“The most serious health problem in the U.S. today is obesity.” Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? But that pronouncement about obesity’s primacy in the hierarchy of national health problems is not new. Rather, it’s the opening line to a remarkable article published 60 years ago in LIFE magazine. This photographs made by Martha Holmes to illustrate that March 1954 article, titled “The Plague of Overweight.” Photo: Dorothy Bradley (left), photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, 1949. (Photo by Martha Holmes/Time & Life Pictures)

A coach wipes away tears and comforts a girl who was feeling tired during gymnastics lessons at the Shanghai Yangpu Youth Amateur Athletic School in Shanghai, China, May 4, 2016. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

Shanghai Ballet dancers wearing masks practise in a dance studio in Shanghai, China, as the country is hit by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, February 20, 2020. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

Visitors wear shirts with an image of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong at the Shanghai World Expo site in Shanghai, May 2, 2010. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

Radio City Music Hall Rockettes perform after days of rehearsal and routine polished to perfection at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City on July 26, 1949. (Photo by Ivan Dmitri/Getty Images)

A woman poses with her tattoo during the Shanghai Tattoo Extreme & Body Art Expo 2017 in Shanghai, China September 2, 2017. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

From the waters edge a New York policeman urges two young children to put their bathing costumes back on. (Photo by Ed Clarity/Keystone/Getty Images). July 1949

The view at night from the Shanghai Tower in Shanghai, China on August 7, 2015. The tower is technically smaller than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai but, while the observation deck of Dubai’s mega-structure is at 556m, the Shanghai Tower’s is at 561m, meaning the view is a little higher. (Photo by Paul Reiffer/REX Shutterstock)