Child obesity. Genetic disposition or lifestyle influences?

[For Prose]

Hello everyone. As I was in the grocery store today, I noticed a thinner couple encouraging their young (probably around 10) to go and get a free chocolate cookie from the deli. A few hours later, while talking to my friend, we got to talking about child obesity. He does not contest that diet plays a large role, but he also believes that genetics are the root problem.

 

This led me to question my stance that an overweight child is only truly overweight because of the parents influence or lack thereof on diet. I am not asking for opinions on child obesity but rather, do any of you have examples of genetics being the reason for an overweight child rather than diet?

 

Please provide links and sources (more for my own further research than to validate your own claim).

[iNow]

Genetics setup predispositions and potential, but it still takes experience and behavior to realize those different potentials. Diet and exercise matter a lot. You can never separate the two. Even people predisposed to obesity can exercise and diet in ways to remain lean and more muscular than obese.

 

With that said, CDC has a good overview of the genetics components: http://www.cdc.gov/features/obesity/

 

 

Drilling deeper down into that site:

 

http://www.cdc.gov/genomics/resources/diseases/obesity/index.htm

Obesity results from the energy imbalance that occurs when a person consumes more calories than their body burns. <...> Genes give the body instructions for responding to changes in its environment. Studies of resemblances and differences among family members, twins, and adoptees offer indirect scientific evidence that a sizable portion of the variation in weight among adults is due to genetic factors. Other studies have compared obese and non-obese people for variation in genes that could influence behaviors (such as a drive to overeat, or a tendency to be sedentary) or metabolism (such as a diminished capacity to use dietary fats as fuel, or an increased tendency to store body fat). These studies have identified variants in several genes that may contribute to obesity by increasing hunger and food intake.

 

Rarely, a clear pattern of inherited obesity within a family is caused by a specific variant of a single gene (monogenic obesity). Most obesity, however, probably results from complex interactions among multiple genes and environmental factors that remain poorly understood (multifactorial obesity).

[hypervalent_iodine]

I would think that this situation is vastly more complicated than it being a result of simply one or the other. Genetic influences would certainly be a contributing factor for some cases of childhood obesity (possibly even most cases), but my guess is that it would be unlikely for genetics to be the sole cause. This study notes that there are genetic factors contributing to the issue, but that the findings account for a very small percentage (~ 2%) of observed heritability of childhood obesity (this article explains it in simpler terms). It's worth noting, however, that the low percentage most likely indicates the fact that we don't yet have a complete picture of obesity-related genes.

 

There is another study I found that looked at adoptive children and compared their weight class to the wieght classes of their adoptive parents and to their biological parents. The findings there seem to indicate a strong relationship between the weight classes of adoptive children and their biological parents, but not between the children and their adoptive parents.

 

I didn't have a chance to read it, but I did also find a rather large (though possibly dated) review that you might like to read.

[EdEarl]

During WWII the inhabitants of the Warsaw ghetto had very little to eat, and children who survived it and lived to old age were thin for their entire lives.

[CharonY]

I am not sure about that, but I remember vaguely that at least for mice being subjected to starvation periods increased metabolic pathways that lead to increased storage of fat.

It is obviously a combination of many factors. Without sufficient food intake obesity is impossible. However there are variations in the utilization of food depending on genetic but also metabolic factors. One should keep in mind that metabolism is not a completely homeostatic system as it is sometimes depicted at. It changes due to internal (e..g age, stress, activity) as well as external cues.

 

As such it will be very difficult to get a decent predictive model of everything that ultimately leads to obesity.

[MichaelHDurso]

To what I know there are 4 major things that cause obesity

 

Enviroment

Metabolism

Biology

Diet

 

Enviroment: There is a higher chance that you will be obese if you live in a more poor enviroment cause the cheap food are made of fillers and fats and sugar

Metabolism: My sister has a high metabolism so she eats a whole pizza and she is only 114 lbs and shes 23 but shes also short

Biology: Metabolism goes in here as well but if you exercise your body goes through the food you consume faster but it also determines your height and amount of fat. I don't believe in the BMI chart cause its inaccurate. I may have a little weight on me but the chart says im very obese which is not true. also people with a lot of muscle if your do the chart it would say they are obese. theres also diseases that effect weight like thyroid problems

Diet: Sugars, Carbs, Fats and amount of food contribute to weight cause they turn into the sugars your body produces for energy the fastest and if theres too much then it turns into extra fat which stores in the gut mostly in men and glutes and thighs for woman.

 

I DO NOT believe obesity is a disease. Its a problem just not a disease