Podcast: Obesity: the gene-environment debate

What role do our genes play in influencing our body weight and what we like to eat? Why do some people gain weight more easily than others, and is it all down to genes or are there other factors at play? In this episode, we talked with a clinician and scientist Sadaf Farooqi, health psychologist Theresa Marteau, and geographer Thomas Burgoine about the multitude of factors that go into influencing our eating behaviours. Along the way, we hear about the crucial importance of the environment in influencing our eating behaviour, including “zoning” - the effort to keep fast food outlets no more than 400 yards from schools, and learn how our food has become more calorific over the past 20 to 30 years. Our guests discuss how ultimately, communicating information about obesity doesn’t necessarily change our behaviour towards food, as we are much more influenced by our genes and environment than what's inside our heads.

This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan, Naomi Clements-Brod and Annie Thwaite.

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[cambridgeuniversity]

Timestamps:

[00:00] - Introductions

[01:00] - A bit about the guests’ research

[02:10] - Defining obesity and what it means to be obese

[02:45] - Along with diabetes, how does obesity impact our health?

[03:45] - What proportion of the global population are obese?

[04:25] - How these

[05:25] - The many factors that contribute to obesity (genes and how our genes respond to the environment)

[06:40] - Patterns of obesity. The pandemic, neighbourhoods, inequality, and how income levels affect childhood obesity?

[10:40] - How low income and poverty drains our mental capacity for cognitive tasks

[12:05] - How small amounts of income are given to the poorest households decreases stress and improves diets.

[12:55] - The calorie paradox and energy-poor foods. The role of processed foods.

[14:25] - What would a ’healthy’ country/neighbourhood look like

[15:25] - Time for a recap

[19:15] - What can we do at a policy level? Could hospitals be the perfect ‘role models’?

[20:30] - Should policymakers be setting the food environment? Looking at examples like the experiments in Singapore.

[21:40] - Translating research to improve the food environment. Changing worksite cafeterias. Reducing the amount of higher calorie meals available. Cutting portions sizes of higher calorie meals.

[24:00] - How the size of wine glasses affects how much people are drinking. What this means in terms of calorie consumption.

[25:30] - The amount of evidence that is needed for public health interventions (public vs commercial sector)

[26:40] - What about education, the school environment, zoning, access to fast food, and education around obesity

[29:40] - How do we respond to risks - does information change our behaviour? Does the ‘5 A Day’ work?

[31:40] - From a psychology perspective, does education work to change our behaviour? [32:20] - What about from a biological and genetic perspective? The role of the environment.

[34:00] - Is eating behaviour voluntary? How much is it down to your genes? Using experiments with twins to understand the gene-environment interaction.

[36:00] - The gene-environment interaction example from ethnic groups that migrate to the USA and the increased level of obesity.

[38:00] - Genetic disposition to eat and the way in which environment influences our behaviour.

[39:20] - It isn’t genes vs environment, it’s genes and environment. Being thin is inheritable. There is the biology behind what foods you choose. Your brain will prefer high fat or high-calorie food.

[42:15] - Where can we intervene. It’s about changing environments. Our policy has to both influence our environment and what we’re exposed to. What are all of the factors?

[44:10] - The number of policies and strategies that have been tried. What does this mean for political science?

[42:15] - Some successful examples - the sugar tax and reduction in sugar, rather than volume of sales. But what we need is to go at scale with more than one intervention.

[47:15] - Time for another recap.

[52:55] - Thinking about how we treat obesity? We need to think about the biology and genes behind how we treat obesity.

[55:20] - Is the food environment overwhelming our biology and psychology. Who’s winning… the corporations. Products are now too hard to resist. The trade-off between health and wealth.

[58:45] - How do ‘we’ think about individual responsibility for obesity?

[1:02:35] - Let's break this episode down and close this thing out.

[karinabetonini]

You are amazing!! We are able to easily understand everything with the re- caps parts!! :) Amazing reflection about who win with obesity in our society?!

[HeyMJ.]

Environ incl. meds consumed that alter processes at the cellular level. Eg. Prednisone /steroid use to manage rheumatoid arthritis. Autoimmune inflammation resolves, but may cause significant weight gain.

[libertyliberty]

Unhealthy food is readily available and acceptable in certain peoples minds one man’s trash is another Treasure build a healthy culture they will come Based off the basis of building building a healthy tomorrow for a healthy lifestyle

[idontevergiveup]

I love you Cambridge😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[libertyliberty]

Schools need to have farms. These are the staples of a healthy and robust society . Which will instill Proper diet starts with the adults in the policies lobbied for or against

[idontevergiveup]

This university my love it so much
But how my Cambridge can study medicine in you❤😭

[libertyliberty]

I hear this a lot I can’t afford to eat healthy it cost so much this is due to lack of information lack of willingness to do proper research . You can go to the hospital and get misdiagnosed have a second third fourth opinion which is fine. Adhering to fundamental morality health is to have a clean diet living food for living organisms simple things in life