Measuring grocery store floor space implies the diet of people living near it, as I wrote in Fat, Manhattan real estate, profit, and where obesity comes from. Since every American food store I’ve seen sells more salt, sugar, and fat-based foods than whole plants, the floor space implies people eat a lot of salt, sugar, and fat.

Specifically, they choose to spend their hard-earned money on salty, sugary, and fatty foods, enough to support expensive Manhattan real estate rents while fresh vegetables are a few steps away in the same store. The stores near me have beautiful looking produce. In most stores shoppers had to walk past the fresh fruits and vegetables to buy the salty, sugary, and fatty foods they pay more for.

Likewise, the profits of McDonald’s, Starbucks, and their peers who profit from salt, sugar, and fat show that Americans buy more from them than farmers markets.

Specifically, they choose to spend their hard-earned money on salty, sugary, and fatty foods, enough to support entire industries that profit from foods that promote obesity and poverty.

I could cite other evidence, of which there is plenty, but my point is that people choose foods in quantities that make them obese. Medical conditions may make some obese without their choice, but the evidence suggests that many choose to buy and eat what makes them obese.

Choices lead to consequences

Either they like the results or not.

If they don’t, their behavior conflicts with their values and they have a problem with themselves.

What others say or do doesn’t changes that internal conflict. I don’t know how they feel, but when, as a child, I wore a shirt at the beach and swimming pools to cover myself, such internal conflict led me to feel guilt, shame, helplessness, and such.

I wanted to point the blame at others, but I couldn’t. It was internal.

I chose to resolve the internal conflict, which I have in many areas, especially food. Those changes started hard, but became easy, fun, cheaper, more delicious, empowering, community building, and, by my values, better in every way. Looking back, I value the challenges.

So people who don’t like the results of their internal conflict can blame others for some things, but not internal conflict caused by their choices. Someone is choosing to pay for all that real estate in the markets devoted to salt, sugar, and fat, because no one is forcing anyone to buy soda, chips, and ice cream. Someone is choosing to pay for Starbucks’ and McDonald’s profit, because no one is forcing anyone to buy the coffee-tinged milkshakes and quarter-pounders.

For those without internal conflict, I can only conclude that they like their results. Many people find obesity beautiful. People say one can be healthy at any size. I celebrate diversity and people finding beautiful what they find beautiful.

If you find obesity beautiful and healthy, that’s your taste. I hope you enjoy what you find beautiful as much as I enjoy fitness.

Some point out the health care and insurance costs that people who don’t eat that way have to pay. Government and insurance groups project that Americans will have to pay hundreds of billions of dollars to support people with diabetes, many of whom chose behaviors that caused the problems, to look at one result of such diets. They talk about the effects on children too young to know how to choose for themselves. These seem serious considerations, among many others, but I’ll leave them aside for now.

People who don’t like the results of their choices

I don’t understand people who don’t like the results of their choices but continue to make them.

While it’s possible that everyone who is obese likes being obese and chooses it, the hundreds of millions of diet books sold suggest otherwise.

The numbers suggest that the people who choose to buy huge amounts of salty, sugary, and fatty food products must overlap significantly with the people who are overweight and obese and don’t like it.

Stores will sell more broccoli and less ice cream if people buy more broccoli. McDonald’s will change its menu if people stop buying so many fries.

Why choose to pay people money to make you how you don’t want to be?

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