All in the Family

On Tuesday, my cousin Paul had WLS. He's recovering nicely from his lap RNY and should be released from the hospital this afternoon. Paul is now the third member of my family (on my mom's side) to have WLS. I was second. My Aunt Debbie was first. She's now five years post-op and maintaining a normal weight. The unfortunate thing about my family is that not one member is of a normal weight - we are ALL overweight. Actually, I take that back. We're all obese. If there was ever a family genetically designed to outlast a famine, we're it. Of course, there is no famine - so we put that stored energy away for a rainy day in the form of fat. It just makes me wonder about what our future generations will be like. Will Paul's new baby boy, who is less than a year old, grow up overweight? It so happens that Paul's wife is a WLS post-op too. His son will be lucky to grow up with parents who have a different view of eating than ours did. And for myself - will I be dooming my own future child(ren) to a life of obesity, simply by dealing him/her/them a bad hand genetically?