About the Authors

Kevin R. Fontaine

Affiliation Division of Rheumatology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Henry T. Robertson

Affiliation Section on Statistical Genetics, Department of Biostatistics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Claus Holst

Affiliation The Institute of Preventive Medicine, Copenhagen University Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Renee Desmond

Affiliations Clinical Nutrition Research Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America, Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Albert J. Stunkard

Affiliation Weight and Eating Disorders Program, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Thorkild I. A. Sørensen

Affiliation The Institute of Preventive Medicine, Copenhagen University Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

David B. Allison

DAllison@uab.edu

Affiliations Section on Statistical Genetics, Department of Biostatistics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America, Clinical Nutrition Research Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have read the journal's policy and have the following conflicts: Dr. Allison has received grants, honoraria, donations, and consulting fees from numerous food, beverage, pharmaceutical companies, and other commercial, government, and nonprofit entities with interests in obesity and nutrition, and receives royalties from obesity-related books, Vivus Pharmaceuticals, and Kraft Foods Frontiers Foundation. Dr. Sørensen has had industrial collaborations indicated at http://www.ipm.hosp.dk/person/tias/Disclosures.html. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all PLos ONE policies on sharing data and materials. The remaining authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: DBA TIAS KRF HTR. Performed the experiments: HTR RD CH DBA TIAS. Analyzed the data: HTR RD CH DBA. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: TIAS. Wrote the paper: KRF DBA TIAS AJS.