I agree that obesity is 100 percent preventable.

But that does not make it a personal choice. Losing weight is not just about calories, but about eating the right foods and getting the energy and confidence to get off the couch, as so many of today’s top health professionals have written about.

Without the right foods, no matter what amount of calories is taken in, many people suffer psychological and physiological addictions, making the compulsion to eat junk food stronger than a yes or no decision.

A recent article from Bloomberg news revealed research showing that some foods “aren’t simply unhealthy. They can hijack the brain in ways that resemble addictions to cocaine, nicotine and other drugs.” Someone can choose to go to rehab, but without removing the drug itself, what good does it do?

The “disturbing trend” Eric Rogier spoke of has been given a boost by such foods. Knowing what the right foods are and how to get them involves education and opportunity, things that not everyone has access to.

We absolutely have a health care problem and obesity just happens to be the way some people’s bodies deal with such dietary stress. The more often people criticize and call this problem a choice as they turn their heads, the worse things will get.