Dr Giles Yeo

MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit, University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Labs, Wellcome Trust-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science and presenter of BBC TV documentaries “What Diet is Right For You” and “What is making us so fat ?”

The recent increase in obesity is due to dramatic changes in our environment over the past 50 years. All of us are exposed to this environment but not all of us are obese. Why is this ? Genetic differences mean we respond differently to the environment, allowing us to use genetics as a tool to understand the mechanisms underlying obesity. Some of us are slightly more hungry all the time and so eat more others. In contrast to the prevailing view, obese people are not bad and lazy; rather, they are fighting their biology. Society has to accept this, before we can form successful strategies to tackle this largest of public health problems. Dr Yeo’s free public lecture will discuss the science behind this and expand on his recent BBC TV shows in which he discussed how we can use genetics to link people to specific types of diets and exercise regimes that are most likely to work for them.