[masraum]

Originally Posted by Crowbob

So I'm hearing the consensus seems to be that people are fat because of the unhealthy food they eat.

How come the consensus isn't that people are fat because they eat too much, unhealthy food or not?

IMO, what people eat isn't the problem. The problem is how much they eat.

It's both, but I think the main reason for the differentiation is as follows.

If you eat healthy food, the amount of healthy food required to become grossly, morbidly obese is A LOT OF FOOD. I think the average person would have a really hard time getting morbidly obese eating healthy food.

The problem is that most folks eat crap food, and most crap food has tons of sugar which greatly increases calories, which leads to obesity.

I guess you could say "sure, go ahead and eat ding dongs and ho-hos and wash them all down with syrup from Starbucks" as long as you don't eat too much of that. But if you eat a normal volume of that food, it's probably got 3-10x the calories of a healthy meal.

So yes, eating in moderation is also key, but the (IMO) bigger factor is the quality of food that you eat.

Agreed, quality of food AND quantity of food should both be considered.