Harvard’s School of Public Health and the Huffington Post presented a forum last month titled Why We Overeat: The Toxic Food Environment and Obesity. The discussion is a bit long and a bit wonky, but it’s well worth a watch — especially for those who think this issue is primarily about personal responsibility.
I particularly liked the last few minutes where David Kessler pointed out that the panelists in the room (Kessler was on via satellite) are “too fit, too thin” and need to “talk with someone who really struggles with their weight.”
Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our Western diet -- especially sugar, refined grains, and industrial oils. Beth writes about nutrition, ancestral health, & food policy. And cats! 
Love the statement that’s made at the end, which you pointed out. Haven’t watched it yet, but I am glad this was stated. Like countless others, I’m pretty tired of lean, super-skinny people telling me what’s wrong with me without having ever shared my struggle. Makes me want to hurl a case of low-fat tofu at them.
I don’t have time to listen to it in its entirety, but I gotta say that your quote of Kessler represents an important turn in his attitude. His book The End of Overeating, was written in the wake of some dramatic weight loss on his part. He was still in the honeymoon stage and he was handing out “Just Say No” advice like it was a pearl of great wisdom. Kind of, “If you only know how bad corporate food is, how cynical its purveyors, then you’ll gladly say no (just like I am), so I’m going to tell you how bad it is.” I hated that book.
So many people are resistant to the idea that there is a toxic food environment and prefer to heap all the responsibility on the individual.
Tonight I attended my son’s AGM at his daycare and a mom was concerned about the amount of sweets given to the kids. She pointed out the cultural differences between here in Canada and her native country Denmark. In Denmark eating cakes and sweets are reserved for birthdays and holidays while those same foods are readily available and seem to be eaten on a daily basis.