Are Americans getting fatter–or do trial lawyers just smell an opportunity?
by Howard Fienberg Winter 2003 The Hungry Gene: The Science of Fat and the Future of Thin. By Ellen Ruppel Shell, Atlantic Monthly Press, 256 pages, $25 We seem to be getting fatter all the time. The incidence of disorders and diseases associated with being overweight or obese—like high blood pressure, diabetes and hypertension—is also on the rise. In December 2001, Surgeon General David Satcher said that 34 percent of adults were overweight and a shocking 27 percent more were obese. More than nine million American adults are “morbidly obese,” roughly one hundred pounds or more overweight. Satcher estimates that excessive weight was responsible for $117 billion in health care costs in 2000 and called obesity America’s number one public health threat. How did it happen and why is it getting worse? Ellen Ruppel Shell endeavors to find out in her new book, The Hungry Gene: The Science of Fat and the Future of Thin. She opens by recounting an interview with the chief business officer of a
