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Obesity is not just elevated adiposity, it is also a state of metabolic perturbation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2017

Jonathan CK Wells*
Affiliation:
Childhood Nutrition Research Centre, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London WC1N 1EH, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Nettle et al. miss the crucial difference between adaptive models of storing energy and explanations for the pathological metabolic state of obesity. I suggest that the association of food insecurity with obesity in women from industrialized settings is most likely due to reverse causation: Poverty reduces agency to resist obesogenic foods, and this scenario is compounded by perturbations of insulin metabolism stemming from high adiposity and lipogenic diets.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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