The number of "Obese People" far outweighs the number of chronic alcoholics... we are talking about almost 1/3rd of the population being obese (i.e. not just a bit fat, or chubby, just straight out obese).

Is obesity a sign of sugar addiction? I don’t think so. People addicted to substances like alcohol and heroin will go out of their way to obtain these substances breaking laws and ruining others’ lives if necessary. While obese people are just... obese, not crazy nor dangerous. Their mind don’t get wired by sugar to put sugar in front of decency and laws.

Not to mention sugar is not the only cause of obesity anyway. Sedentary lifestyle, hormones, gut bacteria, and the portion sizes in the US are all likely causes.

> While obese people are just... obese, not crazy nor dangerous.

If you could wave a magic wand, wouldn't most obese people prefer a healthy weight? In aggregate, we can add up individual decisions and call the average "human nature." The actions of society have forced individuals to live with bodies that don't function as well as they could, so it makes sense for us to do something about the problem.

How well do we understand the causes of the obesity epidemic? Is sugar responsible for, say, 10% or 90% of the total? If we wish to progress toward a low-sugar future, then it would be good to have an estimate of how much good it would do.

If alcohol and heroin were as cheap as sugar you might be able to reasonably compare them, but they aren't.

Sugar is not the only cause of obesity just as smoking is not the only cause of lung cancer...

I’d question if this is purely the result of a sugar addiction. This is a very American figure, other countries have less problems, even though sugar is widely available.

Obesity has a variety of contributing factors, (lack of) access to actual healthy food, lack of physical exercise, high calorie intake (certainly aided by sugar), ...

There appears to be a positive (bad) feedback loop many people hit involving gut bacteria.

But a BMI in the low 30's is better for you than alcoholism. If you're six foot and 230lbs, that's a BMI of 31, which is obese.

Here's some pictures of guys with that build: https://www.height-weight-chart.com/600-230.html

They're not very fit, but they look "a bit fat/chubby" to my eyes - not dangerously unhealthy like your comment seems to imply.

31 BMI is highly unhealthy, i know it was mine 2 years ago. You don't look "obese", but when fat start to show on your cheeks, you have to stop eating that much sugar immediatly. I'm less than 30 and i my ankle/knees are hurting like i was 40. I couldn't run, and running is still really, really hard on my ankles (after 40 minute i start to feel lot of pain). Even walking too much (more than ~7/8 kilometers) hurts. It's not beause you don't "look" obese than you are not. And i have freaking hearth issue (it's not genetic, none of my grandparent ever had heart issues, and most of my great-grandparent lived to 100 yo or near that.

I still have 26.8 BMI and i'm aiming 23-24 as i'm not a very muscular guy.

I'll have to agree though, alcoolism is worst than low obesity. Etanol is as bad as fructose for the liver, and worst for everything else too.

Sugar isn't the cause of obesity though. I think people that try to blame it all on sugar are simply looking for a scapegoat. It's easier to actually over eat on fat than on sugar because of a higher caloric density. Carbs are just cheaper so they get added to everything as bulk.

Overeating on just fat and protein is actually something your body can handle and even leverage over time, though.

Also let's not overlook how alcohol could contribute to obesity either.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16047538

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4338356/

You get satiated much faster eating fat than eating sugar. How much butter can you eat? How much fruit juice can you drink?

Just a sidenote, sugar addiction starts way earlier fe. 6-7 year old kids are much more likely to eat too much sugar. Alcohol kicks in quite later and likely causes more damage to people around the subject, I agree with that.