Foraging for a Root Cause in the Tangled Mess of Obesity

Almost two centuries ago, the world was in the midst of a cholera pandemic and the prevailing belief was that “bad air” was the cause. Near Broad (now Broadwick) Street in London, an especially bad outbreak occurred, killing 616 people. The key to stopping it was to figure out that it was not bad air. Rather, a contaminated water pump was causing it. So it is completely understandable today that many people with a sincere desire to overcome a global pandemic of obesity want to focus the root cause of this tangled mess.

There’s just one little problem. People who spend their lives focused on studying the science of obesity will tell you it is unlikely that there is a single root cause for the rise of obesity around the world. In fact, the problem emerges from complex biological, social, economic, and environmental problems that interact and adapt as the pandemic progresses.

The Complex Interactive Systems that Fuel Obesity’s Rise

The Bad Air of Big Food

With great confidence, Tamar Haspel poses and answers this question. “Whose fault is obesity? Most of the blame rests with one culprit.” It’s the food industry, she says. She is hardly alone in thinking along these lines. “Bad food” causing the rise in obesity is the equivalent of “bad air” at the root of the cholera epidemic.

But the definition – of bad food and the misdeeds of the food industry – keeps changing. Right now, the dominant narrative is that we can trace everything back to ultra-processed foods. Back in the 1980s, though, high fat diets were the problem in the spotlight. Then the focus shifted to sugar and carbs. Other theories keep arising to name the defect in our food that makes it bad. Maybe it’s fructose that’s the root of the problem. Or perhaps it just tastes too good. We hear from people who are certain that the real problem is an excess of omega-6 fatty acids in the food supply.

God bless them, there are even people who want to name social justice as a problem at the root of the obesity pandemic. At least they are not entirely stuck on the “bad food” paradigm.

Can We Please Get Unstuck?

Our plea is simple. To the people who are so frequently eager to tell us emphatically that we need to come down hard on the big bad food industry, take a deep breath. We hear you. The industry certainly contributes to our problem. But bad air did not explain the cholera epidemic, and obesity is a far more complex problem than cholera.

Take a look at the system map of contributors to obesity, above. Food is surely part of the story, but it is far from all of it. Foraging for “the root cause” of obesity is leading us far astray in efforts to more effectively prevent obesity.

Click here, here, here, and here for further perspective.

Root Trolls, painting by John Bauer / WikiArt

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April 7, 2024