How dietary restraint could significantly reduce effects of genetic risk
of obesity
Obesity risk genes make people feel hungrier and lose control over their eating, but practicing dietary restraint could counteract this.

Date:
July 6, 2023
Source:
University of Exeter
Summary:
Obesity risk genes make people feel hungrier and lose control over
their eating, but practicing dietary restraint could counteract
this. New research found that those with higher genetic risk of
obesity can reduce the effects that are transmitted via hunger
and uncontrolled eating by up to half through dietary restraint.


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FULL STORY ========================================================================== Obesity risk genes make people feel hungrier and lose control over their eating, but practicing dietary restraint could counteract this.

New research by University of Exeter, Exeter Clinical Research Facility,
and University of Bristol -- funded by the Medical Research Council
Doctoral Training Partnership and published in the International Journal
of Epidemiology -- found that those with higher genetic risk of obesity
can reduce the effects that are transmitted via hunger and uncontrolled
eating by up to half through dietary restraint.

Psychology PhD student, Shahina Begum, from the University of Exeter is
lead author and said: "At a time when high calorie foods are aggressively marketed to us, it's more important than ever to understand how genes
influence BMI. We already know that these genes impact traits and
behaviours such as hunger and emotional eating, but what makes this
study different is that we tested the influence of two types of dietary restraint -- rigid and flexible -- on the effect of these behaviours. What
we discovered for the first time was that increasing both types of
restraint could potentially improve BMI in people genetically at risk;
meaning that restraint-based interventions could be useful to target the problem." Genes linked to obesity increase BMI, with up to a quarter of
this effect explained by increases in hunger and uncontrolled (including emotional) eating.

There are over 900 genes that have so far been identified by researchers
as being associated with BMI and several studies suggest these risk
genes influence feelings of hunger and loss of control towards food.

This study examined 3,780 adults aged between 22 and 92 years old from
two UK cohorts: the Genetics of Appetite Study, and Avon Longitudinal
Study of Parents and Children. Their weight and height were measured, and
they provided a DNA sample via their blood to calculate an overall score
for their genetic risk of obesity. They then completed questionnaires
to measure 13 different eating behaviours, including disinhibition (a
tendency to engage in binge or emotional eating) and over-eating due
to hunger.

As expected, researchers found that a higher genetic risk score was
associated with a higher BMI, partly due to increased disinhibition and
hunger. However, results also found that those who had high levels of
dietary restraint reduced those effects by almost half for disinhibition
and a third for hunger - - suggesting that restraint may counteract some
of the effects of genetic risk.

There are different types of dietary restraint, including flexible
strategies - - such as being conscious about what you eat and deliberately taking small servings -- to rigid strategies, like calorie counting. The
study tested the influence of both types of restraint for the first
time and found both could potentially improve BMI in people genetically
at risk.

Interventions to facilitate dietary restraint could include changing
the food environment (reducing the calorie content or portion size of
food) or supporting individuals -- and members of the research team have developed a Food Trainer app (https://www.exeter.ac.uk/research/foodt/)
to help achieve that. The app works as a game that trains people to
repeatedly stop to high calorie food and research suggests this training
may be particularly beneficial for those with a higher BMI.

The paper is entitled "Mediation and moderation of genetic risk to
obesity through eating behaviours in two UK cohorts" and is published
in theInternational Journal of Epidemiology.

* RELATED_TOPICS
o Health_&_Medicine
# Obesity # Diet_and_Weight_Loss # Nutrition # Cholesterol
o Plants_&_Animals
# Food # Food_and_Agriculture # Evolutionary_Biology
# Genetics
* RELATED_TERMS
o Atkins_Diet o Obesity o Diabetic_diet o Nutrition o
Low-carb_diets o Anti-obesity_drug o Eating_disorder o
Calorie_restricted_diet

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========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Shahina Begum, Eleanor C Hinton, Zoi Toumpakari, Timothy M Frayling,
Laura Howe, Laura Johnson, Natalia Lawrence. Mediation and
moderation of genetic risk of obesity through eating behaviours
in two UK cohorts.

International Journal of Epidemiology, 2023; DOI:
10.1093/ije/dyad092 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/07/230706124539.htm

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