What do you think is the primary reason for obesity?

People only have themselves to blame enough said. you are what you eat, period. Truth hurts but it's what it is, it's not your thyroid, it's not your genetics, it's not the blame of the food industry. People CHOOSE to put food in their mouth, people CHOOSE to eat unhealthy foods, people CHOOSE to not exercise. Obesity is due to the choices they've made and now they are paying the consequences, they got nobody to blame but themselves.

the primary reason for obesity is pure and simple over eating, and yes with places like mcdonalds etc pushing ex large portions peoples portions size has at least doubled. we stuff ourselves with foods so the body stores it, the sad thing is the kids today are becoming obese as well .i do agree with this processed foods are engineered (yes, engineered, as in a factory or lab...) to be addictive. High-fructose corn syrup, for example, is very addictive, and it's in a TON of processed/fast food. Same with MSG. These kind of foods are manufactured to leave the consumer wanting more...hence the profit.
but at the end of the day, we are the ones stuffing our faces. sorry to be blunt but i say it as it is.

Lack of self control. People just shoveling whatever in their mouths. People CHOOSING to make bad food choices. We are not made to eat for pleasure, we are made to eat to survive. Not saying you can't enjoy a snack here in there, you just need to be smart about it.

If you're in the US, I would say portion control, everything is HUGE over there! Also, the availability to 'treats' is massive - like in Walmart the huge donut aisle.

Packaged and genetically modified foods have corrupted every level of our food chain. Have a look at the ingredients of anything packaged. They're full of soybean oil (soybeans are completely genetically modified at this point), corn oil, corn starch, corn syrup... even the animals have been taught to eat corn because it can be produced so cheaply. It's horrifying and I think it has messed with our endocrine systems.

I think our bodies don't know how to process this junk and they've given up on normal signals of satiety and hunger. We don't know when we're hungry anymore. We crave salt and sugar and fat and I'm convinced it's because of the engineered food products that barely count as food that we're gobbling up because they're cheap and easy to prepare.

That's just my opinion, but I think as long as we're eating things that neither had a mother nor grew out of the ground, we're going to have an obesity problem of epidemic proportions.

1. Ignorance - ultimately the main issue. People don't understand how bad most foods are for them. They don't realize that their health issues are a result of their food choices.

2. Culture - Americans, especially, no longer eat together. It's everyone for himself/herself. And they rarely use a knife and fork. If you don't need a knife and fork, it's probably not healthy.

3. Increased poverty, again, especially in America. There is a widening gap between rich and poor. Poor people choose cheaper foods. Processed foods, filled with salt, sugar, etc. Also, everyone is working (husband and wife), sometimes multiple jobs, so fewer meals are cooked from scratch. And less time for exercise. Sure, you can make the time, it's just harder. Making things harder means fewer people do it.

--P

All of the above. I think media/marketing are huge factors as well. People get sucked into the hype and believe a lot of the junk they eat is healthy.

If you're in the US, I would say portion control, everything is HUGE over there! Also, the availability to 'treats' is massive - like in Walmart the huge donut aisle.

And this, too. When I'm visiting the US and eating out with friends, we laugh at the amounts served and call them "American portions." When I'm in the US with my kids, I usually don't even order a meal for myself. I just ask for an extra plate and make three meals out of the two we ordered.

The rise of "Sam's Club" type food warehouses has promoted this, too. Theoretically, you're buying in bulk to save money and use over many days/weeks even months. In reality, most Americans are scarfing everything down immediately...

--P

Fast Food:
Impossibly long drive through line.
Completely empty counter.
Most people won't even GET OUT OF THEIR CARS AND WALK IN.

Restaurants:
A serving of steak is 4 ounces.
In MOST restaurants you can't even get a steak smaller than 8.
12 and 16 are the typical offerings.

Buffets:
Unlimited all you can eat: Nuff said.

Soda:
High fructose corn syrup.
Advertised as REFRESHING, so people grab THIS when thirsty.
The caffeine (and corn syrup) make you thirsty again shortly after
grab another.
between 110 and 170 calories a can...

Education:
From crappy school lunches, to being raised on fast food, on up, Americans really don't have a good concept of what healthy eating is.
While many can say vegetables are good for you, and they should probably watch how much fatty and fried stuff they eat, most have NO concept of portion size, the effect of sodium on weight, or what their food contains.

School Environment:
With all the cutbacks, PE is one of the first things to go.
Kids sit at desks for most of the day, fidgeting and any sort of movement is discouraged
Kids are not encouraged to play hard at recess. Most schools now discourage running during recess because it's dangerous.

Work Environment
Most people work in sedentary jobs. A half hour lunch and one or two 15 minute breaks.
Most work stations are set up to only allow for sitting, and for very long periods of time.
Many corporations ridicule those that have offered the style of work station where desks can be raised to allow working from a stand for part of the time, if an employee chooses, despite proof that it increases performance.
Same said corporations ridicule foreign countries for group workout time on company hours.

TV:
When I was a child, cable was 10 channels and you had to STAND UP TO CHANGE THEM.
My cable box now doesn't even have an "change channel on the cable box" option. I have 6 hundred and something channels.
Disney used to have a mousercize program for kids. When we were kids we were up and dancing and moving with it. I looked for that when my children were younger: There's nothing like it.

Energy in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. Energy at rest tends to stay at rest, unless acted upon by an outside force. We work all day at a sit down job.. The mind numbing nature of it exhausts us, we drive through the drive through on the way home, drop on the couch, eat while we watch TV, and don't quite move until bedtime.

Video Games:
Keeps kids out of adults exhausted hair for hours on end.
Keeps adults entertained for hours on end.
Very much like TV, only more interactive.

Neighborhoods:
No longer safe enough to kick kids out the door on a bicycle and call "when the street lights come on" the curfew.

Facebook (and everything like it)
again with the HOURS of entertainment. And for those lucky enough to have a laptop, watch TV while we computer it up.

And yes, with a society of instant gratification, one that thinks of food as both reward and comfort, we eat what we have been taught tastes good. Ice Cream, Chocolate, Cake, Desserts.

Note that Desserts is backwards for stressed.. Just saying.

Im not from the USA but, i think this goes for almost every country: Education: Children are taught at a young age bad eating habits, and as adults that can be a hard habit to change! There are more and more obese children and of course they are growing up to be obese adults. For obesity to stop we have to start the the children, of course there are adults that need help and maybe grew up with good food habits but we are seeing obesity more and more in children and they really need help to try and stop this tread of bad choices and over eating

I think most people are overweight due to poor food choices and portion control. Yes some people have physical or mental conditions that lead to weight gain, but for the most part it is something that CAN be combatted for those who try. I have a hormonal imbalance...or two? (PCOS and insulin resistance) that cause weight gain. I can't really blame my weight on those hormonal conditions though. Yes, I gain weight faster than most, but if I made better food choices and kept my portions in check, I would not be in the state I am in today. I still have a part in losing this weight, and it is possible when I try. I can't just give up because it is a bit more difficult for me than for many others. I think all the processed, salty, sugary foods are addictive as well, leading to people's challenges in poor food choices and portion control (although all people still have to take some responsibility for making those choices in the first place, IMO). These foods are calorie dense and poor in nutrition leaving the body starving even though it is stuffed. I've read before that people are never satisfied no matter how much they eat until they feed themselves nutritionally because deficiencies always cause a "want" for more, even if people can't tell that they are actually craving protein, vitamin c, iron, etc. I don't know how true that is, but it makes sense, IMO.

Lack of education about nutrition, fitness and health.

It is called "disease of affluence", and America has it bad!

Meditate for 20 minutes, twice a day. Exercise at least 30 minutes a day, eat plenty of organic fruits and vegetables, spend more time in nature, less indoors, stop worrying about things you can't control.

Ditch your TV...

Yes! This exactly.

Anyone who is interested in this topic should watch HBO's "The Weight of the Nation" series. I think it's available online people w/o HBO. Its really thought provoking.

Food tastes good. Technology has provided us an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. Cheap, delicious food is in abundant supply.

Possibly that has something to do with it - food that tastes nicer is more available. I was thinking about when I was a child growing up, we often had to eat food that really wasn't that nice and so there was no temptation to overeat it! Now nice food just seems to be a lot more available, and I ONLY eat nice food. Even my local corner shop has food that would have been considered exotic when I was a child. Back when I was a kid, the local shop was well over a mile away and everything had to be carried back by hand. (Not so many people had cars then). It was another couple of miles to the nearest supermarket, and that was tiny - I don't remember ANY big supermarkets like the ones we have now.

It's interesting, because it's always assumed we eat more processed food now, but back in the old days, I remember that we did eat more tinned food. Like many people then, we didn't have a freezer, so a lot of food was tinned or dried. A lot of people ate mostly tinned veg rather than fresh, for instance. There were ready meals back then, but again, they just weren't as appetising as the ones you can get now.

I wonder if I went back to living like that, would I actually lose weight? I don't know. I do know that I wouldn't be tempted to overeat on the foods I had as a child, or even what I ate as an adult after leaving home (I didn't have much money, so it was cheap food, things like tinned sardines which I don't think anybody would want to overeat!). I must have been overeating for the last few years, and I have got fat on healthy, delicious, homecooked food.