'Thrifty Gene Hypothesis' Proven Hoax, Obesity Cannot Help You Survive Famine

Obesity is one of the major problems faced by America. Several reports show how obesity is linked to people's genes. The "thrifty gene hypothesis" explains that our ancestors store fat to stay away from famine. Will the scientists today prove this hypothesis true?

The "thrifty gene" is a genotype that allows our ancestors to store fat when famine arrives. It was proposed back in 1962 by James Neel. It is an advantage for our ancestors yet, research today claim that it is a curse for the future generation, as reported by Express. 

Arguments regarding the thrifty gene hypothesis have been heard by many. One of the questions was why is it that everyone did not inherit these favorable traits if the selection has been acting from our ancestors.

A biologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology in Beijing, who co-authored the research with Guanlin Wang, one of his PhD students at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, John Speakman said that "This is probably the hardest evidence so far against the thrifty gene hypothesis-our ambition here is for people to entertain a wider range of ideas about where the genetic basis of complex diseases, like obesity, comes from."

The research conducted by John Speakman and Guanlin Wang is to test the thrifty gene hypothesis and its addendums. They gathered publicly available data such as the HapMap consortium and 1000 Genomes project. The result shows that, out of 115 genes known to be associated with obesity, only 9 showed evidence of being under positive with the hypothesis.

However, the nine genes that show positivity only 4 of those favor obesity. The other 5 favored leanness. In line, John Speakman added, "The process of evolution is a lot more complex than just the spread of favorable traits by natural selection, and the thrifty gene is an emblem of this older way of thinking about evolutionary aspects of medicine," according to Phys.org.