Spotlight on Fat

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Due to an excess of quick calories and too little physical activity, we have created the global obesity epidemic. At the same time, the human body is very unwilling to let go of the fat that it has stored. Fighting obesity is thus essentially a battle against ourselves.

Foto: CC0, Creative Commons.

Obesity – a struggle against ourselves

The obesity epidemic began in the USA somtime in the 1950s and 1960s, but it became clearly noticeable in the America society in the 1980s. In Sweden, the epidemic began to show clearly during the 1990s and is now fully evident. 
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“I had the surgery for the sake of my health”

Ellinor Westh Olsson was considered chubby already in primary school and piled on the pounds over the course of her school years.
Per-Åke Persson. Foto: Christian Andersson

"I didn't like myself"

Per-Åke Persson is a trained chef and works as a head chef. This is both a salvation and a curse.
Foto: iStock

Facts about fat

Brown fat, white fat – or in between? There are different types of fat. And did you know that obesity is defined as a disease in itself?

Why some people get fat

Weight gain can, in some cases, be attributed to a reduced ability to metabolise fat, according to Professor Mikael Rydén and colleagues. The researchers are now developing means of measuring the ability to break down fat.

Publication: Weight gain and impaired glucose metabolism in women is predicted by inefficient subcutaneous fat cell lipolysis, Peter Arner, Daniel P Andersson, Jesper Bäckdahl, Ingrid Dahlman, Mikael Rydén, Cell Metabolism, online 31 May 2018.

News about obesity research at KI

Title Post date
Europe’s biggest research project to stop childhood obesity 23 Jul 2018
How exercise training promotes a sound mind in a sound body 06 Feb 2018
Good long-term results of obesity surgery in young people 12 Jan 2017
Obesity surgery increases the risk of preterm birth 24 Aug 2016
Weight gain between pregnancies increases risk of birth as-phyxia 07 Jun 2016
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Outside KI

National Centre for Children Obesity

The National Centre for Children Obesity is working to develop and evaluate treatments for children with obesity, which can serve as models for other activities. The centre also informs the community about effects of obesity on children's health, and is conducting research.

Stockholm County Obesity Centre

The Stockholm County Obesity Centre is a specialist clinic and a center of excellence for the entire Stockholm County with the mission to offer non-surgical treatment for severe obesity and assay development and education. The centre treats adults and adolescents.

Study on child obesity funded by EU

Researchers at KI take part in the Science and Technology in childhood Obesity Policy (STOP) study. The project brings together key actors to generate sound and policy-relevant evidence on the factors that have contributed to the spread of childhood obesity.
Obesity
06 Jul 2018 by Katarina Sternudd.