Having adequate sleep helps keep obesity at bay

Researchers agree that genes do indeed play a part in obesity, but there are a myriad other controllable factors. Photo/FILE

By Kiruri Kamau

A friend of mine once told me of a conversation he overheard one evening between two young chaps who, he surmised by everything about them, were heading home to a nearby slum after a hard day’s work.

David, idle at the moment and tuned to every city sound around him, was standing outside a building from where an aerobic class was being conducted on the second floor amid much sound and fury.

“Those are mafuta mingi trying to get rid of the effects of too much good living,” one of the young people observed with obvious distaste. And should be stringed, I would have added if I were him.

There must be a place in the universe where those who eat the fat of the land, then steal maize meant for the starving poor and then engage in conspicuous consumption are stringed and sprayed with liquid tomato paste; it’s a capital offence. But we live in good old benighted Kenya, a land of contrasts.

The Scots, it appears, have either been eating too much fat, literally, are cursed by their genes or they don’t exercise because obesity, the government says, is now a ticking time bomb, an epidemic.

Her Majesty’s government has raised the red flag and was last week saying that if things don’t start changing soon, 40 per cent of the population of Scotland will be obese by 2030.

The cost to the taxpayer will be upwards of £3 billion pounds, the equivalent of almost Sh400 billion a year, and the cost to production will be incalculable.

For long obesity was blamed on genetic predisposition, which was good comfort if you didn’t want to take responsibility for the way you and your brood lived, ate and looked.

Researchers now largely agree that genes do indeed play a part in obesity but there are a myriad other controllable factors which are more responsible for that tyre around your middle.

The most important of these factors are that you and your family most likely delight in stuffing your faces, don’t sleep enough and do not exercise.

Obesity, it is now widely known, often starts in childhood.

A recent British research established that most children pile much of that excess weight before school age, meaning the problem is usually at home not at school.

Early childhood is most likely due to learned behaviour and environment.

Research has managed to link weight gain to lack of sleep in both children and adults.

One recent survey established that only 12 per cent of children who sleep 10-12 hours every night were obese by the time they were eleven years old.

In comparison obesity among children who slept less than nine hours was twice as much at 22 per cent.

The researchers were completely baffled by the stack difference and started looking for explanations.

One conclusion that they reached was that the children who slept less hours than they should were not rested enough the next morning.

Naturally they felt lethargic and were less likely to go out and play with their peers to use up excess energy.

They were more likely to prefer spending their time seated on the sofa playstation console in hand, a bowl of crisps on the floor before them and a glass of coke at hand to ease the junk down.

And there is no better prescription for bringing up fat lazy kids.

According to A Bristol University research, hormonal changes due to lack of sleep is bad for weight watchers.

If you habitually sleep for five hours or less your body produces 15 per cent more ghrenin, a hormone that increases feelings of hunger, than those who slept at least eight hours.

And it’s double whammy for skimping on sleep because your body will also produce 15 per cent less of appetite-suppressing leptin.

The research also found that if you sleep too little you are more likely to eat calorie-rich sweets and starchy food during the day.

The bottom line is if you don’t learn to nod off, eat right and exercise, well, it’s your funeral.

-Business Daily Africa