From The Ecologist
Chemicals found in plastics, cosmetics and industry may be altering cells in our bodies, making us more likely to get fat and develop diabetes
We’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing yet we are getting fatter and fatter
Many of the factors behind the rising rates of obesity are now well-known: diet, exercise and lifestyle.
But one, the environmental chemicals we are exposed to on a daily basis through plastics, food packaging, pesticides and cosmetics, is hardly discussed at all.
Although still an under-researched area, more and more studies are finding that everyday chemicals can cause obesity.
‘When animals are exposed prenatally to these chemicals, their metabolism is reprogrammed so that even if they are never exposed again in their lives, they gain weight,’ says Bruce Blumberg, from the University of California.
Professor Blumberg is one of a growing number of researchers in the US who are looking at how everyday chemicals can trigger increases in body fat.
He has even coined a word ‘obesogens’ to describe the chemicals found to promote dramatic weight gain.
via Programmed to be fat: everyday chemicals linked to obesity and diabetes – The Ecologist.
