Whats to blame for the surge in super-size Americans?
It’s no one thing, but researchers increasingly point to an alarming, potentially deadly, combination of fast-food culture and biological susceptibility. BY TORI DeANGELIS It’s a little hard to grasp, but the majority of us–about 65 percent, according to current government estimates–are obese or overweight. Compare that with 1960, when only 45 percent of Americans fell into those categories and proportionally far fewer were obese. What’s happened? Is it overindulgence–too much Ben & Jerry’s and too little exercise? Maybe. But science is finding it’s not so simple. In a special section of the Feb. 7, 2003, issue of Science (Vol. 299, No. 5608), some of the nation’s top obesity experts agreed that multiple, complex factors–environmental, biological and genetic–make losing and even maintaining weight in today’s environment an uphill battle. “When you look at the big picture, there is really a mismatch between our physiology and our environment,” says physiological psychologist and ob
