Why Fat People Are Fat and I Am Still Scrawny

From the Times:

- "The researchers concluded that 70 percent of the variation in peoples’ weights may be accounted for by inheritance, a figure that means that weight is more strongly inherited than nearly any other condition, including mental illness, breast cancer, or heart disease."

- "The findings also provided evidence for a phenomenon that scientists like Dr. Hirsch and Dr. Leibel were certain was true — each person has a comfortable weight range to which the body gravitates. The range might span 10 or 20 pounds: someone might be able to weigh 120 to 140 pounds without too much effort. Going much above or much below the natural weight range is difficult, however; the body resists by increasing or decreasing the appetite and changing the metabolism to push the weight back to the range it seeks."

And finally:

- "'Those who doubt the power of basic drives, however, might note that although one can hold one’s breath, this conscious act is soon overcome by the compulsion to breathe,” Dr. Friedman wrote. “The feeling of hunger is intense and, if not as potent as the drive to breathe, is probably no less powerful than the drive to drink when one is thirsty. This is the feeling the obese must resist after they have lost a significant amount of weight.'"

Subprime Woes Not Limited to Housing

GM's profit fell 90% in the first quarter of this year. What's interesting about this is that this wasn't due to poorer performance in their automotive division but in their auto finance arm, GMAC. A major driver for the losses at GMAC appear to be loans made to sub-prime borrowers. These weren't auto-loans but apparently subprime mortgages which GMAC originated through their mortgage arm Residential Capital.

Interestingly enough, a similar phenomenon appears to be occurring at Harley-Davidson, where their finance arm is losing a lot of money no delinquent subprime loans.

Key quote:
- "The basic picture is the same, though. Trying to keep the consumption machine going over the last few years, companies (following the Fed's lead) used easy credit to hook consumers who probably shouldn't have been buying expensive things with long term loans. Whether it's housing or motorcycles, the lesson is the same: excessively easy credit is costly in the long run."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Sustainable Eating

Cool article from the Post about Chefs who are starting to take note of rapidly depleting fish stocks by only serving fish whose populations are not troubled/near collapse.

This story goes pretty unreported, but the basic premise is that we are currently overfishing the ocean to such a degree that many of the fish species which we eat are on the verge of collapse. If the trend goes unabated, there may be a day when you can no longer order the toro sashimi (fatty tuna) or the Chilean Sea Bass in beurre blanc.

Key Quote:
- "scientists are warning that commercial fish stocks could collapse altogether by 2048"

This article doesn't go too deep into the science, but it's a great example of how individual decisions and personal responsibility have to come into play, if we are to begin addressing the myriad environmental challenges we face.

For anyone in the DC area, check out the featured chef's new reentrant, Hook.

For those who are interested in attempting to eat fish more responsibly/sustainably, go here: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp