Photo by Everett McCourt

The other day a friend named Nuria Quella sent me an email pointing out that in Mexico City, 75 percent of women, 69 percent of men, and 35 percent of school-age children are overweight. Because of that, INMEGEN, the National Institute of Genome Medicine, is beginning a study among chilangos this November, trying to break down the obesity genome to see if it is possible to prevent obesity-related diseases, such as asthma, hypertension and diabetes.

Here’s my shocking confession, amigos. I don’t even know what a genome is. Believe me, I’ve tried to figure it out. I’ve read, I’ve done research. But the information goes in one ear and out the other.

However: Can we get real for a minute? I know some people will excoriate me for saying this. Chilangos are fat because they eat truckloads of junk food (both sweet and salty), are in a photo finish with the gringos for the highest per capita consumption of soda pop in the world, gorge on greasy tacos (however delicious they may be) and are loath to do any exercise. Wouldn’t a little behavior modification go a lot longer than genome research? I'm an ignoramus about science; I'm just asking.