The US is challenging the World Health Organization’s plan to regulate “junk food,” saying that there is no proof it is linked to being overweight, despite studies indicating otherwise.

It just so happens that in this post-holiday season, I’ve been thinking about weight a bit more than usual. (And those of you who know me can attest that I already spend far too much time thinking of that as it is.)

But lately, I’ve been wondering… is there some kind of evolutionary explanation for our attitudes toward women and weight? I’ve noticed that a man carrying an extra 20+ pounds has no compunction about belittling a woman carrying half as much extra weight. And statistically speaking, women are far more likely to go on diets or engage in regular exercise than men. (Which might be why we live longer.) So I’ve been wondering: what is it in the male mind that accepts extra padding on a man but finds it abhorrent on a woman?

A caveat: living here in Hawai’i, I’ve actually seen just the opposite. That is, my Hawaiian, Samoan, Tongan and Maori friends are typically overweight regardless of gender and they could not care less about the weight of those to whom they’re attracted. But haoles – white people – remain obsessed with it, despite being surrounded by what I’ll kindly refer to as “amply endowed” folk.

All of which has led me to suspect that at some point in our evolutionary advancement, at the point where we branched off into different civilizations and cultures, man changed. Oh, he remained the Hunter in the dark corners of his mind, but I wonder if the geography and climate didn’t affect his ideal of beauty.

In other words, is there a reason why men find plump women attractive in places like Hawai’i and the other Polynesian islands – not to mention a whole lot of other corners of the world – where there is a scarcity of food, while their counterparts in the Americas and Europe, where food is so abundant, prefer slimmer women? And, if so, what does that say about “man” in general terms?

Crap. See what happens when I’m sick and sleep-deprived? I start sounding like Dean.