There is increasing evidence that it isn’t just a person’s diet, but also the pre birth development of their brain and genetics that determine obesity levels. Scientists found that some people found it more difficult to remain slim than others because their brains were slow at recognizing that they were full.
This may also be the explanation for the fact that one out of two siblings, who both have the same high fat diet, remains slim whereas the other does not, according to researchers at Yale University.
This also explains why the typical western diet that is high in fats and sugars and refined foods seems to trigger diabetes and lifestyle related disease in some people and yet not in others.
A study performed on rats showed that some of them were slower in signaling fullness than others and ended up overeating slightly at every meal.
This slight overeating added up over time and resulted in obesity.
According to Professor Tamas Horvath, a neurobiologist at Yale University, it appears that it is this base wiring of the brain that determines one’s vulnerability to develop obesity. It is less about a person’s own will power and more about the way that our brains developed, that results in whether a person is overweight or not.
