It's 1985, Windows 1 is released.
The Breakfast Club hits theaters
Madonna is at the top of the charts.
Let's say you're living a healthy lifestyle,
working out and eating a balanced diet.
Now jump in a time machine and fast forward to today.
You’re using the exact same methods to stay in shape.
Would your weight stay the same too?
The surprising answer is: probably not. Here’s why.
35% of adults in the US are obese today.
We’ve often blamed bad diets, sedentary lifestyles, and genetics,
but there are so many factors that can influence body weight.
And here's a big surprise.
A 2015 study revealed that people are 10% heavier today
even if they eat and exercise the same amount as people did in the 80’s.
In other words,
it was easier to be skinny then.
The reason it was easier for people to be skinny in the 1980s, researchers think, is because of several hidden factors
that we might not have taken into account.
Things like chemicals, pesticides, flame retardants,
the types of drugs that we're taking,
the microbiome changing.
The first of these factors are the chemicals we now surround ourselves with in our everyday lives.
Chemicals like flame retardants in our furniture,
pesticides in our vegetables and clothing,
additives in food packaging and processed foods, and chemicals in our toiletries, cleaning products, and plastics.
They could actually be changing the way your body burns energy, stores fat,
It could be making small but meaningful differences.
The EU has banned many of these chemicals, while the US has not.
In cosmetics alone, the EU banned 1,300 chemicals while the US banned only 11.
The second thing is an increase in antidepressants and other types of drugs.
like SSRI's…
and all these different categories of drugs that really, they came around in the 80s and really took off in the 90s,
and now you have large numbers of people on these medications.
Many people are prescribed these medications for serious medical conditions.
Weight gain could be an unintended consequence.
Some of them do appear to just make you hungrier and make you eat more,
but there's also a possibility that they're affecting your body in the same way,
that they're potentially changing the way your body burns energy,
and could be leading to some weight retention.
A third hidden factor is the one we know least about. The microbiome.
Well, the microbiome in general is just a really hot field of research...
The microbiome is any organism, virus, fungi, bacteria that lives in or on the human host.
The most abundant microbiome is actually in the GI tract
so when we talk about the human microbiome, most of us are talking about the GI tract microbes.
The microbes in our gut influence our weight and immunity, and maybe even our behavior.
A healthier microbiome has more variety of species that perform different jobs in the body,
like breaking down fibers into energy and regulating our appetite.
A modern ‘western’ diet that is low in fiber and high in fat and processed foods
prevents the good bacteria from moving in and doing those jobs that help regulate our weight.
When we have a lot of different microbes that makes you healthier. …
We see less diversity and less redundancy in patients that have diabetes,
in patients that are obese.
We evolved with these guys in us, and having this relationship with them, they harvest energy for us,
they help us make vitamins, they help our immune system, we like these bugs.
And all of a sudden, we’re kind of screwing them up, we’re screwing them up by giving them all these things that they’re not used to doing, and processing,
and I think that’s part of what we’re seeing.
And as a result of our microbiomes being out of whack, and our interactions with chemicals and drugs,
our bodies may be comparatively larger than they used to be several decades ago.
Although let’s not forget that being thin doesn’t necessarily mean being healthy.
The quest for weight loss is becoming increasingly more difficult.
But, on the flip side, society today is more accepting of different body types than it was in the 80s.
I think now, and it's actually a really good thing, you're having more of an acceptance of different kinds of body types,
You have kind of more of a celebration of a different variety of people who aren't necessarily skinny,
which I think is overall a really positive thing.
So if you also don't want to be skinny, that's also fine.
Hi everyone, I'm Olga Khazan, I'm a staff writer here at the Atlantic.
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