Forget everything you thought you knew about dietary weight gain.
I know that’s hard since we’ve been hammered with numbers, obscure names, and equations over the last century, but bear with me.
The reality is that there’s only one cause of dietary weight gain, and it’s fat consumption.
I know this pushes hard against everything we’ve learned from fad diets about carbs/sugars and protein intake, but the truth is that we need this new insight, because obesity is only getting worse.
Whether you’re saying Amen! and running for the produce aisle, or shedding a tear as you quietly say goodbye to bacon, the results are in and they’re overwhelming!
A team of scientists from the UK’s University of Aberdeen and Beijing’s Chinese Academy of Sciences have taken an in-depth look into what actually causes us to put on the pounds when we eat.
The team looked at the 3 main components of the human diet; carbs, fats, and proteins.
The reason? All foods are made up of one or a combination of these 3 dietary factors, and studies so far haven’t quite been able to narrow the fat-causing factor down to a single culprit, until now.
Online scholarly and educational journal, Cell Metabolism, published the findings of this unprecedented study on July 12th, detailing the effects of 29 different diets varying in carb, protein, and fat content.
The study was first undertaken using female mice that were 5-6 weeks old, also known as C57BL/6 mice. The key results were then taken and tested against 4 other types of mice groups.
The study is performed on lab mice for the purpose of a controlled, more accurate study.
According to the online publication, Understanding Animal Research, mice are used for many reasons in the study of human ailments.
Most notably though, is that over 98% of human genes and DNA can find their counterpart in that of mice, making it easier to understand how diseases, foods, or chemicals affect us on a cellular level.
Due to this, 30 different Nobel Prizes have been awarded for life-saving studies performed on mice, including the discovery and/or treatment of HIV and HPV, organ transplants, IVF, most of our vaccines, cancers, our immune system response, and mapping or “GPS” of our brains.
The diets given to mice in the study ranged in dietary factor content as follows:
- Fat-based diets ranged from 8.3%-80%
- Carb-based diets ran from 10%-80%
- Protein-based ranged 5%-30%
- and Sucrose-based went from 5%-30% as well (for good measure)
The diets were routinely fed to the mice for ~3 months, or 9 years human-time!
To understand how the mice in each group were affected at every possible stage of testing, scientists recorded over 100,000 measurements of changes in weight and body fat content using specialized equipment.
As you can see from the infographic above, mice tested in the high-carb diets were expected to show significant weight-gain, while fat-based dieters were expected to maintain bodyweight.
Scientists were surprised to find that not only was fat the leading factor in over-consumptive weight gain, but it is the only factor!
Lead scientist on the study, Professor John R. Speakman, points out the enormity of the study, with its consistent findings, leave absolutely no question about the role of fat in dietary caused weight gain.
“The result of this enormous study was unequivocal – the only thing that made the mice get fat was eating more fat in their diets.”
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The real find of this study is the reasoning behind why fat, of all the dietary components, is the number one factor in obesity from overeating.
This is because, according to Professor Speakman, when we over-eat foods that are high in fat, it sends signals to the “feel-good” parts of our brain.
“These effects of dietary fat seemed to be because uniquely fat in the diet stimulated the reward centres in the brain, stimulating greater intake.”
When this happens, we are eating to get a spike in dopamine or serotonin, as opposed to eating to maintain a healthy level of energy.
The takeaway? We can still indulge in a delectable treat or two as long as we avoid eating too much fat. Hooray!!!
