The problem of obesity has been with us since the dawn of time and for many sufferers the condition is the result of genetic or medical problems. At present, however, the alarming growth in the rate of obesity is very much a man-made problem, assisted in part perhaps by the availability, and popularity, of the gastric bypass.

Advances in surgery, not least the introduction of laparoscopic procedures, have made the gastric bypass a far easier and more acceptable solution to the problem of obesity. In addition, the profile of the gastric bypass has been raised very much in recent years helped along in no small way by the number of household names picking this form of weight loss.

The list of well known personalities taking this route is long and includes the best selling author Anne Rice, the musician and harmonica virtuoso John Popper, the footballer Diego Maradona and the music promoter and TV personality Sharon Osbourne to name just a few.

But just why is obesity growing and is it really a problem of our own making?

While there was a small rise in the rate of obesity in the years following the Second World War, the past twenty five years have seen a significant growth in obesity, especially in the US. The exact reason for this is unknown and there is reasonably wide disagreement on the cause, but here are just a few reasons over which there is general agreement.

1. Notwithstanding the current talk about oil prices, motoring is no longer a luxury and the two car family is becoming commonplace. Today we don't think twice about getting into the car for even the shortest of journeys and many of us would not even contemplate walking to the corner shop.

2. We have become a nation of two income households and this means that people are doing far less cooking at home. The number of people enjoying restaurant meals or opting for fast food take out or home delivery meals has risen significantly in recent years.

3. A number of trade subsidies introduced over the last twenty five years have significantly lowered the relative cost of many items of food, not least that of sugar syrup and sugar. In turn this means that we are now consuming a lot more than we used to.

4. The past twenty five years have seen big changes in working practices with significantly fewer people employed today in manual work and with more and more of us sitting back and letting machines do the work which we used to do or sitting all day behind a desk or at a computer.

5. Marketing has become very sophisticated, if not subliminal, and this is especially true in the area of convenience and fast foods. Additionally, many restrictions were removed on advertisements aimed at children during the Reagan administration and many of these dealt with such things as convenience foods and sweets.

6. Perhaps strangest of all is the effect that the craze for exercise and diet has had on the increase in obesity. As a society we have become obsessed with dieting and many people diet as often as they change their underwear. However it's a fact that virtually all diets fail and, following a diet, it is not uncommon for your weight to rise to a level even higher than it was before the diet. This pattern of rising and falling weight over time many times results in a gradual increase in weight towards obesity.

Each of the factors observed here not only add to the rise in obesity but is also plainly made-made.

Certainly gastric bypass provides one solution. All the same, even though the procedure is a lot easier than it used to be and is growing in popularity, it is still far from a pleasant experience and is certainly not risk free.

For those people who are suffering from obesity today gastric bypass constitutes an excellent solution to their problem. For our children and grandchildren however maybe the answer is to be found in preventing obesity and not sitting back and waiting for the problem to present itself before resorting to gastric bypass surgery.