Since 1975, obesity rates around the world have soared, with the number of overweight people nearly tripling. Most of the time, we blame the usual suspects—eating too much fatty food, sugary snacks, and not getting enough exercise. But some scientists believe there may be another, less obvious reason for this global health problem.
Barbara E. Corkey, a respected medical and biochemistry researcher, has introduced a new idea. She suggests that certain chemicals in our environment—called obesogens—might be playing a hidden role in the obesity epidemic. These chemicals could be quietly changing how our bodies store fat and manage hunger.
Obesogens aren’t something you’ll see on a food label, but they may be in many things around us: the air we breathe, the water we drink, and especially the highly processed foods we eat. These chemicals have been part of our modern world for the last 50 years. According to Corkey, they might interfere with the way our bodies signal when we’re full or when we need more energy.
Inside our bodies, there’s a system called the “redox state.” It helps control energy use and storage, kind of like a traffic light that tells our cells when to burn fuel or store it. Corkey believes that obesogens may confuse this system, making our bodies store fat even when we don’t need to—or making us feel hungry even when we’re not.
This could help explain why people who eat a lot of ultra-processed foods—like chips, candy, and sugary cereals—often have a higher risk of obesity. It’s not just the calories in these foods that could be a problem, but also the hidden chemicals they contain. And it’s not just food. Obesogens might also be in plastics, fertilizers, cleaning products, and even polluted air.
If this theory proves to be true, it could totally change how we treat obesity. Right now, most advice centers around eating less and exercising more. While those are still important, they might not be enough if chemicals are secretly influencing how our bodies manage fat.
The next step for scientists would be to find out exactly which chemicals act as obesogens and how to remove or block them. That could lead to new ways to prevent or treat obesity—by cleaning up our environment, changing food production methods, or developing treatments that protect our body’s natural systems from these harmful signals.
It’s important to note that this is still an emerging area of science. Corkey’s work has been published in respected journals, which means it is being taken seriously by other experts. But more research is needed to confirm how big a role obesogens really play in weight gain.
Still, this idea adds an important piece to the puzzle. If you’re struggling with your weight, it may not be just about your habits. Environmental chemicals you can’t see or taste might also be part of the problem. This new way of thinking could one day lead to better solutions for people all over the world who are trying to stay healthy.
If you care about weight loss, please read studies that hop extract could reduce belly fat in overweight people, and early time-restricted eating could help lose weight.
For more health information, please see recent studies about a simple path to weight loss, and results showing a non-invasive treatment for obesity and diabetes.
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