What makes people fat? Not just chubby or over weight, but morbidly obese. The obvious answer is that many obese people over eat or eat unhealthy amounts of sugars and fast foods. But can obesity also come from a person's genetic makeup? Many dietician, and myself, can argue why and how obesity can also come from a person's genes. Obesity affects hundreds of people in today's society, not only nationally but locally as well. Many of which may have genes that contain obesity. Trying to find an answer to why so many people have obesity is a huge problem in itself. While trying to find a way to locally lower obesity levels, one must know if one has obesity from genetics or from over eating. .
Well first things first, what causes or what is obesity? "Obesity results from a chronic disruption of energy balance," (Ravussin, Bogardus S17). Eric Ravussin and Clifton Bogardus from the Journal of British Nutrition gave a short yet descriptive definition of what obesity basically is. Genes are blueprints for the human body, and nothing about them can be changed. Genes are inherited from your Mother and Father while being conceived and growing inside of your Mother's womb as a baby. The genes layouts how you are going to look, act, and grow. Genes also decide on how your body is going to deal with ingested food. "Genes regulate how our bodies capture, store, and release energy from food," (CDC Article). Depending on which of the 22 chromosomes you inherit from your Mother or Father, it can determine on how your body is going to deal with food energy and how it decides to store it.
Genes have many characteristics to them, in which makes you unique. In an article from The Boston Children's Hospital, researchers have found a gene in mice which, when deleted, would cause extreme obesity in the mice. The researchers have found a similar gene in humans who would react the same way, or, would cause differences in how your body would harness the energy and would affect your metabolism.
