Fat Science

Palm Oil Having looked at different types of fats, their uses in living organisms and explored the causes and implications of obesity the final week is going to focus on one source of lipids that has seen a dramatic increase in demand and is having a devastating effect on the environment. Palm oil accounts for two-thirds of internationally traded  vegetable oils. Worldwide, over 54 million tonnes of palm oil  were produced in 2013. It is used in a plethora of food and  cleaning products. You’ll find it in peanut butter, ready-made  pizzas and shampoos. It’s used because it’s cheap to produce and  has a longer shelf-life than other oils. The downside to all  this cheap oil is that millions of hectares of rainforest  have been converted to palm oil plantations,  posing a major threat to biodiversity. It’s not just charismatic animals like  orang-utans that lose their habitats.  Each 1,000 hectares of rainforest is  estimated to be home to 750 tree  species, 400 bird speci

Epigenetics & obesity Our understanding of genetics has grown rapidly over the last few decades. One of the newest areas of interest is epigenetics . Your DNA is contains all the genes you've inherited, and this is fixed, but the DNA can become more and less coiled, as a result of exposure to different chemicals, stressors and environments. The more coiled DNA is the less likely the genes are to be expressed, but if the it becomes less coiled, the genes can be read and expressed, altering your characteristics.  There have been a number of observations of humans and the effect of famines on obesity levels in subsequent offspring. Have a look at this article on the dutch famine:  http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/features/142195/beyond-dna-epigenetics There have also been a number of animal studies, usually on mice to test the validity of these claims. Have a look at this article:  http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/45558/title/Obesity--Diabetes--and-