Is America's obesity epidemic actually a spiritual crisis?

There are many reasons why Americans love to eat too much. Some may be rooted in our deepest existential anxieties.

Obesity
(Image credit: Marie Bertrand/Corbis)

Everyone knows that the U.S. has an obesity problem. While we're not the fattest nation on the planet, we do have the highest obesity rate among OECD countries.

We don't lack for explanations. Our lives have never been more sedentary. Our food is increasingly processed, abundant, and cheap. It's also often lacking in flavor, which can make eating it unsatisfying. When our food is flavorful, it's often intensely sweet, jacked up with processed sugars and artificial sweeteners that mold our palates to crave more of the same. The portions offered to us at restaurants are enormous, and we often find it extremely difficult to restrain ourselves. Many poor and working-class Americans live in what have been dubbed "food deserts," where fruits, vegetables, and other fresh foods are scarce, and high-calorie and high-fat foods are plentiful.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.