In this article, we look at the impact of obesity in teenagers. While this was a small sample size that was observed in this study, I believe that we can learn a lot about teen obesity. Explain to me what you learned? Do you think that those teens with a genetic link to obesity are at a higher risk to develop obesity later in life? Do you think that we can help prevent obesity in teens sooner with this research?
Brain’s Self-Regulation in Teens at Risk for Obesity
ReplyDeleteI learned that when the brain sees foods it likes parts of the brain that highlight reward and emotion light up compared to parts of the brain in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and basal ganglia nuclei, which support self-regulation. I also learned that people with obese parents are more at risk to be obese, I honestly thought that it was more about the life choices you make that will determine on how at risk for obesity you are, but after reading the article I now know that that is not the case. While teens that are genetically predisposed to obesity are at a higher risk than those that are not genetically predisposed I believe that if they already know they are at a higher risk they can be given the tools and information to attempt to do their best to keep from being obese by exercising and knowing what to eat and what not to eat and in what portions. With this new information we as a society can educate people who are at risk for obesity and in a way prevent obesity in teens with this research or we can at least attempt to prevent or slow the effects of obesity.
This is a very intriguing, new article to me how researchers can assess someone's brain activity and based on word responses tell if they will have a higher probability of becoming obese as they grow up. Just by someone reading a food menu and seeing the words" French fries" or chocolate spread" can trigger neurological responses in the brain of their self regulating system. The more obese children have tested to have lower self regulating systems than that of lean children. The test for this only had 36 children in it, but the children who had family members and parents who were obese and children with obese parents put them at higher risk of obesity already. The children with higher risk of obesity all tested to have lower self regulation in the brain after reading a list of high-fat foods and low fat foods and viewing their brains responses. Knowing that kids with a family history of obesity and this experiment prove they have a higher risk of obesity; our society can educate children on eating healthy at younger ages now we can pick out who it at risk of obesity earlier in life. Finding new ways to strengthen kids minds that have low self regulation response at a young age can reduce their risk of obesity later in life. Educating our youth about obesity and healthy eating should be more at the forefront for our future children since USA in the most obese nation in the world and obesity can shorten lifespan due to all sorts of health complications including high cholesterol, heart failure, stroke etc.
ReplyDeleteThis article talks about how our brains get triggered by certain goods and how we can relate that to adult obesity. This study focuses on teenagers in New York which focused on how the brain reacts to certain food words. They found that the parts of the brain that were triggered can be associated with rewards and emotion. They also found that they will be able to predict which teens will become obese in their later years by observing their brains response when they read a menu. I also learned that most parents that are obese give their children a more likely chance to be obese. The teenagers that had mothers that were obese had a higher chance of becoming obese. On that note, the teens that had lean mothers that were not obese had a lower chance of becoming obese in the future. After this experiment, the participants ate at a buffet, and they found that the teens that were obese ate the most which backed up their brain scan findings. From this study, I believe that teens with a genetic link to obesity are at a greater risk for obesity. Also, I think this study could be used to help decrease the amount of obesity in teenagers. However, like that article states it could be costly to scan the brains of every teenager, but this information could be useful in preventing this problem.
ReplyDeleteThis article was very interesting to read knowing that one can become overweight just by what their brain wants when shown on a functional MRI. There were 36 teenagers who were used to measure their neural responses to food cues and found that certain foods can trigger one's emotions. However the teenagers who were lean and were more likely to become overweight because their parents were overweight actually showed no signs of neural responses. Whereas the teenagers who were lean and had lean parents showed different signals in the brain that could lead them to adult obesity later on in life. In my opinion I don't think that obesity is genetic but I do know that there are different types of diseases that can make it very hard for someone to lose weight. Now I do think that parents can affect their children into becoming overweight, just because of the fact that someone parents rather get fast food then taking the time to make something healthy for lunch or dinner. I do think that we as a society could prevent the younger generation from being overweight. Having the scans would help many people who struggle with their eating habits but I also believe that working out and being activity will help out many teenagers overcome obesity.
ReplyDeleteI found this article very interesting, that based on a person’s brain we can tell whether they are susceptible to obesity when they get older. I had never really thought about it this way because I always saw obesity as a behavioral issue. I never realized that we could actually test the brain to see who was a low or higher self-regulating system. Those with a lower system are more likely to become obese. We know this by looking at which parts of the brain light up when they viewed tempting food cues Honestly I do not know if this experiment will make much difference in changing the obesity problem that we face in the United States due to the fact that we already have so many education programs for obesity and the importance of healthy eating. Will a child who has a low self-regulating system change just because they know that they are more susceptible to obesity. If they have a lower system then they have a harder time controlling and telling themselves no when it comes to tempting unhealthy foods. We need to continue educating children and adults of the importance of healthy eating and saying no to junk food.
ReplyDeleteThis article talked about how obesity is a big issue here in the United States, and how researchers are studying to prevent adult obesity from happening. Researchers from the article say that limited amounts in the brains self-regulation system may be a predictor in adult obesity. Low amounts in the brain self-regulation system might actually be a better predictor than the heightened response of the reward system to food cues. Susan Carnell from the article, says that theses findings in their study may be able to help them predict which teens will likely become obese adults by seeing how their brain responds when they read a food menu. With more than half of all adolescents in the United States being overweight or obese, there needs to be something done to help prevent this. Carnell also says in the article, that obesity treatments to help strengthen the self regulatory system is more useful than the typical programs that focuses on diet and physical activity. In my opinion, obesity in adults has a huge impact when they are children. Children from overweight parents are more likely to become overweight in their adult years. As kids you learn and do everything that your parents do. If your parents don’t exercise and have bad eating habits then most likely you will develop those same bad habits. With this new research that Carnell talked about in the article, hopefully we can help prevent some of this adult obesity from happening sooner than later.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article it taught me that you are able to track when an adolescents brain is being stimulated for food and other items like nonfood office supplies, Post-it Notes. I read that when it comes to kids with already obese parents they are more likely to become obese because they are not taught to use the self-controlling part of their brain when it comes to food. Also when it comes to prevention of obesity, I believe that you are able to train your mind like for example, as a vegetarian trains their mind that they can no longer eat mean, an obese or at risk person would be able to train their mind to be able to resist the certain foods that are not healthy for them and make better choices that are more healthier. Prevention of becoming obese has just turned into a mind game and you just need to learn how to teach your brain that it can control itself by sending cues through the body to say no to eating that food or rejecting it all together. Though it may sound like it, I am not advocating for diets but for a change in the way we see weight loss as a whole. Weight loss can be a healthy thing and you can just train yourself to correct some of the wrong ways you are eating things. In conclusion, obesity is a severe problem and it needs to be solved in a healthy and happy way for the person not where they are miserable with their life.
ReplyDeleteI learned that that brain can tell tendencies of eating just by individual’s looking at food words like Brussel sprouts or French fries and scanning our brain’s activity. I also learned that with this small study that being obese at a young age is not the only way to help predict being overweight as an adult, it stated that children with obese parents also have a high risk of becoming obese themselves. Personally, I do not think teens with a genetic link are at a higher risk to develop obesity later in life because anyone can eat healthy to prevent weight gain. In no case do I think a person is genetically made to become obese at any age, whether that is when they are young or at an older adult age. Obesity can be prevented by eating habits and proper exercise, as long as you make the right choices when it comes to those two categories obesity can be controlled. With that being said I do not think this research can help prevent obesity because each case can be different when it comes to becoming obese. Although they made a broad summary of each of the groups being tested, anyone can become obese and anyone can stay learn depending on their food choices.
ReplyDeleteObesity is a very important issue in the world that we live in today, especially in the United States. Not only is obesity affecting overall health, but studies are now showing the risk of obesity to have less activity in the self-regulation parts that are located in the brain, which is a very serious issue as well. They studied this using a random group of 36 teens and studied their brain activity levels using a functional MRI and looked for responses in normal responses as compared to food cues. It found that brain reduction in the self-regulation system was more likely to determine obesity than even food cues were. This shows that there is an actual biological component that determines if your biological makeup is more likely to become obese. The brains makeup shows that from the fMRI how it will actually react to the prompted food. When prompted, the teens were given the word for a type of food and a nonfood related word. The results showed that when the word that was food-related was said as compared to the non-food word, the brain region that signals for the reward and emotion were triggered showing the effects that food has on people. This shows that food can be biologically attractive and increases the overall likelihood for obesity.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that obesity is a growing issue in our world, specifically in the united states. Obesity is a devasting issue because it causes so many overall complications in the body rather than just being overweight but being at risk for many long-term disorder or diseases. The way that they studied these kids was very interesting with using word cues and seeing how their brains reacted to them having them go to a buffet to observe what they eat after words. I would love to think that I would not be at a high risk of being obese as I get older but from this study it seems that I would be even though I am lean and have always been in good standing with my weight. My family members are mostly over weight and my mother is overweight. But I don't really agree that I am going to be an obese adult because I want to be healthy and eat cleaner, but I can’t do so until I get my own job and can pay for the foods I want to eat. I believe if you only surround yourself with only healthy foods with maybe a couple of alternative unhealthy foods you will be able to maintain a good physique regardless of how your mother looks.
ReplyDeleteI found this article very interesting that we can see that in these teens brains that the ones who were obese their self-regulation system had low activity when it came to fatty foods which wasn't that surprising but it was surprising that kids who were lean but were at risk their self-regulation activity was also low which seems that it can be an indicator that later in life they will become obese because their self-regulation already has low activity. I think that this should be used for kids who could be at high risk for obesity because of their family history so if they find this early in them, these kids can know what to do to help prevent it,and or develop a drug or something that can increase their self-regulation activity so that they will be at less of a risk of adult obesity. With this new research I think it could be revolutionary in making Americas obesity rate go down significantly if people know that they are at a great risk of obesity not just because of their family but because of how their brain reacts to certain foods.
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