The Warnings They Chose to Ignore

Early 2026. Since March 2024, I haven't just sent a few messages — I've sent a flood of them. Dozens, then hundreds of electronic complaints to the world's biggest food chains. I kept writing, kept warning, kept pushing them to take responsibility and help slow the global obesity epidemic. 

Most of them never replied. And the few who did? Their answers were empty, dismissive, and frankly insulting.

Their indifference is beyond outrageous.

Around 5,000,000 people die every single year from obesity and its consequences. From the moment I sent my first warning until today, 9,000,000 human beings have died. Nine million lives lost. Nine million families devastated. And the food giants still act like none of this has anything to do with them.

That's why I launched the NOPE HAUL challenge — to force these corporations to confront reality. To push them to abandon their manipulative neuromarketing tricks. To make them acknowledge that their actions carry real human consequences. They are not innocent. They are not neutral. They are part of the problem.

Below is the kind of message I began sending them back in the spring of 2024. These are the emails and website complaint submissions I filed — over and over and over again, until it became impossible for them to pretend they hadn't seen them:

Complaint: Obesity Caused by Shopping Carts

Dear Food Retail Chains,

Title: Obesity Caused by Shopping Carts

Regrettably, I am overweight. Despite trying various diets with some success, I regularly regain the weight. I have spent a long time pondering why I regain weight. Initially, I blamed myself, but I have come to realize that I am not the only one responsible. A hundred years ago, there were few obese people in the world, whereas today there are approximately 2 billion. I find it hard to believe that the same mistake could be made by 2 billion people. I am convinced that there are multiple causes for the obesity pandemic. One of the main reasons, I believe, is that food stores now offer large shopping carts as opposed to the traditional shopping baskets.

I will illustrate why the replacement of small shopping baskets with large shopping carts leads to weight gain, using the example of small plates versus large plates. Eating from a smaller plate can aid in weight loss for several reasons:

1. Smaller plate, smaller portion: A relatively small plate will not hold much food. Therefore, using smaller plates can be a great way to lose weight.

2. Calorie consideration: Studies have found that we consume 92 percent of the foods placed in front of us during a meal. We could reduce these calories by as much as 22 percent if we limited the diameter of the plate by just one inch, or two and a half centimeters.

3. Psychological effect: Psychology plays a key role in switching to a smaller plate. This is mainly due to the so-called Delboeuf illusion. The phenomenon suggests that people always perceive objects as smaller when they see them in comparison to a larger object. Therefore, if we put a small portion of food on a large plate, it will seem insufficient. However, if we put the food on a relatively smaller plate, the portions themselves appear larger, making it much less likely that we will want to add more food or refill the plate.

In my view, the Delboeuf illusion applies to shopping carts as well. A hundred years ago, there were no large shopping carts. At that time, people put the products they bought into bags or woven hand baskets. Today, shopping carts are huge compared to the previous bags and baskets. In today's stores, about ten times as many products can fit into shopping carts as into shopping baskets. I recommend everyone to perform the following experiment:

1. Find a grocery store where both a shopping basket and a shopping cart are available.

2. Fill the shopping basket with groceries. The full basket will give us the impression that we have bought enough food.

3. Transfer all the groceries from the shopping basket to a shopping cart.

4. The shopping cart will appear empty. Due to the Delboeuf illusion, we will feel that we have bought too little food.

I believe that food stores have consciously phased out shopping baskets in favor of shopping carts. I am of the opinion that the fight against obesity begins with shopping. If a buyer purchases only as much food as their body truly needs, they cannot gain weight. On the other hand, if a buyer overbuys, they either discard a portion of the unnecessarily purchased food, leading to waste, or they consume it, which leads to weight gain. I believe we humans instinctively do not want to waste, so we gain weight due to overbuying. I refer to this phenomenon as "Obesity Caused by Shopping Carts."

Obesity caused by shopping carts can lead to numerous health problems, including but not limited to:

1. Atherosclerosis: Obesity increases the risk of atherosclerosis, which is the primary cause of cardiovascular diseases.
2. High blood pressure: Obesity often comes with high blood pressure, which can trigger further cardiovascular complications.
3. Cardiovascular diseases: Obesity increases the risk of heart diseases, such as angina pectoris and heart attack.
4. Diabetes (Type 2): Obesity increases the risk of Type 2 diabetes.
5. Sleep apnea: Obesity is a common cause of sleep apnea, characterized by temporary cessation of breathing during sleep.
6. Acid reflux: Obesity increases the risk of acid reflux, which includes the backflow of stomach acid into the esophagus.
7. Osteoarthritis: Obesity increases the risk of osteoarthritis, which is the degradation of the cushioning at the ends of bones.
8. Cancer: Obesity increases the risk of certain types of cancer.
9. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: Obesity increases the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, caused by the accumulation of fat in the liver.
10. Metabolic syndrome: Obesity increases the risk of metabolic syndrome, which includes high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excessive body fat around the waist, and high cholesterol levels.
11. Psychological effects: Obesity can also trigger psychological effects, such as depression and low self-esteem. A significant portion of obese people blame only themselves due to low self-esteem. It does not even occur to obese people that others may also be partially responsible for their own situation.

Obesity not only leads to disease but also death. Since the turn of the millennium, more people have died worldwide from obesity than all those who perished in World War II. I am convinced that food retail chains play a part in the widespread obesity epidemic, which results in a decline in quality of life and premature death.

I urge food retail chains to act responsibly. I implore food retail chains to acknowledge that "obesity caused by shopping carts" is a real issue, stemming from the Delboeuf illusion. I understand that shopping carts, as symbols of the modern consumer society, cannot be eliminated, but they can be modified. I suggest that food retail chains place at least one image and caption on the large shopping carts, drawing shoppers' attention to the issue of obesity caused by shopping carts. This image must be proportional to the size of the shopping cart, as the larger the shopping cart, the more the Delboeuf illusion applies to it. The warning images should depict obese individuals and/or diseases caused by obesity. I believe these warning images can deter some people from overbuying, thereby reducing the number of obese individuals worldwide. If these images only impact every tenth overweight or obese person, then globally there will be 200 million fewer people with problems due to being overweight.

I believe that the owners of food stores reap substantial profits due to overbuying. I understand that the short-term interest of food retail chains is to sell as many products as possible, but this is not sustainable in the long run, as some shoppers may face premature death due to obesity. I firmly state that for food retail chains, the worst customer is a deceased customer! Dead shoppers will not queue at the checkouts. Therefore, I ask food retail chains to accept my proposal and place warning images on shopping carts.

Respectfully, Zoltán Bíró

Zoltán Bíró — Nope Haul Revolutionary | Debrecen, Hungary.