As much as I am fully behind personal responsibility and believe that people can over-come obesity, I do believe that the obesity epidemic is (potentially) a disease that is caused by massive consumerism ...
In any market place companies grow to fill as many needs as the market will support at any given time and (eventually) all existing needs will be met. At this point a company can only grow further when it takes market share away from its competition, the market grows organically (from birth for example), or they create a new need to fulfill. After decades of highly successful marketing companies have created all sorts of needs for people which have a detrimental impact on their health.
Cooking (generally healthy) meals is not that hard and does not take that much time but there are enough people who have been sold on a lifestyle of take-out food and TV-dinners which are (generally speaking) very bad for you that it is causing a serious problem. On top of that companies like Starbucks (Late factor) and Pepsi (snack foods) have created high calorie foods that people don't need and that only make them much heavier.
I don't know what the solution is because these companies have a right to exist and to sell their products, but their search for the best bottom line does come with a very large negative side-effect.
