Obesity genes probably didn't evolve to help us survive famine
Monday, October 3, 2016 - 15:01
in Biology & Nature
Genes that helped our ancestors store fat in times of famine may have been useful, but whether they cursed future generations with a predisposition toward obesity is a little more controversial. This popular "thrifty gene hypothesis" has had its critics, but with a study published September 22 in Cell Metabolism, there is now evidence that nearly all the common obesity-related genes show no properties of traits that evolved because they provide an adaptive advantage.