Obesity: The Science Inside

Abstract

Who wants to read anything else about how fat we are? It seems like you can’t turn on the TV without someone on the news talking about how much we weigh, how much we ought to weigh, and how weighing too much is bad, bad, bad. It’s almost enough to make you dig into that half gallon of ice cream you have in the freezer. It’s true that many of us do weigh more than we ought to and that weighing too much is related to certain health risks. That’s just a fact of life, related to science. Our bodies need a certain amount of food to stay alive and work properly, and extra food can make us gain weight. Obesity, or being too heavy for your height, is a serious subject. It’s one of the worst chronic illnesses we now face. Today only one third of Americans weigh a healthy amount. Two thirds of Americans are overweight, meaning they weigh more than they should and are at risk for health problems, including obesity.