A recent article on NPR talks about upcoming drugs for treating obesity.

It sounds like the drugs will do one or a combination of the following:

• curb or reduce the physiological desire to ingest food (aka appetite)
• modify certain psychological behaviorial conditions (like depression)

However, it sounds to me like that’s the path to “treating the symptoms and not the cause” — here’s why:

While we can certainly agree that a constant desire to eat (the wrong kinds of food) without proper exercise will most likely result in obesity, and we probably know someone who, when depressed, will reach for so-called “comfort” foods, these new drugs do not treat the true underlying causes leading to obesity.

1. The drugs will not teach people that adequate physical activity is required to burn calories gained from eating
2. The drugs will not show people what good food is, and how fun preparing and eating good meals can be
3. The drugs will not address underlying psychological issues leading to depression, lack of self-esteem or self-control

In this author’s opinion, obesity is the result of a multitude of personal and social factors.  A drug may temporarily have some effect, but in the end, it becomes an excuse for one to not deal with his or her true underlying mental and/or physiological issues.

Related posts:

1. Exploring the Origins of Obesity: One Person’s POV
2. Fast Food Proximities and Obesity?
3. It’s a (Not So) Small World After All…

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 1:19 pm and is filed under Community, Healthy Perspectives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.