APA
Torres Carot, Vicente & Suárez González, Andrés & Lobato Foulques, Cecilia .The energy balance hypothesis of obesity: do the laws of thermodynamics explain excessive adiposity?.
ISO 690
Torres Carot, Vicente & Suárez González, Andrés & Lobato Foulques, Cecilia. The energy balance hypothesis of obesity: do the laws of thermodynamics explain excessive adiposity?.
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12080/28978
Abstract:
In this work, we reflect upon the energy balance hypothesis of obesity. International organizations, the general population and
many scientists hold the belief that obesity is indisputably caused by an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure.
Most of them argue that the laws of thermodynamics support this view. We identify and review the main arguments used to
support this belief, and we explain the reasoning mistakes those arguments harbor. We show that the laws of thermodynamics do
not support the idea that obesity is an energy problem nor an energy balance problem more than they do in the growth of any
other tissue in the human body. We argue that the validity of the energy balance paradigm for obesity must be questioned.
Although correction of a wrong belief is laudable per se, in this particular case harm may arise by influencing the way in which
obesity prevention is tackled and obese patients are treated.