Gok's Journey Of Discovery | Food

4. All in the genes

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4. All in the genes (Image 4 of 8)

At current rates 80 per cent of obese teens will become obese adults. Gok asks geneticist, Professor O'Rohilly, what part genetics has to play in the problem of obesity. "If you take a room of 1000 people, some thin and some fat, and line them up science has unequivocally proven that 75 per cent of that difference is to do with genetics."

Gok is shocked. But why now; why as a nation are we getting fatter? "In contrast to the million years of our evolution, for the first time we've got an almost unlimited access to food," explains the professor. "Combined with the lack of need to physically go out and physically work for that food. It's almost inevitable that any of us who are genetically predisposed to being obese will in this environment become obese."

Scientists have identified eight genetic variants that are linked to obesity and Gok goes to be tested for the most common one frequently referred to as 'the fat gene'. "If I find out I've got this fat variant I'm going to be on a diet for the rest of my life if I want to remain this size," he grimaces.