Diet and Lack of Exercise Are Immediate Causes; Problem Began in
Paleolithic Era By Michael D. Lemonick, TIME It's hardly news
anymore that Americans are just too fat. If the endless parade
of articles, TV specials and fad diet books weren't proof enough
or you missed the ominous warnings from the National Institutes
of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and
the American Heart Association, a quick look around the mall,
the beach or the crowd at any baseball game will leave no room
for doubt: our individual weight problems have become a national
crisis. Even so, the actual numbers are shocking. Fully two-
thirds of U.S. adults are officially overweight, and about half
of those have graduated to full-blown obesity. The rates for
African Americans and Latinos are even higher. Among kids
between 6 and 19 years old, 15%, or 1 in 6, are overweight, and
another 15% are headed that way. Even our pets are pudgy: a
depressing 25% of dogs and cats are heavier than they should be.
And things haven't be