Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Is it in your jeans?

Good Morning Folks,

The title of my post today is a little play on words because I want to talk about a new scientific discovery that was recently made regarding the "obesity Gene." I also want to discuss a new trend in clothing stores dealing with waist size.. are you being fooled?

Have you ever heard someone say that obesity is genetic? It has been a long standing battle for people to understand whether or not their body type is actually genetic or whether or not it was the behaviors that they were taught growing up. So basically, do you gain weight easily because your body genetically stores fat more than someone else or is it because your mom fed you sugary cereals and baked treats growing up? Did these habits contribute to unhealthiness or was it just destined genetically no matter what?



This is something I have struggled with myself because I come from a family of people who have struggled with weight. I have never witnessed anyone in my family stuff themselves or eat nothing but hamburgers.. but they still carry extra weight even eating normally. So even with my exercise routine and healthy eating habits.. am I destined for this?

A study published recently in the Journal "Nature Genetics" shows that scientists have been able to pinpoint around 30 genes in the human genome that may affect a person’s propensity for obesity. Scientists linked certain genes to Body Mass Indexes (BMI) and discovered a correlation.  These genes are thought to have to do with the brains reward centers and hunger control. So, a person that has these genes may have a larger and more ferocious appetite than someone who does not and they also may release more endorphins from the pleasure center upon eating than the average person.

Now, this doesn’t mean that if you have these genes that you are going to be overweight automatically. It simply means that you may be more likely to hold weight than someone else.. which means that you may just have a tougher time at keeping weight off or losing weight than some others but it is absolutely possible with normal, everyday healthy habits : )

Want to read the article?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20101012/hl_hsn/researcherspinpointarrayofobesitygenes

Also,

Did you know that there is a growing trend in the clothing market that jeans sizes are now being mislabeled? Sizes are being skewed so that people with larger waistlines will feel better about buying them. Basically, let’s say for example that a normal size 6 jeans were for someone with a 30 inch waist.. clothing companies are now marking jeans with a 34 inch waist as a size 6. Obviously, this is just a numbers game.. but the consumer doesn’t know that stores are doing this and so they will continuously go back to the store to buy because at "GAP" they are a 6 when they are a 10 everywhere else. Some stores are going overboard with this change and are getting as high up as a 6 inch difference in the chart.


We cant all wear skinny jeans.. especially shorties like me

Are we really so obsessed with numbers as a society that we need to trick ourselves to feel better? It’s just like when people (Myself included sometimes) refuse to step on a scale because they feel better if they just don’t know the number.. well does that change at all what you weigh? or does it even matter what you weigh if you know that you are taking healthy steps for yourself? Is it ok for clothing stores to trick us if it makes us feel better about buying clothes or ourselves?

Tell me what you think.. what’s going on with the human psyche and its obsession with numbers?

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