Are We Controlled by Our Genes?

It’s actually the opposite: A new study demonstrates that our genes are controlled by our culture and environment.

Here’s an example: In the Wall Street Journal, Matt Ridley writes: "All mammals can digest lactose sugars in milk as babies, but the lactase gene switches off at weaning when no longer needed. In much of Europe and parts of Africa, by contrast, most people can digest lactose even as adults, because the lactase gene remains switched on. (About 90% of East Asians and 70% of South Indians are lactose-intolerant to some degree.)

"This is caused by one of four genetic mutations that occurred in different regions and at different dates, one in Europe and three in Africa. Coincidentally, these regions also saw the domestication of cattle and the adoption of milk-drinking by adults around the same time."

If only we could teach our bodies not to get fat! New research suggests ordinary fat cells can be reengineered to burn calories. A research team has discovered that a protein called PRDM16, found in both men and mice, can throw a switch on fat cells, converting them from ordinary calorie-storing white fat cells into calorie-burning brown fat cells.

If you haven’t been able to train those fat cells to behave, you need to face some facts–and in order to learn them, you need to download Anne Strieber’s famous diet book, "What I Learned From the Fat Years." Using scientific principles, she devised a diet that helped her to lose 100 pounds and YOU CAN TOO, and now that it’s been reduced to $3 from $5, it costs MUCH LESS than the ineffective diet books you’ll find in stores.