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It seems most of us Americans go on a diet or start exercising several times a year. Some of us even dabble in meditation. Nothing strange about this; we know being healthy is much better than the alternative. We get it!
That's why we keep starting over after failing time and time again. Scientific studies put the number of people who succeed at achieving their weight loss and health improvement goals at 8%. That is abysmally low.
Eventually, we can't help but look inward. We want to know exactly what it is that's stopping us on the road to good health. It can't be our fault - we did our best, darn it! We really tried! What's going on?
In our effort to absolve ourselves of responsibility, we scan the Internet for answers, and then, one day, we have our Aha Moment. Leave it to the omniscient media to give us the answer we've been looking for all along:
'Overweight? Maybe You Really Can Blame Your Genes' - New York Times
'Genes To Blame For Childhood Obesity' - Independent
'Are Fat Genes To Blame For Your Weight?' - Shape
On the surface, it looks like a plausible explanation. Scientists found that certain genes, such as FTO, PCSK1, MC4R, and dozens of others predispose us to obesity. It was a groundbreaking scientific discovery, no doubt, and it was right to be published.
However, those very same scientists were cautious with their conclusions (as they should have been): "... Evidence that obesity predisposing genes interact with the environment..." and "... Increasing number of genes linked to human obesity are being identified."
As you can see, nobody ever definitively stated that genes directly cause obesity. "Linked" and "predisposing" do not mean "cause."
There is a very small group of genes that actually cause obesity, and the science of genetics is very clear about it. When I studied medicine 65 million years ago, I swear, not more than a dozen of genetic obesity syndromes, such as Bardet-Biedl and Prader-Willi syndromes, were identified.
Recently, "the Canadian researchers have identified and cataloged 79 rare genetic syndromes where obesity is a key symptom." Kudos to scientific progress!
Even so, "the monogenic obesity syndromes are very rare, ... they may collectively represent only 0.5% of the obese population." Only one person in a million is affected.
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Unfortunately, most people do not read reputable scientific publications. They read tabloids and bogus websites, which treat facts like unwanted strangers. Indeed, these rags deliberately push exaggerations and lies because they're convenient and comforting for their readers who need scapegoats for their bad habits.
Science, on the other hand, is very clear about this issue: Every one of us has genes that predispose us to various diseases, such as obesity, cancer, diabetes, etc. However, that doesn't mean there's nothing we can do to prevent us from becoming obese, cancerous, or diabetic!
Some diseases undoubtedly arise spontaneously, but they are extremely rare. The more common occurrence is when bad habits over a long period of time work to suppress the good genes and turn on the bad ones.
When we bait our disease genes year after year, the consequences are predictable. Wanna smoke cigarettes every day? Hope you're ready for lung cancer! Participate in that steak-eating routine day in and day out? Here's to chest pain!
Just to demonstrate that our genes are being wrongfully accused of crimes they have not committed, let's go to North Korea. There's no other country on earth that proves so forcefully that it is nothing but our behavior and the kind of life we choose to have that lead to our weight problem.
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In no other country on Earth is the difference between its people and its leader so striking. From the photographs and videos that have managed to escape from the Hermit Kingdom, we can clearly see that every person is very lean. Every person, that is, except one: its supreme leader, Kim Jong-Un, also known as Kim Fatty the Third. He is so obese, Kim Jong-Un's ankles couldn't carry all that weight and broke.
Is he fat because he's the only carrier of obesity genes in a country of 25 million? Fat chance! Obesity is a life-style disease. And Kim Fatty the Third is obese because he's the only one who's allowed to eat as much as he wants. Pounds and pounds of Swiss cheese are smuggled into North Korea from Switzerland for the dear leader so he can pig out on the delicacy.
If one in 25 million ratio doesn't convince you, let's go to China circa 1970 - the glorious time of Cultural Revolution. China had about 1 billion people at that time, all uniformly lean... except on person. Can you guess who was it?
Mao Zedong, of course, the Chairman of the Communist Party and the ruthless dictator. He was the only person out of one billion people who had the privilege of the glut. Everybody else had no time for food indulgence: they either toiled in the reeducation camps or memorized his quotes ad nauseam. Like these two, in which he bashes Chinese intellectuals: "Swollen in head, weak in legs, sharp in tongue but empty in belly" and "To read too many books is harmful."
Listen up, people! Only 0.5% of us can blame the bad luck of bad genes and genetic syndromes for obesity.
On the other hand, 70% of us should blame the Butt-Glued-To-Couch and Can't-Stop-Overeating syndromes for our horizontal expansion.
Hang on a tick, almost forgot the most recent one: the Body-Acceptance syndrome. If the first two syndromes are relatively benign, the third one is uber militant, cantankerous, and is getting serious traction. It's going to inflict the most damage on humanity.
So, like it or not, obesity is on us. And it is up to us to rise from the couch and take a look around. There are so many ways to get in good physical and mental shape. Just chose the one you like and stick with it... for good.
P.S.
You might think that removing 'bad' genes from our genome will be a great idea. Alas, it is not, and the FTO obesity gene is a great example of it. If, for some reason, this gene is absent from our genome, we are in trouble because it is paramount for normal development.
"Complete FTO deficiency in humans is associated with an autosomal-recessive lethal syndrome including growth retardation, multiple malformations and premature death, indicating that FTO is essential for normal development of the central nervous and cardiovascular systems in human".
