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 ...
Beer
BACON!................
Cheeseburgers.
Orangutans getting no respect.
Agrarian results in excess, which we eat and learn how process certain carbs and sugars to produce alcohol.
Also, we love hot dead chicken skin.
Crispr that DNA out of me after i have my next box of fried chicken and an extra large dr pepper.
We no longer have to hunt and gather.......and run for our lives from larger predators.
We’re not naturally very fat, it is just our modern lifestyles that make us fat, and those are the product of us using our intelligence to prosper beyond what any other animal could achieve.
Monkeys can’t drive to Krispy Kreme.
Eating other tasty animals.
That makes perfectly good sense, but it’s actually not what the article says.
At least not 100%
Pasta.
and...I am human and I AM NOT A PRIMATE! Maybe these people should speak for themselves!
"This is your pilot speaking....."
So many pro athletes are unhealthy?
White Castle (long may it live).
Good answer! Also drove agriculture...
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