Beyond fast food and slow motion: weighty contributors to the obesity epidemic

Abstract

Decreased physical activity and marketing-driven increased consumption of "junk" food, dubbed "The Big Two", are generally regarded as the most important contributors to the obesity epidemic. However, the full picture contains many more pieces of the puzzle. We address several additional issues and review current clinical developments in obesity research. In spite of dramatic advancements in our understanding of the adipose organ and its endocrine and immune products, the ultimate causes of the obesity epidemic remain elusive. Treatment is plagued by poor adherence to life style modifications, and available pharmacological options are marginally effective, often also associated with major side effects. Surgical treatments, albeit effective in decreasing body weight, are invasive and expensive. Thus, our approaches to finding the causes, improving the existing treatments, and inventing novel therapies must be manifold.

Fig. 1

Proposed “Comfort Food Hypothesis” linking stress, e.g. induced by psychosocial subordination, to weight gain. With the exception of preferential high caloric food choices associated with stress, few experimental data exist in humans to explain the underlying neuroendocrine mechanisms.