The New Yorker’s Elizabeth Kolbert takes a look at the obesity epidemic in America. We’re wildly fatter than we were a couple decades ago. But why? Some say we drink too much soda (soda makes up about 7% of total calories consumed in this country). Food is cheaper now. Portions are bigger. There are a lot of theories and a lot of contributing factors. But it’s not easy putting our fat finger on the main one and it’s even harder to reverse the trend.
Such a broad social development seems to require an explanation on the same scale. Something big must have changed in America to cause so many people to gain so much weight so quickly. But what, exactly, is unclear—a mystery batter-dipped in an enigma.
Think about the explosion of diet books and fads that emerged during the same period we were gaining all the weight.
