Obesity and Genetics
Yesterday I ran across a nice article in the New York Times, which is an excerpt from Gina Kolata's new book, Rethinking Thin. I'd heard the odd reference to fifty-year-old research from Jules Hirsch, a physician at Rockefeller University, that strongly correlated (70 percent-strong!) ( Read more... )
The problem with accepting what The Experts say is that The Experts have good advice for the middle 60% of the Bell Curve. Another 20% can probably get away with it. That advice is probably wrong for the 10% at both ends of said curve.
Having one side of my family filled with people constantly fighting weight issues, and another branch fighting mood disorders, I have come to believe that anything you can ingest should be viewed as a pharmaceutical of some sort. It will make you feel better, worse, or nothing. It will affect your blood pressure, trigger hormone and endocrine responses, adrenaline responses, and all sorts of fun stuff.
I know people who overeat for the endorphin rush it causes. I know other people who over-exercise (IMO) for the same result. I know folks who have thyroid issues who have a horrible time controlling their weight, and who can't convince their doctors to increase the medication, because they're in the 'normal' range on tests.
I have a son, age 14, who eats a wheat-free diet due to allergy issues; he eats three meals a day, plus ice cream at night, yet is 5'6" tall (pushing 5'7") and weighs 85 pounds. If he were deliberately undereating, we'd call him anorexic. His doctor says he's fine. (I think the doctor likes having a data point that is at the other end of the Bell Curve, but that's a side issue.)
The bottom line is that every person has similar biology, but not *identical* biology. What works for me is not necessarily going to work for someone else. What's normal for me won't be normal for everyone.
My problem with people who are obese is that they aren't listening to their own bodies. They aren't paying attention to what happens when they eat different foods. They are trusting The Experts, when that clearly isn't working for them.
Yeah, it's not fair. I know that. You try telling a 7 yo that he can't have birthday cake because he's allergic to the wheat; it's no fun.
But it's necessary, for overall good health. Every person has to figure out their own, personal weird diet that keeps themselves healthy and relatively mentally stable, because as much as Western medicine wants us all to be standard-issue robots, we aren't.
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