Film review
Programmed to be Fat
Directed by Bruce Mohun.
Written by Bruce Mohun and Helen Slinger, and produced by Sue Ridout, Helen Slinger and Sara Darling for Dreamfilm Productions in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
By Alex Merrill
What causes obesity? Why have obesity rates almost doubled in the past 30 years? And how can we avert the looming worldwide crisis of rising diabetes rates associated with obesity? Health agencies are grappling with these billion-dollar questions, not only in the affluent western world but also in developing countries—in every country that has adopted a western lifestyle.
Despite the ridiculous claims of the obesity prevention industry, there is no magic bullet. Popular obesity prevention strategies bombard people with the messages that they are too fat and should eat less and exercise more. But campaigns that blame and shame individuals for being heavy are failing terribly and at great cost. Preventing obesity, we are learning, is far more complex than “calories in, calories out.” Poverty; the “Big Food” industry that produces fatty, salty, and additive-addled food; and our sedentary lives and work environments are all factors in the complex equation of obesity.
And now we have something new to consider about why we, as a species, are becoming obese: the chemicals we are exposed to every day. Programmed to be Fat, a new documentary directed by Bruce Mohun, examines emerging evidence that chemicals in our environment infiltrate pregnant women’s bodies and “program” their babies to be fat or obese as adults. The film aired on CBC Television’s The Nature of Things on January 12, 2012.
Mohun’s film follows the work of several researchers who have found links between obesity and a set of chemicals called “obesogens.” Each of the scientists has, through separate studies, discovered that common chemicals around us can disrupt our endocrine (hormonal) systems, and they can do this in very small quantities. Obesogens “trick” our bodies into thinking they are natural hormones. The researchers suggest that this process can affect fetal development, predisposing babies to be born fat, or to be overweight or obese later in life, and to develop diabetes. As one of the researchers put it, “Chemicals can be telling genes to express themselves in a fatter way.”
Mohun transforms a potentially dry description of scientific research into an engaging—and disquieting—tale of discovery. Using mainly interviews, he weaves the researchers’ stories together, showing how they eventually learned of each other’s work, and how their studies have been opening up a new and important area of knowledge.
The film has two very alarming take-home messages:
1. Obesogens [1] are common chemicals in our environment, and the list of them is growing.
The film discusses a list of 20 suspected obesogens, and suggests there may be many more not yet studied. One of the researchers in the film, Retha Newbold, was studying how the synthetic estrogen diethylstilbestrol (DES) affects the reproductive tract when found that her mice got too fat for the research study. While the harms from exposure to DESare now well known and its use is limited, most obesogenic chemicals are still rampant. Nicotine is one. Tributyltin, widely used in pesticides and other substances, is another. Bisphenol-A (BPA) is found in the lining of food and drink cans, some plastic water bottles, many plastic products in the home, and even the coating of store receipts made of thermal paper.
In 2010 Health Canada recommended limiting BPA exposure from food packaging that newborns and infants come in contact with, such as baby bottles, but BPA is still common in our environment. And, as the film points out, the preferred alternative to BPA is Bisphenol-F (BPF), another endocrine-disrupting chemical.
2. Endocrine disruptors appear to be most dangerous in very small quantities. Obesogens are more dangerous in smaller doses because endocrine receptors are more easily fooled when faced with fewer of them. When there are too many disruptors, the receptor genes shut down, in effect, and no damage is done. This process flies in the face of traditional toxicology, which assumes that the higher the dose, the more dangerous the chemical, or “the dose makes the poison.” In the case of the obesogens, less is worse.
Anticipating skeptics, the researchers in the film are quick to point out that, even if chemicals are programming us to be fat, exercise and diet still matter, perhaps even more so, because chemicals could multiply the effect of unhealthy eating and sedentary lives.
The film acknowledges that endocrine disruption is an emerging area of study with much work still to be done. The chemical industry has not reproduced the results from these studies, and industry representatives also declined being interviewed for the film. In an interview following the film, Mohan said that he could not find a single industry scientist willing to speak on camera in support of the industry’s position that very small doses of these chemicals can't possibly affect humans.
It could take a long time for these findings about obesogens to affect how these chemicals are regulated for human safety and for obesity prevention. So far, much of the research linking chemicals and obesity is from animal studies, although the film points out two studies in progress on humans: Maternal Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals (MIREC) [2], a Canadian study on environmental chemicals of pregnant women and their affect on their children; and OBesogenic Endocrine disrupting chemicals: LInking prenatal eXposure to the development of obesity later in life (OBELIX [3]), a study being conducted in Europe.
Why does this matter, especially to women?
If pregnant women’s exposure to common chemicals is predisposing our children to obesity, the onus is on women to protect ourselves. The scenario sounds impractical: stop eating anything that comes from a can, stop handling store receipts and avoid plastic objects that might contain BPA. Clearly, this would be a losing battle for the vast majority of us. Chemical exposure is something we need to deal with not just on an individual level but on a societal level as well. It is clear from the growing number of research studies on endocrine disruptors, that changes are called for in how we deal with chemicals. Programmed to be Fat ends with a plea for the precautionary principle. Chemical manufacturers should to be required to conclusively demonstrate to regulators that their products “First, do no harm” before they are allowed into our lives. And chemical regulators—our governments—need to change how they regulate chemicals.
Endocrine-disrupting chemicals may be having a huge impact on women in other ways that are also related to obesity. The film did not discuss early puberty, but other researchers have shown links between chemicals and early puberty in girls, as related to the development of obesity, and diabetes. Sandra Steingraber’s paper The falling age of puberty in U.S. girls: What we know, what we need to know [4] is an excellent introduction to this complex issue.
Programmed to be Fat brings an important (and growing) body of evidence into the public eye, and provides yet another reason to closely scrutinize and carefully regulate all chemicals before they are released into our midst.
Let’s hope the regulators are paying attention.
Find out more about the film and watch Programmed to be Fat online [5].
To learn more about the issue of obesity and its impact on women, including the role of endocrine-disruptors, see our new primer when it is released in 2012.
Learn about women and chemicals and the management of chemicals in our country in Sex, Gender and Chemicals: Factoring Women into Canada’s Chemicals Management Plan [6], produced by the National Network of Environments and Women’s Health.
For a simple explanation of endocrine disruption, see www.nnewh.org [7].
Alex Merrill is a writer who has worked with the Canadian Women's Health Network for many years.