New research explores the effect of chemicals in everyday plastic items on mouse fat cells.
- Changes in diet and exercise do not fully explain the steep rise in overweight and obesity over recent decades.
- One theory claims that chemicals in everyday plastic products promote weight gain by changing human metabolism.
- A new study found that a range of plastic household items contain thousands of chemicals, many of them unknown.
- One-third of the items contained chemicals that, after extraction, caused the growth and proliferation of mouse fat cells in the lab.
Chemicals in plastic household items such as drinks bottles, yogurt pots, and freezer bags may be contributing to the global epidemicTrusted Source of obesity, a new study suggests.
The chemicals may alter human metabolism by promoting the growth of fat cells, or adipocytes.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO)Trusted Source, the number of people with obesity has nearly tripled globally since 1975.
The WHO estimates that in 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults were overweight. Of these individuals, more than 650 million had obesity.
Having excess body weight increases a person’s risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, non-alcohol-related fatty liver disease, stroke, and certain types of cancer.
Research suggests that factors such as changes in diet are insufficient to explain the scale of the obesity epidemic and the speed with which it has spread around the world.
One possible culprit is the effect of synthetic chemicals in our environment called endocrine disruptors. These influence the endocrine system, which includes the hormones that regulate appetite, metabolism, and weight, among other bodily functions.
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