Lack of education and access results in lack of awareness. You and I sit in our comfy sofas watching Jamie Oliver give a talk at TED and hence we hail our organic vegetables and our foo-foo healthy lifestyles. You cannot compare this vantage point with the predicament of someone who is struggling to make ends meet.

You don't need to eat like Jamie Oliver to not be obese. How much "education" does it take to realize that cookies and sugary sodas and sitting on the couch all day will make you fat?

It is the result of a simple fact that fattening, processed stuff is widely available at every corner for dirt cheap prices here. Stuff that tastes good.

Absolutely. And I think there's something to Scott Adams's willpower theory. If you have a great job and a nice house and a gorgeous wife and/or mistress, it's not a huge sacrifice to pass on the Twinkie and go jogging. But if you're just barely making ends meet and have no apparent prospects for improvement, it's really hard to turn down short-term gratification.

Making healthy food taste better would do far more to combat obesity than plastering nutritional labels and PSAs everywhere.