From Twitter.
is it weird that as i got through the tweet my understanding of it lessens?
If you had a recent ancestor who went through starvation it actually altered their genetics and may have passed down genes to you that make you hold on to fat. So this tweet is more accurate than you’d think.
Seriously, my body is expecting the next ice age.
OH MY FUCKING GOD.
MY FUCKING GREAT GRANDFATHER LITERALLY FLED LEBANON DUE TO A FUCKING FAMINE AND MY GRANDMOTHER AND DAD AND I ARE ALL FAT AS FUCKING HELL.
FUCK ME RUNNING I DID NOT KNOW THIS.
…That’s going to apply also to anyone whose recent ancestors voluntarily dieted a lot, isn’t it. Diet culture long-term causes more obesity. Sure, it takes decades to show up, but anything you’d hear today about childhood obesity would reflect that. Exercising is still very good for most people, but trying to lose weight shouldn’t be the goal for most people, because a) it usually doesn’t work very well or it comes back and b) your kids or grandkids could end up with extra wonky metabolisms. (And while fat itself is actually not that much of a problem if you keep your fitness up, it can be hard on your joints. That’s actually the biggest health risk if you’re “small end of fat,” under 40, and active–joint problems.)
GUYS
GUYS STOP
SOURCE READING TIME
That article references ONE STUDY
and that one study only references changed RNA PASSED ON BY PREGNANT MOTHERS AT THE TIME OF PREGNANCY
ie in this very specific source, unless you’re DIETING WHILE PREGNANT, there is NO evidence or discussion that your RNA will pass on a “wonky metabolism” to the DNA of your children.
Maybe it’s possible???, (I’m no biologist so I don’t know whether the data in the RNA could ‘stay’ until the individual becomes pregnant after but not during the time of famine; from my very limited understanding it probably would not as I think RNA is inherently temporary) but if we’re specifically going from that source, this extrapolation is incorrect!
But tl;dr nothing about this study suggests that a diet that you do when you’re -not pregnant- will have any effect on offspring. Furthermore, taking one study, and at that one done on worms (because you can’t put starving pregnant humans into an ethical scientific test), as fact, is not exactly how science should be taken.