A new study conducted by researchers from the University of Michigan found that a person's beliefs about causes of obesity directly impact his/her weight and dietary choices.
One in three Americans are known to be victims of obesity, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This ratio is rapidly increasing and has already seen a 20-30 percent increase in the last 30 years. Owing to these growing numbers, researchers are frantically looking for solutions and are continuously conducting studies to understand obesity better. In one such study, Brent McFerran of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and Anirban Mukhopadhyay of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology delved into the theory whether a person's beliefs about obesity affects his/her weight.
According to a press release, they found that most people usually believed in one of the two popular beliefs about obesity. The first one was poor diet which included too many high calorie food items and the second one was lack of exercise. Researchers of the study were surprised to find that not many people thought of genetics to be the cause of obesity.
Researchers took this information and conducted a series of experiments across five countries on three continents to analyze what implications these beliefs had. In Korea, the United States, and France, researchers found that people linked obesity to poor diet and lack of exercise as well. However, the people who linked obesity to poor diet primarily were found to have lower BMIs than those who implicated lack of exercise. The reason behind this, researchers stated was probably because of what such people ate.
"What surprised me the most was the fact that we found lay theories to have an effect on BMI over and above other known factors, such as socio-economic status, age, education, various medical conditions, and sleep habits," says McFerran.
In Canada researchers found that the people who linked obesity to lack of exercise ate significantly more chocolates than those who linked obesity to diet. A similar trend was seen among participants from Hong Kong.
