On a slightly different note: one thing to bear in mind when you hear about the 'obesity epidemic' is that what you and I think of as 'obesity' is not necessarily what the medical community thinks of as such. I was somewhat rudely awakened to this a couple of years ago when my doctor told me that I - yes, me - was 'obese'. Now I realize you'll have to trust me on this, but I was not even what most laymen would consider 'overweight', by the look of me - but the good doc had taken my height and body mass and consulted his chart, and 'obese' was the verdict. (Changed my diet, became a little more active, and soon knocked off the prescribed 20 lbs or so. I was positively svelte. Put a few pounds back on since then; now only possibly svelte.)