Had an interesting talk about fat and genetics over the holidays with a cluster of veterinarians in my family.

Of three veterinarians polled....all three support the idea that different breeds of dogs are more or less susceptible to obesity.

I thought this was pretty fascinating!

You rarely see fat sight hound breeds...whippets, afghans, wolfhounds, etc. Fat working dogs are uncommon, too. Huskies, border collies, herding dogs.... When vets do see a fat individual in these breeds, they're cued to check for hypothyroidism and are often correct in predicting it. Many of these breeds can self-regulate a free feeding situation and maintain a healthy weight with little human intervention.

Other breeds...labs, dachshunds, bassets, etc.. generally need to be routinely restricted on food portions, or will become very obese because they will severely overeat.

Obviously, these are generalizations and individuals vary.......but the prevalence of obesity in some breeds and not others is worth paying attention to. It certainly does support the idea of a strong genetic component in both the way calories are utilized and obese eating behaviors.

1 hour ago, Creekimp13 said:

Obviously, these are generalizations and individuals vary

Still, I wonder about obesity and the "chances" of being pre-disposed to it.

As a small boy in the 1950s in Australia, I rarely saw fat/obese people in my life.

In the early 1960s, as a school-child, there were only two noticeably fat kids (out of 215 children) in the school group photos.

As a retiring teacher this last year, there were 27 class photos of 22-26 children each. I carefully counted the 661 children in my school and found 109 were obese (7 looking like morbidly obese) and 152 others were showing bulges of being overweight.

I randomly counted the first 50 adults I passed at the shopping centre on Friday 29th Dec ... to find that there were 27 overweight and, of these, nine were quite obese. Three were at least as obese as me in July-December this year.

How would the veterinarians explain the seemingly growing rates of obesity?

I put it down to (a) sugary and crap foods being relatively cheap, (b) massive advertising budgets by the fast food chains swamping us with constant marketing and (c) limited efforts by governments to protect us from (a) & (b).

Obesity is complex. I don't think anyone can argue with that. There are so many factors.

Diet, exercise, genetics, hormones, gut flora, sleep, metabolism...etc.

Kids are more sedentary than they were in the 50's, much of their recreation is passive and screen based. Kids are more stressed and sleep less....which can also be attributed, in part, to the prevalence of screen based socialization and recreation.

We know why a lot of kids are getting fatter. Extra calories add up. Sedentary lifestyle breeds metabolic illness.

A more interesting question might be.....why do some kids stay thin under the same conditions with the same bad diet exposure, stresses and sedentary habits?

Those kids might hold some interesting answers for the others.

And it's not as simple as....those kids are health food/exercize gurus...cause they're not. Sometimes they're in the same families with the same habits.

Edited December 30, 20178 yr by Creekimp13

Wouldn't it be cool if there was one solid answer about the cause of obesity, and one surefire absolute fix that worked for everyone?

Someday...

Hey guys do you suppose I might be part Bassett Hound? Know I'm tired of being fat and droopy so I'm going to go through with my surgery. How about you?

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