The cerebral impulse that causes obesity
You knew that in response to a fat-rich diet, immune cells in the brain, and in particular those of the hypothalamus, trigger a process that leads to overweight and obesity?
Research has shown that a cerebral region called the mid-basal hypothalamus (MBH) contains groups of neurons whose task is to match food intake and energy expenditure, but this delicate balance is crushed by a high intake of fat, with Resulting in increased weight, however, it was not possible to identify the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon.
But in this study Suneil Koliwad and colleagues have now discovered that weight gainers are microglia cells, that is, the cellular complex of the immune system present in the brain, whose population expands through fat.
Excess fat leads the microglia cells to trigger an inflammatory response, which in turn is responsible for the failure of MBH to function well. Inflammation then causes recall from the bloodstream of other immune cells that, once in the hypothalamus, become microglia cells, aggravating inflammation and reflecting the imbalance between food intake and energy expenditure in a cycle difficult to arrest.
The researchers also found that the administration to the mice of an experimental drug
Able to block inflammation at the microglia level was eating less guinea pigs, by 15 percent, gaining less weight by 20 percent than mice not treated with the drug and fed with the same diet.
According to Koliwad, the fact that the microglia has evolved the ability to trigger increased appetite and weight in response to a high-fat diet might have an evolutionary explanation. "Fat is the most concentrated form of calories that human beings from the remote past could consume. When they could get a meal after a long period of fasting, it was important that the microglia signal their presence to the hypothalamus neurons so that these Stimulate the appetite as much as possible ".
In the present world, where there isn't scarcity of fatty foods, this ancient mechanism, which was only rarely activated, became counterproductive: chronic activation of microglia due to continued fat consumption ends up leading to overweight and obesity.
This is a good read, and I understand your premise. However, the work I am beginning my research in, points to a very different answer; quite the opposite answer actually, showing that fat is not the problem. Carbohydrates seem to be the real culprit for many people. Fat is actually a very good fuel source for the body, specifically the brain. However, glucose has many downsides as a fuel source, one of them being increased fat storage do to the insulin response. I hope to write my first post on this exact topic where I go into detail about how low carb diets are actually not only good for weight loss, but optimize the body's calorie burning processes. That last picture you posted I feel, is worth a thousand words. Those are all recognizably horrible foods, if they can even be considered food. However the one thing they all have in common is not high fat content, but high carbohydrate content, sugars, starches, etc. I see the validity in what you are saying, and have heard a lot about glial response to high fat diets. However, with an absence of carbs, that response becomes negligible.
Wow @thefeetofpete, I'm looking forward for your first post about it :) Thanks for the interesting comments :)
This was a short but good read, thanks for the post.
Thank you @ripxtitan, I'm glad you liked it, if you want to deepen the argument there is the link to the full study :)
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by fonzie from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, and someguy123. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you like what we're doing please upvote this comment so we can continue to build the community account that's supporting all members.