Horizon - fat

[Sapphireblue]

Did anyone see this last night?

Apparently there is a hunger and a fullness hormone, and for a 'normal' person they spike and drop as you would expect. For a person who has problems with their weight, the interesting thing is that they don't have really high hunger and low fullness hormone levels, but they are both sort of middling and don't change based on eating, it's almost as if the body doesn't register that food has been eaten.

Also, there was a bit on genes and how identical twins where only one has a weight problem, everyone has a switch that if turned on will make you more likely to be fat, and the one that had a problem had the switch turned on and had had more stress in their life. They weren't 100% sure of the cause but they were guessing that it is cortisol (stress hormone) turning the fat gene on.

The most crucial thing though, is actually the eating habits of your mother during pregnancy. Apparently unhealthy and/or erractic eating that leads to big sugar highs and lows, basically screws with the metabolism of the baby and has a massive effect on the baby's likely weight issues in life and makes them 25% likely to be fat by the age of about 9. (i may have remembered the stats wrong but they did say they were shocked how much affect this has).

 

[Lily]

I've just watched it on iPlayer.

I have to say that I found it a bit frustrating that she kept referring to fatty food when she actually meant carby food - after her day of 'starvation' (poor thing, she should try being on Cambridge for 12 weeks ), she tucked into the "fattiest thing on offer." Hmm, it looked like a sort of cakey thing to me - I'd have said it was the carbiest thing.

No mention of the role insulin plays in controlling your appetite anywhere, was there?

But it was really interesting, just the same. As for what my mother ate while I was in the womb - well, I'm afraid I can't ask her, but she was on a diet for most of her life and I was born 2 weeks late and weighing 6lbs 2oz - not exactly huge, considering I was so late (she told me she was certain the dates were right). I was a pretty chubby thing by the time I was 9!