myth or fact?where do I find out?

[G_BOU]

Hi ,

My name is Randall and I'm currently at work and just came out of an argument with my work colleges and was accused of being racist.
I made a comment on the topic of bodybuilding 'White people carry more body fat than Balck people' and 'The darker your skin colour the better you look'

These statements I've heard before and was just wondering how true it all is.

Would you be able to help me with this ?
It will really be appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Randall

 

[pumpit]

What you've said is very true the darker you are the more ripped you look. Why else would bodybuilders put on tanning oil. As for White people carrying more body fat. That is not always true, it is mainly down to body type and genetics eg:ectomorph,mesomorph and endomorph. Also enviroment, diet and training play a big part in all peoples body fat.

 

[G_BOU]

Thanks for the quick response , I have another though.
We are Black people dominant in most sports? , especially Track and Field?

 

[Mudge]

Black people have more test in thier system (statistically), asians are on the low end of that scale.

Dark skin throws the light off better on the stage (with oil), and most people prefer the tanned look, where at several points in the past "snow white" skin was considered beautiful, because it meant you were rich and didn't have to work outside etc.

However, like with anything there are all kinds of people, not every single black man/woman is going to be a raging athlete, and not every chinese man is going to be 5'2", but statistically not every man/race is created equal, and while the fantasy is great it is not a reality.

As for whites carrying more bodyfat, I dont know about that one. The US is currently the most obese nation in the world, if you wanted yet another statistic.

I think the explanation for all these things is both adaptation and evolution, which go hand in hand for the most part. If you spend 10,000 years running around in hundred degree weather your going to get a tan. Look at the variety Africa has to offer, you have the pigmies who are around 4 foot tall, and you have the opposite where tribal members end up being over 8 foot, and of course you have the inbetween, the skinny, the fat, and the muscular, all is a combination of adaptation and simple evolution. There were parts of Africa and I believe South American who had tribal members who would run/jog 50 miles in a day to pass messages on as a normal part of life, so somewhere in there your going to find some good running "stock". FWIW statistically white people sat on thier ass trying to figure out how to invent things and take over other countries.

During Slavery in the US we also had selective breeding, remember (was it Jimmy "the Greek"?) the explanation on "when you mate the black, with the big black woman...... the black is a superior athlete."

 

[Yanick]

Mudge made a great point about the slavery thing. African AMERICANS, not all blacks not even all African Americans, have superior genetics. When slave ships would go to Africa they would pick, the biggest, strongest, healthiest. A lot of the AA's that live here today, their ancestors were slaves, so it's only logical that their ancestors genetics would be passed on to them. But as Mudge said, you have the big, small, fat, skinny, muscular people everywhere and can't just say, Blacks carry less bodyfat.

Maybe make your statements more specific, something like statistically African Americans carry less body fat than whites living in America.

 

[G_BOU]

Thank you guys ,you were really helpful I appreciate it

 

[Mudge]

It was probably easy to pick the most fit, because remember massive portions of them died on the way over, since they were packaged like sardines (not making light of thier situation).

 

[Duncan]

Statistically, White folk are grouped in the middle of the spectrum in that there are less extreme numbers, ie, the range is 8-25% bf. African Americans on ther hand, are scattered throughout the distribution in that there are extremely obese and extremely ripped, ie the scatter is <10 and >20% bf. So what this means is that they both average about the same mean BF, but African Americans have a greater variance. The reason it may appear that AAs have less bodyfat is that you are most likely basing your assertion on people you see in a gym, which you normally do not see a large amount of extremely obese people in.

 

[Arnold]

it does make you wonder about blacks and genetics when you look at the world of pro athletes.

 

[msoper]

It nice to actually have this topic discussed. It is very interesting and in most cases, like G_BOUs case, you will be ridiculed for even mensioning such herecy to say the the races are not actually equal. LOL =)

 

[MONSTER4X4]

It has also been proven that blacks have a more repressed myostatin gene which allows them to carry more muscle mass even if they have never worked out.

 

[Yanick]

reference?

 

[MONSTER4X4]

http://www.inform.umd.edu/CampusInfo/Departments/InstAdv/newsdesk/releases/2002/02001r.html

Presence of myostatin gene
And the ability to increase muscle mass

Over the next five years, Hurley hopes to study 100 African American and 100 Caucasian subjects, a racial determination Hurley realized is important as a result of an earlier pilot study.

"We studied some of the world's top body builders and compared their genes to people who trained hard but didn't increase their muscle mass," says Hurley. "A specific variation in a gene called myostatin was present in most of the elite muscle builders, but not in nonresponders, the group who could not increase their muscle mass with training. It turned out that all of the elite body builders were African Americans, and all of the nonresponders were Caucasian.

"We then did DNA tests of a sampling of African American students at Howard University and found that a high number of them also had the myostatin gene. So we concluded that the differences in myostatin genotype between the two groups were more related to racial type than ability to increase muscle mass with training .

"We hope the results of the study will lead to individualized prescriptions for prevention and treatment of sarcopenia," says Hurley.

 

[MONSTER4X4]

This isn't exactly what I read, but its in the ballpark.