Viruses explain obesity

(written by Lawrence Krubner, however indented passages are often quotes)

Interesting:

There are alternate models for the obesity epidemic. Environmental contamination by endocrine disrupting chemicals might be one direction to look in. Another might be the AD36 adenovirus:

Nikhil Dhurandhar, an obesity researcher at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has shown that a human adenovirus called AD36 raises body-fat levels in animal models such as chickens and rodents. What’s more, he found that obese humans were three times more likely to be infected with the virus than non-obese people — and heavier individuals in both groups tended to be infected. Dhurandhar reported these findings in a 2005 paper.

The link between AD36 and obesity is suggestive but not yet conclusive, and there are criticisms of the research; it treads on dangerous ground. In particular, many large corporations would love to see the obesity epidemic pinned on something other than their own sub-standard food products (just as coal mines would like to blame climate change on solar output fluctuations).