[History of a pandemic]

The obesity epidemic began more than two decades ago and is currently expanding. The World Health Organization reported the existence of 2 billion overweight people, of which more than 650 million are obese, therefore more likely to suffer a higher incidence of heart attacks, stroke and cancer as the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. This article analyzes recent socio-cultural modifcations that separated humans from the primary food sources and transformed us from skilled hunters into remorseless scavengers. This separation made us vulnerable to the ups and downs of the global economy and to the interests of powerful agro-industrial conglomerates and their professional spokespeople who aim to re-teach us what we need to eat to be healthy and fit. In this classical conflict, where reason and madness erase the diffuse borders between health and disease, there are questions that deserve defnitive answers. Are obese people sick individuals who cannot control their willpower? Are they addicts involved in self-destructive behaviors? Or they are just victims of an unmerciful hyperconsumerist system where gluttony has become a daily way of life?