The answer might be genetics, so while that would be potentially interesting from a gene therapy point of view, if we find a food contaminant or environmental pollutant is causing the obesity epidemic, that might be much easier to fix—by banning it. After all, there might be many genes of individually small effect involved in resistance to this hypothetical contaminant or pollutant, and those genes might have all sorts of side-effects.
But you are right that by studying these people, and comparing them to obese people, we might in principle discover some (altered) biochemical pathway that is enlightening to know about.
The answer might be genetics, so while that would be potentially interesting from a gene therapy point of view, if we find a food contaminant or environmental pollutant is causing the obesity epidemic, that might be much easier to fix—by banning it. After all, there might be many genes of individually small effect involved in resistance to this hypothetical contaminant or pollutant, and those genes might have all sorts of side-effects.
But you are right that by studying these people, and comparing them to obese people, we might in principle discover some (altered) biochemical pathway that is enlightening to know about.