The thousand faces and the most surprising aspects of obesity

2024-01-30 08:01:02

Did you know that obesity, described by some specialists as a “silent pandemic” and considered an inflammatory disease, was associated in the past with social position and is related to the survival instinct? An expert reveals the most surprising aspects and the thousand faces of obesity.

“Obesity increases without us being able to stop it and in fact, almost a third of the planet’s inhabitants are overweight,” warns Almudena García Carrasco, graduate in Pharmacy and professor in the area of ​​Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Rey Juan Carlos University. of Madrid (URJC), who explains to us the most surprising aspects of this pathology.

In addition, the professor investigates different molecular mechanisms related to glucose and insulin, involved in obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. She is the author of the book ‘Obesity. The silent pandemic’, in which more than twenty experts from various fields participate.

He explains that “we tend to have an extremely simplistic view about this disease, we stigmatize all obese people equally and point them out as people without will, thinking or saying that if a person ‘is fat it’s because he wants to.’”

The truth is that obesity It is a complex pathology in which variables of all kinds can intervene: genetic, economic, environmental or psychological, and whose origin, evolution and consequences, medical approach and impact on society, present little-known and often striking aspects.

García Carrasco reviews some of theThe most surprising aspects of obesity conventionally defined as an “abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat that can be harmful to health”, but which offers many more faces.

inflammatory disease

Almudena García Carrasco points out that obesity is a “chronic inflammatory disease that is killing us.”

Asked by EFE about this approach to overweight, she specifies that “obesity is an excessive accumulation of fat in the human body, but it is not only that.”

He explains that “each person’s adipose tissue has the capacity to store a certain amount of fat. When it reaches its maximum limit of expansion, adipose tissue begins to fail and fats are stored in other tissues, such as the liver, kidney or pancreas, causing many of the complications derived from obesity.”

“Throughout this process we can observe a characteristic inflammation, which is low-grade but constant, in the adipose tissue of obese individuals, which constitutes one of the complications derived from obesity and contributes to aggravating the pathology,” explains the researcher. of the URJC.

“Obesity generates a state of global inflammation that is considered to have already started in the intestine, and in which adipose tissue is also capable of releasing pro-inflammatory molecules,” he points out.

Apple and pear fat

This specialist explains that there are two basic types of obesity: central, android or “apple-shaped”; and the peripheral, gynecoid, ‘cartuchera’ or “pear-shaped”.

The one of first type “It is easy to recognize because it is one that follows a ‘beer belly’ pattern, the presence of which has been associated with a greater cardiovascular risk and whose incidence is higher in men,” he points out.

He second type of obesitylocated on the outer sides of the hips and the upper part of the thighs, is more common in women and its presence is anthropologically associated with the possibility of pregnancy, because “future generations must be kept well fed.” , he assures.

However, obesity during pregnancy increases the risk of health problems for the pregnant woman and the fetus, she explains.

The most surprising aspects of obesity and its historical and pictorial representation

The excess weight of “characters who were part of the ruling elites in their respective societies, individuals who belonged to the privileged group, leads us to infer that obesity and social position have traditionally gone hand in hand, producing a relationship between the two.” of causality,” says García Carrasco.

He highlights that “historical images have left us a testimony of obese people with political weight in their respective societies, and exhibit female figures that demonstrate that aesthetic beauty was liked of round shapes, where the cellulite folds were displayed with complete normality and exuberance.”

A healthy food (left) and another very caloric one (right) Photo: Andres Ayrton/ Pexels.

Overweight and survival

“Your body feels the need to store calories, because it has learned that ‘you never know,’” says this researcher, referring to the fact that our body prefers to be prepared and have an energy reserve to face the vicissitudes or periods of scarcity that could occur. arrive in the future.

For this, our body “has white adipose tissue, which acts as a cupboard where all the calories that we have not used to move are stored in the form of fat. This fat not only acts as an energy reserve, but also serves as a thermal and mechanical insulator,” says this scientist.

“As well-off troglodytes that we are, one of the main factors responsible for the energy imbalance (which leads to obesity) comes from our high intake of high-calorie foods, which are usually the richest and give us the most pleasure, along with a reduction in our physical activity,” he points out.

“Our brain has learned that if there is danger lurking, we cannot stop to eat and we must leave there quickly. Therefore, it deduces that if we are eating it is because we are safe,” he points out.

Therefore, “it is normal that when our stress levels rise, we often try to lower them by eating. It is our way of telling our brain to relax,” he points out.