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| Yes | 18% | 141 votes | Total: 803 votes | |
| No | 82% | 662 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesOver the last decades, many theories have been developed and thrown over when it comes to explaining obesity. Thereby, a variety of angles have been used to tackle the problem - from an over - supply of energy, an under - supply of excercise, different macro - nutrients or foods to blame, to an inflammation caused by bacteria. The problem of most of these theories is not only that of little statistical support. Often, these explanations are impossible to test so they don't qualify for a scientific explanation in the first place.
Surely, one needs to differentiate between the usual overweight that occurs over a lifetime, the change in body composition that accompanies aging, and the concept of "obesity". Obesity is (at the moment) mainly defined by the statistical fact of being much heavier than one should be - given the average in a society.
This rather soft definition accounts for the fact that we still don't really know what obesity causes. However - the most likely cause for it is, I believe, rooted in genetics because up to today most of the major dis-functions of a human body have been found to be caused by differences in the way the genetic code is written or activated.
Moreover and unfortunately, the social mobility amongst the classes in a society is still extremely low - meaning that the correlation between being poor and being obese is also well explained by genetic heredity: A poor individual is more likely to be obese, and more likely to build a family together with a partner from the same background. The "genetic pools" between poor and rich groups in a society are less shared than within the social classes - obesity therefore stays, statistically, in the genetic pool of the poor rather than the rich and therefore causes a higher rate of obesity amongst them.
Not only that but also the history of the different societies (for example the American versus the Japanese) shows that the problems (such as famines and epidemics) that have been encountered and that have filtered the individuals that survived caused variations in the genetic and epigenetic make up between these groups. This might well explain the differences in the appearance of obesity amongst different societies. Another example for the difference in genetic make up and the impact this has on the human metabolism is the marked difference in lactose tolerance, or the ability to digest alcohol.
The sum of the evidence and the overall absence of any alternative explanation so robust let me vote in favour for "blaming" genetics for the obesity epidemic.
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No
Ever since genetic research discovered correlative links to obesity, many obese Americans have tried to blame their genetics for being overweight, indicating their condition is beyond their control.
However, this belies the obesity rate of prior generations: never in American history has our obesity rate been as high as it is today, and it continues to grow at a rate faster than any time in human history. If genetics indeed had the ability to produce obesity beyond one's control, then we would have seen similar proportions of obese Americans in past generations.
But even over the past 15-20 years, we have seen a dramatic change in obesity rates. As of 1991, CDC data showed that only five states had an obesity rate higher than 15%, and in none of those cases did the rate exceed 20%. But by 2003, no state had an obesity rate lower than 15%, 36 of the 50 states had an obesity rate of at least 20%, and obesity rates in four states exceeded 25%. If genetics were a prime culprit, then obesity rates would have remained mostly steady during this period. While genes can mutate in a short period (and typically, the end result is a fatal disease such as cancer), genetic conditions need several lifetimes to develop.
If genetic changes were a legitimate factor, changes in obesity rates within different age groups would vary, since older individuals obviously wouldn't have the conditions that younger ones would develop. But CDC data shows a uniform increase in obesity rates for every age group.
Given this consistency, the cause likely comes from recent cultural trends:
- Americans are less active than in recent years. Many schools have scrapped physical education. The advances in home theater systems, video game systems and cable plus satellite TV, plus the rise of the internet, encouraged Americans to shed more active hobbies for comfortable hobbies that allow them to sit at home. The sedantary lifestyle slows metabolisms and promotes fat gain.
- The rise of suburban housing tracts, with distant but centralized commercial centers, has fewer Americans walking and more Americans driving to get around. We live in an age of comfort zones, and many Americans generally seek easy choices that requires the least effort by default. The less you physically do, the slower your metabolism moves and the fewer calories you burn. More of what you eat gets stored as fat, which makes it easier to gain weight.
- Americans eat more processed and fast food than ever before. Home delivery of various foods is more accessible than ever before. Stores sell processed foods for cheap, and eating these costs less and takes less time to prepare than natural, healthier foods. Processed foods contain concentrated sugars and other junk that disrupt metabolism. Single servings of fast foods contain an unhealthy amount of saturated fat and trans-fats. These compound the body's struggle to maintain a healthy weight.
The real key cause of obesity, no matter what other peripheral factors are at play, is that you take in more calories than your body expends. Americans live a cultural lifestyle more sedentary than any generation that preceded us, thanks to advances in technology plus an abundance of convenient processed foods that promote weight gain. Thus we can't blame genetics for our obesity epidemic. Historical evidence does not support it, and there is plenty of basic evidence that other, more direct factors within our control causes it.
Learn more about this author, Steven Gomez.
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