The “Fat” Gene

There is a gene found in humans that when triggered can cause obesity. We’ll call this gene the “fat gene” to avoid making this article scientific and not fun to read. What most people do not understand is that genes have an off and on switch. This means that many people have the fat gene but it is set in the off position.

Every human being has approximately 25,000 genes in their genetic makeup. To understand what I’m about to explain to you, imagine that these 25,000 genes represent 25,000 on/off switches all placed side by side.

Imagine now that these switches will be turned on and off in response to your environment in order to keep you alive or benefit you in some way. Your environment is comprised of what you put into your body (food, chemicals, pollution, etc), what you think (stress, happy), and how much you move (exercise, sedentary). Sometimes these are referred to as the three pillars of health.

You may have read that last paragraph and said “Hey wait a second! How do fat genes being activated help me?”

The answer is simple. If your body wasn’t able to store the fat you would probably die from the acute stress the food you’re eating would do to your body. When you overeat or make poor food choices your body has no choice but to store that unused energy or toxins in fat cells which can activate a fat gene. The reason your body would do this is because it has nothing else to do with the excess and it can only burn so much depending on your activity level.

This is an innate genetically intelligent move on your bodies part because the signal you are sending to your body is that you need to stockpile on food in order to hibernate or survive a food shortage. Your body has no idea how much fat it needs to store or when the shortage may come, it is simply responding in an intelligent way to your environment. In this instance, you are overeating and probably not moving. If it wasn’t able to store fat then when you did have a food shortage you would die from starvation. Nature is very intelligent believe it or not.

Once the fat gene is activated it can be passed onto up to 4 generations of offspring. This is why you see fat parents having fat kids. The gene is activated and the environment is the same (they over eat like their parents or eat the same type of foods and have the same habits).

This is often passed off as “oh it’s in the genetics” but the reality is, lots of people have the fat gene in their makeup but it just may have never been turned on. If any of these generations do nothing to try to switch it off, it will remain on and pass indefinitely. This is part of the reason for the ever growing obese population which is now up to 70% in America.

Agouti Mice

Agouti mice are famous for closely mirroring the genetic behavior of humans. Because of this they are oftentimes used for experimentation prior to human experimentation. In a recent study a group of Agouti mice were fed a genetically incongruent diet of grain, they quickly became obese.

 

They were then bred and all of the offspring came out yellow and obese right at the start. What they found was that the incongruent genetic diet activated an obesity gene within the mice that caused the activated obesity gene to be passed onto offspring which showed signs of obesity immediately.

They began feeding the yellow and obese offspring a genetically congruent diet and then bred them again. The results were astounding. Every one of the new offspring was small and brown, instead of yellow and fat, just as they are typically found in the wild.

This same characteristic can be found in humans. When humans eat a genetically incongruent diet they become obese and overweight. Their offspring follow the same pattern. If you’re wondering what a genetically congruent diet is you can check out the article I wrote “The Paleolithic Diet” but it’s not the main focus of this article.

Cancer

Cancer is also found in our genes. Millions of women have the breast cancer gene but only about 10% of them actually get breast cancer further demonstrating that just having the gene as part of your makeup does not mean you’ll get breast cancer as some experts believe. Not surprisingly, a large percentage of offspring of women who contract breast cancer also end up with breast cancer. Are you seeing the pattern yet?

We are all different and respond to environmental triggers in different ways. Now it may seem that the activation of some of these genes is deadly, and in the end, it most definitely is. But there’s an innate intelligence within our body that is flawless and perfect. Although many people think of breast cancer as the killer, the reality is that these people would all die sooner from the acute stress of their environment.

Most cancers take a long time to contract. Years of exposure to radiation, poor dieting, pesticides, chemicals, emotional stress, lack of exercise, and more. It is actually intelligent that your body responds with genetic ailments like heart disease, cancer, and obesity. The alternative is sudden death. Without the ability to maladapt cells so that you can live another day, most of us would already be dead. The body is intelligent and the sole reason we have such genetic programming in our bodies is to give ourselves the chance to fix our environment.

I’ll leave you with another example of genetic intelligence.

If you were to be dropped off naked on an iceberg somewhere. Your body would begin to pool blood away from your toes and fingers immediately. Eventually it would pool blood away from your legs and arms. It would continue to pool blood to your vital organs until it can no longer do so.

Why would it do this?

Simple, your body is genetically programmed with a hierarchy of survival. The body can afford to give up a big toe and middle finger so as long as the core survives, you will survive. This is a smart move. If you were to find a drug that changes your natural physiology and forces your body to pool blood to your fingers and toes in this scenario, you would die a lot sooner. The reason your body buys time is so you have the chance of getting off the iceberg (changing your environment).

If you adopt this type of paradigm when you view things in terms of sickness and health, it will lead you to a healthier lifestyle. If it doesn’t, at least you’ll understand genetics a little bit better.