Why Am I So Fat?

With statistics recently reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) revealing that over 1 billion people worldwide are overweight--805 million of them women--it's no wonder we hear this question so often. The pandemic of obesity, which appears to primarily affect women, is projected to increase to more than 2 billion worldwide within the next 5 to 10 years.
Especially frightening is the recent realization that today's children may be the first generation in history to die before their parents from complications associated with being obese.
Clearly, simply trying to "eat less and exercise more" in order to stop the problem isn't working. By now, it should be abundantly clear that there are no "one size fits all" answers to those questions.
So where do we look for the answers? What can we do to save ourselves from certain doom? Perhaps a place to start is by recognizing the possibility that food is addictive and needs to be treated as such: FAT = Food Addiction in need of Treatment.
Food addiction involves an unhealthy relationship, or "dis-ease," with food. Statistics reported by the Alliance for Eating Disorder Awareness are consistent with WHO and reveal that eating disorders, like food addiction, are estimated to affect at least 70 million people worldwide, with 90 percent of those being women. "Nutrition Journal" has also found that 83 percent of American women diet regularly no matter how much they weigh. Similarly, "Time" magazine has reported that approximately 80 percent of all American children have been on a diet by the time they reach fourth grade. In fact, 81 percent of grade school aged girls report they are afraid of being fat, with 51 percent also saying they feel much better about themselves if they are on a diet. It's important to emphasize here that dieting has been found to be the most common behavior that leads to an eating disorder like food addiction.
Need or Greed?
Do you think it's possible that we are all being herded like a bunch of cows for slaughter by a "diet industry"? After all, it's this industry that proclaims an ability to meet our need to lose weight while it stands to gain $50 billion a year in weight loss products and programs.
Health Gain vs. Weight Loss
Perhaps we all need to stop focusing on how to lose weight, since that seems to be one of the major factors leading us to our battle with obesity. We need to start focusing on how to gain back a healthier sense of who we really are, beyond our weight, while developing a healthier relationship with food.