The Globalization of Fatness

The popular kids are always the trendsetters:

"This insidious, creeping pandemic of obesity is now engulfing the entire world," Australia's Monash University professor Paul Zimmet, chair of the 10th International Congress on Obesity, said on the opening day of the conference.

The spread of the problem was "led by affluent western nations, whose physical activity and dietary habits are regrettably being adopted by developing nations," Zimmet told more than 2,000 delegates.

In modern times starvation has always been the result of politics, not the insufficient production of calories and nutrition on a worldwide basis. In America many people far below the "poverty line" are unfathomably obese. There's more food than common sense.

Poverty isn't a problem of material "have not". It's the result of a destructive pattern of social behavior that fails to conserve human capital in the form of education, families, community, and role models. If girls have children later, if young males don't fall prey to hyper-aggressive models of masculinity - a problem exacerbated by the absence of fathers - the chances of breaking the cycle are increased dramatically.

Does our attitude towards food make up a deterministic part of the equation? Restraint and deferment of pleasure is the common theme: People are compelled to act in their short-term interest, but they can always exercise restraint and choose otherwise. We can always externalize the problem and blame Taco Bell (a "fourth meal", anybody?), but we each have a choice. Is it simply a matter of trying to be like those skinny rich people?