Three Basic Causes of Obesity (1) The Inherited Factor Assuming
that there is a limit to the diencephalon's fat banking
capacity, it follows that there are three basic ways in which
obesity can become manifest. The first is that the fat-banking
capacity is abnormally low from birth. Such a congenitally low
diencephalic capacity would then represent the inherited factor
in obesity. When this abnormal trait is markedly present,
obesity will develop at an early age in spite of normal feeding;
this could explain why among brothers and sisters eating the
same food at the same table some become obese and others do not.
(2) Other Diencephalic Disorders The second way in which obesity
can become established is the lowering of a previously normal
fat-banking capacity owing to some other diencephalic disorder.
It seems to be a general rule that when one of the many
diencephalic centers is particularly overtaxed; it tries to
increase its capacity at the expense of other centers. In the
menopause and after castration the