NEW YORK ¨C It¡¯s that time of the year when a middle-aged person¡¯s fancy turns to treadmills and diets. Scientific literature on excess weight and health is expanding along with global waistlines, and yet, it¡¯s hard to find a solid, coherent scientific explanation for why some people get fat and others don¡¯t, and why some overweight people get Type 2 diabetes and heart disease and others don¡¯t.
Beliefs about fat often follow a science-y sounding quasi-religious narrative: Our prehistoric ancestors had to scramble for food, and therefore evolved voracious appetites that we¡¯ve inherited like original sin. Only self-control can save us, and the association between fat and disease goes without question; it is seen as punishment for the sins of gluttony and sloth.
This narrative acknowledges evolution, but it¡¯s not real evolutionary biology. This month, however, a real evolutionary biologist published a sweeping picture of human fat and health in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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