[Previous entry: "Cut sugar from your life and live 15 years longer"] [Next entry: "European needs unifying religion, says top general"]

11/03/2007: "Obesity caused by energy-efficient genetics in time of excess"

The team suggests that an increased metabolic efficiency could have been an evolutionary advantage. The SNPs may have persisted because they helped the Pima survive the harsh dietary environment of the Sonora desert throughout the history of the people. In the current environment of caloric over-consumption an increased efficiency is unfavorable and may contribute to the high rates of obesity among the Pimas.

While the Pima Indians are an extreme case, the entire human population may also have evolved in a restricted caloric environment, say the researchers. Many populations may exhibit similar SNPs that
were advantageous to our ancestors but may now be detrimental. The presence of these SNPs may thus provide one explanation as to why obesity is so rife in the 21st century.

[ Modern society is anti-evolution. ]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071016074958.htm