Simply wonderful post there Philster. Totally spot on. If I may, I’ll just add a few other points to ram it home, as well.
The USA leads the world in a number of areas, economically, culturally, and sociologically. Sadly however, it also leads the world in obesity levels. (Although in the interests of fairness it should be noted that my own country of Australia is a very short distance behind). And yet, the USA is an extraordinarily diverse nation in terms of cultrual and racial gene pool. Accordingly, purely from a statistical angle, it’s impossible to argue that the USA’s obesity levels are manfiested through some freak genetic gene pool defective gene. Nah, far from it. Just like throughout all of the Western Word, the bottom line is that we, as a species, are no longer hunter-gatherers - and indeed, we’ve made it so easy for ourselves to have a bountiful and plentiful supply of rich, high density food that well, the whole Western World is just plain getting more and more obese with every decade.
Indeed, it’s wrong to point out obesity in the USA in isolation. It’s a problem throughout the entire Western World. THe nature of commerce, and large international food corporations is such that the industry of providing bountiful high density food is simply too profitable an industry not to be involved in. In short, the food industry is a cash cow, and as Napoleon once noted, “even in times of war the industry of the stomach still prospers”.
To stay super duper fit and lean and agile into one’s later years is not impossible. Indeed, it’s a profoundly healthy and rewarding thing to do. But like most things in life, if you want something bad enough, you have to work fucking hard at it - and staying lean and fit is bloody hard work. And that, right there, is the rub. Quite frankly, for all of our intelligence in the post industrial age, the bottom line is that we’ve created a culture in the Western World which effectively allows the common flaw within all of us to manifest itself - namely, laziness.