Greater minds than ours have wrestled with this phenomenon :o)

The basic thoughts are that we have too many "labour saving" devices eg
remote controls etc and also more disposable income to buy things like cars,
instead of walking.  Foods are processed more now as well.  Then there is
the "supersize meals" for 39c extra or whatever it is.  The tide is starting
to turn, but the problem took a while to become apparent and it will take a
while to solve.

All this adds up to a population of overweight people.

I'm sure others will add to this thread, but your post is not offensive to
me, I can't speak for others though!

Personally I know why I am overweight, I used to be more active and burn off
my intake.  I am at the beginning of relearning how to eat and making time
and opportunity to exercise and the benefits have become very obvious in a
very short amount of time (to my surprise).

Motivation is a personal thing, the stick may be (in the distant future)
death or chronic ill health, the carrot in most cases is an immediate threat
to life or health like diabetes, acute spinal or joint problems or even
something else.

A few things:

1. The rampant capitalism of the food industry, which has a profit
motive with absolutely no social conscience.

It is more profitable to sell cheap rubbish in large quantities rather
than quality with smaller margins and many "junk" foods have been found
to have addictive properties which over-ride the brain's "full" signals,

In many countries outside the USA, companies would simply not be allowed
to conduct themselves in this fashion.

2. The rise and rise of the automobile. It seems to me, as a European,
that the USA has sacrificed itself to the god of the car, with the
majority of families having more than one and cities and transport
mechanisms designed on that assumption - that everyone will drive
everywhere. The UK is unfortunately following that bad example.

So, you have drive-in everythings, vast car-parks round all amenities
and no need to actually walk anywhere.

3. The urbanisation of culture ie. More and more of the population live
in crowded cities, where all amenities are near-by and can be reached by
car.

4. The loss of blue-collar industries and the manual labour they
provided, to be replaced by low-skill white collar jobs, generally
sedentary in nature.

5. The loss of an eating culture, replacing family meals and social
restaurant eating with food-on-the-go and take-aways. When eating is a
sociable experience, it has been shown that people tend to eat less. For
instance, comparing France (where obesity is rare, despite a traditional
diet rich in pate, butter, high fat cheeses and cream) with USA, is it
clear that the average French worker would never dream of not having a
proper, sit-down lunch time with his friends or family, whereas the
average American worker eats a hasty sandwich at his desk.

6. To paraphrase one French journalist "There word translated 'food' in
French means 'cooking ingredients', provisions; the average Frenchman
doesn't talk about food, he talks about meals, about Cuisine. The French
don't have a food industry, they have a restaurant industry and a
provisions industry."

In Britain and USA we don't have a culture of cooking and of fine
restaurants any more. We just have the Food Industry, which feeds us
like so much livestock.

7. The changes in family structure. Families are smaller, have fewer
children and are more fragmented with up to 40% of families in some
parts of USA and UK being headed by a lone parent, and extended family
such as grandparents are often not as available in the past: society is
more mobile and people work longer into old age, so the grandparents are
simply not around to help out.

These leaves many unsupported parents struggling to bring up fewer
children, creating many emotional issues and a lack of consistency in
parenting. If the time comes to be strict and you are not backed up by
anyone, it is easier to give in, particularly if everyone around you is
in the same situation.

In addition, in lone parent families the parent often has to work and
even in two parent families it is common for both parents to have to
work, leaving less time for shopping, preparation and cooking of food.

8. The greater choice and accessibility of food, coupled with rising
incomes. Our evolutionary design is based on a situation where food is
scarce, especially high fat, high salt, high sugar food. So we are
programmed to seek out such food and gorge on it when we can and store
the excess as fat - by trying to control this urge, we are actually
fighting a very deep, primal, survival instinct.

It has been shown that given more choice, people eat more than if they
are given limited choice. If all you had to eat was rice and vegetables,
you'd be highly unlikely to over-eat on it; but look at the average
supermarket shelf if you want to see what we are confronted with today.
That very choice, which is provided as a result of commercial pressures,
and nothing to do with what humans actually *need*, is one major reason
many of us get fat.

9. The total lack of responsible nutrition education in schools, coupled
by a failure to teach by example via the school meals service.

10. The lack of physical education in schools. One interesting fact is
that there is a direct correlation between the increasing weights of UK
girl students and the replacement of dance-based activities with sports
like net-ball and hockey over the last half century.

--
I've mentioned a few factors in this immensely complicated issue. None
of these factors require us to be judgemental or unkind to people who
are obese - it really isn't their fault in the majority of cases. But
the culture of blame fits very nicely into the culture of
profits-before-people and allows those of us with the power to change
things, off the hook.

If you own a restaurant, you are part of the problem. Maybe you should
consider whether you could promote healthy eating instead of blaming
your customers for eating what you serve? Have you ever considered going
Novelle Cuisine? ;)

Gosh, this sounds awfully like the guy that came around a few months ago,
named George, who owned a buffet restaurant.  Started out with wondering how
people got to be overweight and then rapidly degraded into name calling....

Hmm....

Now after a bit of checking I found this:

Original posting was on 30 Jun 2004 titled "Why does this newsgroup exist",
From: "George" look@signature_to.reply, at the time he was with Earthlink.
This posting is From: "GG" <look@signature_to_reply.com> and he seems to
have moved over to Prodigy.

I therefore conclude that GG=George, and since he's also tried stirring
things up last year with this I hereby label him as "Troll".

This is so similar to a post that showed up here maybe a year ago.
Incredibly similar. And you would be posting to a weightwatchers newsgroup
for what reason? Are you in weightwatchers? As a 50 something woman who used
to be morbidly obese and has been "normal" for 19 months and counting, and
is fit and active, I ought to agree with your post, but don't. Go express
how you feel somewhere else, we heard you last time. Maybe your restaurant
is drawing those people with the food you serve.

Interesting post, wrong place to post it though..

Reading all the replies above, I see two common themes.  Either: 1) I'm a
bad person, or 2) obesity is the fault of society, food suppliers, cars or
evil businessmen.  Not even a hint of personal responsibility?  Or am I
mis-reading the replies?

Email replies to:

What do you mean accept them???  They're people!!  What do you want us to
do?? Kill them because their overweight??
You also stated all you ever saw growing up was "plump" people go back a
little further when overweight was a sign of the wealthy. I have an idea
maybe we should take all the people like you, you know the old people that
put their nose into other peoples affairs and complain about everything
under the sun even when it's of no concern to them and hell i don't know
maybe kill em. Why are you posting on the Weight Watcher's newsgroup anyway?
You obviously don't belong here. THANK GOODNESS!