a gene for obesity

Obesity and gout are due largely to our lack of the gene making uricase, which apes lost so they could get more energy from fruit. Gene editing can restore it, and our body still remembers how to use it.
.     Apes need energy for their larger brains while living on a diet of fruit. Losing this gene enabled them to turn fructose (fruit sugar) into fat - which is why ‘energy’ drinks make us obese. We need this energy because our bigger brains use 20% of our total - and we store any excess energy in case of famine.
.    Gout - arthritis from urate crystals in our joints - affects 1/25 adults. The extra uric acid that we and apes can't metabolise comes mainly from red meat and beer. Apes don't consume these but humans need occasional extra energy to feed our bigger brains. 
.    Perhaps evolution or gene editing will one day fix this, so we don't get obese or gout this. But in the meantime we could eat differently - though this takes more than increased brain power.

Article at:
htps://www.livescience.com/health/genetics/gene-that-human-ancestors-lost-millions-of-years-ago-could-help-treat-gout
Papers at:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-10551-8
https://faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1096/fj.13-243634