The joke goes that one of the headlines in the year 2029 will be “Massive $10-billion study reveals: Diet and exercise the keys to weight loss!”

This study confirms it–Americans’ ongoing struggles with weight aren’t about knowing what to do or who counsels us while we diet. They’re the result of a myriad of other factors, including stress, loneliness, sexual dissatisfaction or deprivation, poor self-esteem, fear of success, boredom, and a hundred other emotional reasons why people overeat.

Add to that the country’s obsession with advertising food and drink on television and elsewhere, the easy availability of millions of food choices in our grocery stores, the comfort and easy access of so many dining-out options, the suburban mindset of “gotta go everywhere in a car,” and fashion’s focus on thin-is-beautiful, we have a perfect recipe for a war on weight.

Let’s face it. As the commercial suggests with the the lady who’s remarking on the “20-pound baked good” provided at the office to celebrate nothing but the beginning of the third quarter–but offers another snack instead–we sabotage ourselves.