An Issue of Increasing Gravity

One of our acquaintances has been instructed to gain weight as she recuperates from surgery. She's the exception to everyone else we know, including ourselves, who have been told by their doctors to take off a few pounds.

The secret to weight loss may be simple--"Eat less, exercise more"--but that formula is difficult to adhere to over time. The temptations of immediate pleasure and/or sloth often overwhelm distant fitness goals.

Sometimes by trying to do the right thing we can make things worse. Years ago we switched from regular to diet soft drinks.Now there are studies that show, albeit not conclusively, that drinking diet sodas causes obesity.

Eating Chinese food can be beneficial because wok-prepared vegetables and meats are generally lower in fat and calories. However, going out to eat at Chinese restaurants may be worse than McDonald's. Take-out favorites such as General Tso's chicken or fried rice are high in sodium and fat. There's also some evidence that the popular additive monosodium glutamate (MSG) is another reason to avoid Chinese-restaurant food:

The [China Health and Nutrition Survey] found that participants who consumed the most MSG were 28 percent more likely to be overweight compared to those who consumed the least amount of MSG.

It is not entirely clear why higher consumption of MSG is associated with weight gain. However, the authors suspect that over time MSG intake prevents brain cells from responding to leptin. Leptin is a hormone that suppresses appetite and when brain cells no longer respond to it, this may lead to excess energy intake and weight gain.

Scientists keep coming up with more reasons we are fat, reminiscent of the time when they said that just about everything, it seemed, caused cancer. Thus it's not surprising that obesity itself is a leading cause of cancer:

Though scientists don't know why being obese increases cancer risk, they think it may be linked to hormones, according to the AP. Chubbier people produce more hormones, such as estrogen, that help tumors thrive. And big-bellied people have more stomach acid, which can lead to stomach and intestinal cancers.

Some say we’ll die of tumours
Some say of fat
Scientific studies’ rumours
Lean heavily toward tumours
Even if we don’t have rapid cell growth
We are so gluttonous that
To predict longevity we are loathe
We will succumb to fat
Or cancer or both.

(With apologies to Robert Frost.)