With obesity on the rise and the recently approved welfare cuts, I think it prudent to propose a federal feral children initiative. Children in danger of becoming obese at a young age will be released into the wilds of our great nation and left to fend for themselves. Of course, they'll be radio tagged and collected before their capacity for languages dwindles into true mental retardation, and reintroduced to society at large. I realize that this is at best, a modest proposal, but I believe that at the present time, our political leaders might be open to this suggestion, or one like it. Seriously though, obesity really does need to be nipped in the bud.
Obesity is at once simple and complex. It's simple, because each of use chooses what to eat and how much to exercise. But it's obviously so much more than that. I think it starts with our food and farm policies, and goes from there all the way to the way kids are raised to be scared to leave the house anymore. And probably a lot in between. It's funny. My brother and I were raised the same, ate the same things, played the same sports (hockey, tennis, swimming, golf--can you guess what race we are?!), and have the same education. Being only a year apart, we had an almost identical upbringing. But in our adulthoods we've completely diverged. He eats junk food and doesn't exercise, and I pretty much eat healthy(ish), while exercising almost every day. We're both in our thirties, and our physiques, as you can imagine, are quite a bit different by now. Which is odd, because he was always a way better athlete than me growing up. In fact, maybe that's why I am the way I am; I always felt like I had to keep up (I'm about 4" shorter than him, 6'0" vs 5'8", a big difference, and something I've always been self conscious of), so I never gave up. Whereas in his case, he always was the leader and everything came naturally to him. My point is that even all things being equal, the psychology of the individual plays into it a lot. It's not all government failure and corporate greed (although I would certainly argue that that's the biggest component). A great place to start to combat obesity is to flip the subsidies that farmers receive. Subsidize the fuck out of vegetables, subsidize fruits a tiny bit less, and do everything humanly possible to disincentivize people from eating super calorie dense garbage.
I do agree and I think that parts of the issue are deeply ingrained in our brains and bodies. In the scope of things, we've only overcome the issue of providing ourselves with renewable and constant nourishment very recently. Perhaps with your background, you know more about this than me, but it seems like our basic need for calories has evolved into a want for calories, which is as you say, easily capitalized on. Similarly, we have more opportunity to be lazy, because we are by-and-large "safe" or at least safe from predators and roving bands of similarly hungry humans looking to ensure their own survival. So, yeah I think a lot of it is psychological, but it seems like it comes from many levels of the psyche. Yeah, I've heard many anecdotes similar to this and also read a few articles that seem to point to success as something that is most often achieved by people who earn it rather than those who are naturally talented. The US is kind of odd in that people are expected to work hard, but they also expect instant gratification. I think that's another thing that we need to address as a society.In fact, maybe that's why I am the way I am; I always felt like I had to keep up (I'm about 4" shorter than him, 6'0" vs 5'8", a big difference, and something I've always been self conscious of), so I never gave up. Whereas in his case, he always was the leader and everything came naturally to him.