More and more men in rich countries are affected by obesity. In question, an increasingly frequent hormonal imbalance which makes them fat according to the results of a study published in the medical journal PloS One.
Maciej Henneberg, professor of anthropological sciences and anatomy, and James Grantham, medical student at the University of Adelaide, wanted to understand the impact of wealth on obesity. They compared the obesity rate of men and women to the gross domestic product (GDP) of countries.
Men feminize and gain weight
Women in developing countries are more affected than men by obesity. In contrast, in developed countries, the proportion of obese men and women tends to reverse. And, men are more affected by this pathology.
“Hormone-related weight gain occurs more significantly in women than in men, and this is very clear when you look at obesity rates in developing countries,” says Grantham.
In rich countries, men are too often exposed to estrogen, a female hormone known to promote weight gain, mainly by inhibiting the thyroid and modulating the hypothalamus. They therefore tend to feminize and follow the weight gain model of women.
“Due to the increase in the consumption of industrial food made from soy, an endocrine disruptor, men in rich countries are increasingly affected by hormonal imbalance and see their testosterone levels drop and that of estrogen rise, ”explains Professor Maciej Henneberg. “As these products tend to ‘feminize’ men, they have an increasing tendency to follow the female model of weight gain,” concludes the researcher.
Obesity has become a real public health problem. In 2010, global health organizations estimated that overweight and obesity caused 3.4 million deaths and reduced life expectancy.
In a report, the WHO says that Europeans are getting bigger and bigger: 27% of 13-year-olds and 33% of 11-year-olds are overweight. And, the number of overweight or obese inhabitants of the planet reached 2.1 billion in 2013 (including 671 million obese).
