Gina Kolata, experienced and prolific health and medical writer for the New York Times has written a controversial new book: “Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss--and the Myths and Realities of Dieting.” You can buy it here. Excerpts from the new best seller can be found in this NYT article.
In the article, Ms. Kolata summarizes an extensive study as follows: “In other words, being fat was an inherited condition.” She summarizes another study results by saying that “70 percent of the variation in peoples’ weights may be accounted for by inheritance, a figure that means that weight is more strongly inherited than nearly any other condition…”
You get the point. Ms. Kolata is almost saying that there is little that you can do about your weight—it’s in your genes.
Many of us feel that that is a vast over simplification and harmful to some extent because it provides a rationale or excuse for people to use to avoid trying to keep a good BMI and to stay in shape. Obesity is a modern medical disaster which negatively impacts the nation’s health in a variety of sinister ways, including increased risk of diabetes and cardiovascular problems, not to mention quality of life issues.
So, it was interesting to read contrasting arguments to Ms. Kolata’s thesis from the letters section of the NYT which were reacting to her article. Here are some excerpts. These are direct quotes from specific letters to the Times.
1. Regrettably, Gina Kolata’s article tells only part of the story. No one disputes that genetics a role in obesity but the worldwide rise that has occurred over the past 50 years isn’t due just to genes. Genes haven’t changed in the past 50 years; the environment has. The environment is toxic and that’s what the genes are up against. There are food and labor-saving devices everywhere. The good news is that there are people who lose weight and keep it off. The mean weight loss among more than 5,000 men and women in the National Weight Control Registry is 60 pounds, and the group has maintained that loss for roughly five years. They work hard at it, and no one claims it’s easy, but they do it.
2. I suspect the solution to obesity is a filling diet based upon sound food selection rather than just throwing in the towel and gorging. The need to stave off intense hunger may be akin to the need to breathe, but I suppose the analogy can go further. We need to breathe decent air, and people struggling with obesity need to eat appropriate food.
3. After reading “Genes Take Charge,” many people may say: “Well, looks like it’s all in my genes, there’s not much I can do about it.” It’s tempting to take a nihilistic view since it absolves us of any personal responsibility, but it’s not true — our genes are only part of the story. The human genome changes only one half of one percent every million years. The obesity epidemic is only about 30 years old, so changes in genes do not explain the recent dramatic rise in obesity. While there is a genetic predisposition to obesity and chronic diseases like coronary heart disease and diabetes, it is just a propensity, not a death sentence. In most cases, diet and lifestyle modifications override genetics if you’re willing to make big enough changes. Most of the time, nurture trumps nature, but it’s not always easy.
4. Now 61 years of age, it has been three years since I lost 133 pounds, more than half my body weight. I battled my weight for all my life, and I lost the weight by myself, by counting calories. There were no pills, no surgery, no meetings. I believe that you can train your body to expect less food, and I am so rarely hungry that it is a notable event. I don’t obsess about food but I know everything I will eat at every meal, have my food planned and even bring food when I travel. When you have spent your life in size 24 and you now get up every morning and put on size 2 pants, it is so worth it. My advice, if you have a lot to lose: reduce your calories gradually, eat by the clock, choose your calories wisely and buy new clothes.
While Ms. Kolata’s research and findings deserve recognition, the responses above testify to the other side of the story. Please read the article and letters in full and buy her book.