Overeating: Does It Really Cause Obesity?

Healthy food does not cause weight gain because it is not addictive like sugar.

It is claimed that the cause of obesity is gluttony and sloth. This ‘eat-too-much, do-too-little’ theory of weight gain suggests that a combination of consuming too much food and performing too little exercise results in a gradual accumulation of energy as stored body fat. The solution to this problem we are told, is to limit intake of food and perform endless endurance type training to ‘burn’ the excess calories for energy.

But Exercise And Dieting Don’t Cause Weight Loss

This theory sounds plausible. It is widely held as a ‘fact’ by layperson and scientists alike. However, the nutritional literature does not support a role for restrictive calorie counting diets or aerobic exercise in the maintenance of long term successful fat loss. If it is true that both exercise and energy restrictive diets do not cause successful long term weight loss,  then it stands to reason that they are not the cause of weight gain either.

Overeating Studies

Studies that have caused weight gain in subjects through overeating all have one thing is common. To cause weight gain, they have to feed the subjects cakes, biscuits, puddings, treats and sweets. And even then, not all the subjects gain fat, some gain muscle. Is it possible to cause increases in body fat through overeating beans, tuna, vegetables and lean chicken? No it isn’t, because such foods do not cause the same metabolic changes as sugar.

Overeating Healthy Food?

The body has a perfect system for detecting and regulating energy intake. If you eat more, the fires are stoked and heat produced. At the same time, appetite is down regulated and physical activity facilitated either through direct exercise or fidgeting. In this way the body can regulate body weight despite fluctuations in energy intake. Natural whole foods as eaten in traditional diets do not cause weight gain, because it is impossible to overeat them long term.

Treadmill To Heaven

Studies show that people in the Third World are leaner than those in the West. However, studies comparing activity levels show they perform no extra physical activity. People living on traditional diets do not need to run for hours on a hamster wheel. They eat healthy food and go about their business. When such populations are introduced to Western foods, they get fat and lazy and suffer from the same diseases as Westerners. Do you see a pattern here yet?

Sugar Is a Drug

The reason that it is easy to overeat sugar and sugary foods is because they act as drugs. Animal studies show that feeding sugar to rats causes the same changes to their brains as addictive drugs. This means that foods containing sugar are addictive and therefore bypass the normal regulatory mechanisms. Instead sugar stimulates the reward centres of the brain. Normal healthy food does not do this, which is why you cannot get fat on tuna and beans.

RdB