The
Danes have a good lifestyle on average and a system that works towards a
healthy population. Like most of the developed world, they are concerned about
the state of their hearts and have been monitoring their citizens for almost a
quarter of a century.
They
have seen the average weights go up for everybody whether fat or thin and they
have developed a theory for why that should be. It is due to the burning of
fossil fuels increasing the carbon dioxide levels in the cities. They explain
that the increased levels of carbon dioxide may be stimulating the orexin
levels in the brain thus making us all want to eat more (1).
Of
course, this is just a theory, but they do have supporting information. The
first observation they mention is that in the US, the obesity rates increased
fastest on the east coast where the carbon dioxide levels are highest.
Secondly,
they have a fascinating snippet in that in a wide range of laboratories where
there were animals on normal diets, the animals are now heavier on that diet
than they were some years ago. This goes for a survey of 20,000 animals from
eight different species, which included mice, cats, dogs and monkeys.
Finally,
a paper hit the streets that showed how the acidity of our blood can effect our
orexin levels. They have checked this out with six guys in special
environmentally controlled rooms and found that an increased carbon dioxide
level had them eating 6% more food.
So
we’re back to a life in the fresh air away from pollution and preferably
wandering around in the mountains. For those of us who are stuck in our suburbs
we will have to steer clear of beer and sodas and have lots of pot plants
around us hungry for our exhalations on which to grow larger. If we have a greenhouse,
the gases inside may help us slim
