Mark: It is important to acknowledge the ascendence of anti-biotics in not just humans but also livestock. For example, you look at the size of a chicken. I used to spend summers on a farm in Illinois during the 1950s, chickens were much smaller. They are now almost three times as large.  It is kind of ridiculous.  I also want to note that portion size is greatly increasing. As Bill G. noted, in Europe people walk.  They walk everywhere and when I was in Vienna I found bike rentals everywhere.  Pedestrians have the right-of-way. Then the bikes have a right-of-way.  And then the cars.  There are dedicated lanes for bikers.  It was amazing. I saw that renting a bike was much more efficient way to see Vienna then waling or taking a car. But portion size is also key to the issue of obesity. When I was in Paris, I was watching people nursing a cup of coffee and split a baguette with three other people. And I was wolfing down two baguettes because they were so delicious. We Americans tend to gobble, gobble and gobble, without relaxing and talking with other people.  And enjoying the food.  This is also a contributor to obesity. So, I think it is multi-factorial.

Scott: I want to point to Steven Spielberg. Steven Spielberg is the reason we have Jurassic Park. And Steven Spielberg went into partnership with McDonalds –where the Jurassic meal was invented.  Which became super-sized. We had normal sized food before this. Thes meals almost looked like a KFC basket.  Even the small size.  And that became normal.  I remember when I was in college, going to Ireland.  I happened to be there on the 4^th of Jully So, we are definitely going to McDonalds today.  So, I went to MacDonalds with several American friends. I said “super-size this.”   They said: “what’s a super-size?” OK. I’m in Europe. Give me an extra-large. He said we have small medium and large.  I said, give me a large.  He hands me a cup for a normal human being. I said “No, no, no. I said large.” And he looked at me like a psychopath. This is 20 oz. of soda. I said, no, I’m looking for a 50 oz. cup. Of soda. And I need French fries that I can barely lift. And we all totally normalized that. The industry spread that. And now we consider that a “good value” when eating that much hurts.

Bill B: Let me make a comment here and then ask for your advice. I think I am the oldest person here. I am in my 80s.  And one of the things I have discovered recently is that at some point my body clicks and says: “I don’t want any more food.” My mother was like that too, when she was in her late 80s. She just stopped eating when she was full.  She didn’t push it any further.  It is interesting that I am not gaining weight. I’m not losing much weight either.  There is something that clicks on for me where I just simply stop eating – and eating additional food would feel noxious for me.  Is there something that actually happens at this age. And did we learn at some point in our life to bypass or leap over that natural blocking process. I think back to what Peter said at a previous forum about how our body works beautifully. We just keep messing around with our body. Is there something there which puts restraints on us—and we learned how to avoid it?