Some antibiotics and artificial sweeteners are similar molecules to endocrine disruptersthe chemicals used to make fire retardants and plastics that are increasingly in our food and environment. Endocrine disrupters, like BPA (Bisphenol A), banned in some baby bottles, and Triclosan found in Colgate's Total and many dish detergents, are linked to a host of shocking symptoms like genital deformities in wildlife and infertility, low sperm counts and possible early puberty and diabetes in humans. But they also may be linked to obesity.
As early as 2003, the journal Toxicological Sciences addressed effects that endocrine disruptors have on fetal development that likely play a role in adult obesity. "Obesity has been proposed to be yet another adverse health effect of exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) during critical stages of development," echoes an article in the International Journal of Andrology. Pregnant women with high levels of the endocrine disrupter PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid used in the manufacture of as Teflon and Gore-Tex) in their bodies were three times as likely to have daughters who grew up to be overweight, reported the New York Times' Nicholas Kristof.
Sugar substitutes
Artificial sweeteners have always been billed as a way to cut calories and lose weight. But recent research shows they may do just the opposite. When researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center studied 474 people who drank two or more artificially sweetened soft drinks a day they found the people gained five times as much as those not drinking diet drinks. Thanks for nothing!
There are three reasons artificial sweeteners may do more harm than good. One is that some of the sweetenerswhich tend to be chemicals like acesulfame potassium and aspartamemay slow metabolism, speculate researchers. Secondly, artificial sweeteners separate "food seeking behavior" from the "reward" of real nutrients and can set up sweets addictions because the reward is never received. They literally "train" people to crave sweets. Finally the presence of artificial sweeteners in a product doesn't automatically mean natural sweeteners aren't present too. Some food manufacturers use both. Read the label. One artificial sweetener, Splenda, has similarities to endocrine disrupting pesticides....
Industry and government marketing
Most people are aware of aggressive junk food marketing, especially to children. In a study in the journal Pediatrics, children who tasted identical graham crackers and gummy fruit snacks, some with and some without cartoon characters, "significantly preferred the taste of foods that had popular cartoon characters on the packaging." Who says advertising doesn't work?
Researchers who studied 500,000 California middle- and high-school students found those who attended schools located near fast-food outletssurprise!weighed more. Still, it is not just the food industry that is responsible for our growing national girth.
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