Obesity Is Not a Personal Failure
The WHO describes obesity as one of the biggest health challenges of our time. While obesity is related to an imbalance between calories consumed and calories burned, experts still debate how this imbalance actually develops. But there is one point all scientists agree on: obesity is not caused by a lack of willpower.
The global rise in obesity began around the mid-1970s, and it would be absurd to assume that people suddenly decided to become “lazy” or “undisciplined.” Something else changed — and it wasn’t human character.
How Ultra-Processed Foods Changed Everything
Around 40 years ago, the food industry underwent a major transformation. New technologies made it possible to create ultra-processed foods — products engineered to be extremely appealing, high in calories, and easy to overeat.
Unlike traditional food processing (cooking, salting, fermentation, pasteurisation), ultra-processing creates combinations rarely found in nature, especially foods high in both fat and carbohydrates. This combination strongly stimulates our natural reward pathways.
These foods are also designed for ideal mouthfeel, stronger flavour, faster stomach emptying, and only brief satiety. This encourages eating more calories than the body needs. For people with certain genetic traits, this can lead to intense cravings and uncontrollable overeating — a vicious cycle that feels impossible to break through willpower alone.
The Human Body Has Not Caught Up With the Modern World
For most of human history, survival depended on getting enough calories, not avoiding them. Our bodies evolved to protect us from famine, not from abundance.
Only in the last 100 years has food become consistently available — far too short for meaningful biological adaptation. Metabolic evolution takes tens of thousands of years, which means our modern environment overwhelms systems that were designed for scarcity.
Why Some People Gain Weight and Others Don’t
Not everyone exposed to ultra-processed foods becomes overweight — just as not everyone who tries alcohol or nicotine becomes addicted.
Genetics play a powerful role in determining susceptibility. For example:
- Only 21% of people who try cocaine become addicted.
- Only 23% become addicted to alcohol.
- About two-thirds of occasional smokers develop nicotine dependence.
Similarly, people who are genetically predisposed to obesity do not gain weight because they store fat “more easily” — they gain weight because their genes influence how much they eat, how strongly they react to food cues, and how vulnerable they are to overeating.
The Truth: You Did Not Cause This
We still don’t fully understand all the mechanisms behind obesity, but we do know this:
Obesity is a complex, chronic disease — not a moral failure.
It is shaped by genetics, biology, hormones, psychology, and our modern food environment. Blaming yourself only makes the journey harder.
You deserve compassion, evidence-based treatment, and a fresh start — not guilt.
