> You are saying that because two locations have two different rates of obesity, that means genetics plays no role in obesity? This really, really needs some e

> You are saying that because two locations have two different rates of obesity, that means genetics plays no role in obesity? This really, really needs some explaining from GP. All evidence in the history of genetics tells us that if you put a population in relative isolation (say, West Virginia or one of the other deep south micro-societies which are predominantly economically insulated from one another with very little social mobility), adaptations and recessive traits become more prominent and pronounced and eventually speciation occurs. Let me run this one by you: Put a bunch of poor people from Ireland and England (which were already isolated populations subsisting on a lean largely starch-based diet, which pushes selection pressures towards genetic adaptations that preserve starch-based energy) into a society-based island that is Appalachia, start applying very cheap garbage food made largely of factory starches and sugars by the train-car load since the late 1940's when the processed and packaged food industries needed an excuse to keep going after WWII, and social pressures like the reduction in need for dirty coal, mineral mining and manufacturing such that all that most of these people can afford to eat is the cheap processed stuff, and you wonder why previously rare diseases like obesity are so common among these people? You wonder why over time these adaptations may have had a chance to take hold as some of these individuals are able to diaspora or escape abject poverty and pass on their obsolete adaptations as we move forward into a post-food-scarcity society? HackerNews is so filled with people who lack even the most basic sense of human empathy - I wish I could say I'm so surprised, but it's almost looked upon as a badge of honor by some of these people...