“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)

Dutch collaborators under arrest at Nijmegan, Holland. They were rounded up after the capture of Nijmegan Bridge by the Allies. (Photo by H. Warhurst/PNA Rota/Getty Images). 1945

Glamour model and actress Sabrina seated on the knee of Arthur Askey. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images). 1955

A wedding couple poses for a photographer during a wedding photo shoot March 9, 2011 in Hanoi, Vietnam. Its is traditional for middle and upper class Vietnamese couples do a wedding fashion shoot posing for wedding portraits a few weeks before the wedding so that a wedding photo book is produced. (Photo by Paula Bronstein /Getty Images)

Attendees at Wizard World Comic Con walk through hallways in Chicago, Illinois, United States, August 22, 2015. (Photo by Jim Young/Reuters)

Plaster cast moulds of victims of the Mount Vesuvius eruption lie on a display table in a laboratory at Pompeii October 13, 2015. An expert team made up of archaeologists, radiologists, orthodontists and anthropologists began on September 2015 to use CAT scan technology (computerised axial tomography) to peer inside the plaster cast moulds of Pompeii's victims, in a study that has added more detail to previous findings. A 16-layer scan had to be used in order to penetrate the hardened plaster but the results showed up impressive skeletal remains and near perfect teeth. (Photo by Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters)

A British woman plays a piano designed especially for people who are confined to bed. Date: 1935. (Photo by Mary Evans Picture Library/Caters News)

Winner of the National Park Foundation's photo contest; Honorable Mention: Fan Favorite. Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. Three friends enjoy sunrise over the Grand Canyon. (Photo by Peter Blanchard)