Referencing William's comment about genetics not being written in stone:  Right.  But they are written in our DNA.  And they don't change in our lifetime.  You are the DNA you were born with.
   
  Nearly every study on obesity/diet and everything else health related has to answer the same questions:  what are the genetic components and what are the environmental components?  Recent research (past 10 years or so) is sending a lot of people who used to think in terms of the primacy of culture (nurture vs. nature) back to the drawing board.  Every day we have new information that is leading us to conclude more and more that these things depend far more on genetics than the environment (including diet).
   
  That is why some people can thrive on a diet that would repel most of us and why others can follow a strict diet (paleo for example) and not be able to lose weight.  There is no question that PCOS (poly-cystic ovarian syndrome) has a genetic cause and probably only a minute (if any) environmental factor link.  And there is growing evidence that susceptibility to Type II Diabetes is strongly genetically linked - even though it may be able to be prevented in genetically susceptible individuals with dietary control (or at least people like me are hopeful that that will be the case).  Surprising to most people is the fact that Type II Diabetes (a metabolic syndrome disease linked in the Taubes book to a diet of sugar and grain) is more genetically predictable than Type I Diabetes.  
   
  Theta's question - is it genes or food choices or both - can only be answered now with - well, we're not sure.  But everyday the evidence is mounting, pointing to the gene side of the equation.
   
  Many people rebel against that answer because it seems to take control away.  We respond - but I have free will!  Biology is not destiny!  
   
  Actually, I think biology is destiny ... if we choose to be ignorant of our own genes and what they have in store for us.  
   
  You cannot change your genes.   You can only seek to understand your genes and what they portend for your future.  And then you can work to control the environmental factors that interact with these genes to make for a better future.
   
  I am eating a far better diet today than I have ever eaten.  I have lost 50 pounds over the past 13 1/2 months and I am trying to lose another 30 pounds.  I can do all these things and still develop hypertension and Type II Diabetes as my mother did.  And I may still die of a heart attack at age 70 as my mother did.  
   
  But I'm not going down without a fight!
   
  gale <== waging a war against my genes and grateful for the paleo weaponry at my disposal.
   
  gale

Theta <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
  I wonder, readers, do you think that the family food choices passed from 
generation to generation might be involved here rather than or in 
addition to genetic material? I mean, in my family, at least 4 
generations ate more-or-less the same kinds of foods and recipes. Is 
this genetics or culture or both?

-=mark=-

L wrote:
> I am just reading about this in Taubes (good calories bad calories) 
> and he argues if I am understanding him correctly that obesity is 
> genetic.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Leonie
>
>
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