10.3.1 Hunger 3 Flashcards
The increasing prevalence of obesity obviously relates to the increased availability of our diet and our ____ ____.
sedentary lifestyle
Some people become obese and others do not, even when all have access to the same foods, so it is reasonable to ask what makes some people more _____ than others.
vulnerable
You probably noticed that most thin parents have thin children, and most heavy parents have heavy children. A Danish study found that the weights of 540 adopted children correlated more ____ with that of their biological relatives than with that of their adoptive relatives.
strongly
The Danish result was generally taken as evidence for a genetic influence, but it could just as easily be evidence for the effects of ____ ____.
prenatal environment
In some cases, obesity can be traced to the effects of a single gene. The most common of these is a mutated gene for the receptor ____, one of the neuropeptides responsible for hunger.
melanocortin
People with a mutation in the gene for melanocortin overeat and become obese from __________.
childhood onward
However, these single gene mutations are ____, accounting for only a small percentage of obesity cases.
uncommon
____ ____ is obesity that results from a medical condition.
Syndromal obesity
____ ____ is a genetic condition marked by mental retardation, short stature, and obesity. People with this syndrome have blood levels of ghrelin 4 to 5 times higher than average.
Prader-Willi syndrome
Most cases of obesity relate to the ____ ____ of many genes and the environment.
combined influences
One study found that mildly obese people spend more time sitting and less time moving about, both while they were obese and after they had lost weight. Evidently, their ____ habits were a lifelong trait, perhaps genetic in origin, rather than a reaction to being overweight.
sedentary
In the United States, obesity is now officially classified as a ____, never mind the fact that we don’t have a clear definition of what we mean by disease.
disease
One consequence is that people are released from thinking of themselves as morally guilty for being ____. Another consequence is that some may decide to give up.
overweight
Many psychologists now recommend ____ ____ in diet (eat a little less than usual) on the expectation that more people will stick to this diet, and making a small change is better than failing to make a large change.
small changes
The most successful ____ of obesity require a change of lifestyle, including increased exercise as well as decreased eating.
treatments
Particularly important advice to reduce or eliminate intake of ____ ____.
soft drinks
One reason is that nearly all soft drinks are sweetened with ____, sugar that does not increase insulin or leptin nearly as much as other sugars do. Therefore, if you drink something with fructose, you gain calories without feeling satiety.
fructose
____ soft drinks and do not contain fructose, but they pose a different problem.
Diet
If diet and exercise fails to help someone lose weight, and other option is __________.
weight-loss drugs
Four years, the most effective combination was _____: fenfluramine increases the release of serotonin and blocks its reuptake. Phentermine blocks the uptake of norepinephrine and dopamine and therefore prolongs their activity. The fen-phen combination produces brain effects similar to those of a completed meal.
fen-phen
A replacement drug, ____ (Meridia), which blocks reuptake of serotonin and norepinephrine, decreases meal size and binge eating.
sibutramine
The drug ____ (Xenical) prevents the intestines from absorbing up to 30% of fats in the diet.
orlistat
Finally, if someone with extreme obesity fails to respond to other treatments, an option is ____ ____ ____, in which part of the stomach is removed or sewed off so that food cannot enter.
gastric bypass surgery
____ ____ is a condition in which people alternate between binges of overeating and periods of strict dieting. Many, but not all, induce themselves to vomit.
Bulimia nervosa
About 95% of people with bulimia also suffer from ____, ____, or other emotional problems.
depression, anxiety
On average, people with bulimia show a variety of biochemical abnormalities, including increased production of ____, a hormone associated with increased appetite.
ghrelin
The biochemistry is probably the result of the ____ and ____, rather than a cause. After therapy that decreases the symptoms of bulimia, the ghrelin and other body chemicals return toward normal levels.
binges and purges
We can regard the bulimic cycles of dieting and binge eating as an ____.
addiction
