A Wonky Look at the Development of U.S. Obesity

We've all heard that obesity in our country is virtually pandemic. Indeed, 70% of the adult population is clinically overweight or frankly obese as defined by calculation of body mass index (BMI) which looks at your weight in relationship to your height.

This study looks at obesity since the mid-1800's and how it develops in the same people over time.

The conclusion is that the development of present levels of obesity did not just suddenly develop in the late 1980's, but rather has developed more slowly and steadily throughout the entire 20th century.

As this study points out,

The lifestyle changes of the 20th century affected the four groups under study somewhat differently. Identifying the deep causes of the long-run trends is outside of the scope of this study, but the “creeping” nature of the epidemic, as well as its persistence, does suggest that its roots are embedded deep in the social fabric and are nourished by a network of disparate slowly changing sources as the 20^th-century US population responded to a vast array of irresistible and impersonal socio-economic and technological forces.

The most obviously persistent among these were:

• the major labour-saving technological changes of the 20th century,
• the industrial processing of food and with it the spread of fast-food eateries (To illustrate the spread of fast food culture, consider that White Castle, the first drive-in restaurant, was founded in 1921. McDonald started operation in the late 1940s, Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1952, Burger King in 1954, Pizza Hut in 1958, Taco Bell in 1962, and Subway in 1962.),
• the associated culture of consumption,
• the rise of an automobile-based way of life,
• the introduction of radio and television broadcasting,
• the increasing participation of women in the work force, and
• the IT revolution.

These elements – taken together – virtually defined American society in the 20^th century.