High Fat, High Sugar Diet Turns On 'Fat Genes'

Everyone knows that a diet high in sugar and bad fats may lead to obesity. But what they may not know is that an unhealthy Western diet is actually causing obesity on the genetic level. A new study published by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (online at the FASEB Journal) reports that eating a high fat, high sugar diet actually turns on genes that cause the body to store more fat than it needs.

From the press release, "In the research report, scientists show that foods high in fat and sugar stimulate a known opioid receptor, called the kappa opioid receptor, which plays a role in fat metabolism. When this receptor is stimulated, it causes our bodies to hold on to far more fat than our bodies would do otherwise."

The research was done on two different groups of mice -- one group who had had their kappa opioid receptor artificially deactivated and the other group unaltered. Both groups were fed an energy-dense, high-sugar, high-fat diet for 16 weeks. What the researchers found was that, while the mice with the unaltered receptor became obese, those with the altered receptor remained lean.

Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB Journal speculates that this receptor may have served an important role at certain points in human history when food was more scarce. "In times when food was scarce and starvation an ever-present threat, an adaptation that allows our bodies to store as much energy as possible during plentiful times was probably a lifesaver."

The implications of this study are fascinating, although the direction in which this will inevitably lead the research is somewhat disturbing. This finding should serve as another reason to avoid the unhealthy high-sugar, high-fat diet, but the FASEB Journal looks at the significance of this research as a step toward developing new "skinny drugs"; drugs that prevent obesity or help obese people slim down. "By taking that opioid receptor off the table, researchers may have found a way to keep us from eating ourselves to death."

I'm not sure a skinny drug is really the thing missing from the human equation at the moment. While obesity is one effect of eating an unhealthy diet, it certainly isn't the only one. It is unlikely that removing obesity -- the cosmetic inconvenience associated with an unhealthy diet -- from the equation will do nothing to lessen the incidence of diabetes, heart disease, cancer and any of the host of other degenerative diseases and disorders found to go hand in hand with excessively "energy dense" eating. However, removing the taboo of obesity may be removing one of the prime motivating factors for eating healthy in the first place.

A skinny drug would, no doubt, sell like hotcakes, even though the risk factors associated with unhealthy eating won't be directly addressed. It is unlikely that a magic pill will ever be invented that will let you eat whatever garbage you wish with no ill effects, yet it seems that won't stop the scientific community from trying.