“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)

Frances Fowler leads the Bowie VFD Marching Thoroughbreds in the Bowie 4th of July Parade in Bowie, Md., on July 4, 1976. (Photo by James M. Thresher/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Three female friends dancing in nightclub. (Photo by Cultura Creative (RF)/Alamy Stock Photo )

Radio City Music Hall Rockettes perform after days of rehearsal and routine polished to perfection at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City on July 26, 1949. (Photo by Ivan Dmitri/Getty Images)

In this May 24, 2016 photo, a young boy descends the Qullqip'unqu mountain looking out at the tens of thousands of pilgrims gathered to celebrate the three-day festival Qoyllur Rit’i, translated from the Quechua language as Snow Star, in the Andean Sinakara Valley, in Peru's Cusco region. The celebration that mixes Catholic and indigenous beliefs honors Jesus as well as the area’s glacier, which is considered sacred among some indigenous people. While the native celebration is far older, the Christian part of the ritual stretches back to the 1700s, when Jesus is said to have appeared to a young shepherd in the form of another boy. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Various kinds of pumpkins, out of some 400 on display grown this season, are seen on sale at Franzlbauer farm in Hintersdorf, Austria, October 27, 2015. (Photo by Heinz-Peter Bader/Reuters)

Inmates stand next to food during a Christmas event at Sarita Colonia male prison in Callao, Peru, December 18, 2015. For the event, inmates prepared Christmas meals for a culinary competition and took part in dances and songs. (Photo by Mariana Bazo/Reuters)

A retired man (L) looks toward two girls wearing miniskirts, July 13, 1969 in Nice, France. (Photo by AFP Photo)