Obesity Is largely genetic (solution, speech, dollar, high school)
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Obesity is not genetic, or at least not mostly. Our genetic makeup hasn't changed in any meaningful way over the last few generations, yet obesity rates have skyrocketed as our portion sizes have increased, outdoor recreation time has gone down, and we've become best friends with the couch and television. For everyone who says that obesity is genetic, I say look at Japan. You're hard pressed to find overweight locals there. In fact, the only obese people I've seen in Japan were non-Japanese.
Last month we were on a tour in Europe. Our group consisted of one-third Australians and two-thirds Americans. The Aussies were wrinkled, as a result of many of us having Northern European heritage combined with our very strong sun and outdoor lifestyle (thus a combination of genetics, environment and lifestyle) The Americans were mostly very large. Possibly some genetics involved but surely mostly lifestyle. The largest had to have golf cart type transport in order to see some of the sights as they could not walk to them. Vicious circle, as not enough exercise is possible.
But here is Sydney (and I expect it is true in many places) the wealthiest parts of the city have the thinnest people and the poorest have the most overweight. I doubt if it is because of genetic factors.
Last month we were on a tour in Europe. Our group consisted of one-third Australians and two-thirds Americans. The Aussies were wrinkled, as a result of many of us having Northern European heritage combined with our very strong sun and outdoor lifestyle (thus a combination of genetics, environment and lifestyle) The Americans were mostly very large. Possibly some genetics involved but surely mostly lifestyle. The largest had to have golf cart type transport in order to see some of the sights as they could not walk to them. Vicious circle, as not enough exercise is possible.
But here is Sydney (and I expect it is true in many places) the wealthiest parts of the city have the thinnest people and the poorest have the most overweight. I doubt if it is because of genetic factors.
Completely agree. And I experienced the phenomenon when I lived in Sydney myself back in 2013.
Note, contrast to my Japan example (I've spent 2+ weeks in Japan so far this year between), my Taiwan vacation in October revealed a completely different story. I was stunned by the level of obesity that I saw throughout Taiwan. No, it's not like in the states, but it was alarming all the same, especially compared to neighboring Japan. But, then again, the foodie that I am, the differences in diets, portion sizes, etc., between the standard Japanese meal and the standard Taiwanese meal are also pretty significant.
My 0.02.
Some people (like Polynesians) do have a genetic tendency to gain fat more easily. The reason that they did not have many obese people amongst them was because people everywhere had diets and eating habits specific to them, which kept them healthy. In today's world, not many people stick to their traditional diets and eating habits, and this causes obesity in the more vulnerable populations.
It helped me a lot when I began to consider that 80-90% of what is sold in a supermarket is not actual food.
Cereals, cooking oils, snacks, sodas, and so forth are manufactured with your taste buds in mind. The manufacturers use either salt or sugar to create a short term (salt) or even a long term (sugar) addiction.
Oftentimes, obesity is an indication of an addiction, and most sources show that obesity shortens life. How could something that shortens life be a survivor of evolution?
For the WWII pictures you have to remember that something like 25% of draftees reported for induction and were found to be suffering from malnutrition with over 10% so bad they were rejected, especially early in the War (one reason the school meals program was instituted after the end of the War)..
Do you have a link to support this claim?
These young men were children during an unusual period of food scarcity, the great depression.
For Mike's comment to the NYT, I'm guessing that they don't want videos attached to submissions. Do they reserve the right to edit comments?
We don’t have enough info about OP to agree or disagree. We don’t know what he/she eats.
I will say though that my niece has two thin children and one fat one. They were all raised the same with the same diet. My daughter has three children, two are thin and one is fat. They also were raised the same and had the same diets. In both cases the fat kids were very active in sports as children. Interesting, to me, is that they both were the third of 3 children. Maybe there’s a pattern of being less strict of what #3 eats? Now they are in their 20s and are no longer active, so the weight is even worse.
You have to wonder if there is a genetic component. My maternal grandmother was plump and so were a few of her sisters. Otherwise there were no fat relatives that I know of.
Interesting that you bring up the 3rd child scenario.
I am the third child and if you look back at photos from when I was very young, I was a porker compared to my two older brothers. Luckily I was able to shed that weight very early (during elementary school) and I remained very thin up until my 2nd pregnancy (size 0 to size 4).
My two older brothers cannot gain weight. My oldest has tried hard over the years but he just can't. He is rail thin. I, on the other hand (after the 2nd pregnancy), have to be very mindful of what I eat and how active I am. Add to the mix no thyroid, menopause and some autoimmune diseases and it makes it much more difficult to lose and maintain my weight. I also believe that I do take more after my Dad's side of the family while my two older brothers take after my Mom's side of the family. So I do believe there is a genetic component to it but it is not the main factor.
So I think the BIGGEST factor in whether or not someone has the propensity to gain a lot of weight comes down to how many fat cells one generates while they are very young. Like you stated above, by the time the 3rd child comes around, many parents become much more lenient. I probably was just given anything to keep me quiet lol! I also wonder how much breast feeding versus formula feeding (and for how long) attributes to the amount of fat cells that one generates during that period. So thanks Mom and Dad
I think that our bodies and health are complex and affected by pretty much everything, not just any one thing.
It is absolutely not ~just~ the food we eat. If it were, I'd be obese. I hate all vegetables, love carbs and sugar, and do not in any way restrict or control or monitor my diet. I eat what I want. The areas where I might be doing alright... I do take vitamins, I do make sure I get enough fiber, I lost my taste for carbonated drinks decades ago, I have never consumed alcohol, and I don't overeat. Because I was not raised with that "clean your plate!" thing and I am a picky eater, I eat until I feel comfortably sated and then I stop. If the food will reheat well, I save it, if not, I waste it, and I don't care what anyone thinks about that.
My weight has been in a healthy range my entire life and my blood work is good. And weirdly I am actually subclinical hypothyroid so you would think I'd struggle with weight gain but I don't. And all women in both sides of my family gained a bunch of weight after having kids and I had two and did not. What causes any of this for me? I don't know. I don't exercise much if at all.
I'm not complaining, but I have no idea how any of this works.
Other than to suspect that a variety of factors come into play. Genetics, including not only the known family members but possible recessive gene expression (I do resemble a few relatives from way back in the family tree, like 100+ years ago.) Yes, diet and exercise play a role. Also hormones, as in thyroid problems, birth control, perimenopause and menopause, pregnancy and stress hormones and probably other issues beyond what I know off the top of my head. High chronic stress levels are strongly correlated with obesity and other health issues. And various drugs can affect your weight, whether prescription ones or recreational/habit ones. I am a smoker. And the last time I made a serious effort to quit, I started to rapidly put on some weight. It didn't go too far because I wasn't able to stick with my resolve to quit, but I think that in order to make it work I will have to adopt a daily exercise routine or I'm going to have a problem. Hell, our gut biome, the other microorganisms that call our bodies home...that has an effect as well. Do you get quality sleep? Do you drink enough water? It all matters.
I think that traditional Western medicine has a problem of wanting us to look at our health in too simplistic and granular a way. Like our bodies are not separate systems operating independently of one another, we are not even just one organism operating independently of other organisms, truly. Lots of things are connected and influence and affect one another and the whole.
... For Mike's comment to the NYT, I'm guessing that they don't want videos attached to submissions. Do they reserve the right to edit comments?
The NY Times does not edit comments, none of mine have ever been edited. But they do decide which ones to publish and a lot of my comments never see the light of day on their paper. Only a few articles even allow comments, unlike the WaPo which allows comments on virtually all articles with no moderation save for a foul language filter and obits are usually not open to comments.
NY Times has several categories of comments: All; Reader's Picks; NY Times Picks; and NY Times Replies. The first two are always there if an article allows comments. I haven't seen "NY Times Picks" for a long time, I suspect they've stopped the practice, but I still see a few uses of the NY Times Replies where the author of a column will reply to certain comments.
Both the WaPo and NY Times allow subscribers ten 'gift' links per month. For key articles that support my posts here I will get a gift link and post it here for anyone who wants to get past the paywalls and read an article. Many of the NY Times articles have some of the best graphics in the business. Sometimes I can find an MSN link for an article in publications such as these two newspapers or The Atlantic magazine (paywall, no gift links).
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