Bad food makes some people fat! Whoa!

According to the Huffington Post, researchers out of UCLA have determined that genetics play a role in weight gain when you eat crappy foods. 

In the study, funded by the National Institute of Health and appearing in the print version of the journal Cell Metabolism, UCLA researchers gave more than 100 genetic strains of mice a normal diet for eight weeks, followed by a high-fat, high-sugar diet for another eight weeks. 

Even though the mice were eating the exact same diets, their weight gain varied greatly. The high-fat diet caused no change in body-fat percentage for some mice while others' body fat percentages increased by a whopping 600 percent.

I have no idea why they needed a study to figure this out. A much funner method would have been to send a couple of the researchers on a round-the-world trip with the following itinerary:

1. Go to Samoa.
2. Go to Japan
3. Compare and contrast.

In other words, no duh that genetics play a role in weight gain. But here's the thing to remember about this particular study. It's about whether or not you gain weight when eating high-fat and high-sugar, so it's not a voucher to adopt a victim mentality. Working within the parameters of these findings, if you're unhappy with the fact that you're fat, it's not the Twinkie's fault. You can still change it by eating better foods.

And no, those skinny runts who can eat junk and stay skinny aren't "lucky bastards." They're still  susceptible to diabetes, heart disease, and a host of other issues more insipid than a muffin top. If anything, those of us who get chubby when we eat too many Nutter Butters are the lucky ones, because we have a massive red flag to point us in the right direction.