The article by Kiecolt-Glaser et al. (
1
) suggests that a high-fat diet in the setting of depression or recent life stressors
leads to weight gain via decreased metabolic rate and increased hormonal influences
on fat storage. This study gives insight into an interesting relationship between
stress and energy expenditure, but we believe that the label “high-fat” may perpetuate
a negative, and not necessarily true, association with this type of diet and weight
gain. Carbohydrates are another class of macronutrients that are implicated in slowing
metabolism and leading to obesity. A controlled crossover study by Ebbeling et al. (
2
) showed that there was a sustained decrease in metabolic rate in patients on a low-fat,
high-carbohydrate diet compared with a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet. Additionally,
a recent randomized trial by Bazzano et al. (
3
) comparing calorie-unrestricted versions of these two diets concluded that the high-fat,
low-carbohydrate diet might provide a better avenue for weight reduction and have
certain metabolic risk factor advantages.To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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References
- Daily stressors, past depression, and metabolic responses to high-fat meals: A novel path to obesity.Biol Psychiatry. 2015; 77: 653-660
- Effects of dietary composition on energy expenditure during weight-loss maintenance.JAMA. 2012; 307: 2627-2634
- Effects of low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets: A randomized trial.Ann Intern Med. 2014; 161: 309-318
- The effects of cortisol on the regulation of lipoprotein lipase activity in human adipose tissue.J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1994; 79: 820-825
- Coordinated regulation of hormone-sensitive lipase and lipoprotein lipase in human adipose tissue in vivo: Implications for the control of fat storage and fat mobilization.Adv Enzyme Regul. 1995; 35: 163-178
- Effect of dietary macronutrient composition on tissue-specific lipoprotein lipase activity and insulin action in normal-weight subjects.Am J Clin Nutr. 1998; 68: 296-302
Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 09, 2014
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Published by Elsevier Inc.
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- Stress, Depression, and Metabolism: Replies to Bohan Brown et al. and Barton and YancyBiological PsychiatryVol. 78Issue 4
- PreviewWe recently reported adverse metabolic alterations related to stress and depression following high-fat meals (1). In their response our article, Bohan Brown et al. (2) raise an interesting question related to our caloric calculations; they suggest that the differences we observed would translate to a gain of 6.4 lb/year compared with the 10.8 lb/year that we had computed based on the 3500 kcal rule. Their argument is based on newer literature that has primarily addressed decreased caloric expenditure as weight loss occurs, but we acknowledge that the state of the field is such that we cannot calculate the total caloric impact over time with certainty.
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