The Problem of Obesity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Problem of Obesity - Essay Example Hilde Bruch says that the claim that obesity runs in the family is one that researchers think may a basis in fact. There would be distinct patterns in behavior that would be handed down from generation to generation as family traditions; such as the preparation of food and eating behaviors. In fact, Bruch points out, if a child comes from a family with two obese parents, a seventy percent incidence in obesity is found among the offspring. Indicating that eating behavior is also a family behavior. Although Bruch is quick to point out that â€Å"Such studies are based on the often unreliable statements of patients, and the ability to record the potentially obese and the actually obese phenotypes makes interpretation of their significance even more difficult..† That was in 1973; today we have more extensive research and testing and even genetic tracking information that builds on what Bruch has posited and demonstrate that in some cases – certainly not all – that ob esity is in fact an inherited trait. In 1998, Robert Pool writes, researchers in Europe conducting tests on obesity found that with regard to a certain patients, and study of the family, a DNA mutation existed that prevented the brain from detecting leptin, a condition associated with diabetes, which is a hereditary condition; that sent the message to the patient’s brain that the patient’s body was starving. â€Å"Thus, in both humans and mice the diabetes mutation produces an obesity almost identical to that produced in the obese mutation. However, it has also been determined that each time the aforementioned appears it has been in â€Å"highly inbred families.† The pattern of first cousins intermarrying is a common one in many developing nations.