What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat

by Aubrey Gordon

But more meaningful, precise reforms would have required a well-resourced, savvy lobbying effort. It would’ve called for an overhaul of a powerful and wealthy industry, and it would’ve demanded money, social capital, and political will to take on the big businesses that had grown wealthy as a result of the very legislation that needed to be dismantled and reimagined. Instead, the PHS opted for a lexicon of personal responsibility—“most people should.” While most people should eat more whole grains, the report didn’t suggest significant upstream solutions that would help people with what they should do. But then, root cause analyses have never been the work of the war on obesity. Even this early in its development, its approach was already a patchwork of individualized solutions to systemic problems.