It’s all in your genes, folks. Researchers at the University of Berkeley have uncovered a gene called DNA-PK that is thought to be responsible for the regulation of the process in the liver that converts carbohydrates in the food we eat into fat.
What is amazing about this discovery is that when mice were treated to disable this particular gene, they didn’t put on any weight even when they overate simple carbohydrates. This led to a researcher wondering if this effect could be replicated with humans:
“We hope that this research will one day help people eat bread, pasta and rice and not worry about getting fat,” Roger Wong, a graduate student who worked on the study, said in a statement. [Reuters]
Due to the inability to convert the carbohydrates to fat, the test mice also had more lean muscle, less body fat and much better blood-cholesterol numbers than regular mice. Since humans have this gene, who knows, someday we could pop a pill and freak out at the all-you-can-eat pizza-pasta buffet!
But until then, stop dreaming and get back to lifting weights and eating more greens, pasture-meat, nuts and healthy fats!