The American "Obesity Epidemic?"

[CrayZee]

So people are apparently readjusting their "normal weight" perceptions.

But it seems like there is a growing, perhaps more affluent, segment of people that are uber health nuts, or at least more conscious about their diets (e.g., eating only organics, multigrain breads, soy and nonfat milk, etc., etc.).

Is there such an obesity epidemic? And if so, why? It sounds more like a social problem (meaning that there are many variables, not just blaming, say, HFCS). Marketing has become more "science-esque", cheap processed foods widely available (e.g., corn subsidies and sugar tariffs), increased restaurant meal sizes, etc. I mean, people ate white Wonderbread, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Hostess Twinkies in the 1950's or whatever. (But then again, people smoked cigs a lot more. So maybe that impacts food intake.)

Maybe it's too hard for the populous to fight against what our genes have told us to do...eat and hump as much as reasonably possible. It doesn't help that dumb people, and children, are more susceptible to marketing messages, it seems.

Also, I ain't no doctor, but the body mass index (BMI) seems like a woefully inadequate yardstick for a good individual weight range. People's body types vary and so forth. Is being somewhat fat really that bad for you? In other words, being overweight is not a causal for bad health in and of itself, but rather a correlate of unheathly living.