I have a friend who earned his Phd in Biology with a thesis on the relationship between appetite and a certian receptor site and amino acid (I forget which) in rats/mice.
We had a poker night recently - and I asked about his thesis and he produced a copy.
The abstract of his thesis clearly showed what the intended purpose of the study was. To summarise: Obesity is a problem in Western culture. By studying the relationship between X recepter and amino acid and the appetite of the test subjects - effective drugs can be produced to control appetite in humans.
What do you think of this kind of drugs based/target research? I thought the study was laudable - but at the same time incredibly myopic - because of it's limited focus and intent.
Alot of things effect appetite. Sodium, for instance - stimulates it. Energy expended in things like weight lifting or cardio stimulates it. Blood sugar highs/lows from eating high GI, processed food stimulate it. Poor digestion and absorption can stimulate it - even as a person puts back masses of amounts of food that they are poorly absorbing the nutrients of. A deficiency in certain vitamins can cause the lack of it. Then of course there are emotional reasons people eat too much or certain foods that doesn't really have to do with appetite.
Drug research and products of this nature concern me. Natural appetite is not the problem, in my mind. Everyone needs to eat. The body needs certain nutrients to survive and thrive. Appetite suppressant drugs (and even herbs) - address the hunger - but not the problem, imo. And to this end - they can be dangerous.
What do you think?
We had a poker night recently - and I asked about his thesis and he produced a copy.
The abstract of his thesis clearly showed what the intended purpose of the study was. To summarise: Obesity is a problem in Western culture. By studying the relationship between X recepter and amino acid and the appetite of the test subjects - effective drugs can be produced to control appetite in humans.
What do you think of this kind of drugs based/target research? I thought the study was laudable - but at the same time incredibly myopic - because of it's limited focus and intent.
Alot of things effect appetite. Sodium, for instance - stimulates it. Energy expended in things like weight lifting or cardio stimulates it. Blood sugar highs/lows from eating high GI, processed food stimulate it. Poor digestion and absorption can stimulate it - even as a person puts back masses of amounts of food that they are poorly absorbing the nutrients of. A deficiency in certain vitamins can cause the lack of it. Then of course there are emotional reasons people eat too much or certain foods that doesn't really have to do with appetite.
Drug research and products of this nature concern me. Natural appetite is not the problem, in my mind. Everyone needs to eat. The body needs certain nutrients to survive and thrive. Appetite suppressant drugs (and even herbs) - address the hunger - but not the problem, imo. And to this end - they can be dangerous.
What do you think?
