Horizon (TV Series) Why Are Thin People Not Fat? (2009) User Reviews

Excellent look at many factors that govern our body weight

[mizmoose · 9/10 · 26 February 2019]

The days of stigmatizing fat people as "lazy" or 'unwilling to change" are coming to an end as science delves more and more into the mysteries of body weight.

Overfeeding studies look at why some people gain and stop, and some gain and keep gaining. If it were simply "eating too much" then everyone in overfeeding studies would continue to gain while the study was going on.

The study of genetics of obesity continues to grow every day. So far, they have identified over 50 genes related to body weight (and not just obesity), of which about 10 seem the most significant. These genes are heritable, or rather, may be passed down from parents.

Heritable genes, if inherited, are not guarantees that the genes will be expressed (activated), as seen by the study described with the children and the FTO gene.

The documentary mostly looks at the harder sciences of obesity, and not the other factors such as societal factors and the obesogenic environments that contributes to obesity.

Unscientific, industry propaganda

[mytyde · 1/10 · 8 January 2013]

This is a very poorly done documentary. Every claim made is highly controversial and bears a one-sided argument. Instead of working from an evidence-based perspective, this unscientific 'documentary' redirects blame from corporations which actively promote poor health in society, pursuing profit over human dignity.

Some examples of unscientific conclusions are:

1. Obesity is strongly correlated to obesity - In the real world, if genetics caused obesity, why did American health peak 30 years ago, in the pre-Reagan era when social equality and working-class wages peaked in value (when a family could still live on a single salary)?

2. Fat cells are permanent - In reality, adipocyte apoptosis IS possible with adequate nutrient intake, esp of Vitamin A.

3. Genetics determines that muscle was gained by the Asian man - Muscle put on in this fashion is a sign that this man had a. already had this muscle in the past, in which case his nervous system was already adapted to allow its rapid restoration and probably also b. that his diet consisted of higher-quality food, as Asian diets are known to consist of.