
The Estrogen Hypothesis of Obesity - andrewljohnson
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0099776
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noobermin
Am I missing something? How does comparing GDP to obesity rates give any
evidence that it is female hormones specifically that correlate with obesity?
I'll admit I've only read the abstract and looked at the figures but I'm still
lost how A gets to B here...

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jessaustin
TFA observes that male obesity varies in response to GDP more than female
obesity does. The thesis is that increasing exposure to "female" hormones with
increasing GDP explains part of this phenomenon. I haven't read this carefully
enough to judge that, however.

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noobermin
My field of study and my experience is not in medicine or public health, but
GDP vs. obesity rates seems like poor evidence for this particular hypothesis.
For example, one hypothesis I can think about that explains this is that in
developing countries, it could be possible that women are often homemakers,
and therefore, they don't have as much physical exercise as their male peers.
In developed countries, where women are more free to work, the obesity rates
are comparable...

I mean, I don't see a slam dunk "See, it's female hormones!" There could be a
number of things from culture to lifestyle choices to work-life balance that
can have affect on obesity that might correlate with GDP. They should have at
least controlled against that, and I see no evidence of it.

The correlation itself is interesting, even without the female hormones.

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pessimizer
Being a homemaker in the developing world frequently involves a _lot_ more
physical activity than in the developed. Food and water are usually a lot less
convenient, and may involve travel. Homemaking may also involve farming, and
taking excess food from the garden to market which again, often involves
travel.

Also, the physical effort involved in being in the workforce in the developed
world can be almost nil. A lot of people have to stand up all day, or pick up
boxes, but that's far from subsistence farming or hand-washing clothes.

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irongeek
It is more likely a diet comprised of mostly carbohydrates and processed food
along with low physical activity is the cause. But that is a title for another
blog/article post on another day.

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sramsay
What would be some examples of "environmental estrogen-like substances
associated with affluence?"

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Afforess
BPA:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A)

Bisphenol A is in a lot of plastics (See: Polycarbonate), including soda
drinks, and leeches into the drinks themselves in small amounts. BPA exhibits
"Estrogenicity", in that it mimics the behavior of Estrogen in the body.
Nearly everyone in developed countries has some level of BPA in them.

BPA has been linked to Obesity as well:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A#Obesity](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A#Obesity)

Polycarbonate:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarbonate](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarbonate)

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maxerickson
Note that the BPA associated with soda is present in metal containers, as part
of the plastic liner used to protect the can from the acidic soda. Those
liners are in lots of other metal food containers.

Disposable plastic beverage bottles are almost all PETE, which doesn't contain
BPA.

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dang
Url changed from [http://www.mdconnects.com/articles/1789/20140613/female-
horm...](http://www.mdconnects.com/articles/1789/20140613/female-hormones-
making-western-men-fat.htm), which points to this.

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driverdan
Thank you! I was just about to post how terrible that blogspam site was.

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wfjackson
Didn't finish reading this, but was this data controlled for physical
activity? In many developing countries, women are caretakers for the home and
mostly stay home while men go outdoors for work, especially physical.

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Shivetya
Yeah I am wondering this too. This has all the hallmarks of HAES / FA type
logic. Activity levels and expected roles does have a lot to do with weight
gain. Now perhaps there is some truth that estrogen may make it more difficult
for women to keep off weight but its not the reason they are fat

Fatness in the this century is due to an abundance of processed food that is
readily available and has simple storage needs. Combine that with an abundance
of idle time, especially urban poor, and its not a good mix. I love going
through photo archives and the one thing that stood out is the lack of
obesity, its like the people taking photos went out of their way to not show
it.

Welcome to the world of Wall-E. People are going to have to adapt, those
selling packaged food will need to adapt, so that we don't end up there.

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Houshalter
This is the widely accepted theory but it doesn't explain everything. For
example, lab animals have actually gotten fatter over time as well, and they
are eating carefully measured diets and living in controlled conditions.

Diets are also not effective at losing weight. People rarely stay on them, and
a fat person must eat significantly fewer calories, not just the same amount,
than a normal person to maintain a healthy weight. Their metabolisms resemble
those of starving people, the body desperately trying to return itself to it's
"normal" weight.

Likewise normal people fed lots of food to become fat, quickly return to their
previous weight after they stop. Genetic studies find obesity is more
heritable than nearly any other condition including mental illness, breast
cancer, and heart disease. It also appears to be affected by epigenetics. If
your grandmother was starving you have a higher probability of becoming obese.

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lexcorvus
_The question thus turns to our modern Western society and why this process is
not as coarsely observable, with the rates approaching parody [sic] as
national gross domestic product increases._

Rogue spellchecker, typo, or Freudian slip?

