Obesity is a disease. Fortunately it's extremely easy to treat by eating 3 healthy, balanced meals per day with no snacking in between meals. Each meal should be weighed and measured to eliminate overeating. For more information visit: www.foodaddicts.org.

Sadly, most overweight people seem to gravitate towards weight loss programs that don't address the mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of overeating. The incredible plethora of diet books on the market simply fuels the illusion that it's possible to lose weight and maintain weight loss while remaining obsessed with food and eating.

Any weight loss program that believes it's possible to develop healthy eating attitudea while still eating sugar and flour is completely absurd. Both substances are as addictive as heroine.

Achieving a healthy weight is simple. But it does take willingness to change eating habits and give up the foods that create craving and drive overeating. The problem with obesity is that few people are willing to do that.

And the fact that we're all a bunch of lazy fucks doesn't help either. I honestly believe that the ease of access to cheap, high fat foods is keeping many millions of us Americans on the flabby side. It's unfortunate, but that's just what we get with a growing fast food industry that is more than happy to make sure we're able to munch on the fat burger at 2:48AM each and every day of the week.

Man. Now I'm hungry.

Lynn, I think you're spot on. I would only argue that I believe people are better off with a well balanced diet made up of numerous small meals a day rather than 3 balanced ones. Who ever said that morning, noon and evening meals were what our bodies were designed for?

In fact, prior to industrialization, we were farming and/or nomadic, and we would hunt and gather on the run, with a strong emphasis on the gathering and the running. I tend to think that we are best with mostly vegetables, fruits and grains, and occasional small bits of meat, similar to what pre-industrial man might easily snare, trap or spear, like a rabbit or fish or bird.

Being industrialized, however, we have enormous advantages by being able to get a great variety of foods and not having to subsist on a handful of major ingredients season to season.

It's amazing how when we divorce ourselves from processed foods, sugar, salts and all the crap that we eat without thinking about it, how quickly we lose that obsession with food that you referred to. Yes, truly a critical thing.

I'm in the OC (So Cal) and it is very easy to eat healthy here. All the standard stores have great vegies and other fresh and healthy products and of course there are specific health food stores as well. All one has to do is learn how to cook (which is really easy), and not be a lazy ass.

why does a large person have to have emotional problems to be large? If someone starts eating too much their stomach stretches out so they want more. Simple. Im not saying all large people that got that way, didnt eat for emotional reasons, Im just saying,what if someone smoked pot for a few months straight.Of course that 130 lb person can gain A LOT in that time then their stomachs have stretchrd causing them to eat more also. A ltttle poorly conveyed but ...not all large people get that way for "underlying" reasons

Obesity is a symptom, not a disease. When you prove that obesity directly causes health problems, rather than simply being correlated, let me know.

Second, losing weight is not easy. Would gaining 10 lbs be easy for you? Maybe, maybe not. I don't know your body type. But I do know, if you've been normal weight your whole life, that gaining 100 lbs and staying that fat would be nearly impossible. Your body just wouldn't put up with it. That's what happens (in reverse) to many healthy fat people who go on diets. And if you've read anything about the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, you'll know that cutting calories can have all kinds of nasty consequences.

Obesity causes diabetes. For many diabetics, the moment they lose the weight they lose the diabetes. I believe there is a direct cause to heart disease and other overtaxed organs too.