“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 Land Rover Discovery has been crashed and abandoned inside a canal lock in Tipton, United Kingdom on Monday morning, November 14, 2022. There were no reported injuries and the car is expected to be removed on Tuesday. (Photo by Katie Stewart/Alamy Live News)

This image released by Twentieth Century Fox shows Kristen Stewart in a scene from “Underwater”. (Photo by Alan Markfield/Twentieth Century Fox via AP Photo)

American model and actress Kaia Gerber arrives at the 2nd Annual Academy Museum Gala at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on October 15, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Stewart Cook/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A car is submerged in flood water at an apartment complex in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, Thursday, October 10, 2024, in Clearwater, Fla. (Photo by Mike Stewart/AP Photo)

Hundreds of amazonian models strutted the streets of New York in order to be given a chance to make it big in the lingerie brand as they returned for the first set of call backs. Here: Model Diane Mello attends the 2016 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show castings on October 21, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Stewart/Getty Images)

Festivalgoers on June 29, 2025 enjoy the final day of Glastonbury Festival, where Rod Stewart wowed the Pyramid Stage crowd in the legends slot, with Olivia Rodrigo down to headline the Pyramid Stage. (Photo by South West News Service)