This article was among the bigger loads of hogwash I've ever read. Genetics plays "more" of a role in obesity than behavior and diet? Bull. Travel some. Go to Asia. Maybe the Mediterranean. People are thin there. There simply aren't chubby children scarfing down Happy Meals everywhere you look (like there are here). But Asian and Mediterranean transplants to the US frequently end up gaining weight. It's been well established that the American diet is unhealthy and excessive. It's been well documented that the weight of an average American has risen steadily over the recent decades. Genetics are not responsible for this marked increase in obesity, and it is irresponsible and lazy to suggest that they are.

My entire immediate family and the vast majority of my extended family is significantly overweight/obese. By contrast, I am mildly to moderately overweight (and I've recently given birth to my fourth child, so I cut myself a little slack). But I take responsibility for my weight. I know that if I don't, I will end up diabetic like my father and two of my three siblings (so far). I have a sibling who favors "convenience foods" when preparing meals and has an incurable Tim Horton's habit. Is it really because we fell into opposite ends of the gene pool, so to speak, that I am a healthier weight? Does that also explain why my children are all of normal weight while my sibling's child is obese?

In Wall-E, the reason given as to why the characters buzz about on floating lounge chairs like giant babies, is that over the generations spent in space, under the effects of diminished gravity, they have experienced bone loss. Even the ACTUAL babies on the ship are rotund and stubby (even for babies, lol). Of course there is some underlying commentary about consumerism and laziness, but I do not think that the main point of the movie was to draw a correllation between obesity and ecological irresponsibility. You will notice, if you watch the movie, that at one point the captain of the ship looks at the portraits of all of the previous captains. The first captain was lean and able-bodied, even though by the point that he presumably took responsibility for the ship the earth had already evidently been all but destroyed by clutter and pollution. Clearly the cause of the ecological devastation was not attributed to obesity. Rather, obesity was the result of the artificial conditions on the ship.

To blame overweight on genetics and pooh-pooh the notion that we are responsible for how we treat our bodies, is just like blaming pollution, waste, and other ills of consumerism on "society" and forgetting that we belong to that society. In both cases, we contribute either to the problem, or to the solution, with our daily choices. And if that's the underlying message of "Wall-E" (a movie which my children naively thought was about the heroics of a couple of cute little robots, btw), then it's a worthy one.

Bottom line: If you're overweight and would rather find fault with your genetics, your lot in life, or a silly animated feature film than take responsibility for your own choices and live a longer, healthier life, that's your problem. It's certainly the least productive approach, but to each his own.

If you'd rather get over it and do something good for yourself, your kids, or- heck- the world you live in, then by all means, let's get to it!!