The future of weight control

We are seeing the future of weight control right now. The pharmaceutical companies will continue to develop more sophisticated drugs. Food manufacturers will more aggressively market fat and carbohydrate replacers that receive FDA approval. The medical community will routinely use less invasive methods of altering the intake of food. The scientific community will conduct more studies to determine the metabolic processes that make weight control an individual matter. In addition to those general expectations, there are some specific trends to monitor.

Genetic Research
Expect the scientific community to demonstrate even stronger links between genetics and weight management. One of the most promising breakthroughs involves the discovery of a gene that may explain why some people can eat whatever they want and not gain weight, while others eat the same amount and add pounds.

Research teams working independently at the University of California/Davis, Duke University and the French National Center of Scientific Research, identified UCP2, a protein gene that appears to be responsible for burning excess calories as body heat, rather than storing them as fat. One of the reseachers, has described activating the gene as "like running an additional motor off your gas tank. You are burning more gas, but the tank is not connected to the drive wheel and has nothing to do with how far you go."

Nutritionist at the University of California/Davis, adds this explanation: "If you can activate a protein that will raise the body's temperature by one-half degree and burn energy that would have been stored as body fat, that could mean a difference of five pounds in weight. This will be a target for the development of a drug to increase body temperature."

Even with this development, scientists still don't know what turns the gene on and, in effect, establishes the body's use of energy. But the study represents another piece of the obesity puzzle. Finding a drug to stimulate the protein could take five years.

The role of genetics underscores the fact that difficulty in managing weight is part of a cycle. While our genetic makeup may predispose us to being overweight, the physiological, emotional and cultural conditions in which we live can influence us to make the right or wrong nutritional decisions. In other words, genetics plays a role, but these predisposing factors can lead to obesity. When these conditions are present, there are usually events that trigger overeating or that keep us from exercising. Finally, some of us have behavior patterns that perpetuate obesity and allow the genetic tendencies to take over.

Fat and Carbohydrate Replacements
Olestra has gotten most of the publicity, but Z-Trim, Oatrim, Simplesse, Avicel, Maltrin, STA-SLIM, polydextrose, N-Flate, Dur-Lo and Caprenin are either out there or will be. The time will come when there are as many processed products on store shelves containing these kinds of substances as there as products without them. Reading food labels will become more important than ever. A positive note: More than 1,000 lower-fat and fat-free food products have been introduced to the market every year since 1990. Watch for more.

Alternative Medicine Strategies
A New England Journal of Medicine survey showed that one in three Americans used at least one non-traditional treatment during a one year period. Another study revealed that 70 percent of physicians have referred patients to non-physicians for diet and exercise therapy. Clearly, there is a move toward alternative medicine and there is every reason to believe that therapies to lose weight will lead the way.

One of those alternative methods may be the use of herbs to control weight. Herbs are used much more widely in Europe and the East than here. The medical communities in those two parts of the world have embraced herbs for a long time. One reason it has not happened here is because the pharmaceutical companies don't promote or sell them. You can't patent an herb. As a result, the recommendations that we do get are frequently from unreliable sources. People are trying herbs in increasing numbers, but most of them don't know what they are doing. Perhaps with more education and research, herbs will become an important nutritional tool.

Some researchers are not convinced that alternative medicine has provided a viable, effective approach for weight management. "I haven't seen anything in the way of botanicals or vitamin supplements that I would recommend. There are combinations of substances like aspirin, caffeine and ephedrine that may have some potential for weight loss. But in the United States, they are not controlled and you don't know what you are getting. Drugs are being sold as food supplements."

This diversity of opinion and lack of research will remain a permanent part of the alternative medicine landscape. There will be anecdotal evidence, trendy movements and testimonials of dramatic weight loss remedies, but even the strategies that work for one person or group probably won't yield the same results for others. In the end, weight management -- mainstream or alternative -- will be complex and individual.


THE SOLUTION
There will never be a single solution to the weight control problem. For twenty years, there has been this 'one-size-fits-all' approach for people trying to lose weight. That approach has been a failure. There is no magic pill.

Weight control is a highly individual process, what works for one person may be totally inappropriate for another. The approach to weight management has to be customized for each person, and the individual shares the responsibility for finding that approach with health care professionals, food manufacturers and government agencies."

Source: Ivanhoe Newswire