science

So, the real elephant in the room is that for the average worker, they are more productive (ie, working much harder) and under much, much more financial stress... which effects epigenetics

and... people are having children later in life, leading to children with more genetic defects (the average person has about 7 genetic defects, some people have more, some fewer)

in the 1950s, a man could work at a factory with a high school diploma, own a house, support a family, and have a wife as a full-time assistant at home

now both parents have to work, if there even are children, there may or may not be a house, and many are just single. people are under huge amounts of stress, and all of it effects epigenetics including via weaker bonds within families

bodies interpret stress as either "uh oh, i'm going to get kicked out of my tribe and will have to forage and hunt on my own and may die" or "there may be a famine soon"

the fact that the vitamin levels of food has gone down is a real thing, bodies remember things like that, and can be aware of the decrease, and start to prepare for famines

TLDR captialism without proper government regulation of externalities is making people fat along with higher populations and decreased vitamin levels in food due to over-farming

That's pretty interesting. This could be the basis of a new weight-loss drug that works by limiting calorie absorption rather than regulating hunger cues.

I'm going to be mildly annoyed if the fat acceptance latches on to this as yet another study validating their belief that they can't lose weight.

...in mice.

I know that while pregnant, the digestion slows down, to try to wring more nutrition from what you eat. I also know that I eat about the same as my ex and my husband and both managed to get fat. Also I drop weight when stressed and maintain a normal BMI when not so stressed, but others I know gain when stressed.

It all is very interesting to me, but so strange that it's broken for so many people, and most all in the direction of overweight.

Might explain why I can barely gain weight, once had a camp week where me and a friend had the exact same food intake and exercise but he gained 2kg while I lost 3kg.

Sofar doctors have thought I just had a fast metabolism but seems like there could be more at play.

But the most novel and surprising thing that researchers have observed is that when a certain group of neurons in that same nucleus is deactivated, specifically those that project to the jejunum, a part of the small intestine, the length of the microvilli in the intestinal wall is shortened, which reduces its surface area and thus the place in whose blood capillaries fat absorption occurs. The brain thus regulates this absorption by controlling the length and surface area of the intestinal spaces in which it takes place.

Huh, so your intestines can stretch to control absorption rate, cool!

This explains so much about my guts

Link to study in Nature being reported on:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07929-5