It is true that people in the U.S. are getting fatter. The figures are irrefutable. Guidelines set by the US Dept. of Agriculture state that a high incidence of being overweight increases the risk for heart attacks, premature death, hypertension, stroke, gout, and any number of conditions. To the contrary, according to doctors on the other side of the issue, diabetes has indeed gone up (slightly) between 1960 and 2000 but heart disease and cerebrovasular diseases have actually declined (markedly). Also, according to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, prevalence in high blood pressure and cholesterol actually declined between the years 1960 and 2000. Further, Scientific American cites a graph showing the incidence of prostrate cancer, as well as cancer of the lungs and colon have declined between the years 1990 and 2000. Also, it is a widely-known fact that, despite AIDS, pollution, and being overweight, people are living longer today in the U.S. than ever before. At the turn of the 20th century the average life span was a little over 40 years. Today it is 75.
The Media
Just maybe we should start looking at underweight people instead. Katherine Flegal, a senior research scientist at the Centers for Disease Control reports in JAMA that previous studies showing that 300,000 or more people die prematurely each year due to being overweight was fraught with research bias and errors. On the other hand, she says that being underweight is more of a factor in premature death. So the controversy continues and actually this is a good sign because it is supposed to foster vigorous well-researched debate. So far the media apparently only wants to report one side. Authors Michael Gard and Jan Wright published a study showing that between the years 1990 and 2005 more than 5500 articles appeared in newspapers across the country, taking only the “overweight” point of view. According to them, this oversimplified the problem and reinforced prejudices and assumptions.