Social comparison processes and adults’ judgments of children’s weight and intentions to control children’s weight

To combat rising rates of childhood obesity in the U.S. requires helping parents recognize when their child is overweight or obese. However, parents’ accuracy might be affected by social comparisons, in which parents compare their child to other overweight children, and rationalize that their child is ‘normal’ weight, and therefore, healthy. The aim of the study was to assess whether a photograph of a fictional child impacts a parent’s judgment of their own child’s weight. A nationwide sample of parents (n=517) of children ages 2-12 provided their child’s height and weight, viewed a photograph of an underweight (upward comparison), normal weight (control) or overweight (downward comparison) child, and judged the health of both. Parents inaccurately judged the downward comparison compared to the control and upward comparisons. Further, parents were less accurate in judging their child’s weight when given an upward comparison compared to a control. Intentions to control their children’s weight were unaffected.

Saliva and Blood Asprosin Hormone Concentration Associated with Obesity

Background. The aim was to investigate the amounts of saliva and serum asprosin in order to determine whether it is related to obesity and whether salivary glands synthesize asprosin or not.Methods. A total of 116 underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese (class I, class II, and class III) volunteers participated in the study. Saliva and blood samples were collected simultaneously from the participants. The amounts of asprosin in saliva, salivary gland tissue supernatants, and bloods were determined by ELISA, whereas asprosin synthesis sites of salivary gland tissues were determined immunohistochemically.Results. The amount of asprosin from the lowest to the highest was in the order as follows: underweight, normal weight (control), overweight, and obese classes I and III. The lowest level of asprosin was detected in underweight individuals. It was also found that the interlobular striated ducts and the interlobular ducts of the submandibular and parotid salivary glands produce asprosin. According to these data, the asprosin level is related with obesity as the amount increases in accordance with increasing body mass index (BMI). On the other hand, there is also a relationship between the underweight and asprosin because the amount decreases with BMI decrease.Conclusions. Asprosin, a new adipokine, may be a novel indicator of adipose tissue mass. Therefore, we anticipate that antiasprosin preparations may be an alternative in the treatment of obesity in the future.

Are Plasma Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone Levels Associated with Degree of Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome in Euthyroid Obese Patients? A Turkish Cohort Study

We aimed to observe the association between degree of obesity and metabolic syndrome and plasma thyrotropin levels in obese, euthyroid Turkish patients. 947 obese and overweight patients who admitted to our outpatient clinic were assessed retrospectively. 150 healthy euthyroid cases were also recruited as the control group. Cases with metabolic syndrome were determined. Patients were divided into various subgroups as overweight, obese, morbid obese, men, and women. No statistical significance was determined when all the patients’ and subgroups’ plasma thyrotropin levels were compared to normal weight control group. No association was shown between the presence of metabolic syndrome and plasma thyrotropin levels for both all patients and subgroups. Also there was not any association between each component of metabolic syndrome and plasma thyrotropin levels. In conclusion, we did not found any significant association between plasma thyrotropin levels and obesity and metabolic syndrome in our euthyroid subjects.

Sequence Analysis of theUCP1Gene in a Severe Obese Population from Southern Italy

Brown adipose tissue, where Uncoupling Protein 1 (UCP1) activity uncouples mitochondrial respiration, is an important site of facultative energy expenditure. This tissue may normally function to prevent obesity. Our aim was to investigate by sequence analysis the presence ofUCP1gene variations that may be associated with obesity. We studied 100 severe obese adults (BMI > 40 kg/m2) and 100 normal-weight control subjects (BMI range = 19–24.9 kg/m2). We identified 7 variations in the promoter region, 4 in the intronic region and 4 in the exonic region. Globally, 72% of obese patients boreUCP1polymorphisms. AmongUCP1variants, g.IVS4−208T>G SNP was associated with obesity (OR: 1.77; 95% CI = 1.26–2.50;P=.001). Further, obese patients bearing the g.−451C>T (CT+TT) or the g.940G>A (GA+AA) genotypes showed a higher BMI than not polymorphic obese patients (P=.008andP=.043, resp.). In conclusion,UCP1SNPs could represent “thrifty” factors that promote energy storage in prone subjects.

Weight loss normalizes the inhibitory effect of N6-(phenylisopropyl)adenosine on lipolysis in fat cells of massively obese human subjects

1. Fat cells were isolated from massively obese patients at or before gastric bypass, from other patients after normalization of body weight after gastric bypass or gastroplasty (post-bypass patients) and from control subjects of a stable normal body weight. 2. The inhibition of isoprenaline-stimulated lipolysis by N6-(phenylisopropyl)adenosine in the presence of adenosine deaminase was much attenuated in cells from the massively obese patients as compared with those from normal-weight control subjects, but was normal in cells from post-bypass patients. 3. Isolated fat cells of the massively obese patients were larger (913 ± 197 pl, mean ± sem) than those of the normal-weight group (437 ± 95 pl). The volume of cells from the post-bypass patients was only 125 ± 49 pl, although the body mass index of this group was almost exactly the same as that of the normal-weight control subjects. 4. Although epidemiological studies have suggested that genetic factors are important in the development and maintenance of obesity, these results demonstrate that the changes observed in the inhibitory regulation of lipolysis in obesity are secondary.

Binge Eating and Its Management

It is well recognized that bouts of uncontrolled and excessive eating (binges) occur in both a small proportion of patients who are overweight and in about 50 per cent of patients with anorexia nervosa. However, it has only recently been appreciated that many people who fall into neither category also have an eating disorder which is principally characterized by episodes of binge-eating. These people experience a profound and distressing loss of control over eating which results in a grossly disturbed eating pattern. Despite this, their body weight tends to lie within the normal range. The disorder has attracted various names including ‘the dietary chaos syndrome’ (Palmer, 1979), ‘the abnormal normal weight control syndrome’ (Crisp, 1979), ‘bulimia nervosa’ (Russell, 1979), and simply ‘bulimia’ (DSM III, 1980). The term bulimia nervosa is probably the most satisfactory since it conveys the links with anorexia nervosa and emphasises the central role of binge-eating. Russell (1979) proposed the following diagnostic criteria for this syndrome:

Anorexia Nervosa at Normal Body Weight!–The Abnormal Normal Weight Control Syndrome

Disgust with ‘fatness' and a consequent preoccupation with body weight, coupled with an inability to reduce it to or sustain it at the desired low level, characterizes the abnormal normal weight control syndrome. Individuals remain sexually active in a biological sense and often also socially. Indeed their sexual behaviour may be as impulse ridden as is their eating behaviour, which often comprises phases of massive bingeing coupled with vomiting and/or purgation. The syndrome is unlike frank anorexia nervosa in that the latter involves a regression to a position of phobic avoidance of normal body weight and consequent low body weight control with inhibition of both biological and social sexual activity. In abnormal normal weight control there is a strong and sometimes desperate hedonistic and extrovert element that will often not be denied so long as body weight does not get too low. Individuals nevertheless feel desperately ‘out of control’ and insecure beneath their bravura. The syndrome is much more common in females than in males. There is a clinical overlap with anorexia nervosa and obesity in many cases as the disorder evolves. Depression, stealing, drug dependence (including alcohol) and acute self-poisoning and self-mutilation are common complications. Clinic cases probably only represent the tip of the iceberg of a much more widespread morbidity within the general population. Like anorexia nervosa and for the same reasons the disorder is probably more common than it used to be.