Nature v. Nurture: Genes Proven to Strongly Affect Weight Issues
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
By Sarah Scrafford
Are our genes responsible for the way we are or are we who we are because of the upbringing we’ve had? The nature versus nurture debate rages on, with even experts being unable to prove conclusively that one is significantly more effective than the other. Identical twins, who have been raised separately, far apart from each other under totally different circumstances, have been found to have made similar choices in life. But then, on the other side of the coin, adopted children tend to be more like the parents who gave them a home rather than displaying characteristics of their genetic mother and father.
While temperament and characteristics may be attributed to nurture, there’s one thing that’s solely nature’s responsibility – body weight, or to be more specific, the distribution of fat on our bodies. I love my family, but I would give anything to get rid of the genes that contribute to my large bones and big hips. I would gladly change DNA with the person who doesn’t have to sweat it out and starve themselves in order to lose weight or even to stay slim once the excess pounds have been shed. But no, unfortunately, nature does not allow us to pick and choose the genes we would like to have (even the futuristic designer babies with hand-picked genes have to make do with the genes their parents choose for them), and so we are the way nature intended us to be, at least in the physical sense.
Life becomes that much easier when we’re able to shift blame for our shortcomings to our genes, but then, there’s an inner voice that niggles and nudges you to take some kind of action before it’s too late. Although genes do play a large role in determining the way we gain and lose weight, our lifestyles play an equally significant part in the weight-related drama that most of us act in. If we are resigned to being couch potatoes who are solely devoted to eating and whiling away the free time we have, if we lead sedentary work lives that are tied to desks, fast food and innumerable cups of coffee, if we smoke and drink alcohol beyond the limit that’s socially acceptable, then we’re condemning ourselves to a fate worse than death.
And it’s no use blaming genes for the diseases that lifestyle choices bring – diabetes, cardiac arrests, stroke and obesity visit and stay with even those people who have healthy parents and ancestors, if they don’t take good care of their health when they’re young. In fact, if nature does you wrong by giving you genes that suck, it’s up to you to use nurture to right this wrong, and include a healthy eating pattern and regular exercise in your daily routine.
