In Common Childhood Obesity, Gene Variants Raise Risk

No they don't.

A new study by pediatric researchers has added to the evidence that genes have a strong influence on childhood obesity.

The study team searched across the whole genomes of thousands of obese children for copy number variations (CNVs)--deletions or duplications of DNA sequences. Although the CNVs they found are rare within the population, their data suggest that those individuals harboring such variants are at a very high risk of becoming obese.

"Our study is the first large-scale, unbiased genome-wide scan of CNVs in common pediatric obesity," said study leader Struan F.A. Grant, Ph.D., associate director of the Center for Applied Genomics (CAG) at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "We found CNVs that were exclusive to obese children across two ethnicities-European Americans and African Americans."

Only Calories matter.

Besides, even if genes made a difference, what are they gonna do about it?

By the time they figure out how to re-engineer your genes, you will be dead. And you will no longer be a child.

However, if you are a fat idiot committed to a genetic "cure," better to go here and do what is more possible genetically.

Or eat fewer Calories than you burn.

I would choose the last option.