“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 tear rolls down the cheek of Karima el-Mahroug, also known as Ruby, a Moroccan woman at the center of ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi's s*x-for-hire trial, as she reads a statement to reporters during a protest outside the court house, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, April 4, 2013. The Moroccan woman at the center of ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi's s*x-for-hire trial has denounced what she says is psychological warfare being waged against her by Italian prosecutors. Ruby, read out a lengthy statement Thursday to a gaggle of reporters in front of Milan's courthouse denying she was a prostitute and insisting that prosecutors hear her side of the story. (Photo by Luca Bruno/AP Photo)

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)

A girl plays at the West Side Hallo Fest, a Halloween festival in Bucharest, Romania, Friday, October 27, 2023. Tens of thousands streamed last weekend to Bucharest's Angels' Island peninsula for what was the biggest Halloween festival in the Eastern European nation since the fall of Communism. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

Janja Garnbret of Slovenia competes during the women's boulder qualification of the IFSC World Cup Innsbruck 2024 on June 26, 2024 in Innsbruck, Austria. (Photo by Marco Kost/Getty Images)

Indonesian students wearing paper masks take part in the East Java Mask Parade in Surabaya, Indonesia, 13 December 2015. Thousands of people participate in the traditional parade to preserve the mask custom among the younger generation. (Photo by Fully Handoko/EPA)

Gorillas at Royal Burgers’ Zoo, Arnhem, Netherlands, on November 28, 2013. (Photo by Vidi Photo/Startraks Photo New York)

People attend the 49th annual New York City Gay Pride Parade in New York, New York, USA on 24 June 2018. (Photo by Erik Pendzich/Rex Features/Shutterstock)