It really is a problem, not only in the States, but throughout the Western world. As much as I would like to crack a joke about this, or state that it’s everyone’s freedom to eat what they want (which happens to be true, by the way), that wouldn’t diminish the gravity of the situation.
I’m inclined to make a connection with the hugely successful campaign against smoking and the rise in obesity. Both in the end are oral addictions, and may even be ‘rewarded’ in the same brain centers (e.g. the so-called mesolimbic system).
If this were true, then, strange as it may sound, I’d call moderate smoking the lesser of the two evils. It doesn’t impair your life as much, the number of diseases contractable may be roughly equal, and perhaps one’s life expectancy is even longer in the case of moderate smoking.
But in the end, I don’t know. I’ll give it some more thought.
Our life expectancy keeps going up, so apparently it isn’t a problem.