June 16, 2022 — Genes are not destiny. We tire of people who cling to this one side of the false nature versus nurture dichotomy. They’re stuck on the fallacy of thinking that genetic and environmental influences on health must sum to 100 percent. One or the other must be dominant, they seemingly assume. But the truth is that […]
January 9, 2020 — We ought to be the masters of our own fate. Pull ourselves up by the bootstraps. Get up and do what needs to be done. And you know what? Most people do their best. However, this little inspirational talk is no substitute for medical facts. And the fact is that obesity is a highly heritable, […]
August 5, 2019 — Facts are stubborn. So, too, is an entrenched bias. The bias that obesity is a simple matter of choice runs especially deep. Thus it creeps into headlines and even scientific journals. A new study in PLOS Genetics provides a vivid case in point. Unwarranted causal language in a paper flows through to a press release. […]
January 13, 2018 — C’mon Medscape. Genes are no excuse for obesity? Is that the best you can do with a fine study of obesity, diet, and genetic risk? Sadly, Medscape’s bias about obesity is showing. That’s because the website translated hope for overcoming obesity into a finger wagging headline about excuses. Highly Heritable, Poorly Understood Scientists have long […]
April 6, 2017 — The eternal question of obesity – What’s causing all this obesity? – may not have a definitive answer. But that doesn’t stop everybody from asking. The easy answer is that obesity is mainly an inherited condition. If a person is susceptible, environment and life experiences trigger it. And then, that begs another question. What’s triggering […]
December 5, 2016 — A new study in Obesity debunks the notion that people can’t handle the truth of genetic obesity risks. Catharine Wang and colleagues conducted a randomized, controlled trial of telling people about their genetic and lifestyle risks for obesity. They found that: Those who received genetic risk alone had greater intentions [to lose weight] at follow-up, compared […]
November 15, 2016 — Let’s face it. Americans don’t like the idea of accepting a preordained destiny. Nope, we’ll have none of that. We choose our own destiny here, thank you. So naturally, if the New England Journal of Medicine tells us that DNA is not destiny when it comes to our risk of heart attacks, we love it. […]
