London South Bank University, United Kingdom.
King's College London, United Kingdom.
Med Hypotheses. 2019 Aug;129:109247. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2019.109247. Epub 2019 May 25.
The global obesity epidemic continues to present significant challenges to individuals and healthcare providers. Public health initiatives to tackle the rise in overweight and obesity in developed and developing nations have largely failed to tackle the problem and research into the underlying causes is of increasing importance. Central to understanding overconsumption of calories is an appreciation of the mechanisms of hunger and satiety. Research to date has revealed considerable detail regarding meal size, macronutrient composition of the diet and control of energy balance via adipose store derived signalling. It is clear however that such control mechanisms are overwhelmed in a significant proportion of the population. We hypothesize the hitherto under-researched possibility that micronutrient status may have an important role in energy balance. Poor vitamin and mineral profiles in the diets of the obese may potentiate overconsumption of calories due to an insufficiency of micronutrient intake relative to macronutrient consumption, a situation aggravated by increased requirements in the obese state. Amongst the multiplicity of metabolic and biochemical processes dependent upon micronutrients and which are impacted by their relative insufficiency, there may be triggers for increased food consumption in an attempt to bridge the gap between high energy consumption and low co-factor availability. This 'hunger trap' will continue as long as low nutrient density foods represent the mainstay of the diet. The accepted paradigm of variety seeking leading to vitamin and mineral adequacy of diets may not apply in the context of highly processed foods which use technological means to mimic organoleptic properties of nutrient density without delivering the same at the level of metabolism.
全球肥胖症流行继续给个人和医疗保健提供者带来重大挑战。公共卫生倡议旨在解决发达国家和发展中国家超重和肥胖问题，但在很大程度上未能解决这个问题，对潜在原因的研究变得越来越重要。理解卡路里过度摄入的核心是了解饥饿和饱腹感的机制。迄今为止的研究揭示了关于餐量、饮食中的宏量营养素组成以及通过脂肪储存衍生信号控制能量平衡的大量细节。然而，很明显，这种控制机制在很大一部分人群中被压倒了。我们假设，迄今为止研究不足的可能性是，微量营养素状态可能在能量平衡中发挥重要作用。肥胖人群饮食中维生素和矿物质状况不佳，可能会导致卡路里过度摄入，因为相对于宏量营养素摄入，微量营养素摄入不足，而在肥胖状态下，需求增加，情况会更加恶化。在依赖微量营养素的多种代谢和生化过程中，由于相对不足，可能会有引发食物消费增加的因素，试图弥补高能量消耗和低辅助因子供应之间的差距。只要低营养密度的食物仍然是饮食的主要组成部分，这种“饥饿陷阱”就会持续存在。在高度加工食品的背景下，寻求多样性以确保饮食中维生素和矿物质充足的传统观念可能并不适用，因为这些食品使用技术手段模仿营养密度的感官特性，但在代谢水平上却无法提供相同的效果。
