The numbers alone are startling:

• Forty-six percent of this nation’s adults were overweight a quarter century ago.

• In 2000, that number rose to 64 percent.

• Experts predict virtually all American adults could be rated obese by 2040, if not sooner!

• Some 25 percent of the nation’s population eats in a fast-food restaurant every day.

• Americans spend almost half of every dollar budgeted for food that is eaten outside the home where 30 percent of their calories are consumed.
  

Although personal responsibility is a large contributor to the obesity epidemic, Americans live in a toxic consumer-based environment that discourages healthy eating. And a technology that allows us, of all things, to "nuke" our food in a microwave further supports that mentality. Not surprisingly, TV is driving the epidemic.

Only part of the effect has to do with the sedentary nature of viewing. Experts say the passive viewing of commercials far too often negatively influences what we eat and drink.

Another indicator of the growing trend toward obesity: The huge upsurge in carbonated beverage consumption at the expense of milk. Some theorize a human’s sense of sweetness evolved dramatically over time as people were able to detect carbohydrates in food as an energy source.

Attempts by the U.S. government to curb obesity by urging people, for example, to eat more carbohydrates and less fat -- the USDA’s Food Guide Pyramid that recommends eating more starches than any other food -- have worsened the problem.

Some believe the epidemic to be so irreversible, parents could conceivably outlive their children.

Harvard Magazine May-June 2004