It's just such an interesting dichotomy. Human nature loves to eat, and we do it well, yet our culture supports the belief that slim and fit are the most beautiful. This is an issue; we're not biologically designed to have it both ways. As the obesity epidemic (and rising healthcare costs) has shown we cannot overeat and maintain, “slim and fit.” Truly, unless we're getting an unusual amount of physical activity we simply do not give off enough heat (the body's way of releasing energy, a.k.a. food) to compensate for eating unusually large quantities of food, which we do.
But how can anyone expect we not eat unusually large quantities of food? Large portions are easy to come by, equally (if not more) delicious as any other-sized portion, and cheap. And let's not fail to point out the obvious - we are biologically designed to like it.
So here’s what we must do, exercise self-discipline. And we must, because we’re designed to enjoy food and consequently cannot control our life-long desire for it. Therefore, we must shift focus towards what we can control, our intake. And here’s why: if we exercise self-discipline and choose healthful foods, we will inevitably decrease our intake of less healthful foods. Over time this shift will lead to several things. People will begin to slim down, and this will slowly decrease the long-term healthcare costs. This shift will also decrease profits for the food manufactures of said "less healthful foods," and that will ultimately result in less production of these foods.
The larger idea is supply and demand and in this case we must exercise self-discipline and keep the demand down. If we do not, healthcare costs will continue to rise (due to our increasing size) and all the while we potentially maintain the ideal “slim and fit.” And that would be such an interesting dichotomy.
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