Obesity is a major health concern that is rampant in the current times due to sedentary lifestyle that people live these days. Obesity is basically excessive weight caused by excessive fat stored in the body. Obesity can lead to a number of serious problems like high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, stroke, and congestive health failure. While genetics and environmental factors cannot be ruled out as the causes behind obesity, high-fat diet comprising high-calorie foods rich in carbohydrates and fats is still blamed for causing this epidemic. That's why; nutritionists and doctors suggest a healthy diet including fresh fruits and vegetables for patients dealing with obesity.
But, there are many instances which reveal that fresh food is not available to some people and this type of population is spread out across the globe. How can these people manage obesity if they can't have access to low-fat, low-calorie, and nutrient-rich foods? These people often rely on weight loss drugs that claim to reduce weight by at least 10 per cent but can also cause serious side effects like headaches, diarrhoea, severe liver injury, birth defects, sleep apnea, pancreatitis, and suicidal tendencies.
(Also Read: Obesity Diet - What To Eat And Avoid To Manage Obesity)
Fresh and healthy foods can help in reducing obesity symptoms
To overcome this problem, a group of scientists from Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and John A. Paulson School for Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) came out with a revolutionary liquid salt, which may be a better option to the harmful drugs available in medical stores.
The team carried out their study on rats and found that an orally administered liquid salt called Choline and Geranate (CAGE) can physically reduce the absorption of fats from food with no considerable side effects in rats. They also discovered that CAGE could bring down total body weight by about 12%. These findings were published in the journal PNAS.
First author Md Nurunnabi, Ph.D., a former Postdoctoral Fellow at the Wyss Institute and SEAS who is now an Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at The University of Texas at El Paso said, "A reduction in body weight of 12% is like getting a human from 200 pounds down to 176, which is a significant change," said "Our goal is to translate this work into a product that can help people maintain a healthier weight, and this study marks the very beginning of that journey."