Title: Obesity myths and facts

Abstract

The goal of this talk is to explain and clarify some misconceptions about obesity. 1. Obesity is a choice, not a disease: Myth. Obesity is a chronic, relapsing, multifactorial, and neurobehavioral disease. An increase in body fat endorses abnormal fat mass physical forces and dysfunction, resulting in unfavorable metabolic, biomechanical, and psychosocial health consequences.1,2,3,4 2. Obesity can be attributed to genetics: Fact. In 2007 a genome-wide association study (GWAS) identified the Fat mass and obesity-associated gene (FTO), an established obesity-susceptibility locus located at chromosome 16 q12.2. Specific alleles of the FTO gene may be associated with adiposity.5,6,7 3. Being overweight is never healthy: Fact. For BMI ≥ 25, each 5 kg/m2 increased in BMI is associated with 30% higher mortality. It is also related to an increased risk of cancer, diabetes mellitus type 2, hypertension, and thrombosis. To every 1 kilogram in weight gain, the risk of developing diabetes type 2 may increase by 9%.8,9 An alternative way to categorize obesity and diseases caused by obesity is between fat mass and sick Fat. 4. Obesity is not associated with sleep. Myth:"Sleep is the 'most sedentary activity' yet may be the only sedentary one that protects from weight gain" .10,11 World Health Organization (WHO) and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend 7-8 hours of sleep a night.8 5. There is no relationship between breastfeeding as an infant and obesity. Myth: Rates of obesity are significantly lower in breastfed infants. There would be a decrease of about 15-30% in obesity rates for teenagers and adults if any breastfeeding happened in infancy compared with no breastfeeding.12