Quote:
Originally Posted by JumpinJesus
While there is a lack of education, an overabundance of advertising and processed foods, I still am not sure who is forcing obese people to eat unhealthy foods and who is preventing them from exercising.
Can anyone help me understand that?
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No one's forcing them to do anything.
Environment, culture, and psychology. Mix them together and look what you get.
Foods that are bad for us are desirable, abundant, convenient, popular, and cheap (and taste pretty damn good). While I do believe that we are each ultimately responsible for our personal health, there are clearly those out there who are either ambivalent about the whole thing or are affected by a number of factors that have brought them to a particular situation related to their health.
The problem that many of us who aren't in that situation face is that it's too easy to oversimplify things. It's not as easy as saying, "Stop eating unhealthy foods; start exercising."
I hinted at this earlier in the thread. We don't get far by simply telling the depressive to cheer up or the alcoholic to stop drinking. Of course that's what they probably should do, but it's not that easy. All of these problems have a number of factors that make each situation what they are. Much of it is tied to environment, culture, and psychology.
If obesity had such a simple solution, it would have been solved by now.