Study: Fat People Are Happier Than Skinny People

While skinny people sit back and make fun of fat people, they don't realize that they are actually the miserable ones, while the fat people are going around being jolly and eating lavish foods.

In fact, fat people do not have a standard image to live up to, as the pressure for skinny people to stay skinny is always looming.

What's 40 pounds in either direction when you already weight 320?

In fact, there is indeed a "fat gene" that doubles as a "happy gene," known as FTO.

According to scientists from McMaster University in Canada, FTO is the major genetic contributor to obesity.

FTO is also, however, associated with an eight percent reduction in the risk of depression.

When researching whether there was a link between obesity and depression, the researchers discovered that the opposite was indeed the case, as fat people were generally happier.

The study analyzed 17,200 DNA samples from participants in 21 countries.

Results showed those with the the previously identified FTO gene showed significantly less signs of depression.

"We set out to follow a different path, starting from the hypothesis that both depression and obesity deal with brain activity," said Professor David Meyre. "We hypothesised that obesity genes may be linked to depression. "The difference of eight per cent is modest and it won't make a big difference in the day-to-day care of patients. "But, we have discovered a novel molecular basis for depression. "It is the first evidence that an FTO obesity gene is associated with protection against major depression, independent of its effect on body mass index."

This study was conducted before the announcement of the Hostess factories closing, so the results may, in fact, be null and void.

Stephen Willard | Elite.