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Around 35-40 per cent of a child's BMI -- how fat or thin they are -- is inherited from their parents, a new study has found. For the most obese children, the proportion rises to 55-60 per cent, suggesting that more than half of their tendency towards obesity is determined by genetics and family environment.
The study, led by the University of Sussex, used data on the heights and weights of 100,000 children and their parents spanning six countries worldwide: the UK, USA, China, Indonesia, Spain and Mexico. The researchers found that the intergenerational transmission of BMI (Body Mass Index) is approximately constant at around 0.2 per parent -- i.e. that each child's BMI is, on average, 20 per cent due to the mother and 20 per cent due to the father.
[...] The study also shows how the effect of parents' BMI on their children's BMI depends on what the BMI of the child is. Consistently, across all populations studied, they found the 'parental effect' to be lowest for the thinnest children and highest for the most obese children. For the thinnest child their BMI is 10 per cent due to their mother and 10 per cent due to their father. For the fattest child this transmission is closer to 30 per cent due to each parent.
The intergenerational transmission of body mass index across countries (DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2016.11.005) (DX)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 23 2017, @07:50PM
It won't help directly, but if there is mass starvation, you'll do better if if you start with some meat on your bones.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 23 2017, @11:21PM
Extracorporeal food stores can serve the same purpose, and if they're taken from me it won't mean my immediate death.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24 2017, @03:08AM
But you don't know how things will play out if the shit hits the fan. 100 lbs of extra body mass could help survival. Maybe not, but there is an evolutionary reason for people to eat a lot when times are good. Whether those genes are obsolete still remains to be seen.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24 2017, @09:51PM
A backpack with 100 pounds of high-calorie food could help survival, maybe. If it doesn't, it can easily be cast aside.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 25 2017, @03:56AM
A plump body might appeal to cannibals.