What is Hereditary?

An answer read in an advice column a long time ago has stuck in my mind. To the question "Is obesity hereditary," the columnist had said "the only thing you inherit from your parents in this regard is bad eating habits."

In my mind that is hereditary.

Heredity does not merely mean biological inheritance - things being in your genes. It also means having picked up behaviors from your parents (or care-providers). Behaviors you didn't know you were picking up. You also believe that these are "normal" and don't realize until much later that there are people who behave in different ways, and they are normal too. It is this heredity that can be very useful or very insidious.

Lucky for us, the "learned heredity" can be changed, as opposed to "birth heredity" that cannot be. Change is not easy, but with determined effort, it can be accomplished.