Mechanism found to indicate why the Western diet leads to obesity.  

Woman lifting obesity

America is in the state of an epidemic.  At least two-thirds of the adults in the United States are considered overweight or obese and the global cost could be as high as 2 trillion dollars per year to treat obesity-related illnesses according to the McKinsey Institute.   What could be the cause of this enlarging shift in our waistlines?  The long-term implications of this volume of our population being obese will destroy our medical system.  

Substantial biomedical and clinical evidence suggests that chronic overconsumption of a western diet in which foods consisting of high levels of sugars and fats results in and is a major cause of this epidemic.  New research now shows that chronic consumption of a western diet may lead to overeating and obesity due to elevations in peripheral endocannabinoid signaling.  Our bodies release endocannabinoids are hormones that bind receptors mammalian brain and nervous systems. Known as “the body’s own cannabinoid system”[1],  the signaling system is involved in a variety of physiological processes including appetite, pain-sensation, mood, and memory, and in mediating the psychoactive effects of cannabis[2].