Will We Keep Getting Fatter?

That's what we're programmed to do--unless we find some genes that will switch off fat metabolism

If the past 2 million or 3 million years of human history are any guide, obesity is our unfortunate but inevitable fate. That's not to say there's any special secret to weight control. All it takes, as we've heard over and over, is a sensible diet and plenty of exercise.

But knowing and doing are two very different things, as hundreds of thousands of lapsed weight watchers have learned to their despair. The trouble, according to one theory, is that our best intentions about weight control go up against several million years of human evolution. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors literally didn't know...

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