Amish keep slim despite having obesity gene. How do they do it?

By William Atkins
Wednesday, 10 September 2008 22:24

Science - Health

An American study has shown that Old Order Amish adults--who have a gene that gives them a higher risk to be obese--reduce that tendency to gain alot of pounds by doing one thing. Can you guess what it is?

It is known to the scientific community that the Amish eat a normal diet that is high in fat, calories, and refined sugar. All three groups would normally doom any American from maintaining a slim-and-trim waistline.

However, the Amish keep from getting overweight and/or obese by doing what many of us have removed from our lifestyle.

Please read on for the not-so-secret way of their success.

The Amish are members of an Anabaptist (Mennonites, or re-baptizers) Christian denomination that is commonly known for their plain clothing, lack of modern conveniences, and simple living.

The Old Order Amish, a part of this Amish group, are the most conservative, having retained the most traditional style of living from their origins in Switzerland in the sixteeenth century.

Several American researchers were interested in why the Amish maintain their trim figures while still eating alot of foods that tend to make us all fatter than what we would like to be.

The article “Physical Activity and the Association of Common FTO Gene Variants With Body Mass Index and Obesity ” is authored by Evadnie Rampersaud, Braxton D. Mitchell, Toni I. Pollin, Mao Fu, Haiqing Shen, Jeffery R. O’Connell, Julie L. Ducharme, Scott Hines, Paul Sack, Rosalie Naglieri, Alan R. Shuldiner, and Soren Snitker.

The authors are associated with the Department of Medicine, University of Maryland (Rampersaud, Mitchell, Pollin, Fu, Shen, O’Connell, Ducharme, Hines, Sack, Naglieri, Shuldiner, and Snitker), and the Geriatric Research and Education Clinical Center, Baltimore Veterans Administration Medical Center (Shuldiner). Rampersaud is now with the Miller School of Medicine, Miami Institute for Human Genetics, University of Miami, Florida.

It appears online September 8, 2008 within the journal Archives of Internal Medicine (2008;168(16):1791-1797).

Page two tells what these researchers found out about the Amish and their way of life.