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【科普】再次讨伐肯德基等垃圾食品
A UCSF researcher has determined that a key reason for the epidemic of pediatric obesity, now the most commonly diagnosed childhood ailment, is that high-calorie, low-fiber Western diets promote hormonal imbalances that encourage children to overeat.
In a comprehensive review of obesity research published in the August edition of the journal Nature Clinical Practice Endocrinology & Metabolism, Robert Lustig, MD, professor of clinical pediatrics at UCSF Children's Hospital, says that food manufacturing practices have created a "toxic environment" that dooms children to being overweight.
"It will take acknowledgement of the concepts of biological susceptibility and societal accountability and de-emphasis of the concept of personal responsibility to make a difference in the lives of children," Lustig says.
According to the National Institutes of Health, the number of children who are overweight in the United States has doubled during the past three decades. Currently one child in five is overweight. The increase is true for children and adolescents of all age groups and races and for boys and girls.
Diseases that once were only seen in adults, like type 2 diabetes, now are occurring in increasing numbers in children, according to Lustig. Overweight children tend to become overweight adults, which also puts them at greater risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke. Children who are obese also are socially ostracized and teased, putting them at risk for depression and other psychiatric conditions, he adds.
"Our current Western food environment has become highly 'insulinogenic,'" Lustig says, "as demonstrated by its increased energy density, high-fat content, high glycemic index, increased fructose composition, decreased fiber, and decreased dairy content."
"In particular, fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin," he adds.
Lustig says that it has long been known that the hormone insulin acts on the brain to encourage eating through two separate mechanisms. First, it blocks the signals that travel from the body's fat stores to the brain by suppressing the effectiveness of the hormone leptin, resulting in increased food intake and decreased activity. Second, insulin promotes the signal that seeks the reward of eating carried by the chemical dopamine, which makes a person want to eat to get the pleasurable dopamine "rush."
Calorie intake and expenditure normally are regulated by leptin, Lustig says. When leptin is functioning properly it "increases physical activity, decreases appetite, and increases feelings of well-being." Conversely, when leptin is suppressed, feelings of well-being and activity decrease and appetite increases ?a state called "leptin resistance."
Changes in food processing during the past 30 years, particularly the addition of sugar to a wide variety of foods that once never included sugar and the removal of fiber, both of which promote insulin production, have created an environment in which our foods are essentially addictive, he adds.
Lustig also notes that children cannot be blamed or expected to take personal responsibility for their dietary behavior in an environment when the foods they are offered ?especially cheaply prepared "fast foods" that are full of sugar and devoid of fiber ?are toxic.
"The concept of personal responsibility is not tenable in children. No child chooses to be obese," he says. "Furthermore, young children are not responsible for food choices at home or at school, and it can hardly be said that preschool children, in whom obesity is rampant, are in a position to accept personal responsibility."
"If we don't fix this, our children will continue to lose," he emphasizes. 认领此篇 我翻译好了，请大家给与批评、指正，谢谢！
一项研究声称：儿童肥胖症是由西方饮食的“毒害环境”造成的。
一名UCSF研究人员已经确定了儿童肥胖症，目前最普通的儿科疾病，流行的关键因素是高热量-低纤维的西方饮食，这种饮食加大了激素的不平衡。
对在杂志《内分泌学和代谢自然临床实践》8月刊上发表的肥胖症研究进行了广泛的综述后，Robert Lustig，MD，UCSF儿童医院儿科临床学的教授，说食品生产加工行业创造了一个促使儿童超重的“有害环境”。
“应该承认生物学敏感性、社会责任以及削弱对个人责任的强调都与儿童的生活有很大关系”Lustig说。
依据国家健康研究院的调查，在过去的三十年间美国体重超标的儿童数量已经加倍。目前，每5个儿童中就有1个是超重的。体重的增加在不同性别、不同年龄及种族间普遍存在。
据Lustig所说，一些曾经仅见于成年人的疾病，如2型糖尿病，现在正在以数量上升的趋势出现在儿童中。同时，他还补充说，超重儿童易于成长为超重的成年人，这使他们罹患高血压、心脏病以及中风的风险增加。肥胖儿童也常遭受到同龄人的排斥或戏弄，这又使他们产生抑郁及其它不良精神状态的风险增加。
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-02-08 05:14
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