Obesity epidemic caused by CO2 ??

From the Danish news:

"The global obesity epidemic may be due to the increased amounts of CO2 in the air affects our brains, so we get the urge to eat more.

This wild but tantalizing hypothesis put forward for the first time of a serious Danish researchers. Is it true that CO2 destroys not only the climate but also global health.

More research suggests it. In the Danish Glostrup study that charts the life of thousands of people, both thin and thick participants over 20 years have put relatively equally weight on.

- It told me that there might be something in the environment, affecting fat people as much as thin people. It could be CO2, says postdoc Lars-Georg Hersoug from the Center for Disease Prevention and Health at Glostrup Hospital to videnskab.dk.

Animal studies confirm the theory
In the U.S. obesity epidemic is greatest on the east coast with the highest CO2 concentrations. Studies of 20,000 different laboratory animals showed that all animals continually gained weight even though they were fed under controlled conditions and therefore should not gain weight.

More importantly, researchers have shown that the acidity of the blood affect the neurons in the brain, which regulate appetite, and metabolism. So when we breathe CO2, which makes the blood more acidic, it may affect the brain, so we'll want to eat more.

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen, together with Hersoug demonstrated that six young men placed in special climate chambers with extra CO2 afterward consumed six percent more food than men who had been exposed to normal amounts of CO2.

According to scientists, the theory unfortunately is no excuse to ditch dieting or exercise.

Fruits and vegetables reduces the acidity in the blood. And running outdoors ventilate CO2 out of the body, which we otherwise accumulate while sitting still indoors, according to researchers and videnskab.dk.
"

Nope, its to do with cheap processed foods that taste good.

Heard of pink slime? Well, most ground (minced) beef contains this filth. Despite being labelled as 100% Beef.

Ready meals, processed foods, advertizing, all play a part in the obesity epidemic. As well as people being less active due to the internet (can do shopping, chat etc) and other things such as consoles, ipads etc.

Good food is hard to come by, especially if you havent a lot of money.

People are getting fatter because they are more lazy, and eat crap foods.

reply to post by HolgerTheDane

More flawed science... There are studies that claim that co2 literally causes EVERYTHING.
There are stories that co2 causes brain shrinkage, causes fish to shrink, causes fish to grow, causes alien invasion, causes ice age, causes global warming and so on.
I really wish i still had the link to a site that has collected all such silly and contradicting studies on one site.

Obesity is because of crap you eat especially high fructose corn syrup which is exactly when the obesity and diabetes epidemic started in USA.

Nope. Nope Nope. It's extremely easy to check the CO2 levels and pH levels of people. In fact, its part of almost the most basic set of lab tests run at your doctors office.

Without even getting into the medicine side of things, I'm sure the lab animals were fed a very highly increased dose of CO2 in order to achieve these results. Besides, we have our own set of lab rats as a control group. Just look outside. At any wild animal. They aren't overweight. I don't mean your own personal house pets either. I, mean the wild animals out there. Squirrrles, birds, rabbits, deer...etc. For them....Darwin's survival of the fittest still applies.

Now.....for the medical side of it. Most people I encounter with chronic elevated CO2 levels, are people with COPD. They were usually the chronic smokers. But...over time their CO2 gradually went up. Their lungs stopped processing the exchange of CO2 and O2 properly, and their baseline CO2 levels rise well above a normal level. Btw. These people are very often pretty easy to spot. Aside from the fact they often walk around wearing supplemental oxygen, they are usually barrel chested, and are very skinny otherwise.

Sorry....but I don't buy this theory.

Just to get things "on the level".

I don't buy into this myself. My wife's reaction when she read the news were something like "bollocks!"

I just thought that this particular news item would be something you guys would appreciate. If for no other reason then for the amusement factor while we contemplate someone saying - "as long as it is to do with CO2 and global warming, you can always rely on grants to come your way"

obesity is caused by eating more calories than you burn on a regular basis, why is this so hard to believe, medical conditions aside.

reply to post by HolgerTheDane


What caught my attention was the article mentioned that our blood becomes more acidic in the presence of Co2. I'm not too convinced on the Co2 being the culprit, but what now this has got me thinking about blood pH levels.

This is entirely observation, but from what I know salt is pretty alkaline. Just like baking soda. Well alkaline when added to water since it doesn't contain a hydrogen. I'm a salty food eater. I could eat salt from the shaker all day and pass on the cheesecake and cookies. I am a thin person who never really excercises. All of the thin people I know usually are salty food eaters. Not sweet.

Maybe this whole no msg craze is hurting us and making people fatter?

reply to post by HolgerTheDane


Yeah...I understand why you posted it. And it a weird way...this guys reasoning might make sense. But...it's no coincidence that global CO2 levels have risen in the last couple of hundred years along with people's weight. But I think that is way more related to machines now doing the work people used to have to do by hand.

I'm not trying to even get into a global warming debate here either. But we have become a mechanized world. For better or worse. And now..instead of people working in the fields or as a blacksmith or whatever they might have done in the past...they now work in offices inside of small cubicles much like the lab rats. They eat high fat, processed foods and get way less exercise now that people did 200 years ago.

However, because of this mechanization, it has caused global CO2 levels to rise. Whether or not anyone believes global warming is caused by similar events or not it irrelevant to this discussion. And I only bring that up now cause someone will try to troll that subject later on if I don't. It's a known fact....CO2 levels are higher now, than in the past few hundred years. The same thing thing that has caused that rise is the same thing that has caused peoples weight to rise.

People have become lazy and are eating way too much or the wrong foods. While letting machines do the work man once did in 1700. But they aren't related in the way the article makes it sound. They might be related. But only because they share the same cause. One didn't cause the other though.