Let's talk sins against nature.

The obesity epidemic is not rooted in human gluttony, but rather human slothfulness. People, quite simply, are too lazy to live healthfully, and I'm not referring to the general lack of exercise among the general population. If people ate well they would avoid obesity without regimented exercise. Certainly, moderate exercise would improve there health even more, but exercise in itself is not the answer to physical fitness. A natural whole food diet, eliminating all processed and refined "foods" (they are not food).If people would simply stop buying, and consuming "convenient" foods and "fast" foods they would experience a remarkable health recovery...guarunteed. Eat only whole foods.  Prepared, highly refined, and processed food are just about all you find on the grocery shelves...likewise with almost all resaurant fare.  THAT IS WHAT IS STARVING OUR BODIES, WHILE MAKING US OBESE IN AT THE SAME TIME!

Stop taking ALL prescription and over the counter symptom maskers (i.e. aspirin, motrin, alleve, ibuprophen, tylenol, celebrex, vioxx, nexium, cough-cold-flu "remedies", etc.), and learn to live with minor day to day aches and pains...they are necessary signals from our bodies, they are telling us important information (i.e., "sit down", "take it easy", "quit exercising that injured knee", "close your eyes and lay down for a while"). Popping a pill, and continuing the aggravating behavior is just plain stupid. The more one takes these things, the more the symptoms occur, and with greater intensity, and the more damage is done. Those "remedies" do absolutely no good, and they actually harm to you! They put you in a downhill health spiril, and I am amazed that probably 90% of the medical community has not caught on to this.

I am not one inclined to believe in the "big money- big pharma-mainstream medical  conspiracy" theories being bandied about the various health blogs either. As stated earlier, it is not greed, (or gluttony) that keeps them going down the "beaten path" of modern medicine...they are simply too lazy (and sometimes too proud) to learn after leaving medical school. People can say they are "too busy," but that is just a cover up for "too lazy." I call it not doing your job.

Three years ago I was racked with arthritic joint pain just about everywhere in my body (neck, shoulders, back, knees, ankles, elbows, wrists, and fingers). I had been taking glucosamine/ chondroitin, and multiple supplements and herbs for years with no improvement. I was prescribed 200mg twice a day of Celebrex™ and I took Aspirin daily. I got worse still. I could not sleep at night due to the pain. Out of frustration I threw out the Celebrex, quite the aspirin, and all pain meds. I upped my dosage of glucosamine/chondroitin, started megadosing on food supplements, herbs, vitamins, and minerals. But most importantly I quit all refined sugars, carbs, and processed foods. I began a whole organic food diet with huge amounts of fresh vegetable, fruits, nuts, organic free-range meats. The improvement was almost immediate. Within two weeks I felt healthy again, and it has improved steadily ever since. I can now honestly report zero pain in all my joints. My joint tissue has regenerated, and I have no joint inflamation at all. In addition, have not even had a headache since.

I will never again put a "remedial" drug in my body. I never realized the ammount of toxins I had been ingesting. They are throughout the super markets. Getting healthy and staying healthy can be a lot of work, but it is fun not being so lazy. Shopping for real food is worth the work. I feel great and I will never go back to the place I was. And just for the record, I spend less on food now than when I was buying prepared convenience foods. Even though organic foods are pricier than the factory farm products, they cost me less because I don't have to ingest as much to sate my hunger. I buy fresh vegetables and fruit every other day. "Less filling!... Tastes great!" What a deal.

The body has an incredible capacity to deal with starvation and even malnutrition but does not fend well when subjected to a sedentary lifestyle and excessive calories/food in the diet. Eat well. move well, think well as Dr. Chestnut says. And I whole heartily agree. Obesity and its causes are one of our major stressors and we need to start moving more and eating better. If you wait for your MD to instruct you then I am afraid that it will be too late for you.

It perhaps depends on how one wishes to define being malnourished, but I find most obese people are also malnourished. In order to achieve optimum health one must be nourished well according to his/her genetic and environmental demands. In order to treat obesity, you must really treat the less than optimum nutritional status of the individual, not just cut calories.

I agree with PepperR23! Fresh organic vegetable juice--even spinach by itself--tastes wonderful. More people ought to try growing their own organic foods, too. You learn a lot and you can eat things fresh picked. Innovation may be necessary, but worthwhile. I believe there are ways of achieving optimal nutrition under conditions of poverty, at least to some degree, and that if there were more effort devoted to this, we could reduce both obesity and hunger.