Is obesity a choice?

Globally, 650 million people meet the threshold for obesity. With those numbers on the rise, we ask: Is obesity a matter of individual choice, or is it rooted in larger systemic problems? Our guests debate individual versus government responsibility, the dangers of junk food and what a healthier world could look like.

Greg Doucette, a bodybuilder and health coach, says that obesity is a choice, and argues that everyone can lose weight if they follow a healthy diet and exercise regimen. While he concedes that genetic and environmental factors should not be ignored, he maintains that it can be discouraging and ultimately disempowering to say that managing our weight is beyond our own personal control. Professor Monika Arora, a public health scientist, argues that obesity is a systemic issue. She cites many outside factors—economic, environmental and even political—that have given rise to obesity rates across the globe. As a result, she argues that addressing obesity—and related health problems like high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes—requires policy solutions like sugar taxes as well as community health campaigns to bring about healthy societal change.