September Focus

[摘要] 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 Mackenzie lecture on page 710 is equally convinced that we should be addressing weight problems in children as well. But Jarvis also recognises that the task is fatally hampered by lack of resources. In the account of a carefully constructed, but disappointing, trial to improve the approach to overweight patients on page 674, there is a story of initial enthusiasm turning to disillusionment. Not surprising that the overweight patients themselves finish up ambivalent, simultaneously stigmatised and blaming themselves (page 666). We are far from having really effective answers for this problem.

[学科分类] 卫生学