Tell-it-all talk shows. Mature subject matter on cable television. The portrayal of children as know-it-alls and parents as numskulls in commercials and sitcoms and some movies. The Internet and smart phones and their oh-so dangerous offspring: social media.

In roughly two minutes, I created the list above as ammunition for my assertion that it's harder now than ever to parent effectively. If you're a parent, the statement is so apparent, you're probably wondering why I even bothered.To show a similarity to something else.If you're overweight or obese, something else is equally as evident: that it's harder now than ever to reach and maintain a healthy body weight.Never-ending, always enticing advertising. All-hours access to fast food. Sedentary jobs. Sedentary lifestyles. A notion that sleep is for the weak and slugging energy drinks makes you strong.Again, the list came to me in no time. And again, if you're above your target weight, you're probably wondering why I even bothered.I bothered because there's a less-than obvious item that needs to be added to the list, one that you may not know or - like me - gave short shrift.Obesogens, also called endocrine disruptors, can alter your hormone production, slowing your metabolism, increasing your production of fat cells, and making it easier to gain and tougher to lose weight.Air pollution, second-hand cigarette smoke, detergents, personal-care products, cosmetics, canned foods, plastic bottles and containers, mattresses, pillows, and computers all contain chemicals considered obesogens. Now what needs to be determined is to how large a part do they play in the obesity epidemic?Two University of California Irvine researchers at the forefront of obesogen research, Felix Grun, PhD, Associate Project Scientist and Academic Coordinator, and Bruce Blumberg, PhD, Developmental and Cell Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Biomedical professor, summarize their study published online by the Endocrine Society last July this way: "The existence of chemical obesogens in and of themselves suggests that the prevailing paradigm, which holds that diet and decreased physical activity alone are the causative triggers for the burgeoning epidemic of obesity, should be reassessed."In a U.S. News & World Report article, Dr. John Molot, a physician at the Environmental Health Clinic at Women's College Hospital in Toronto, calls diet and exercise the "major players," but believes "there are many chemicals in the environment that make you gain weight and make it more difficult to lose weight." In a video produced for his website, fitness consultant Will Brink, author of Fat Loss Revealed, Bodybuilding Revealed, and dozens of health-and-fitness magazine articles, says the research linking obesogens to obesity is only "indirect" in humans, but "solid" in animal research.A 2002 study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine epitomizes that solid animal research. In it, Paula Baille-Hamilton cites studies beginning in the 1970s that show low-level chemical exposures in experimental animals produced weight gain. Research later done by Grun and Blumberg found that giving tributyltin (TBT) - a toxic chemical used in paper mills, wood preservation, and disinfecting cooling industrial water - to pregnant mice resulted in heavier offspring than those not exposed.An interesting side note: The impetus for the duo to study TBT came from learning of sex reversal in fish inhabiting waters contaminated by the chemical.Probably the best known of the obesogens, bisphenol A (BPA) - found in some medical devices, cash register receipts, and the linings of canned foods - creates eventual obesity in a roundabout way: by reducing the number of total fat cells but programing those remaining to accpet more fat. As a result, the progeny of laboratory animals exposed to BPA are relatively light at birth but become fat and glucose intolerant as they age.Earlier in the article, I revealed that I originally gave obesogens the "short shrift." That's because I refuse to believe that modern man is fated to be fat. Neither does Blumberg.In a 2012 article written by Wendee Holtcamp for Environmental Health Perspectives, Blumberg states, "I would not want to say that obesogen exposure takes away free will or dooms you to be fat. However, it will change your metabolic set points for gaining weight."If you have more fat cells and propensity to make more fat cells, and if you eat the typical high-carbohydrate, high-fat diet we eat [in the United States], you probably will get fat."So here's your saving grace for thriving in modern society: limiting your exposure to obesogens and following my long-standing advice of eating a diet high in high-quality protein and complex carbs that limits simple carbs and fat. The combo should keep you from joining the ranks of the more than two-thirds of American adults who are overweight, half of which meet the most often used definition for obesity: a Body Mass Index of 30 or more.And though few people think of themselves as obese, you'd be surprised how easy it is to have a BMI of 30-plus. For instance, if you stand 5-9 and weigh 203 pounds or more, you've joined the not-so-select club.Contact Kevin Kolodziejski by email at

kolo@ptd.net