TY - JOUR
T1 - Fat brains, greedy genes, and parent power
T2 - A biobehavioural risk model of child and adult obesity
AU - Carnell, Susan
AU - Kim, Yale
AU - Pryor, Katherine
N1 - Funding Information:
Declaration of interest: Support was provided in part by US National Institutes of Health grant K99 DK 088360 (to S.C.). All authors participated sufficiently in this work to take public responsibility for the content. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.
PY - 2012/6
Y1 - 2012/6
N2 - We live in a world replete with opportunities to overeat highly calorific, palatable foods - yet not everyone becomes obese. Why? We propose that individuals show differences in appetitive traits (e.g. food cue responsiveness, satiety sensitivity) that manifest early in life and predict their eating behaviours and weight trajectories. What determines these traits? Parental feeding restriction is associated with higher child adiposity, pressure to eat with lower adiposity, and both strategies with less healthy eating behaviours, while authoritative feeding styles coincide with more positive outcomes. But, on the whole, twin and family studies argue that nature has a greater influence than nurture on adiposity and eating behaviour, and behavioural investigations of genetic variants that are robustly associated with obesity (e.g. FTO) confirm that genes influence appetite. Meanwhile, a growing body of neuroimaging studies in adults, children and high risk populations suggests that structural and functional variation in brain networks associated with reward, emotion and control might also predict appetite and obesity, and show genetic influence. Together these different strands of evidence support a biobehavioural risk model of obesity development. Parental feeding recommendations should therefore acknowledge the powerful - but modifiable - contribution of genetic and neurological influences to children's eating behaviour.
AB - We live in a world replete with opportunities to overeat highly calorific, palatable foods - yet not everyone becomes obese. Why? We propose that individuals show differences in appetitive traits (e.g. food cue responsiveness, satiety sensitivity) that manifest early in life and predict their eating behaviours and weight trajectories. What determines these traits? Parental feeding restriction is associated with higher child adiposity, pressure to eat with lower adiposity, and both strategies with less healthy eating behaviours, while authoritative feeding styles coincide with more positive outcomes. But, on the whole, twin and family studies argue that nature has a greater influence than nurture on adiposity and eating behaviour, and behavioural investigations of genetic variants that are robustly associated with obesity (e.g. FTO) confirm that genes influence appetite. Meanwhile, a growing body of neuroimaging studies in adults, children and high risk populations suggests that structural and functional variation in brain networks associated with reward, emotion and control might also predict appetite and obesity, and show genetic influence. Together these different strands of evidence support a biobehavioural risk model of obesity development. Parental feeding recommendations should therefore acknowledge the powerful - but modifiable - contribution of genetic and neurological influences to children's eating behaviour.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84862880664&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84862880664&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3109/09540261.2012.676988
DO - 10.3109/09540261.2012.676988
M3 - Review article
C2 - 22724640
AN - SCOPUS:84862880664
SN - 0954-0261
VL - 24
SP - 189
EP - 199
JO - International Review of Psychiatry
JF - International Review of Psychiatry
IS - 3
ER -