I have no idea about this story -- just that I don't want to discount anything without further study. Bottom line, the obesity epidemic might not be caused by high fructose corn syrup but an obesity virus.
"For years, I've told a joke that you get on an elevator and someone sneezes and you catch obesity," Atkinson said. "I can with absolute certainty say if you are a chicken, a mouse, or a monkey and I squirt this virus up your nose, you have a better than an 80 percent chance of getting fat."
The virus that Atkinson is speaking of is one of the dozens of human adenoviruses -- virus no. 36. A doctor in India first discovered a virus that made chickens fat and Atkinson believes that obesity virus exchanged genetic material with a human virus.
Read the whole thing, especially the part about it being a risk factor. So what does this mean if it turns out to be true? Nothing in the short term. Remember, there isn't much that can be done regarding viruses yet, once you have one. And making a vaccine is pretty hard too.
Comments