Restraint is seen as the best defence against statutory controls.Burgeoning in BeijingWhile the political and legal arguments over obesity in America go on growing, overeating may possibly have peaked.
The chief executive of NHS England has said public health bodies and educators need to tackle overeating with the same ferocity as teen pregnancy and drink driving, labelling obesity "the new smoking".
Indeed, Dr Wrangham suspects the main cause of the modern epidemic of obesity is not overeating (which the evidence suggests in America, at least—is a myth) but the rise of processed foods.
Bodies that expected food to be plentiful, by contrast, should ration themselves to avoid the consequences of chronic overeating.
Some studies have linked the chemically derived sweeteners to cancer in laboratory rats, and others claimed that such sweeteners, by "tricking" the brain without satisfying the body's cravings for sweet treats, may actually promote overeating.
The government can try to influence them by discouraging overeating.
In America, we are talking about calorie-dense but low-nutrition foods and overeating.
As in other rich countries, children find it too easy to sit indoors, staring at screens and overeating.
Anticipating scarcity by overeating in times of plenty would be no bad thing if times of scarcity were a real risk.
True, some scientists now believe that getting fat may be a mechanism that protects the body, and that the health problems associated with fatness may not be caused by it but be another consequence, another symptom, of overeating.
Shunning doctors, he feels as strong as an ox, although he has been drinking and overeating for years.
