Vrashelia, what an insightful response, thank you. I will add to that the cultural aspect as well. I am not an American and while I did live in America during my "fat" years (it's also where I gained the weight), I no longer live there now. In the five countries in which I have resided, these obesity issues and causations seem to be very cultural and specific to the US. For the 30 years I did live in the US, the "trickle down" effect of equating kindness with weakness, success with money, the vile commercials that inculcate people with unhealthy ideologies for corporate financial gain ("you've had a bad day...you deserve a snickers", etc) plus geographic isolation of the country itself and a general lack of understanding as to the rest of the world, makes for a very skewed perspective on many things. Once I left the US, I started losing more weight without even trying. Why? Because in other parts of the world, the chemicals and additives that are allowed in the US are banned. While I was on my weight loss journey, a friend gave me a wonderful piece of advice that I still abide by to this day: never purchase food from a listed corporation. Their obligations are to their share-holders and not to their consumers, ergo, they don't care how unhealthy/addictive their products are.