Re: Human Evolution and Obesity
H. M. Hubey (hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu)
26 Oct 1995 15:15:41 -0400
clarke@longwood.cs.ucf.edu (Tom Clarke) writes:
>personal observation. E.G. The skin of dogs and cats is always
>loose and thin, even in old well fed housepets, as opposed to the
>skin of people which is thickened with fat. The pinch test as
>an estimate of body fat is fairly well known.
>Perhaps the layer of fat attached to the skin is a general feature
>of primates?
Years ago, there was a "Theory of Obesity" which essentially
said something like this:
Everyone is born with a supply of fat cells. If the child is
fat in early childhood the fat cells survive and later on
it becomes very easy for the adult to become fat by simply
"activating" these cells.
OTOH, it was hypothesized that some children lose some of
these fat cells (i.e. the fat cells "die off") during
early childhood if the child is not kept deliberately
plump so that it's more difficult for them to become
fat when they become adults. If true, this would go
toward "explaining" the human skin-fused fat.
NOte that this article had nothing to do with AAT when
it was published. I'm sure some one else has had
a chance to read this article. It was many years ago,
and might have gone revisions by now.
--
Regards, Mark
http://www.smns.montclair.edu/~hubey
|