Spain's Lucia Corrales, left and Canada's Florianne Jourde fight for the ball during a U-20 Women's World Cup round of sixteen soccer match in Cali, Colombia, Wednesday, September 11, 2024. (Photo by Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo)

Australia's Matthew Ebden, left, and Jordan Thompson celebrate their victory against Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton of the United States, during their doubles tennis quarterfinal Davis Cup match at the Martin Carpena Sports Hall, in Malaga, southern Spain, on Thursday, November 21, 2024. (Photo by Manu Fernandez/AP Photo)

Curvy queen Paloma Elsesser, second left, pictured with Bella Hadid, Adut Akech and Taylor Hill in the “Bras, That's Our Thing” campaign for the brand Victoria's Secret on February 17, 2023. (Photo by The Mega Agency)

Alice Goodridge (left) and Tanya Mackenzie (right), members of the Loch Insh Dippers wild swim group, take part in a Christmas-themed swim in the frozen Loch Insh, Kingussie, in the Cairngorms National Park, Scotland on Friday, December 13, 2024. (Photo by Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images)

New York Islanders left wing Pierre Engvall and Columbus Blue Jackets Sean Kuraly (7) fight in the third period at UBS Arena on January 20, 2025 in Elmont, New York. (Photo by Wendell Cruz/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters)

Lindsay Knutson plays in the heavy snow with her family dog, Aspen, and daughter Flora Bejblik, 4, cq, as her husband Bob Bejblik, rear left, shovels, Tuesday, March 5, 2013 in southwest Minneapolis. The National Weather Service predicted a two-day snow total of 8 to 12 inches for much of southeastern and east-central Minnesota, including the Twin Cities. (Photo by Elizabeth Flores/AP Photo/The Star Tribune)

A bulldog named Munch, left, and a puppy named Dominique attend a news conference at the American Kennel Club in New York, Wednesday, January 30, 2013. The club announced their list of the most popular dog breeds in 2012 where the bulldog takes the fifth place spot from the Yorkshire terrier. (Photo by Seth Wenig/AP Photo)

“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)