Abstract
Obesity is increasing worldwide and has become a public health concern due to associated degenerative diseases and morbidity. Even though overweight and obesity are not life threatening, they qualify themselves as a disease entity. The bulk of literature on obesity says that the external environment largely influences the increase in food intake and is termed scientifically as “obesogenic environment”. A “dual approach” that uses both traditional and holistic health can be used to curb this rising trend. Dietary approaches like low calorie diets and increased physical activity are recommended for weight management and prevention of diseases. A number of studies indicate that there is an increased interest in enhancing the use of herbs, bioactive components of foods, traditional diets; owing to their wide spectrum of therapeutic properties for obesity and for the armed forces personnel (under the hypocaloric rations in the field). Therefore, taking the existing scenario of obesity into consideration and the protective role of calorie restriction, this paper provides an insight into the highly convoluted process of dietary restriction and highlights the implications of hypocaloric diets.
Highlights
Obesity is widely accepted as a complex interplay between environmental and genetic factors and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality
Berg and Simms [20] came up with their hypothesis somewhat 25 years after McCay et al gave the retardation of growth hypothesis. Their theory came as a challenge wherein they proposed that Calorie Restriction (CR) causes life extension by reducing body fat content; based on the growing obesity rates and it was quite reasonable to think that CR would decrease the body fat content
In view of the fact, that the physiological and nutritional status of soldiers can markedly affect the success of military operations discernibly, frontline soldiers might gain a performance edge with the use of non-traditional food components, stimulants, and herbals that might act as ergogenic aids [53,65]
Summary
Obesity is widely accepted as a complex interplay between environmental and genetic factors and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Appetite integrates the nutritional realities of the environment such as the sight and smell of food, emotional cues, social situations, and cultural conventions with the internal metabolic demands of hunger. The implication is that “liking” may be important for provoking the motivation towards food consumption, but once these are retained it is the upregulation of “wanting” in an obesigenic environment along with insensitivity to homoeostatic signals but over-reactivity to external cues – that promotes over consumption. These changes in the food environment have stimulated food intake beyond what is required to match energy expenditure, and have resulted in weight gain. Dietary fat restriction alone does not exert effects superior to calorie restriction, strengthening the public health message that calories do count
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