Since 1975, the number of people with obesity around the world has almost tripled. According to the World Health Organization, this sharp increase is a major health concern. Over the years, many people have blamed different things for this rise in obesity.
Some say it’s because we eat too many fatty foods or too many carbs. Others point to the increase in processed and packaged foods or the fact that people now spend more time sitting and using screens instead of moving around.
Many diets and lifestyle changes have been recommended to fight obesity, like cutting down on sugar, fat, or carbs, or doing more exercise. But despite these efforts, obesity keeps rising. This makes some scientists think we may be missing a bigger piece of the puzzle.
One researcher, Dr. Barbara E. Corkey from Boston University, has a different idea. She thinks the real problem might not only be what we eat or how active we are—but also the environment we live in.
Dr. Corkey believes that certain man-made chemicals in our surroundings may be quietly affecting how our bodies handle hunger and fat. These chemicals are known as “obesogens.”
Our bodies have natural ways to balance energy. For example, some people are better at burning off extra calories, while others store fat more easily. These differences are mostly due to our genes and are normal.
But Dr. Corkey says obesogens may interfere with this natural balance. These chemicals might trick our bodies into thinking we are hungry even when we’re not. Or they might tell the body to store more fat than it needs to. This could make people gain weight without even changing how much they eat or exercise.
Where do these chemicals come from? Dr. Corkey points to things like plastic containers, insect sprays, fertilizers, and even air pollution. These substances have become more common in the past 50 years, which matches the same time period when obesity rates began to rise sharply.
Many of them are found in ultra-processed foods, which are made with many added ingredients and preservatives. These foods are cheap, convenient, and widely available, but they may also be exposing us to obesogens.
If Dr. Corkey is right, this could be a big discovery. It means that changing our diet alone might not solve the problem. Instead, we might need to find ways to remove or avoid these harmful chemicals. That could mean creating new food safety rules, improving how we package and grow food, or making treatments that block the effects of obesogens in the body.
The good news is that if scientists can find these chemicals and understand how they work, we might be able to stop them from making people gain weight. Dr. Corkey says more research is needed to test her theory and learn exactly which chemicals are causing harm.
In the meantime, staying active and eating a healthy diet is still very important. But this research suggests that we should also pay attention to what’s around us. Our environment might be playing a much bigger role in obesity than we realized.
The study was published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. It adds a new and important idea to the fight against obesity—a health crisis that affects millions of people worldwide.
If you’re interested in managing your weight, some studies suggest that low-carb diets like keto may help, though other research shows possible links between popular weight-loss diets and risks like heart disease or cancer.
Newer studies also show that a green, plant-based diet can be better at reducing belly fat. In addition, the latest diabetes drugs may help lower both weight and blood sugar levels.
As we learn more, it becomes clearer that fighting obesity isn’t just about food choices—it’s also about understanding the chemicals and products we live with every day.
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 that Mediterranean diet can reduce belly fat much better, and Keto diet could help control body weight and blood sugar in diabetes.
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