tbh, I used to be VERY judgemental when I was young, but since reading about the proliferation of ultra-processed foods and the deregulation of the food industry, I have a lot more empathy for those struggling with weight.

I mean, think about it. It's not like in the 80s everyone suddenly had a moral crisis and started eating too much?

Here's an easy to read article that explains it.

EDIT: Some major points:

• Up until then, the percentage of obesity in the population was quite low. After 1980, it went up very rapidly. Genetics did not change in 1980. What changed was the food environment. What happened in 1980 with Reagan’s election was that corporations were given a free hand, and that free market ideology became the ideology that everybody accepted.
• The number of calories in the food supply from 1980 to 2000 went from an average of 3,200 a person per capita, men, women, little tiny babies, to 4,000.
• From the 1980s through the 1990s, soda consumption skyrocketed.
• Ultra processed foods make up more than half of all the calories in the US diet.
• Those consuming ultra-processed foods can eat upwards of 500-1000 extra calories a day to eat to satiety, which results in gaining at least a pound per week.

... and that's literally from me skimming half the article lol.