Die Young and Pretty or Old and Fat?
In the cave man days, everyone wanted to be fat, because fat represented valuable stored calories. Now nobody wants to be fat, because it makes you die faster, and you'll never be a sexxx icon. What changed? Science knows!
A provocative new hypothesis suggests that in some people, fat not only stores energy but also revs up the body's immune system. This subgroup may have enjoyed a survival advantage in the 1800s, when people were plagued by a disease that decimated Europe: tuberculosis.
So back then it was great to be fat, because you were less likely to die on lice-infested hay mattress while coughing up blood. So lots of us today are descendants of these fat-disposed survivors, but now fattiness is an "evolutionary anachronism" whose main effect is to crush our dreams for ever being on any reality show except Biggest Loser, and to boost the stock value of the Frito-Lay corporation.
