It's almost impossible, in western society, to talk about obesity without blaming obese people for lacking something: willpower, honesty, something that makes them individually responsible. This thread is testament to that.
What if weight regulation was as deeply baked into your brain as your sex drive and changing its mechanism was as hard as abstaining from orgasm? Would that be easy for you?
I think the overall lack of success from individual attempts at weight control via diets should tell us something: that we need to find other ways, probably involving changing neurochemistry.
But I fully expect we'll continue the blame game instead, because to do otherwise would admit that we are not necessarily in full control of our actions, and that in turn would threaten our self identities, our egos. It would admit luck and circumstance as a primary factor in where we end up rather than effort and agency.
What if weight regulation was as deeply baked into your brain as your sex drive and changing its mechanism was as hard as abstaining from orgasm? Would that be easy for you?
I think the overall lack of success from individual attempts at weight control via diets should tell us something: that we need to find other ways, probably involving changing neurochemistry.
But I fully expect we'll continue the blame game instead, because to do otherwise would admit that we are not necessarily in full control of our actions, and that in turn would threaten our self identities, our egos. It would admit luck and circumstance as a primary factor in where we end up rather than effort and agency.