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(Dan Moore @ Apr. 27 2008,12:38)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"> <div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">So the cause of obesity is overeating? I just explained how it's not.</div>
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Our diet, on the other hand, has everything to do with our body composition. Regardless of our activity level and activity quality. </div>
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Had Chaz drank regular Coke instead, he'd have gotten just as fat. </div>
So if excess energy has nothing to do with obesity then how does our diet affect our body comp and why would Chaz have gotten fat from the sweetened cola?
Never mind don't answer that.
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I will answer it anyway.
I did not say that excess energy had nothing to do with obesity. They certainly do have something to do with each other, just not the way you think they do.
Our diet affects our body composition not quantitatively, but qualitatively. It's not how much, it's what. The Positive Caloric Balance hypothesis assumes that all forms of food, protein fat and carbohydrate, are processed equally efficiently, are used to the same end and their caloric content can be used with equal efficiency. So it's only natural that it only looks at how much of that food we eat. The reality is that we don't process protein, fat and carbohydrate equally efficiently, we don't use them to the same end, their caloric content can't be used with equal efficiency. And so it's not how much we eat that makes a difference in our body composition, it's what we eat. The main agents are carbohydrate, insulin and subsequently insulin resistance. The ultimate consequence is Metabolic Syndrome which leads to obesity and diabetes type 2 for starters.
Since dietary fat does not cause an insulin secretion and release, it can't be the cause of obesity. We can't grow fat by eating fat. Protein causes an insulin secretion and release but does not cause a blood glucose increase so it can't cause us to grow fat either. Only carbohydrate, with its ability to both cause an insulin secretion and release and a blood glucose increase has the ability to cause us to grow fat.
As we eat carbohydrate, insulin is secreted and released. Nutrients are taken out of the bloodstream and stored in adipose tissue. That's the primary function of adipose tissue: Nutrient storage. That's the primary function of insulin too: Nutrient storage. The same mechanism occurs when we eat anything else but to a much lesser extent and only temporarily. The main difference with carbohydrate is its ability to drive insulin levels higher permanently and thus trap fat in adipose tissue. Once we cut out carbohydrate from our diet, insulin levels drop and adipose tissue can release its store of nutrients, including fat. It is for this reason, for instance, that people mistakenly conclude that when they cut total calories, which invariably includes a great deal of carbohydrates, they can lose fat thereby further reinforcing their belief in the Positive Caloric Balance hypothesis.
Chaz would have gotten just as fat because he would have eaten the same extra carbohydrate Spurlock did.