Identically Different by Tim Spector

Author:Tim Spector [SPECTOR, TIM]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SCI000000; SCI086000; SCI029000; SCI075000
ISBN: 9781468310405
Publisher: Overlook
Published: 2014-07-28T16:00:00+00:00

Willpower and marshmallows

Jenny and Florence looked very similar but were always fighting. Until we first tested them at the age of 40 they had no idea they were identical twins, as their mum had always told them the midwife was sure they were non-identical. They were born with similar weights of 6 lb, 50-odd years ago in India, and spent most of their childhood in English boarding schools with their notoriously bad food. At school they both played sports but both slowly gained weight, eating snacks of bread and jam. Just before they left school both twins were of average height at 5′ 5″. Jenny was around 11 stone and her sister Florence 12 stone.

Florence, who was always naughtier and had missed a year of school while pretending to be homesick, said: ‘I decided one day after talking to my brother, who was thinking of dieting, that I was tired of being overweight and decided to do something about it myself.’ She went on a strict diet for two months of apples and cheese, she became anaemic and her periods stopped as she lost 4 stone in a year. She never gained weight again. She impulsively eloped and moved to Illinois in the US and married a military man and became a firm vegetarian, cutting out most carbohydrates. She is still susceptible to the odd small piece of dark chocolate ‘because it is full of antioxidants’. Florence now weighs just over 9 stone and Jenny, who married an Englishman a few years later, now weighs nearly 15 stone. Jenny introduces her sister as ‘my thin twin’.

‘The reason I’m the fatter,’ Jenny (who is a pharmacist) says, bluntly, ‘is because I eat more. I snack and comfort-eat, my sister doesn’t – she is very controlled. I think my life is less stressful, happier and more relaxed than Florence’s, so I don’t feel the need to control that part of my life. I have tried a few diets half-heartedly but they have not worked. I know I could lose weight by eating less and doing more exercise, but for me, it’s not a priority.’ ‘Although I’m the fatter one,’ she says, ‘I think I’m happier.’

Jenny has twin 15-year-old sons, who are both of normal weight and tease her. However, both the children of the thin twin, Florence, are, unlike her, seriously overweight. Her daughter now weighs over 300 lb (over 24 stone) and has needed gastric surgery for obesity. Her husband is travelling most of the year and she works locally as a hairdresser.

Florence doesn’t agree with Jenny’s theory: ‘I’ve had a tougher life, but I feel happy in myself. I’m healthy and Jenny has health-related weight problems she doesn’t admit to, like joint and back problems. Once I’ve decided to do something, I stick with it, whatever – like my thirty-year marriage.’ Both twins do agree they are strong-willed and slightly obsessional. They both easily gave up smoking. They are both a bit crazy about tidiness around the house. Their father was also strong-willed.

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