I don't think you have to go all the way to plastics and chemicals (not saying that they aren't potentially playing their part). Take a simple model with a com

I don't think you have to go all the way to plastics and chemicals (not saying that they aren't potentially playing their part). Take a simple model with a combination of all the factors the author discusses (type of diet, sugar, trans-fats, caloric intake, processed foods, exercise, genetics etc), allow interaction between the factors, and have the lipostat as the dependent variable. I.e. several factors together will, over time, upregulate the lipostat. A relatively simple model that evades the authors objections, yet might fit the data.