New Delhi:When conversations around obesity come up, the focus often lands on genetics, motivation or personal discipline. But according to health coach Dan Go, the environment people live in may have a much bigger influence than many realise.
Dan highlighted the stark difference in obesity rates between Japan and the United States in a June 14 post on X. The comparison was a springboard for a larger argument about lifestyle and infrastructure: that being healthy, he argued, is less about superhuman willpower and more about the systems people encounter every day.
A system built for health
Dan showed the figures, with Japan’s obesity rate at about 6 per cent, compared to 43 per cent in the United States.
He said he could see the difference straight away having travelled in Japan himself.
I saw it myself when I travelled to Japan. It was two weeks and I never saw an overweight person. “Not because they were on a diet but because of their lifestyle.
“Daily life in Japan naturally leads to more movement and healthier eating habits,” Dan said.
"They walk everywhere," he observed.
He also pointed to differences in food culture.
‘Their concept of “fast food” is whole ingredients, fermented, high protein, rich in fibre. Meals are default real food, not default discipline, Dan wrote.
In his view, one of the key advantages of this kind of environment is that people don’t have to be thinking about dieting all the time.
"Nobody was tracking macros. No one had a meal plan app,” he said.
Instead, they “just lived in a system that made it easy to stay lean and being slim was the standard,” as Dan put it.
The 'ZIP code' predicament
Dan used the comparison to refer to a larger public health debate over so-called obesogenic environments.
He says many of the environments of modern Western societies are structured in ways that make it more likely to gain weight.
That challenge can be made even harder by heavy reliance on cars, neighbourhoods designed for driving rather than walking, and easy access to highly processed foods.
“These factors often make it harder to live a healthy lifestyle, no matter how well-intentioned someone is,” he said.
“Meanwhile,” Dan wrote, concluding his point, “the most obese countries on this list share the same pattern: car culture, access to processed food and sedentary defaults. “Your ZIP code is a better predictor of your health than your DNA.
Many on the internet found the statement powerful because it moved the discussion beyond personal choices to the environments people navigate daily.
Building your personal environment
While changing a country's infrastructure is not something individuals can do overnight, Dan believes people can still make meaningful changes in their own environment.
Most people cannot simply move to a country with lower obesity rates, he conceded.
Instead he told people to work on the habits and systems they can directly influence.
You can’t go to Japan. But you can create your own environment.” “Walk more. "Eat real food. Make the healthy choice the easy choice," he concluded.
His message was a simple one. Small changes in our daily routines and environments may not seem dramatic but they can have a powerful impact on our behaviours over time. And sometimes, the path of least resistance isn't about more willpower. It’s about creating an environment where healthy choices feel natural.