Mean genes chapter 01 ~ 04

Fat 

Please don't feed the humans 

furry / diaper / infant / formerly / linguistic / zest / scarce / svelte / plentiful / captive / appetite / inconceivable / baffle / bulimia / blankly / witness / convince / prosperous / plumper / famine / malnutrition / shortage / insatiable / lurk / profound / thereby / thrifty / continual / suburban / forage / brimmed / brimming / taxing / lump / gluttonous / satiate / satiated / obese / plumpness / predictably / roan / chubby / endowment / dread / reunion / elusive / attest / biosphere / sustainable / grumpy / sparse / squabble / dub / displace / initially / simian / chow / validate / induce / carbohydrate / bout / sought / financial crunch / defer / adept at / absurd / clinical / placebo(placebo effect) / advocate / vigilant / precaution / preemptive / delicacy / albeit / admit / stash / stashed / binge / nocturnal / munch / preemptively / indulge / vow / drastic / punch out / smear / repulse / condiment / wager / presumably / gaunt / splay / matriarch / yell / subtle / compound / plague / privileged / frivolous / wary / descend / lethargy / diabolical /outsmart / brisk / thwart / palatable / abhor / substitute / tame / imminent / molecule / nutrasweet / identical / preferentially / ingest / intestine / absorbed / gut / rig up

In addition to change metabolism, the body combats dieting by releasing chemicals to induce eating.

Severe dieting may not just be fruitless, it may also be bad for out health. As we saw, dieting slashes the metabolic rate, damaging crucial functions : a starving body slows down variety of systems of shuts them off completely. Hungry lab animals almost completely lose their sex drive and may be less adept at fighting infection, which means weakening of the immune system. 

Why dieting is so difficult in term of genetic reason. Ancestral humans were in continual challenges for finding food to survive. There was no fridges tens of thousands of years ago, so they had to store food as fat by eating as much as they could when food is in presence. Humans who had much fat in their bodies could survive longer than those who had less fat in severe season. In this respect our genes have been programmed for tens of millions of years in specific ways for surviving. Even we live in the modern society where the food is plentiful, our genes are still walking on the field in which the food is scarce.

Drugs

Hijacking the pleasure pathway 

lure / endorsement / abstain from ~ / sober / allure / omnipresent / full blown / litany / ovulate / paralyze / ravenous / ravenously / perplex / promising / discernible / discern / creative juice / praise / maze / languish / remedial / savvy / rev up / vigorously / soak up / exert / exquisite / beeline / awash / obstruct / masquerade / amplify / elicit / ecstatic / dole out / famished / euphoria / replicate / erogenous zone / lethally / exploit / devious / disastrous / snugly / prolong / prolonged / opiate / alter / impersonate / slur / dose / testicle / indistinguishable / measurable / bladder / intoxicating / innocuous / withdrawal symptoms / recreation / tipsy / racy / revel / crimson / booze / manhandle / abnormal / glitch / propensity / anonymous / augment / restraint / demoralize / disapproving / compulsion / volition / susceptible / abstinence / potent / hone / coincidence / discard / dampen 

Risk 

Thrill-seeking genes take us for a ride 

wager / aptly / odds / confine / impoverish / disproportion / cumulate / derive from / scapegoat / brainteaser / retreat / withdraw / averse / roar / strut / escalate / fatalities / prevalent / flee / disfigure / slink / offspring / cower / fierce / pierce / cajole / seduce / induce / persuade / pair off / acquaintance / muffle / extravagant / decipher / goad / reckless / irrational / meek / opponent / invincible / simulate / allure / lapse / dispense / rev up / prowess / prehistoric / venomous / 

Taking risks is costly but fun. We will never be more than nanoseconds away from satisfying the urge to impoverish ourselves and our families.

If the one is more impressive, the other retreats. 

They are a fierce people ; more than a quarter of the men die from violence. 

Our genes cajole us into taking risks by making danger exciting.

Some people are born with system that muffle the buzz they get from taking risks.

We are unable to wrap our brains around the enormous size of modern populations.

They are unprecedented in our genes' experiences. 

So stocks can be both risky and profitable, but we have to shackle the overconfident day trader who lurks within each of us. 

For ancestral humans, social failures were presumably much more costly than they are for us.