April 11, 2005 – Obesity may be due more to a neurological disorder rather than a simple imbalance between energy consumption and expenditure, according to eminent Italian obesity expert Antonio Tataranni. According to him, the analysis of brain activity, using scanners, could even predict the risk of weight gain.
This is, among other things, what emerges from a three-day conference on obesity prevention, held last week at McGill University in Montreal.1. This international event attracted leading researchers and specialists from different backgrounds as well as representatives of the agri-food industry and public health. We mainly discussed the role that the pleasure of eating plays in the progression of the phenomenon of obesity.
In obese people, there would be notable differences in the physiological response to hunger compared to people of a healthy weight. Normally, different regions of the brain, whether associated with emotions, learning, memory, anticipation or decision-making, interact with each other, as the appetite arises as well as when we eat.
This neurological disorder is similar to an addiction to which some people are predisposed, whether due to the socio-economic environment (availability and accessibility of foods high in fat or calories, for example) or their own heredity. .
For his part, psychology professor John M. de Castro of the University of Texas at El Paso has hypothesized that if 60% of the prevalence of obesity in humans is attributable to socio-economic environment, heredity would be responsible in a proportion of 40%. According to him, social stimuli in a gastronomic context could also be activated due to a genetic predisposition. In this regard, he claimed that the stomach “will not always succeed in controlling hunger, so when eating in groups, some people swallow 45% more food than when eating alone.”
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Considered a plague by World Health Organization (WHO), obesity hit 7% of the world’s population. In Canada, Statistics Canada has just unveiled data justifying the urgent need to act: in 2002, 15% of Canadians were obese2. In Quebec, the proportion is 14%3. In the same year, this rate reached 21% in the United States. |
The pleasure of tasting: at the heart of the problem?
Professor of consumer psychology and marketing at McGill University, and instigator of the event, Laurette Dubé believes that the fight against obesity can no longer be seen only through the single specter of deprivation, combined with a regulation of the food industry. “The notion of” health-pleasure “is not sufficiently present in the efforts to be put in place”, according to her.
As endorsed by the director of the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, Paul Rozin: “The fight against obesity must now be waged from a perspective of daily pleasures rather than resting on the approach of punishment-reward, of carrot and stick, ”he said. This new avenue seems all the more relevant given that, according to some surveys, people generally associate healthy food with a bland or even bad taste.
Possible solutions
Various possible solutions were expressed at the end of this high-level meeting. For example, given the interrelation of the senses (such as sight, touch, taste and smell) in the importance of eating, would it be possible to re-educate our neurons?
Marcia Levin Pelchat, a scientist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, argued that mental imagery could represent an interesting avenue. According to her, memory plays a predominant role in the onset of a craving to eat, activating the regions of the brain responsible for emotions, learning as well as the center of decision-making. Using the imaginations of patients, researchers have managed to turn the rabies process on and off. Thus, it might be possible to control these episodes using the principle of emotional substitution.
For Laurette Dubé, the challenge is to ensure that the consumer expresses a demand for healthy eating and lifestyle habits. “We have to create new values around health,” she says. If we managed to create such a demand for fast food in just 20 or 30 years – which is hardly on the scale of human history – perhaps we would be able to turn the tide. “
According to her, this new approach is realistic. “The brain is something quite malleable and, in the long term – especially in children – it would be possible to create an impulse towards lower calorie foods and to attach an emotional value to healthier lifestyles” .
“We have to achieve this while keeping in mind that eating must continue to be a pleasure,” concluded Ms. Dubé.
Martin LaSalle – PasseportSanté.net
1. The McGill Integrative Health Challenge 2005 – Energy is Delight. Changing Practices in Food, Health and Business Toward Helping Individuals Resist Over-Consumption and Prevent Obesity. This conference, held from April 6 to 8, 2005, was jointly organized by the Faculties of Management and Medicine of McGill University and the Montreal Neurological Institute.
2. Le Petit C, Berthelot JM, Obesity: a growing issue, Health Canada, April 7, 2005. The article is available at the following address: www.statcan.ca/english/research/82-618-MIF/82-618-MIF2005003.htm [site consulté le 11 avril 2005].
3. National report on the state of health of the Quebec population – Produce health, Department of the public health program of the Ministry of Health and Social Services, April 7, 2005. The summary of the document is available at the following address: ftp.msss.gouv.qc.ca/publications/acrobat/f/documentation/2004/04-228-03.pdf [site consulté le 11 avril 2005].
