Comments on: On the Relationship Between Genetics and Body Type

By: Vexaster

Vexaster — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 17:25:08 +0000

Clothing = choice, especially if you have the money to buy clothing (i.e. Huckabee). If I see someone getting out of a brand new BMW wearing utter mismatched crap, I think its OK to make fun of them.

My only opinion on Huckabee is that he should not be President, ever. And it has nothing to do with weight loss (I have nothing against said other Gov. of Arkansas who lost loads of weight). We just butt heads too much.

By: Ditto

Ditto — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 04:51:29 +0000

nicely put, Renee.

By: zombie z

zombie z — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 19:55:21 +0000

My boyfriend lives in a VERY hipster college town. (You know, the kind where everyone pretends to be all bohemian hippie mother-earth loving gothic emo whatever just because it’s “cool”? but vehemently and vocally opposes anything “cool”?) I probably don’t need to say it, but I do a lot of laughing when we’re out in public.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 18:33:59 +0000

Matching clothes = hilarious?

I think there might have even been a Danny DeVito skit on Saturday Night Live about that very thing (Just CINCH it!”)

But then I’m the rude asshat who chuckles under my breath when I see men wearing long skirts in the college town where I live. Lots of dude wear long skirts here.

And hey, I think it’s safe to say we’ve all laughed at our fashion choices — caught gloriously in yearbook and family photos — over the years.

By: Lose a bunch of weight, get nominated for President « Thornacious

Lose a bunch of weight, get nominated for President « Thornacious — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:58:21 +0000

[...] other day, Kate pointed our attention toward a link which painstakingly listed evidence which points toward Huckabee having lost all [...]

By: zombie z

zombie z — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 01:05:05 +0000

Clothing=choice (particularly when you’re the GOVERNER. it’s not as if you can’t afford anything else).

Body size=not.

That’s my personal distinction with judgements. Behavior deserves judgement — that’s what our judicial system is built on, anyway. People dress in a particular way trying to make a particular statement to the world (even if that statement is “don’t look at me” or “I don’t give a rat’s ass about fashion/what you think”). I do not feel bad about judging that.

That said, matching outfits are bad enough when they are acceptable outifts…but those?!?! JEEEEEZUS.

By: None Given

None Given — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 22:51:44 +0000

Of course they wear jeans at the governor’s mansion, it is Arkansas.
Many years ago Jay Leno interviewed the governor and his wife in front of the triple wide trailer (manufactured home) they lived in while the mansion was being renovated. When they saw a large black dog emerge from underneath the porch the studio audience completely lost it.

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 01:42:00 +0000

Nice work, kira!

And I’ve always been struck by the fact that the heritability of BMI is well-known in the media, but only when they think it’s funny. Jokes about how your thin girlfriend is going to turn into her fat mama: hilarious! A fat person legitimately claiming that fat has a genetic component: pathetic excuses and lies!

By: kira

kira — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 01:38:44 +0000

OK, because I’m a science geek, and I’ve got a cold so have nothing better to do on a Saturday night (and this is so much more fun than writting that proposal I should be working on!), I did some quick sleuthing. I searched PubMed for twin studies of obesity and/or BMI, and came up with 5 papers – just in the last year, in a very brief scan – citing high heritability of obesity. In fact, most of these papers – as well as others I glanced at – started out their abstracts with statements such as “It is well known that BMI is strongly influenced by genetics”. So this fact is well-known among “real” scientists in the field, if not those that appear in the media.

Here’s a quick summary of main points and citations:

Landt et al 2007 (Acta Psychiatr. Scand. Dec. 11): BMI was highly heritable in both men (76%) and women (80%)
Goode et al 2007 (Twin Res Hum Genet. 10(5):703-11): studied changes in genetic vs. environmental influences over time in males. The heritability of BMI increased from 48% at mean age 48 to 61% at mean age 63 (side note: it’s interesting that the heritability tracks the age, though surely coincidental)
Silventoinen et al 2007 (Int J Obes (Lond). 31(4):615-21): Studied Swedish male twins from age 1-18. 81-95% of the variation in BMI was attributable to genetics, and BMI at each year of age was increasingly correlated with BMI at age 1, with an r of 0.91 at age 17 (i.e., BMI at age 1 explained 91% of the variation in BMI at age 17).
Watson et al. 2006 (Sleep. 29(5):645-9): based on a twin study in WA state of obesity, insomnia, and sleepiness (interesting combination!). They found 73% heritability for obesity, versus only 57% for insomnia and 38% for sleepiness.
Klump et al 2007 (Arch Gen Psychiatry. 64(12):1409-15): This study actually looked at disordered eating rather than obesity or BMI per se. They found that this is also highly heritable, with genetics explaining 46% of the variance in disordered eating amongst teenage females in Minnesota.

I currently have a PDF of the Silventoinen study, and can probably get PDFs of most of the others when I return to campus. If anyone would like a copy of any of the above, email me at viajera06 at gmail dot com.

By: sumac

sumac — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 00:15:19 +0000

p.s: don’t worry. Huckabee’s not getting the nomination. The only reason he won Iowa is because Obama not only won the Dems but also managed to split the Republican vote. The hardcore conservatives caucused Republican but the moderate Reps and fence sitters caucused for Obama. I am still amazed.