> He's saying the tendency toward obesity or leanness is shaped by
genetics
> (duh). I suppose this helps corporations because that will mean people
will
> just gorge themselves now instead of spending loads on diet products,
> exercise equipments, and gym membership. Yeah, that's contributing to
the
> bottom line! If he'd said something like obesity is ALL about eating
and
> exercise habits, something completely in control of the obese, then
his
> claims would obviously be resistant to corporate propaganda, hmmmm? I
think
> not. Obviously, if he'd said that his claims would be used to pedal
> low-carb --i cannot believe i saw this yesterday--flavored coffee
> 'creamer,' low-fat Happy Meals, exercise equipment, and gym
memberships.
I am not in a position to question a researcher who specializes in obesity, but the genetics claim comes as a surprise. Undoubtedly, genetic factors influence body mass to an extent, but how would one explain the unusually high concentration of overweight people in the US? After all, US-ers are of European descent so one would expect to find the European and US populations to be roughly similar in genetically transmitted traits.
Yet a trip to Europe tells otherwise, even to a casual observer. Not only there are fewer visibly overweight people in Europe, but those who are do not reach such extremes as many US specimens. So how can one explain the higher concentration of overweight people in the US?
I can only speculate that among the factors responsible for these higher obesity rates are televisions and automobile. TV watching is a sedentary activity to begin with, and US-ers watch more TV than Europeans. But more importantly, US TV is saturated with food and snack commercials - which stimulates craving for food. As a result, TV viewers tend to snack more while watching TV (more caloric intake) and burn fewer of these calories.
The automobile, in turn, almost entirely eliminated the need for walking - as a result US-sers tend to drive everywhere, even short distances, as opposed to Europeans who walk much more. Since driving, like TV watching is a sedentary activity - that means less exercise and calorie burning.
The end result is that US-sers eat more and engage in fewer calorie burning activities than Europeans.
As to your observation that eating is connected to stress, depression and emotional problems - I've read about that connection, but cannot remember the source. But it makes sense - since US-ers tend to be more alienated and alienation produces stress - that may provide an additional explanation of the high incidence of obese individuals in the US.
PS. I also heard that while breast cancer is very rare among Japanese women in Japan, it is much higher among those of them who live in the US. Genetics or the US lifestyles?
Wojtek