Eureka! Scientists uncover the skinny gene...in fat fruit flies

"People who want to fit in their jeans might someday be able to overcome their genes," said Dr. Jonathan Graff, associate professor of developmental biology and internal medicine at UT Southwestern.

I don't mean to poo-poo on this man's parade but this study where the skinny gene was originally "discovered" in fat fruit flies from a graduate student's work 50 years ago and then tested more today by UT Southwestern Medical Center talks nothing about any data compiled from testing on human beings. The lab coats at UT did tests on tiny worms and genetically engineered mice saying "From worms to mammals, this gene controls fat formation" insinuating humans since technically people are mammals too.

I call shenanigans! Nice twist on a story marketing people of UT but I'm not buying that finding a skinny gene in flying bugs, dirt squirmers, and spliced up rodents is going to be the silver bullet in curing obesity and diabetes in homo sapiens. When there is data on research on human beings, then talk to me.

And call me cynical, but I also think that this is just another ploy to make up yet another drug to make pharmaceutical companies rich off our fat. It's also another excuse for people to not do the work to lose weight and maintain good health through proper nutrition eating and exercise. Can you hear it now, "I can't lose weight because I don't have the skinny genes or I can't help being fat because I don't have skinny genes."

If people knew that they could get back into their skinny jeans by taking a pill to supercharge their own cells into behaving like skinny genes, you don't need to be a genius to see the cha-ching for the drug companies from overweight people who want instant skinni-fication. There is far more to being overweight than just your genes, and taking a pill is not going to melt the fat off and keep it off.

In the meantime, I think this skinny gene news although interesting is meaningless until we see the skinny gene actually helping real people get back into their skinny jeans...Fat fruit flies and worms? Oh pleez! That still cracks me up.

[Science Daily]