Obesity is an incurable disease. So why is the government intent on punishing sufferers? | George Monbiot

Fat-shaming is worse than useless. David Cameron points his finger at the afflicted, but food manufacturers and advertisers are the real culprits

Is overeating more addictive than crack cocaine? It’s hard to compare addiction rates, or to produce a clear definition that holds true across all substances and behaviours. But consider this crude contrast: of people who use crack cocaine, 10%-20% become addicted to it; across a nine-year study of 176,000 obese people, 98.3% of the men and 97.8% of the women failed to return to a healthy weight. Once extreme overeating begins, it appears to be almost impossible to stop.

A paper published in the journal Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews proposed that “food addiction” is a less accurate description of this condition than “eating addiction”. There is little evidence that people who are driven to overeat become dependent on a single ingredient; instead they tend to seek out a range of highly palatable, energy-dense foods, of the kind with which we are now surrounded.

Related: Obesity awareness may be causing overeating, finds international study

The evidence points to high-fat, high-sugar foods that overwhelm the impulse control of children and young adults

One day any food that merits a red traffic-light warning will be sold in plain packaging on high shelves

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