An international team of doctors has named the "fattest" and "slimmest" nations in Europe. Among the peoples studied by scientists, Germans and Slavs are not mentioned. As reports "Lenta.ru", the authors published their research results in the journal Nature Genetics, and a brief overview can be found on the Daily Mail website.
In their work, the doctors analyzed data on approximately 250 thousand people, as well as 17.5 thousand pairs of relatives from 14 European countries. The genetic study revealed several independent loci whose presence in representatives of European peoples scientists linked to features of their body structure.
The study showed that the higher the average height of representatives of a nation, the slimmer they are and the lower the body mass index (BMI) of its representatives. The latter is defined as the ratio of body mass (in kilograms) to the square of body length (in meters) and allows determining the presence of excess weight. For example, with a body weight of 67 kilograms and a height of 1.7 meters, the BMI is 23.
Scientists note that the correlation they observed between BMI in different peoples and their geographical location is most likely due not only to genetic features (which, in turn, were formed under the influence of climatic factors), but also to traditions of national cuisine and ecology.
The study, according to scientists, generally confirms the well-known European stereotype about "tall and slim" Scandinavians (residents of Northern Europe) and "short and fat" Greeks (representatives of southern Europe).