“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)

After a long time renovation project, the old town in Taiyuan city which was founded in 1357, finally lights up and opens to public in Taiyuan City, north China's Shanxi Province, 23 November 2020. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A student gets off a police vehicle which carried her to a high school to arrive in time for a college entrance exam in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, November 18, 2021. About 510,000 high school seniors and graduates across the country are expected to take the College Scholastic Ability Test. (Photo by Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo)

Women walk at lunch time along Kings Road in Chelsea during Storm Eunice, in London, Britain, February 18, 2022. Britain put the army on standby Friday and schools closed as forecasters issued two rare “red weather” warnings of “danger to life” from fearsome winds and flooding due to the approaching storm Eunice. (Photo by Kevin Coombs/Reuters)

A Malachite butterfly diverts the animal keeper Ella Marsh on March 28, 2022 from her task of preparing the Tropical Butterfly House wildlife and falconry centre in South Anston in Yorkshire for the Easter holidays. (Photo by James Glossop/The Times)

Actors, clowns and mime artists celebrate “Humor Day” in St Petersburg on April 1, 2022. April 1 is also referred to as “April Fool’s Day” and is a time for playing pranks in the country. (Photo by Anatoly Maltsev/European Press Photo Agency)

A performer plays the violin as a passerby wears a mask in Times Square as Manhattan is shrouded in haze and smoke which drifted south from wildfires in Canada, in New York City, New York, U.S., June 7, 2023. (Photo by Maye-E Wong/Reuters)

Ben Green, of St. Augustine, flies into the pool on his inflatable alligator to find the hidden lizard at the bottom of the pool in the “Evading Arrest Obstacle Course” during the inaugural Florida Man Games, Saturday, February 24, 2024, at Francis Field in St. Augustine, Fla. (Photo by Corey Perrine/The Florida Times-Union via AP Photo)