I don't know what causes morbid obesity, and I don't think anyone knows yet. There are just theories. I believe a gene may be responsible, at least in part, but not necessarily in all people who are morbidly obese (or just overweight). I think some people are conditioned that way from the time they're young, even from birth. Some parents feed their children when they cry, even if the child is crying for some reason other than hunger.

Many parents feed their kids "easy" foods, like stuff you can eat right out of the bag, microwave, or are quick to fix. Perhaps some children are predisposed to addiction for certain types of foods, and once they get that food, the addiction begins. I'm addicted to sugar. I need to control it, but I did have it under control previously. The desire is still there, though.

Some parents reward their kids with food and/or console them with food. I don't think food should be a reward or a comfort. I think treats should be treats, meals should be meals, and snacks should be snacks. Most, if not everything, of what one eats should be healthy, with the occasional treat.

I've seen morbidly obese and generally obese people on shows, fictional and non-fictional. Nip/Tuck had a show about a woman who was so obese (enabled, of course, by her loved ones), they had to cut her away from the couch on which she'd sat for several years, because her skin had joined into it. I don't know if that can really happen, but it wouldn't surprise me.

The prospect of becoming like that scares me, and I certainly don't want to be an example for others that way. I feel very sorry for people who end up that way, even if it's their fault, in that they should have done something before they got that way.

There was a man who was being sent to another country from the United States (if I recall correctly), who weighed over 1,000 lbs. (might have been the guy you saw, Desirae), and Jay Leno, on The Tonight Show, made a joke out of a photo of this man. He showed the image (twice!), which had a computer in it next to the man, and said, "This is who you're really talking to when you're having computer sex!" or something to that effect. It really angered me.