This is a multi-faceted issue and there isn’t one hard and fast answer.
Food subsidies for corn products make it cheaper for businesses to put corn in their ‘chicken’ patties than chicken and so- as most business when left to decide it’s own regulation- they went with the cheaper and less healthy option. If you have a corn allergy you know how difficult to avoid corn it actually is in this country. It’s in bread, meat, macaroni and cheese, milkshakes- it’s everywhere. The corn we are eating is not even the same types of corn our ancestors were eating. It’s been modified to be starchier and sweeter- thus feeding into the sweet craving that the American (and most of the world) population is famous for having. This is also up for heated debate- and rightly so. (1)
Our population has been ingesting livestock growth hormones for over two generations. There is still debate on the effects this has had on our population.
Science is finding genes responsible for fat production, so perhaps we can start to isolate the inner-workings of what makes people who eat the same diet as others become type II diabetic. (2) There is a large new area of research looking at this problem. It’s becoming clear it’s not from people being ‘lazy’ and ‘stuffing their face’ like so many people like to claim.
There’s something happening and scientists are working on it. I just hope they figure it out soon before more people go blind, deteriorate and lose limbs.
I think the future will hold new FDA regulations, newer drugs to combat the gene-based mis-absorption of food and hopefully soon- a different view of those who are overweight. Shame will do nothing that hasn’t been done already- it hasn’t cured obesity yet, has it? (feelings of needing superiority notwithstanding)
I hope we can convince growers to take a step back as well; to grow non-GMO food and see that consumers will pay more for value. The only problem with organic is that it leaves our poor out of the equation and that’s not right. Poor people shouldn’t have to bear the brunt of a bunch of decisions made by rich people up on a hill.