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There was a very interesting article in the June 2005 Scientific American titled "The Overblown Obesity Epidemic". Basically, the number of deaths due to heart disease has decreased in the past 40 years, if taken as a percentage of the population. Part of this is surely due to the technological advances in the past 40 years, but obesity and illness are not directly correlatable, except for heart failure and type 2 diabetes. In the meantime, the media coverage of obesity has skyrocketed, because there aren't all that many people who aren't at least somewhat concerned about their weight.
That's not to say that obesity isn't a problem...it's just that the situation isn't quite as bad as we hear on tv.
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