Successful weight loss could be hampered by chemical compounds lurking in everyday products in your house,

https://www.livescience.com/61768-chemicals-food-wrappers-nonstick-pans-weight-gain.html

By Tereza Pultarova, Live Science Contributor | February 15, 2018

Successful weight loss could be hampered by chemical compounds lurking in everyday products in your house, a new study finds.

The study, published Feb. 13 in the journal PLOS Medicine, focused on a group of chemicals called perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFASs, that are sometimes referred to as "obesogens" because of their effects on weight.

PFASs have been used for more than 60 years in various industries — including in non-stick pans and food packaging — and have since contaminated water resources and made their way into the food chain, according to the study. For example, many shellfish contain the chemicals, said Qi Sun, assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and senior author of the study. But they can also leach into food from wrappers and can even enter a person's body through contact with treated carpets and textiles.

Previous studies have shown that PFASs have been linked to obesity, among other health problems, the study said.

"What we observed is that those chemicals … may determine how much weight people regain after dieting," Sun told Live Science. "More specifically, we found that higher levels of those chemicals [in a person's body] were associated with faster weight regain after dieting."

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Interestingly, the PFAS concentrations didn't affect the people's ability to lose weight, the study found. Once the trial ended, however, those with higher levels of PFASs in their system appeared to have a harder time keeping the pounds off, and the effect was worse in women. (The study, however, did not prove-and-effect; rather, it found an association between PFASs and weight gain.)

In addition, the researchers found that "PFAS levels were also associated with a lower resting metabolic rate," Sun said. "If you have a lower resting metabolic rate, your resting metabolism is slow, [so] you are not able to burn too much energy, [and] that's why you gain weight."

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In addition to weight gain, PFASs have been linked to a number of other conditions, including cancer, hormone disruption, high cholesterol and immune system dysfunction, according to the study.

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