Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T14:59:08.926Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Committed to the insurance hypothesis of obesity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2017

George A. Lozano
George A. Lozano*
Affiliation:
Estonian Centre of Evolutionary Ecology, Tartu, Estonia, 50108dr.george.lozano@gmail.comwww.georgealozano.com National Institute of Ecology, South Korea 325-813.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Can ideas about the regulation of body mass in birds be used to explain the breakdown of regulation associated with obesity and anorexia in humans? There is no evidence to think so. Medicine can always benefit from the application of evolutionary ecology ideas, but we must be prepared to dismiss these ideas when they just do not fit the data.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 40 , 2017 , e121
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abed, R. T. (1998) The sexual competition hypothesis for eating disorders. British Journal of Medical Psychology 71:525–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, P. J. & Konner, M. (1987) An anthropological perspective on obesity. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 499:29–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dinsa, G. D., Goryakin, Y., Fumagalli, E. & Suhrcke, M. (2012) Obesity and socioeconomic status in developing countries: A systematic review. Obesity Reviews 13:1067–79.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guisinger, S. (2003) Adapted to flee famine: Adding an evolutionary perspective on anorexia nervosa. Psychological Review 110:745–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hales, C. N. & Barker, D. J. (1992) Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus: The thrifty phenotype hypothesis. Diabetologia 35:595–601.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kanter, R. & Caballero, B. (2012) Global gender disparities in obesity: A review. Advances in Nutrition 3:491–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lozano, G. A. (2008) Obesity and sexually selected anorexia nervosa. Medical Hypotheses 71:933–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Neel, J. V. (1962) Diabetes mellitus: a “thrifty” genotype rendered detrimental by “progress”? American Journal of Human Genetics 14:352–53.Google ScholarPubMed
Shetty, P. & Schmidhuber, J. (2006) Introductory lecture: The epidemiology and determinants of obesity in developed and developing countries. International Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research 76:157–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Speakman, J. R. (2008) Thrifty genes for obesity, an attractive but flawed idea, and an alternative perspective: The “drifty gene” hypothesis. International Journal of Obesity 32(11):1611–17. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2008.161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stöger, R. (2008) The thrifty epigenotype: An acquired and heritable predisposition for obesity and diabetes? Bioessays 126:976–81.Google Scholar
Surbey, M. K. (1987) Anorexia nervosa, amenorrhea, and adaptation. Ethology and Sociobiology 8:47S–61S.CrossRefGoogle Scholar