Over the past twelve months, the only topic that has graced the covers of Time and Newsweek magazines, and the front pages of the New York Times, Los Angles Times, and Washington Post more than the subject of obesity is George W. Bush’s war on terrorism. Obesity is a national disaster and a personal tragedy that has been repeatedly addressed using old clichés and worn out lines of logic.

As many as 95% of the people who go through weight-loss programs fail to keep the pounds off. In fact, after one year, the majority of participants actually weigh more than when they first began the program. Almost every diet/weight-loss book ever written has failed to deliver on their promises because they do not take into account the ingrained habits of readers. Any program that attempts to be successful must begin from where the reader is, not from where the writer is!

Since 1950, the amount of nutritional information available to the public has roughly doubled every seven years. During that same period (1950-2000), obesity rose by 214%, until today, where 64.5% of adult Americans (about 127 million) are categorized as being overweight or obese. In that light, one might conclude that there is a direct correlation between knowledge of obesity and obesity itself.

The point is, people aren’t foolish. They know that salad is better for them than pizza; that grilled chicken is better than a smothered burrito; that tofu is better than hamburger; that fresh fruits and vegetables are better than candy bars and French fries. People are swimming in information. They are anesthetized by information. More has not, and will not, lead to enlightened behavior, less craving for food, or improved health.

It has been suggested that obesity is genetic. This notion flies in the face of evolutionary biology. Consider that there was far less obesity in the 1950’s than there is today. In fact, less than 10% of the population was classified as such in 1950. It is only in the past fifty years that the problem has become systemic. Would it be reasonable to say that we have changed genetically in fifty years, when, in fact, it takes hundreds of thousands of years for even the most minor of such changes to take place? No, it is not genetics that have caused our obsession with food.

Some blame our increased consumption of fats for the rising rates of obesity. Yet, during the past fifty years, while obesity rates have skyrocketed, the consumption of saturated fats rose only 7%. And, according to The U.S. Department of Agriculture, total fats in our diet have fallen from 40% in 1990 to roughly 34% today.

Others say it is the way we eat. Dr. Walter Willett, Harvard School of Public Health is in charge of the government’s revamping of the food pyramid – now called “The Healthy Eating Pyramid.” This is the third overhaul of the pyramid in the past thirty years. Yet while the pyramid continues to be revised, obesity rates in the United States have continued to rise. This food pyramid, as the ones before it, has been touted as the answer to the obesity epidemic. Yet it will fail as its predecessors did because it is flawed, not simply in its factuality, but by its lack of perspective.

The strategy of focusing on what we eat has been addressed unsuccessfully for decades. Further studies, weight-loss programs, and media emphasis on the same note, will not bring the desired results. The first and foremost question to ask is . . .

Why We Eat

Early man ate only enough to satisfy his appetite. People today continue to eat beyond the point of nutritional need for a very different reason: to gain euphoric feeling through the chemicals released by the foods we consume. And what are these chemicals that are so powerful as to induce behaviors that are sometimes irrational and often detrimental to our health and continued evolution? Endorphins.

According to Dr. Tim Kirkham, Department of Psychology, University of Reading, “Endorphins are at the very core of all of our motivations. The satisfaction or pleasure we derive from our pursuit of physiological and psychological stimuli is measured by endorphin release. Guiding our behavior,” he goes on, “is a central reward system.”

While we as a society focus almost exclusively on food as a means to elicit an endorphin reaction, there are, in fact, four ways to trigger endorphins. And though food may be the quickest and most accessible means of generating this response, in actually it produces the most fleeting effect.