OP, I do agree with nearly everything you have wrote so thank you for starting this thread.
Like you I think we are going down the wrong path with this one.
We have an obesity crisis. The reasons are complicated but a part of it is that people eat a huge amount of ultra processed food (it's not food!) and less and less actual real food. Our bodies do not like this UPF and it tells us this by weight gain and all the other health issues that happen when we fuel our bodies with 'crap' rather than nutritious real food.
In my thirties (many years ago now) my husband and I embarked on a healthy eating exercise. It started because I wanted to lose weight as going on a once in a lifetime holiday. We basically ate salad, fruit, vegetables, fish, chicken and all the good stuff. We eliminated all the bad stuff. I lost the weight I wanted to lose. However other things began to happen. I had more energy, my skin was better, my hair was shinier, my nails grew quicker. My optician was amazed when I went for my regular check up that my eyes appeared to have 'healed themselves' and I no longer needed contact lenses. In my thirties my vision had improved. It was clearly something he did not see often or at all. I can only attribute this to going from eating processed food to eating exceptionally well.
So yes I looked better and cured my obesity but much more than that happened.
I agree what you have said rather than fix the problem at source we are encouraging people to keep eating this processed rubbish and then at the end of it pop a pill. Great perhaps they will be thin but their bodies will still be lacking vitamins and nutrients and overall unhealthy.
You made a very good comparison of antidepressants.
You are depressed they give you antidepressants and so you feel better but it does not address the source of the issue. For that you need therapy which is much harder work and takes much longer. Far easier to take the pills and ignore the issue. (I speak from personal experience here, abusive childhood, lifelong depression and anxiety)
You are fat, they give you diet pills so you are thin but it does not fix the fact your body is not being fueled properly.
I get it. Life is difficult and complicated and busy. People have horrible jobs, long commutes, kids, relationship problems, dying relatives. Far easier to eat a frozen pizza that chop up some vegetables. Again I speak from personal experience (last 5 years of life looking after someone who was dying and my weight ballooned by about 5 stone due to stress, exhaustion, depression and just eating to comfort myself). I started this year to try and look after myself better. Cut out all ready meals. Start reading the packets and boxes to see what you are actually eating. More fruit, more vegetables. I haven't increased my exercise at all. I don't do anything apart from walk dog and housework and gardening etc.
I am still eating I reckon around 2200 calories a day. I'm not really counting but I am eating decent portions and not hungry.
I am changing my mindset from 'a box of icecream isn't looking after yourself or a treat'. A box of icecream is a box of sugar and chemicals that poison you and make the food manufacturers rich and you ill. A treat is a punnet of waitrose organic raspberries which taste delicious and provide my body with something it needs.
It's not always easy. At the start I craved icecream like a drug addict but as time goes on I am finding food is becoming less important to me. I think about it less. When I'm hungry I find something to eat and try and make it something decent. I've lost my taste for sweet stuff. The ben and jerry icecream I ate last week was decidely disappointing. This must be because my taste buds have changed.
I am still overweight. I still have about 3 stone to lose. One thing I know though after watching all the documentaries on UPF. It's literal shit. Not food. The food manufacturers must be laughing their way to the bank at us 'mugs' being taken in with their bullshit advertising. This thought is really helping me stay away from UPF.
I take on board that lots of the posters have said they are exercising, trying to eat better AND take the weight loss drug. However like you I think it's better to work with mother nature and do it the old fashioned way.
It's a complicated subject and I can definately see the attraction of taking a pill and getting thin that way.
Good thread.