearly universal use of plastics might have anything to do with either trend? Plastics are useful because they can be poured into almost any kind of mold for any kind of shape or thickness. The final step in the production of a plastic container or utensil usually involves the addition of a chemical called bisphenol-A, also known as BPA. This chemical hardens the plastic so the product assumes its final shape.

BPA makes plastics last. Unfortunately, it also lingers and accumulates in the environment when plastic bags, boxes, eating utensils, plates, toys, and household items are placed into landfills. And since BPA is also added to cardboard and paper products, nearly every person on the planet is exposed to BPA all the time. Nearly all of us have BPA in our bloodstreams.

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BPA has a molecular shape that makes it fit like a key into two "locks" on the surfaces of fat cells, receptors that are ordinarily stimulated when they receive a group of hormones known as peroxisome proliferator receptor agonists (which is a fancy way of saying that these hormones increase the production of peroxisomes inside the mitochondria of cells so they can store more fat) and the receptor for vitamin A.

If you have ever used vitamin A or retinol in skin care products, you know that it stimulates growth in the skin. The same thing happens in fat cells. BPA, however, doesn't just rev up a fat cell's ability to store fat. It also can transform stem cells (even adults have stem cells for making new blood and bone) into fat cells.

Exposure to BPA does not automatically make people obese. It just creates an army of new fat cells ready and waiting for every extra calorie. And as for how BPA makes people obese, some new research shows that symbiotic bacteria are involved.

Everyone's intestinal tract hosts not just billions or trillions or even quadrillions but quintillions of bacteria. Some are harmful, and some of helpful. Bacteria of the Firmicutes genus tend to generate signals to the body to inflame belly fat. This makes belly fat swell (sometimes about 1/3 of its volume) and it also makes it more difficult for the body to take sugar out of the bloodstream for storage as fat. Firmicutes are associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes. And chemicals like BPA can kill the bacteria that compete with Firmicutes and keep them in check.

So, there's a three-fold problem with BPA. It causes the growth of new fat cells just waiting to pack away every calorie that comes their way. It protects pathogenic bacteria that can cause inflammation that can make belly fat and buttocks fat swell. And it indirectly interferes with the ability of fat to take sugar out of circulation. But there are at least nine more explanations for the obesity epidemic.
 

Nine More Reasons for the Epidemic of Obesity and Diabetes

Chemical pollution is a powerful force in the epidemic of obesity and diabetes, but it's not the only reason more and more people all over the world are becoming obese and are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Here are nine more:

• Women are having children later in life. In the twenty-first century, first pregnancies at the age of 40 are not unusual. Some women are having children after the age of 50. For reasons scientists do not entirely understand, children born to older mothers have more white fat, the kind of fat that stores calories, and less brown fat, the kind of fat that burns calories. Children born to older mothers burn fewer calories by generating body heat and have "slower" metabolisms that store more calories.
• Heavier women are, on average, more likely to have more children. There is a good biological reason for this. For most of human history, food has been in short supply. A woman with higher body fat was more likely to be living in a family or a village that could feed children, so she was more likely to ovulate with each menstrual cycle and more likely to get pregnant if she had sex at the right time in her cycle. As more and more women are obese, more and more women are having more children. This effect is greatest in Africa and the Caribbean.
• Overweight people tend to marry and have children with overweight people. Scientists call this phenomenon "positive assortment for adiposity." Especially since the media promote thinness as "sexy," fatness tends to become domestic. Overweight parents tend to have overweight children.

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• Television and the Internet occupy many people until late at night. Sleep deprivation leads to increased fat storage and decreased sensitivity to study. In one experiment, blood sugar levels rose 30% in young men who were deprived of 4 hours sleep per night for 6 nights. Habitually cruising the Internet or watching late-night TV may make insulin insensitivity permanent. Several studies show that African-Americans are especially susceptible to this effect.
• More and more people are taking more and more medications. Blood pressure medications, antidepressants, drugs for diabetes, contraceptives, steroids, and antihistamines all encourage weight gain. People taking these drugs don't gain weight if they eat less—but it's hard to find the willpower to eat less when chronic conditions make you feel unwell.
• Cold-weather heating systems are much more effective than earlier in human history. In much of Europe and in the northern United States, most homes were (and in some cases are) chilly throughout the winter. It was once common to need to wear a sweater indoors during the winter months. Even now, some Europeans and Canadians keep their homes around 10° C/52° F from November to March. Keeping warm burns calories, as many as 1000 calories per day.
• Have you ever thought that you could just sneeze and gain weight? It might actually be true. Certain strains of cold viruses seem to cause obesity. The adenoviruses, in particular, trigger product of inflammatory chemicals that swell belly fat. They cause weight gain and they also compact blood vessels that bring sugar and oxygen to fat cells. Since the sugar can't reach storage depots in belly fat, blood sugar levels go up.
• Especially in North America, many foods are low-fat or low-carb. People wind up consuming more calories (and even more fat and carbs) than normal because they mistakenly believe these foods are "safe."

And another reason for the worldwide epidemic of obesity? We just can't escape being reminded about food. Reality TV programs about competitive cooking, Internet ads that seem to be placed on web pages by an algorithm that somehow knows we are hungry, constant references to food in media make everyone want to eat more, more, more.

There are plenty of external forces to blame when you gain weight—but there is only one person who eventually will overcome them. Life's not fair. It's not easy to lose weight—but you are the one who will be able to control your health when you make the right choices with the right information.