Thanksgiving kicked off the unofficial season of gluttonous indulgence that will stretch right through New Year’s – assuming that Easter does not count. I don’t know about you, but I try to undo what I did to my belly during this gluttony season from January to September – when the diet mode is thrown out the window even before I reach the gravy during Thanksgiving.
How can anyone resist the harmless enjoyment of tasty and yummy food – turkey, candies, duck foie gras, cakes – just to mention some of my favourites? The key word is moderation; the problem is that moderation is usually not included in the menu, because it’s the holiday season, right?
Scientists have studied this overeating behaviour for a long time and they have found that overeating can have a lasting impact on your body, mood and even brain functionality. Overeating can make you feel anxious, stressed and depressed according to researchers from Universtié de Montréal.
During the Quebec-UK symposium, organised early this year, Prof. Nicholas Wareham from University of Cambridge, Prof. Jean-Pierre Després from Université Laval as well as many other colleagues discussed the aetiology and prevention of obesity and diabetes, and also how this overeating behaviour impacts on public health.
As a follow up to this meeting, Nick and Jean-Pierre will continue to work together to promote the exchanges of ideas relevant to the development of new paradigms in the management and incidence of obesity as well as to review emerging evidence that public health approaches targeted at the “causes of the causes”.
In addition to such international collaboration, in June the Wellcome Trust and UK’s Medical Research Council invested £24 million into obesity and metabolic diseases research at the Cambridge Obesity Institute.
We’re ageing, we’re steadily gaining weight, we’re overeating too many refined foods, and we also are sitting too much. Are exercise and moderation the key answer to this prevalence? Let’s trust that the collaboration between University of Cambridge and Université Laval- supported by Science and Innovation Network (SIN) Canada – will foster a miraculous solution.
In the meantime gobble, gobble…but for Christmas’ eve you might want to think twice before going for seconds, particularly your portion of duck foie gras.