Posted on 06/27/2019 10:54:12 AM PDT by BenLurkin
While other primates have less than 9% body fat, a healthy range for humans is anywhere from 14% to 31%.
Using a technique called ATAC-seq, they scanned each species' genome for differences in how their fat cell DNA is packaged.
Normally most of the DNA within a cell is condensed into coils and loops and tightly wound around proteins, such that only certain DNA regions are loosely packed enough to be accessible to the cellular machinery that turns genes on and off.
The researchers identified roughly 780 DNA regions that were accessible in chimps and macaques, but had become more bunched up in humans. Examining these regions in detail, the team also noticed a recurring snippet of DNA that helps convert fat from one cell type to another.
Not all fat is created equal... Most fat is made up of calorie-storing white fat. It's what makes up the marbling in a steak and builds up around our waistlines.
Specialized fat cells called beige and brown fat, on the other hand, can burn calories rather than store them to generate heat and keep us warm.
One of the reasons we're so fat, the research suggests, … is because the regions of the genome that help turn white fat to brown were essentially locked up...in humans but not in chimps.
Humans, like chimps, need fat to cushion vital organs, insulate us from the cold, and buffer us from starvation. But early humans may have needed to plump up for another reason, the researchers say—as an additional source of energy to fuel our growing, hungry brains.
The human brain uses more energy, pound for pound, than any other tissue. Steering fat cells toward calorie-storing white fat rather than calorie-burning brown fat, the thinking goes, would have given our ancestors a survival advantage.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
Capitalism!
I recently told my doctor:
“I’m not fat. I’m just easy to see.”
Without losing a beat, he said:
“I want to see less of you the next time we meet.”
I had all kinds of neat comebacks...as I got into my car in the parking lot.
Years ago, there was a popular theory that humans were descendants of aquatic apes who were accustomed to living and hunting in shallow lakes and along shorelines, instead of on the savanna. Many of our unique features could be attributed to that, including our ability to control breathing, our dive reflex, and our subcutaneous layer of fat which insulates us from greater heat loss when surrounded by water. I don’t know what became of the notion, but it purported to explain many odd things about us.
Common sense. My great aunt fed her dog all the time.. It was Fat Fat Fat...
That’s funny!
Venezualans have lost weight the past 2 years.
Primate literally means the first (or primary) kind. As a primate, I’m numba one, you numba ten, as you say...
The grocery store.
Welfare checks?
Too many carbohydrates.
I don’t know what became of the notion, but it purported to explain many odd things about us.
The meat is OK, the buns will make you fat and the chance for diabetes increases. Mankind can survive without ingesting carbs.
31% body fat is OBESE!
For a summary of her thesis, check this article. It's eight pages long, but you don't have to read past the first page to get the main idea.
There are certainly those in the anthropology field who disagree with this hypothesis. But personally I think it offers a lot of answers that other theories don't.
Only humans, fruit bats, guinea pigs and primate monkeys do not synthesize vitamin C naturally.
CRISPR anyone?
I bet that the diabetes rate has declined in that country.
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