The good news is that walking can cut obesity gene effect in half.

Something as accessible and simple as walking has been shown effective in mitigating the genetic tendency toward obesity.

To explore the interaction between behavior and genes, Harvard researchers analyzed data on more than 12,000 men and women participating in two large studies of health professionals.

The researchers measured the participants’ genetic risk by identifying how many of the 32 known variants of the so-called obesity geneeach person had. (The gene is officially known as the fat mass and obesity associated, or FTO, gene.)

Roughly half of the general population has some genetic risk for obesity, says lead author Qibin Qi, Ph.D., a research fellow in nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, in Boston

It is amazing to think that we can actually change our genes by doing something as simple as walking more and sitting less.

We really can take control of our health.

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