This is Why You're Fat

This is Why You're Fat is a forum where users send pictures of excessively outrageous, extravagant foods to a webmaster who selects the cream of the crop to be featured on the daily-updated site.

There are a few things I find especially interesting about a forum like this:

1. The aesthetic appeal
There's a reason why viewers keep hitting, "Older Posts." The ugly-pretty subjects of the featured photographs are fascinating and intriguing. These portraits of such ridiculous, almost otherworldly items are sometimes disgusting and repulsive, yet we can't look away. Perhaps we're addicted to being shocked.

2. The competitive element
Everyone is always trying to post the "biggest" or the "worst" or the "most creative" food. Users leave comments expressing disdain for lack of originality and praise for innovation.

3. The decidedly American concept
From buffets, to reality TV to Super Gulps, Americans like excess. Even though obesity and hunger are both serious epidemics in our country, we continue to embrace the "more is better" lifestyle. This website is a perfect illustration of what it means to be an American in 2010.

4. The lighthearted attitude
The slogan on the homepage is, "where dreams become heart attacks." There's an interesting operation of both guilt and pride at work here.

5. The fantastical nature
The money, time and planning that goes into making the food featured on TIWYF is extraordinary. It makes me wonder how long users have been waiting to actualize these things. Surely the Deep Fried Reese's Cups Wrapped in Bacon appeared to Justin Valcarcel in a dream, the Huge Homemade Twix was the stuff of Rafael Paulin's imagination, and Jade Desumala was forced to eat The Lasandwich as the result of losing a bet.

-Anna Gorman