Obesity has become one of our major global health and economic problems. Overweight and obesity cause more deaths worldwide than underweight. Obesity is a disease defined as excessive of body fat, presenting health risks because of adiposopathy, sustained by adipocyte hypertrophy, visceral adiposity and/or ectopic fat deposition and the secretion of a plethora of proinflammatory cytokines. The adiposopathy determines the dysregulation of the metabolic pathways, leading to atherosclerosis, hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis, obstructive sleep apnea, symptoms of breathlessness and asthma, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, hyperandrogenemia in women and hypoandrogenemia/hyperestrogenemia in men, and cancer. Obesity is associated with many adverse maternal and fetal effects prenatally, but it also exerts a negative influence on female fertility. Attention has been drawn to the contribution of the gut microbiota in the development of obesity. Psychosocial and psychiatric consequences of obesity are also increasingly recognized.
The prevalence of obesity is rising rapidly. Overweight and obesity are comparable to a global pandemic because, as estimated by the World Health Organization, obesity and related diseases are associated with an annual social cost between 4 and 10% of public health expenditure. The global economic impact of obesity is approximately 2.8% of global Gross Domestic Product, reflecting the fact that obesity places a burden on both developed and developing economies. Social inequality, which has its reflection on nutritional disparities, is the common basis of infectious diseases and degenerative non-communicable diseases. The poorest societies present the highest rate of malnutrition and in the meantime obesity-related metabolic diseases, because it is allowed to buy cheap, but high-calorie and low nutritional quality food. High-income populations suffer from obesity due to nutritional transition towards processed foods, with low health indexes, and lifestyle changes.
Criticality of the quality of the diet can be a cause or prevention of obesity. Several behavioral and environmental factors, representing the obesogenic environments, have contributed to the long-term increase in obesity rates and related diseases, including the widespread availability of high-energy foods, ultra-processed foods, and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. Features of the food environment have varying associations with obesity. Improving the quality of the diet while reducing the environmental impact is a fundamental objective at a global level. Adherence to different healthy and sustainable dietary criteria could be a solution. Food quality and quantity are essential to improve health, nutrition and food security. Metrics linking diet quality and sustainability should include food quality and waste. A strategy is urgently needed to prevent and control obesity. The effects of diet compounds on metabolic pathways related to obesity is currently under investigation, and it is leading the traditional nutritional counselling to a more complex approach based on –omic sciences, opening a new perspective on nutrition science.
In particular, this Research Topic will consider Original Research, Short Communications, and Reviews based on, but not limited to, the following aspects:
- Obesity phenotypes
- Obesity prevention and weight maintenance
- Weight loss strategy, and body weight control
- Nutrigenetic, Nutrigenomic, and Nutripegenomic approach in dietotherapy
- Personalized nutrition
- Sustainable Diet in management of obesity
- Metabolic food waste
- Food environment and obesity
- Role of microbiota in obesity
- Psycobioma and obesity
Obesity has become one of our major global health and economic problems. Overweight and obesity cause more deaths worldwide than underweight. Obesity is a disease defined as excessive of body fat, presenting health risks because of adiposopathy, sustained by adipocyte hypertrophy, visceral adiposity and/or ectopic fat deposition and the secretion of a plethora of proinflammatory cytokines. The adiposopathy determines the dysregulation of the metabolic pathways, leading to atherosclerosis, hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis, obstructive sleep apnea, symptoms of breathlessness and asthma, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, hyperandrogenemia in women and hypoandrogenemia/hyperestrogenemia in men, and cancer. Obesity is associated with many adverse maternal and fetal effects prenatally, but it also exerts a negative influence on female fertility. Attention has been drawn to the contribution of the gut microbiota in the development of obesity. Psychosocial and psychiatric consequences of obesity are also increasingly recognized.
The prevalence of obesity is rising rapidly. Overweight and obesity are comparable to a global pandemic because, as estimated by the World Health Organization, obesity and related diseases are associated with an annual social cost between 4 and 10% of public health expenditure. The global economic impact of obesity is approximately 2.8% of global Gross Domestic Product, reflecting the fact that obesity places a burden on both developed and developing economies. Social inequality, which has its reflection on nutritional disparities, is the common basis of infectious diseases and degenerative non-communicable diseases. The poorest societies present the highest rate of malnutrition and in the meantime obesity-related metabolic diseases, because it is allowed to buy cheap, but high-calorie and low nutritional quality food. High-income populations suffer from obesity due to nutritional transition towards processed foods, with low health indexes, and lifestyle changes.
Criticality of the quality of the diet can be a cause or prevention of obesity. Several behavioral and environmental factors, representing the obesogenic environments, have contributed to the long-term increase in obesity rates and related diseases, including the widespread availability of high-energy foods, ultra-processed foods, and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. Features of the food environment have varying associations with obesity. Improving the quality of the diet while reducing the environmental impact is a fundamental objective at a global level. Adherence to different healthy and sustainable dietary criteria could be a solution. Food quality and quantity are essential to improve health, nutrition and food security. Metrics linking diet quality and sustainability should include food quality and waste. A strategy is urgently needed to prevent and control obesity. The effects of diet compounds on metabolic pathways related to obesity is currently under investigation, and it is leading the traditional nutritional counselling to a more complex approach based on –omic sciences, opening a new perspective on nutrition science.
In particular, this Research Topic will consider Original Research, Short Communications, and Reviews based on, but not limited to, the following aspects:
- Obesity phenotypes
- Obesity prevention and weight maintenance
- Weight loss strategy, and body weight control
- Nutrigenetic, Nutrigenomic, and Nutripegenomic approach in dietotherapy
- Personalized nutrition
- Sustainable Diet in management of obesity
- Metabolic food waste
- Food environment and obesity
- Role of microbiota in obesity
- Psycobioma and obesity
