A Symptom of a Deeper Problem

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  Overeating is the leading cause of the American pandemic of obesity, both childhood and adult. It is also a symptom of a whole range of psychological problems like depression and eating disorders. It may be partly the result of a common gene that controls how fast we "feel full" when we eat, but it's also the result of our fast-paced lifestyle that begins by jamming school lunch periods into 15 to 20 minutes and continues as we "grab" something to eat, generally as we drive between appointments. Comfort food is what we turn to when nobody else seems to care but its over-consumption is also the symptom of our growing personal loneliness. When you take away the genetic reasons for overeating (which can done with behavior modification), it's largely a symptom of psychological isolation and alienation from the world beyond the refrigerator door.
  
  

Because It's There

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  Snacks and fast foods are handy. We grow up craving sweets and starches because of the sweetened cold cereals and soda we consume as children---or from the foods we see consumed by our peers. In a largely sedentary population, it's easy to keep snacks within arm's length. A bag of microwave popcorn, with its 900 calories and 80 g of fat, can be consumed almost unconsciously as we play video games, watch a football game or work at the computer. We consume hundreds of calories of chips, dip and rich hors d'oeuvres and then sit down to dinner topped off by a sugar-rich desert. The truth is that we just don't notice how much we eat because we're in a hurry, never learned to eat right or haven't yet been faced with something like Type 2 Diabetes, a condition that is largely caused by obesity. Because we don't pay attention to what we consume, we consume more of it. Even if those four cans of pop we drink at work are "diet" sodas, they still develop a craving for sweets.
  
  

Part of the Culture

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  The United States is still the richest nation in the world. We are surrounded by more opportunity, more material wealth---and more food---than any people in history. Our culture has evolved into one of living well and consuming much more than we need. Restaurant portions are notoriously oversized to represent value and all-you-can-eat buffets border on the grotesque. We patronize big chains where our dollar buys more and bypass the independent merchants who know their customers and provide superlative service, then bemoan the loss of the "Mom and Pop" business. We live in a culture based on having more than the neighbor and in our aspiration fail to appreciate what we have. In a nation as rich as ours, that's an equation that leads to over-consumption of everything, including food.