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Rashad, I., Grossman, M., & Chou, S. (2006). The Super Size of America: An Economic Estimation of Body Mass Index and Obesity in Adults. Eastern Economic Journal, 32(1), 133-148.

This paper investigates the idea that the recent rapid increase in obesity rates are due to economic changes that have in turn caused behavioral changes in the lives of
Americans. These changes in the environment have changed habits and redefined social and cultural norms. “We realize that obesity is a health problem, and may be one of the costs of economic progress.”
Attributed to; reductions in job strenuousness [Philipson, 2001; Lakdawalla and Philipson, 2002]
Cawley [1999] has presented evidence suggesting that caloric intake is addictive.
Evidence has also been put forth suggesting that obesity is associated with lower wages for women [Averett and Korenman, 1996; Cawley, 2004].

notes from article-
Philipson [2001] points out that the American society has shifted from an agricultural one to a post-industrial one. This shift has been accompanied by innovations that economize on time spent in the household sector, such as convenience food for consumption. An increase in the variety of the food supply may contribute to the maintenance of obesity [Raynor and Epstein, 2001].
Since more women are in the labor force today than in the
1970s, eating out has become more common as families are encouraged to purchase food away from home.1 We thus argue that this increase in female labor force participation operates through its effect on consumption of food away from home. Chou et al.
[2001] control for predicted wages and predicted working hours when exploring the effect that restaurants potentially have on obesity, and find that this does not alter the significance or magnitude of the coefficient on the restaurants variable.
Chou, Grossman, and Saffer [2001, 2002, 2004] employ micro-level data from the
1984-1999 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to show the determinants of body mass index and obesity. They find large positive elasticities associated with the per capita number of restaurants, and at the same time, direct positive effects of labor market attachment on obesity. They theorize that perhaps labor market attachment has indirect effects on obesity that operate through restaurant availability.
Ewing et al. [2003] have attributed part of the increase in obesity to the degree of urban sprawl.
Urban sprawl measures the process through which the spread of development across the landscape outpaces population growth. Using a more comprehensive measure of urban sprawl, Smart Growth America has calculated a reliable measure of how conducive a city is to exercise. Those urban areas that offer more transportation choices, are more compact, and have a variety of stores and activity centers within reach have lower rates of obesity.

Restaurants, for example, are not randomly distributed, as they might locate themselves in areas with higher BMIs, and/or be correlated with income.

Article Discussion
Obesity is now a major epidemic in the United States that calls for immediate attention. The ready availability of inexpensive restaurants has not only caused people to consume more, but has made them less active – less likely to prepare food at home or travel further distances to obtain a healthy meal. The existence of numerous restaurants per capita facilitates caloric intake. And historically, man is conditioned to consume in order to live well.14

Álvarez, L. S., Estrada, A., Diego Goez, J., Carreño, C., & Mancilla, L. P. (2013). The effects of socioeconomic status and short stature on overweight, obesity and the risk of metabolic complications in adults. Colombia Medica, 44(3), 146-154.

NOTES FROM ARTICLE
Obesity and overweight are defined as the abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat with the potential for adverse health effects. Each year at least 2.8 million adults die as a result of these conditions1. In 2008, according to the World Health Organization, one billion five hundred million adults ≥20 years of age were overweight. Of this number, more than 200 million men and nearly 300 million women were obese1. By 2015, it is predicted that about 2.3 million adults will be overweight and more than 700 million people will be classified as obese3.
In some developed American and European countries, obesity is inversely related to socioeconomic status in women, while this relation is less consistent in men5.
For example, McLaren found that low socioeconomic status is associated with increased obesity in women from more developed countries when education and occupation are used as indicators; We analyzed the prevalence of overweight, obesity and RMC according to height and socioeconomic factors (education, income and socioeconomic stratum). The prevalence of obesity was highest in women in the lowest socioeconomic stratum.

Discussion
That is, individuals who live in more economically precarious households and neighborhoods and have families that cannot ensure food security are shorter on average than those living in better conditions.
Scientific literature widely recognizes a “nutritional transition” that consists of people worldwide consuming more high-caloric foods, saturated fats and sugars. This change in eating patterns accompanied by a reduction in physical activity that characterizes most occupations, as well as the increased use of mechanized transportation results in a positive energy balance at the individual level. Consequently, an increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity and non-communicable chronic diseases occurs. 22,23.

Obesity is a condition in which the body accumulates an abnormally large amount of adipose tissue, or fat. It is a multifactorial, chronic disease that is rapidly increasing and having devastating effects on health, especially in the United States. The disease has People who are obese also face stigma and discrimination in work and social settings. Obesity is the second leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States, and according to the American Journal of Public Health in 2013, obesity accounts for approximately 18 percent of all deaths in the United States.
Because it is not practical to measure body fat content directly but it is easy to measure weight and height, the body mass index (BMI), which correlates closely with body fat, is often used to identify and quantify obesity.
In 2014 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that more than one-third of US adults were obese, with non-Hispanic black having the highest obesity rate of 47.8 percent of the population.
While most physicians and the public assume that the main factor causing obesity is excessive food intake in relation to physical activity, it has not been possible to prove that overweight people eat more than slender people do.