eli5: Why will the body continue to store excess fat to the point where it jeopardizes the person’s health?

Question

I understand food wasn’t always so abundant, and humans were well served to store excess consumed energy as fat for later use. What I don’t understand is why the body keeps storing fat to the point where a person becomes morbidly obese and it puts their entire health at risk. Why isn’t there a point where the body just let’s the extra calories pass through without saving for later?

In: 1194

Answer 1

A famous quote (with my additions in parentheses): “The real problem of humanity is the following: We have paleolithic emotions (eat as much as possible), medieval institutions (three meals a day) and godlike technology (DoorDash).”