A newly released study finds that the majority of adults in the USA are overweight and the number who are obese is greater than those who are only overweight:

November 12, 2015
NEW YORK (AP) — Obesity is still rising among American adults, despite more than a decade of public-awareness campaigns and other efforts to get people to watch their weight, and women have now overtaken men in the obese category, new government research shows.
For the past several years, experts thought the nation’s alarming, decades-long rise in obesity had leveled off. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report Thursday that the obesity rate has climbed to nearly 38 percent of adults, up from 32 percent about a decade earlier.
“This is a striking finding” and suggests that a situation that was thought to be stable is getting worse, said Dr. William Dietz, an obesity expert at George Washington University. …
Experts said they had no explanation for why the obesity rate appears to be rising. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MED_OBESITY_RATES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-11-12-06-19-45

Many factors affect obesity including hormones, chemicals in foods, artificial and other sweeteners, availability of massive amounts of food, inactivity, and/or food packaging.

Beyond those and other physical factors that could be pointed to, perhaps the ‘experts’ and others may wish to consider the following:

1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (2 Timothy 3:1-6)

“Lovers of themselves” and “lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God,” would seem to be factors. I would also add that pride is a factor. Many feel that they are entitled to eat to feel good, as well as the reality that many obese think that the behaviors of others justify (in their minds) their own over consumption of food.

So, obesity could be considered another of “the signs of the times” that Jesus indicated that the discerning religious should be able to do in Matthew 16:2-3...

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