A single gene controls the amount of adipose tissue in worms, insects and mice

[eridani]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6977423.stm

The University of Texas team manipulated the gene, called adipose, to alter the amount of fat tissue laid down by fruit flies, worms and mice.

If the same effect could be achieved in humans, which also carry the gene, it is hoped it could lead to new ways to fight obesity and diabetes.

The study is published in the journal Cell Metabolism.

Lead researcher Dr Jonathan Graff said: "From worms to mammals, this gene controls fat formation.

"It could explain why so many people struggle to lose weight, and suggests an entirely new direction for developing medical treatments that address the current epidemic of diabetes and obesity.

[bananas]

1. What about the flies that are always buzzing around garbage cans?

They get fat if the garbage in is more than the garbage out.

[eridani]

3. Well, my skin gets very much darker if I spend a lot of time outdoors

It's pretty light when I'm indoors most of the time. That must mean that black people are really white people who spend too much time in the sun.

[Warpy]

4. If only it were that simple

It's not.

You'll find out, sooner or later.

[bananas]

6. I was being sarcastic.

[bread_and_roses]

2. now, now, don't you know, weight control is a simple matter of self-control?

...at least according to some here, last time there was a major thread on the topic. That such a simplistic view leaves a multitude of questions unanswered does not faze them in the least. Including the question of why a fortunate sub-set, of which I am lucky enough to be one, have to eat about twice as much as "normal" just to maintain weight - even given an almost totally sedentary life-style and a rather high-fat diet. I'd also like to see the effect on obesity of getting the over-load of anti-antibiotics and other additives given to farm animals out of our food supply.

[Warpy]

5. Getting the trash out of our diet will have little effect

as I know from bitter personal experience. Cutting calories doesn't work, either, since those of us who have been programmed for obesity just end up getting sick, not getting fashionably thin.

Something else is at work besides lax morals, people. It's time to drop the attitude and realize there is a reason over 90% of people who lose weight by any method--including surgery--gain it all back within 5 years.

Concentrating on stupid morality issues has set us back many years on understanding the mechanisms that could lead to a real treatment. Nobody wants to be obese. If it were a question of simple math or morals, nobody would be.

[bread_and_roses]

7. I am in 100% agreement with you

My comment on the antibiotic and other additive (growth hormone, I think is one?) residue in our food is not meant to lay that burden on any individual. I do wonder if it is not altering our own biochemistry - there must be some reason that there are so many instances now of girls, for instance, showing signs of entering puberty at so young an age, contributing, possiblily, to increased obesity? Don't know, I'm not a nutritionist, but I DO know that much more than "will power" or the thinly disguised "moral failing" arguements of the "calories in/calories out" crew here is at work. I have always believed that weight problems are more genetic and/or biochemical than food habits for many, if not most.