# Linoleic acid: newest culprit on gaining weight

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linoleic-acid-newest-culprit-on-gaining-weight/637864>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 16, 2012, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linoleic-acid-newest-culprit-on-gaining-weight/637864 "2012-10-16T09:37:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linoleic-acid-newest-culprit-on-gaining-weight/637864/21 "2012-10-17T10:33:09Z")

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> [@dtilque](#):
>
> It’s possible that certain foods, or rather an excess of them and linoleic acid may be one of them, do mess up the bodies “off switch”. Another is artificial sweeteners, which confuse the appetite on/off switch because it expects sweet foods to have a certain amount of energy. There have been studies showing that people who consume artificial sweeteners (especially diet soft drinks) tend to gain more weight than those who don’t.

No, I think it was more a matter of psychology. Too many people are conditioned from birth to finish everything put in front of them, whether or not they’re hungry. Too many are conditioned to eat at specific times, whether or not they’re hungry. Too many people are conditioned to always eat large meals when their actual hunger might make a large snack more appropriate. Too many people eat for comfort, to fill some emotional lack in their life.

Looking at _just_ the food is taking a mechanistic approach that ignores there’s an emotional human being in the mix.

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**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linoleic-acid-newest-culprit-on-gaining-weight/637864/22 "2012-10-17T16:33:12Z")

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Another look at the typical Western diet was done in the 30s by a [dentist](http://www.amazon.ca/Nutrition-Physical-Degeneration-Weston-Andrew/dp/0879838167/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1350491545&sr=1-1http://) who wanted to research what people did right to keep thier teeth vice what they do wrong. His take was basically that high sugar processed food bad, real food good. A shocker then and a shocker now…

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**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linoleic-acid-newest-culprit-on-gaining-weight/637864/23 "2012-10-18T15:00:03Z")

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There are some interesting parallels between these nutrition and the election threads. You know how some jump all over a single poll by a single polling firm as being highly meaningful and others by more attention to the aggregate of the information weighted intelligently ala 538 and others? Reacting to one small study looking at one nutritional component in isolation in mice by one lab rather than evaluating a whole context of information is like that.

Really. As noted this is not so complex. Standard Western diet, high in calories, highly refined carbs, fats, salts, nitrates, low in fiber, low in omega 3s, big in serving sizes, bad. Almost anything else better.

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