TY - JOUR T1 - September Focus JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 650 LP - 650 VL - 56 IS - 530 AU - David Jewell Y1 - 2006/09/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/56/530/650.abstract N2 - All of us (well, almost all of us) agree that increasing numbers of overweight people makes for a major health problem now and a bigger one in the future. But we don't all agree who or what is to blame. Here's my favourite, heard recently on the radio. Polar bears can only hunt at certain times of the year, and have to travel long distances for their quarry. They have to be very efficient at storing the food they catch. Oysters are surrounded by their food, so that they don't even have to move to eat, and have no need of elaborate storage mechanisms. Human beings now live with the metabolism of polar bears, in an oyster's world, with entirely predictable results. Sarah Jarvis on page 654 puts a strong argument that we have to take a lead in tackling the problem, and Scott Brown, in the paper based on his … ER -