What's amazing to me, and a bit shameful, is that we haven't figured out a safe way to speed up the body's metabolism to the rate of a 95th-percentile 17-year-o

What's amazing to me, and a bit shameful, is that we haven't figured out a safe way to speed up the body's metabolism to the rate of a 95th-percentile 17-year-old. That's a level that we know is safe. (Obviously, if you increased the metabolism too far, you'd run into issues with heat stroke and malnourishment.) I'm astonished that we haven't found a treatment that can let everyone have that. I think that obesity is maybe 10 to 20% personal fault. Some people overeat, or eat stupidly, and I've seen that. However, I think that socioeconomic forces (and food supply issues, and I wouldn't be surprised if ambient toxins were involved) produce most of the remainder. There are a lot of people who eat reasonably, exercise as much as they reasonably can given their work commitments, and are still fat. We're not supposed to live in the psychological monoculture of modern work, or to have inflexible 8- to 12-hour commitments on the majority of our days. Inactivity and low energy levels (a consequence of living amid hierarchical, bureaucratic organizations in which almost everyone's a subordinate) do a lot of damage. The trans fats and high fructose corn syrup aren't doing people any favors.