In a nutshell, you get fat if you take in more energy expenditure exceeds energy intake. If weight management were that simple, we wouldn’t be in the midst of an obesity epidemic. Researchers from the University of California, Irvine suggested that obesogens – environmental chemicals that alter cellular sensors controlling metabolic rate and food intake – interfere with energy balance and promote fat storage. These chemicals include environmental oestrogens – molecules that resemble the hormone oestrogen – and chemicals found in plastics or manufacturing by-products that interfere with the control of metabolism, appetite and weight management. Exposure to these chemicals during critical growth periods might condemn people to a

lifetime of obesity. Understanding and managing environmental oestrogens and obesogens is a major public health issue.