Obesity is a worldwide epidemic that costs $2 trillion per year, and yet, scientists have failed to come up with any real solutions to help people struggling with their weight. Those who say “it is simple: just put down the fork and get some exercise” are ignorant of the physical and genetic causes of obesity. Many obese people struggle with intense hunger that is above and beyond the hunger levels of slender people. This issue of extreme hunger is rarely addressed in discussions about the problem of being overweight.
If a thin person attempted to eat nothing and then go to work with his or her stomach growling, his or her head pounding from low blood sugar, and the feeling of being starving; and then was expected to concentrate on complicated tasks, he or she might begin to understand what an obese person feels when trying to stick to a diet.
The hunger problem that obese people face is the elephant in the room when it comes to discussions on obesity. Mountains of data at this point have proven that weight is heavily tied to genetics, and yet, the victim blaming that happens to obese people is deeply ingrained in American culture. It seems no amount of scientific evidence will convince those who are ignorant of the physical and genetic causes of the disease that it is not the fault of the obese person. No amount of willpower can overcome the extreme hunger many overweight people feel.
No one wants to discuss hunger because then they would have to admit that obesity is a disease that is not able to be controlled by the sufferer in most cases. Right now, the only curative method to combat obesity that has demonstrated proven efficacy is weight loss surgery. Diet failure in the absence of weight loss surgery happens a whopping 83 percent of the time. Anecdotal reports of people who have actually managed to lose huge amounts of weight and keep it off forever do not equal scientific evidence of the efficacy of diets. Further, dieting may be associated with future massive weight gain. Imagine if a medicine put up before the FDA had a success rate of 17 percent, and 83 percent of people saw no benefit from it. Would it be approved? No, it would not. Then why is “just go on a diet!” the current advice for obese people?
This is, in fact, nonsensical advice and should be abandoned as a first line of treatment for the obese. Instead, real medications that can safely curb hunger must be developed. It is unacceptable that in today’s medically advanced society, there is no highly effective medication that can help obese people. The FDA-approved weight loss medications out now have limited efficacy at best and come with a host of risky side effects.
The fact that obesity costs $2 trillion a year and yet, there are no real solutions to stem the growing tide of the serious health concerns of overweight people should greatly concern physicians. Obesity should be at the forefront of medical research. It is a serious disease that victimizes over a billion people around the world who wait patiently for effective treatments. They are as deserving of medical therapies as anyone with any other type of physical affliction.