Do any of you feel bad for obese people?

I always see threads making fun of fatties.

I have friends and family members that are obese or close to it. After HS I gained significant weight and became fat before educating myself on proper nutrition and exercise, and got into the best shape of my life. Health and fitness became a passion of mine and so I've always stayed in shape since. But, that gives me a different perspective for some of these people.

I feel bad because from the start, millions are set up for obesity. You are what you know, and a large (no pun intended) portion of parents know little about proper nutrition themselves. Unhealthy foods taste better, and are cheaper. For the uneducated, it makes it an easily justifiable option to stock their food at home that way. There is, or at least when I was in school ( I'm 26), very little education about proper nutrition. All I remember was the nutrition pyramid which is total shite. I also know a lot of schools have gone to a la cart lunches where you have cheap, fatty, and sugary options to choose from. And while they also offer healthier choices, it's hard for kids to make the smart choice in that situation.

I know the counter-arguments everyone will say. "Eat less, do more". And that we don't sympathize because it is their choice. That is all true. People are accountable for their own actions. Some people take it way too far, also, to the point that you cannot defend that behavior in any way. But it is just sad to me that we have this current epidemic, and in a lot of ways our society sets them up to fail.