Food and society

Why is society obsessed with food? Every holiday and occasion is marked with food. Thanksgiving is the turkey obviously, Christmas is cookies, birthday is cake, and so on. Now don't get me wrong, I love food, but I just don't see why we need a special occasion to eat cake, or cookies, or turkey. Why can't we just eat it without feeling guilty. There always has to be a reason to consume that lovely calorie loaded goodness. I wish society would just get over the fact that not eating anything is preferable to exercise. Why can't everyone just get their buts off of the couch and go run or do something outside. If everyone was required to exercise for and hour each day, then we wouldn't have to worry about eating that cookie, or that slice of cake. We wouldn't have to worry about justifying our diets with holidays.