Consider these situations, which I'll make as abstract as possible to appeal to your experiences:
Fast food is cheap. Keep in mind the "dollar menu"s and contrast the concept that when you sit down to eat at a restaurant they are likely to hand you bread or chips with water before your entrees arrive. This fills you up before you even get into what you're craving, and this makes you more likely to get a take-out bag for your meal. Servers and the companies for which they work are interested in giving you the impression that the high-dollar amount you spent was worth your while, because you're full and you might even have some for later, and you'll tip your server. These customers are going to be spending a lot more for fewer calories and a healthier lifestyle.
Now, consider when you're out drinking. You're spending between 3 and 500% more per drink than you would if you bought it at a convenience store or ABC store in bulk. Again, the healthier option (both physically and mentally) is spending more money and tipping a bartender.
Now, I ask you to consider the last time you were at a restaurant. Were you impressed with the fellow patron's health? What about the last time you were at a buffet-style restaurant? There is an obvious pattern, cheap food is a major cause for obesity. As with all situations, there are exceptions; I know of people who purposefully maintain obesity in order to collect disability benefits, and it is a sad event we must deal with, but this is not by any stretch of the imagination a majority of obese people.
Now, consider the suggestion that obese people could simply purchase ingredients at a grocer and create healthy meals and improve their health in that way. Believe me, I've thought of this having had the majority of my jobs under the poverty line. Purchasing ingredients for a healthy lifestyle is more expensive regardless of choices if you wish to maintain a quality of life that the wealthy enjoy with respect to nutrition. If you purchase healthy ingredients from the grocer, you need to study proper recipes to prepare them, you need to have the necessary cooking wares (pots, pans, strainers, spoons, tongs, seasonings, etc.). This burden incurs further unreported expenses such as heating equipment like microwaves, stove-tops, and ovens. Then there's the manual labor that goes into washing specialized utensils or cooking wares. If hot water or washing machines are involved, those incur additional expenses.
In other words, there is a positive correlation between poverty and obesity that people (especially political leaders) do not address. In this millennium we are expected to believe that obesity is a sign of prosperity and progress, when in fact it is more likely to be a red flag of the ever-increasing stratification of wealth in our economy.
Do not mistake this for a bleeding-heart liberal post, I leave out political slants as much as possible when I can so that readers can consider what side of facts to take and apply their own critical thought, but this sentiment is in direct opposition to those who might take this dynamic as a symptom of economic failure and call it a result of economic success. I say here and now, obesity is by-and-large a result of economic disparity. And in tangential commentary I'll add that if you have ever held an employed position below the poverty line, you'll know full well that it's not a hole you work out of; a poverty stricken job does not provide enough capital to save for your future, and it does not allow you to improve your standard of living, it may for a time indulge a monthly luxury, but never enough to provide a meaningful change to quality of life of provide for the future of your children the way it used to.
