Can you escape obesity? The odds are stacked against the overweight
There are a few debates in our political discourse that seem cursed to polarisation. Take, for example, discussion of overpopulation, resource constraints, and environmentalism. The two options appear to be either the belief that the world is or will soon be catastrophically overpopulated, that our natural resources will soon be depleted, and Malthus was basically right; or, alternatively, the attitude that overpopulation can literally never happen, that there is no such thing as resource constraint, and that any concern whatsoever about the carrying capacity of the planet is really just a stalking horse for racism and nihilism. Neither of these options seems appealing to me, but my efforts to carve out a third space have not borne fruit.
Discussion of obesity has similar vibes, but with this conversation specifically, there’s a sort of outdoor voice/indoor voice divide: one thing is said in public, another in private.
We have a big obesity problem, across the developed world and particularly in my home country of the United States. In the OECD countries, often used as shorthand for the advanced nations of the earth, half or more of all adults are overweight or obese. Here in America, one in every five children is obese. Overall, progress comes with a bitter (and expensive) problem: as countries become richer and more stable, obesity rates grow. Obesity is a classic “boiling frog” problem, both for individuals and for societies — a few pounds here and a few pounds there, and you’re suddenly facing real health consequences; a few percent here and a few percent there, and you’ve got projections showing that your already-overburdened healthcare system will eventually collapse. It contributes to heart disease, diabetes, cancer; it is estimated to cost the NHS £6 billion a year. Clearly, something has to be done.
