BULL SHIT!
In perhaps 10-20% of cases obesity is a result or symptom of illness.
People with a low SES (socio-economic status) have higher obesity rates, more smokers, more diabetes and cardiovascular diseases and lower life expectancy.
Analogue to quitting-smoking-campaigns, government campaigns promoting a healthy diet are very unsuccessful. Why?
-Instant gratification wins over long term goals.
-People do not like to be told what to do.
-A distrust in government.
-some simply don't care.
These reasons are more pronounced in lower SES groups: due to ignorance, relatively low decisional latitude in life (people want to feel a certain amount of control, if you hardly have any, things like eating pattern are the last vestiges of control of right and free choice, resulting in a resistance to change). Lower SES roughly correlates with a lower IQ which correlates to dysfunctional goal-setting and decision making strategies.
In the Netherlands, future health campaigns will be not centred around education, but changing the environment of the target population, to force people to move more and to make bad foods less accessible.
