No correlation between adiposity and food intake: why are working class children fatter?

A hypothesis is proposed to account for this apparent contradiction: the typical lifestyle or diet in a given population challenges individual adaptive capacities; the more caloric the socially accepted diet, the higher the proportion of individuals who are challenged beyond their adaptive threshold.

Abstract

Many studies have failed to show a correlation between individual energy intake and obesity. However, the prevalence of overweight is higher in populations with higher caloric intake. In this study on a population of French children, no correlation was found between energy intake and individual corpulence (wt/ht2 index or skinfold thickness), but a higher proportion of overweight children was found in lower social classes where energy intake is traditionally higher. A hypothesis is proposed to account for this apparent contradiction: the typical lifestyle or diet in a given population challenges individual adaptive capacities; the more caloric the socially accepted diet, the higher the proportion of individuals who are challenged beyond their adaptive threshold. Socially determined factors such as a high calorie diet act in a permissive way in the development of obesity although the caloric intake of obese individuals may be no different from that of nonobese peers.