This thought just popped into my mind while having a chat with a friend.
Consider the expression "You must have Worms" (Or similar) when referring to somebody who seems to be able to eat excessively but stay slim.
Now, there is no way that gastric worms would be able to divert hundreds of calories a day away from their host. They just are not big enough.
However, they may have a different effect.
It has been suspected for some time that the rise in autoimmune diseases, particularly gut related ones, may be because most people do not have worms.
Humans have evolved on the assumption that we will have worms. Worms secrete immune suppressant chemicals and our immune system has evolved to respond to this.
No worms=overactive immune response=autoimmune disease (Or that's the way the theory works) indeed some people are treated by deliberately infecting them with threadworms (Relatively harmless) and it does seem to have some success.
But perhaps the worms have another side effect too. Although I really cannot see gut worms actively stealing your food on scale that will starve you. Perhaps, like the immune system thing, their presence interferers with the digestive process reducing the efficiency with which food can be digested.
Of course, we will have evolved to live in an environment where we will have worms so will have evolved apatite control and so on to compensate for this effect.
And perhaps the absence of worms means that this appetite control now, for many people, continuously underestimates what we have actually eaten making weight gain more likely.
Remember, People do not get morbidly obese because they are greedy pie munchers. That is a myth. 1 or 2 hobnobs/day more than you need, consistently, over only 4-5 years will do it.
So, while as I have always said. There is not going to be "One single" factor causing the rise in obesity in the developed world. This absence of worms may be a contributing one (Along with the other known ones such as warmer houses, less active lives and food that is not only prepared and eaten differently than in the past but is also fundamentally different at a chemical level)
I wonder if anybody has investigated this possibility??
Consider the expression "You must have Worms" (Or similar) when referring to somebody who seems to be able to eat excessively but stay slim.
Now, there is no way that gastric worms would be able to divert hundreds of calories a day away from their host. They just are not big enough.
However, they may have a different effect.
It has been suspected for some time that the rise in autoimmune diseases, particularly gut related ones, may be because most people do not have worms.
Humans have evolved on the assumption that we will have worms. Worms secrete immune suppressant chemicals and our immune system has evolved to respond to this.
No worms=overactive immune response=autoimmune disease (Or that's the way the theory works) indeed some people are treated by deliberately infecting them with threadworms (Relatively harmless) and it does seem to have some success.
But perhaps the worms have another side effect too. Although I really cannot see gut worms actively stealing your food on scale that will starve you. Perhaps, like the immune system thing, their presence interferers with the digestive process reducing the efficiency with which food can be digested.
Of course, we will have evolved to live in an environment where we will have worms so will have evolved apatite control and so on to compensate for this effect.
And perhaps the absence of worms means that this appetite control now, for many people, continuously underestimates what we have actually eaten making weight gain more likely.
Remember, People do not get morbidly obese because they are greedy pie munchers. That is a myth. 1 or 2 hobnobs/day more than you need, consistently, over only 4-5 years will do it.
So, while as I have always said. There is not going to be "One single" factor causing the rise in obesity in the developed world. This absence of worms may be a contributing one (Along with the other known ones such as warmer houses, less active lives and food that is not only prepared and eaten differently than in the past but is also fundamentally different at a chemical level)
I wonder if anybody has investigated this possibility??
), they are relatively harmless
)
It's never their own fault.