Weight gain is not a disorder or a lack of willpower; it is a normal response by normal people to an abnormal situation. This abnormal situation stems from our evolutionary history, where the drive to eat and store calories was essential for survival.
The concept of the “thrifty gene” suggests that obesity is a result of a mismatch between our genetic predisposition to conserve calories and our current environment of food abundance. Our bodies are finely tuned to maintain balance in many aspects, but there was never an evolutionary pressure to limit the accumulation of body fat.
While the thrifty gene hypothesis has been debated since its proposal in 1962, its core idea remains widely accepted in the scientific community. The classification of obesity as a disease by the American Medical Association in 2013 further underlines the notion that weight gain is a normal response to our environment.
More than 70% of Americans are now overweight, highlighting the prevalence of weight gain in today’s society. Efforts to combat obesity through drugs or surgery are not about correcting a physiological anomaly but about adjusting our bodies’ responses to the current food-rich environment.
The root cause of the obesity epidemic lies in the availability of calorie-rich and processed foods, which have become a staple in modern diets. Understanding this link is crucial to addressing the issue of weight gain effectively.
Stay tuned for the rest of this series on the history of the obesity epidemic to delve deeper into the factors contributing to this widespread problem.
