Countless medical and lay persons seem to think so. In every article about Type 2 diabetes, there is a reference to excess weight being a major culprit. Do we need to focus our energy on diet and exercise most of all?

It's high time, then, for government to use its powers of persuasion -- and coercion -- to confront the obesity crisis and its impact on public health. While we're all aware of the damage done by those added pounds, few of us have the discipline to get rid of them. That might change if federal and state governments used all the levers at their disposal to push us in the right direction.

Think of the four-decade effort to curb smoking. In 1964, U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry issued a report linking cigarettes to lung cancer. Back then, about 68 percent of American men (and an unknown percentage of American women) smoked, and cigarettes were synonymous with glamour. Now, only about 20 percent of American adults -- 23 percent of men, 18 percent of women -- report that they smoke regularly.

It wasn't easy to change such an inbred habit. It took a variety of initiatives -- from public awareness campaigns, to laws banning smoking, to civil lawsuits against tobacco companies. But that broad-based war on smoking worked.

Something similar -- equally far-reaching and long-term -- will be required to curb obesity and its clear consequences, notably the increase in diabetes.

Overweight people already face endless discrimination, and blaming the condition for causing Type 2 diabetes may be spreading the message that people with the disease 'deserve it.' Is this a danger, or is abhorring excess weight the key to a healthier life?