What Makes Us Fat?
Now there is the $60,000 question. And there seem to be just about as many answers.
The facts, stripped bare, are that we are fat because we eat too many calories in relation to the amount we expend. We take in too many, and use too few.
Gee, that makes me feel real good. How about you?
Genetics. Environment. Social group. These and more have their effects.
This from The Independent:
British scientists have discovered a gene that contributes to obesity. The research team, led by Professor Andrew Hattersley of the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, found a gene variant that regulates the amount of fat in the body. Those with the variant – around half of all Europeans – are on average 2.6lb heavier than those without it, while one in six Europeans carries two copies of the variant and is on average 7lb heavier. “We are eating more but doing less exercise, and so the average weight is increasing, but within the population some people seem to put on more weight, ” said Prof Hattersley. “Our findings suggest a possible answer to someone who might ask, ‘I eat the same and do as much exercise as my friend next door, so why am I fatter?’”
You can read an interesting article about friends and fat on The SpeechWriters Slant.
Environment goes without saying. All you have to do is to drive down the highway to see all of the billboards. Eating so that you don’t gain weight is not easy. It is hard work.
Let’s say that again. Eating so that you don’t gain weight is hard. Freaking hard. But we have to keep on keeping on.
Enough for now.
Namaste.