Eating outside the home, especially at unhealthy fast food restaurants -- but also at cafeterias, schools, hospitals, makes nearly all of us fat. There only one reason a person becomes fat: eating more calories than burning calories.
But of course, we keep looking for other reasons of why we are fat. It's because of our mother, our genetics, our tonsils; it's because we are depressed or unhappy or too poor or too rich.
Scripps News give a sampling of recent studies:
-- Blame what Mom ate. Rockefeller University researchers found when a mother eats a high-fat diet during pregnancy, her offspring stimulates the appetite -- and lead to overeating and obesity early in life.
-- Tonsils keep us thin. Dutch researchers reported last month that children who have their tonsils surgically removed, with or without their adenoids, are at increased risk for becoming overweight or obese by the time they're 8.
-- Ear infections make us fat. Scientists at the University of Florida found that middle-aged adults with a history of middle ear infections tend to be overweight more than similar adults with no history of infections.
-- Obesity numbs the tongue. Penn State researchers reported that obesity in lab rats gradually numbs their sensitivity to sweet foods and prompts them to consume larger and ever-sweeter meals to get the same feeling of reward.
-- Gut hormones make food look better. Canadian researchers reported brain imaging studies on humans that showed reward centers in their brains responded more strongly to pictures of food when the subjects have received an infusion of the appetite hormone ghrelin.
-- Junk food makes kids happy. Kids eating fast foods were less likely to feel unhappy, sad or depressed.
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