The Science of Eating

TEDxSMU speaker explains why burgers may be more dangerous for men than women

It’s no secret that the United States has an obesity problem, which has been brought on by decades of high-fat, high-sugar diets. Dr. Deborah Clegg from Cedars-Sinai Diabetes & Obesity Research Institute in Los Angeles, one of the speakers at TEDxSMU at Dallas City Performance Hall on November 1, has been working for years on obesity-related studies.

Her talk will focus on a variety of subjects, including a recent study in mice that showed male and female brains respond remarkably differently to fatty foods, and those differences in the brain lead to greater inflammation and increased health risks in males. The bottom line: High-fat meals could be more harmful to men than women, and diets and drugs recommended to manage obesity may need to be sex-specific to be more effective.

“The way we treat patients and provide dietary and nutritional advice should be altered,” Clegg has said. “We might be less concerned about an occasional hamburger for women, but for men we might more strongly encourage avoidance, especially if they have pre-existing diseases such as heart disease or type 2 diabetes.”

In advance of her lecture, Clegg took the time to answer some of our burning questions.

CultureMap Dallas: Can you give us a preview of your TED talk?

Dr. Deborah Clegg: It will be about passions, pursuit of dreams, crazy twists and turns that our lives take, and what I have learned along the way. There will also be take-home messages about how and where fat is stored in our body and its health consequences, like how fats in our diet trick our brain, causing us to eat too much and not be full.

CM: How did you first become interested in this line of work and these kinds of studies?

DC: This is the key message in my TED talk. I began this research years ago by an “oops,” where I picked up the wrong sex of rat to do my studies. My findings were completely opposite of what we expected; when we discovered that I had gotten the “wrong” sex, it opened my eyes to the fact that males and females are not the same.

Much research needs to focus on female metabolism, because 99.9 percent of all research is done in males.

CM: What is it about mice that leads scientists to believe that the reactions of their bodies are similar to humans?

DC: Most of the genes in humans are also found in mice, making them an excellent model to study. The experiments I performed were in the brain, and even though those studies can’t be performed at the moment in humans, they tell us about how the brain influences metabolism, the heart and diabetes.

CM: Do you see any danger in stating that female brains have a “force field” around them that protects them from fat and sugar? Some might use that as an excuse to eat whatever they want.

DC: It isn’t an excuse: Females are different from males. Females will gain weight by eating foods that are high in calories, but they won’t be as unhealthy as males when they eat the same foods.

The message is important: Women can occasionally eat foods that are bad, and we will gain weight, but that weight gain won’t cause as much damage to our metabolism as if men eat foods that are bad. This is important research since it begins tell us that we need to design therapies based on sex instead of a one-size-fits-all approach.

CM: Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the eating habits of Americans, and do you think that studies like yours can have an impact on how we eat?

DC: I am neither optimistic nor pessimistic; it is what it is. People are eating too much and not exercising enough. We have an obesity epidemic, and we have a healthcare crisis, and the current message to the consumer isn’t working. People are gaining more and more weight and getting more and more unhealthy, so knowledge is key and important.

The more we know about how men and women process foods, the more we can develop therapies to help them improve their health.

CM: What do you hope anyone who attends your TED talk will get out if it?

DC: Males and females are different. Research needs to be done in both sexes, and it currently is not. How and where we store fat is key, as is how it talks to our brains. The more we learn, the better we will be able to help folks who struggle with their health and diet.

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Eco Warrior News

Dallas restaurants doing amazing little things for the environment

Southwest Airlines

Cute bamboo cup from Southwest Airlines

One unfortunate legacy left by the pandemic has been a huge increase in the use of plastics — setting back progress that was being made pre-pandemic.

Plastics are bad. They harm everything they touch: the environment, health, food security, and economies. But they're convenient, subsidized, and in some cases necessary.

Before the pandemic, a growing awareness had started to snowball regarding the negative impact of plastics, particularly plastic straws and single-use plastic containers — and it was significant enough to make the plastics industry very nervous.

"In the two years leading up to the pandemic, the public backlash against plastic was a major concern for industry leaders," says a story about plastics and the pandemic in The Guardian. "As a corporate executive remarked during an industry event early in 2019: 'We need to get the image of plastic in oceans out of the public’s mind. Otherwise, we could lose our social license to operate.'"

But then the pandemic came along, igniting mass hysteria about contagion, and suddenly, bans on single-use plastics that had been in the works were reversed in countries around the world: North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

“Overnight, plastics went from public enemy No. 1 to consumers asking for everything to have as much packaging as possible and to be single use," said one gleeful analyst for Shell Oil, who are a major plastics player.

The urgency of the plastics situation remains invisible to most people, lined up at the drive-thru for their coffee or Chick-Fil-A, piling up nearly 250 pounds of plastic waste every year. (That's what the average American amasses — more than any other country.)

But there are brave, pro-environment efforts being made by Dallas companies and organizations, big and small.

La Casita Bakeshop cup Revolutionary compostable cup at La Casita Bakeshop.Facebook

Dallas efforts
The Dallas restaurants and organizations listed below have taken steps to fight waste, even though it costs them money.

Plastic Free Lunch Day is November 22
Dallas ISD’s Food and Child Nutrition Services will participate in Plastic Free Lunch Day on November 22, to help reduce the amount of single-use plastic in school cafeterias.

Plastic Free Lunch Day was started by middle school students in Brooklyn. The initiative was such a success that it was adopted by all New York City public schools in 2022. The concept has since spread to public schools across the country — including Dallas ISD, which was the first in Texas to participate, when it joined up in 2022.

It creates an opportunity to educate students and the community on ways to positively impact the environment, including skipping plastic. Dallas school cafeterias will replace the plastic items they regularly use during lunch with biodegradable alternatives. (Plastic cutlery, cups, and straws will be available upon request for the crybabies.)

Southwest Airlines bamboo cup
Southwest Airlines Co., the Dallas-based airline, has introduced a new bamboo cup for inflight cold beverages, and a wood stir stick in place of a plastic stick. The airline expects the new items to reduce its inflight single-use plastics by more than 1.5 million pounds annually.

In July 2024, Southwest transitioned to a paper overwrap for its napkins made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled materials — fully eliminating plastic from this service item. The airline is making an effort to eliminate single-use plastics from inflight service by 2030.

La Casita Bakeshop compostable cups
La Casita Bakeshop, the award-winning bakery and cafe operation, recently debuted fabulous new cups that are 100 percent compostable, soil- and marine-biodegradable, breaking down naturally after 90 days, and made from natural materials.

"We are always trying to find ways to be more environmentally friendly and this is a big way we can," they said in their post announcing the new cups. "We just want to be proud of our paper trail and being a restaurant it's hard to do that."

Smoothie King biodegradable cups
Smoothie King, the Dallas-based smoothie chain, previously used styrofoam cups, but began testing a biodegradable cup in 2019. They now offer it as the default choice. They're using Vio Foam, specially made cups that biodegrade 92 percent in four years. They'll still accommodate whiny selfish customers who insist on getting a plastic cup instead, but their Vio foam cup not only helps the environment, it also keeps their smoothies cold a little longer.

Kate Weiser Recycle Box Program
Kate Weiser, the Dallas chocolatier, sells its gorgeous eye-catching bon-bons in a variety of boxes, from 4 pieces all the way up to 35 pieces. (OK, they'll sell them individually, too, but who goes to a chocolate shop and buys a single chocolate?) They have a program where you can bring your empty box to the store and get a refill and get 5 percent off. (Weiser amusingly calls it a "secret hack.")

Dude Sweet Chocolate freezer packaging
Dude Sweet Chocolate, the Oak Cliff chocolatier, has a next-level campaign in which they will accept cold-ship packaging you've received in the mail and re-use it. Say, for example, that you ordered an 8-pack of ice cream pints from Double Rainbow in San Francisco, and it arrived in a box with freezer packs and a foil liner. You can drop that packaging off at Dude Sweet's factory location at 1340 Inwood Rd., and they'll re-use it in one way or another when they're doing shipments of their chocolate. They'll take not only the freezer packs but the boxes, too.

Restaurant Beatrice repurposing programs
Restaurant Beatrice, the Cajun restaurant in Oak Cliff, has an entire suite of programs that address climate and environmental issues. Including: Composting, Re-Purposing of Oil (They have continuously recycled their fryer oil to be re-used as bio-diesel), and Repurposing of Single-Use Items by encouraging guests to return their mason jars and bring their own re-usable to-go boxes to limit single-use containers.

Note: Whether you're putting it in the blue bin or the gray bin, your plastic is not being recycled. The best course when it comes to plastic, especially single-use plastic, is to not use it at all.

sustainability