evidence: This is a remarkable development, given the astonishing prevalence of obesity, especially in the United States, where more than 40 percent of adults are obese and an additional 30 percent are overweight, and given the failure of measures less drastic than bariatric surgery to produce lasting results. [...] And forgive me for phrasing it this way, but that’s really the two-ton elephant in the room. [...] The phenomenon, moreover, is not distributed evenly through society. Almost half of Black adults are obese, compared with 45.6 percent of Hispanic adults and 41 percent of non-Hispanic Whites. Relatedly, obesity is generally correlated with both educational attainment and socioeconomic status: Men and women with college degrees are less apt to be obese than those with less education. Same for those with higher earnings.