Round again

Round again ››: Whigham and co support Dhurandhar's 1996 idea of an obesity virus. There's a certain amount of special pleading and a David-and-Goliath thing going on (complete with comparisons with previous breakthroughs initially mocked by the establishment e.g. Barry Marshall's Nobel-winning work with H.pylori) but it doesn't fit the profile of pseudoscience - this is a peer-reviewed study and, press release aside, it take a cautious line. Although no-one is claiming that a virus is the sole or determining cause of human obesity, you can see how some would be happy to misinterpret it that way. It's an appealling and placatory notion: "it's not my fault or even my genes' fault that I'm fat…" But the experts all agree: factors such as genetics and any purported viral agent combine to alter your propensities only. You've still got to eat too much. (via); [Permalink…31-Jan-06…Deserving memes……Comments (0)]

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