Is Obesity Thrifty or Drifty? - Facts So Romantic
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Over 72 million Americans are obese—a condition associated with a plethora of negative health outcomes including diabetes, cancer, and heart problems. But Americans’ eating habits aren’t obesity’s only cause, and we’ve suspected as much for a long time now. In 1932, the California Medical Association noted that “the inborn disposition to obesity may be very complex in its nature…many persons grow fat though they eat less than do other persons of the same sex, age, and height who do not fatten; and many grow thin on diets that suffice to maintain normal weight in others who seem equivalent.” Obesity, like many medical conditions, is partly in the genes. But why would the human genome be speckled with genes that contribute to obesity? Two leading theories seeking to explain the genetic origins (...)